Nobody Famous

audio-design:

ABLETON LIVE / APC40 DJ TEMPLATE

Last night I received this question in my inbox: “I remember when you played at EPR 187. Your set was incredible. Really loved the psytrance. Care to share some mixing techniques?”

First off, thanks very much for the compliment!  Glad that you enjoyed the music :)  I spent a lot of time on that set and it’s always nice to hear that it makes an impact with folks.

To start off with, I performed that night using Ableton Live and my APC 40, running a DJ template crafted by Will Marshall, a psybreaks DJ from New Zealand.  His template offers some very nice features, most notably being able to control the EQ of two channels at the same time - a feature the APC 40 doesn’t offer out of the box.  

In addition there are some great rhythmic effects this template offers, transforming scene launch buttons into beat repeats for instance.  He also crafted it so that the cross fader becomes a wet/dry mix for rhythmic effects, rolls, flangers and patterns. The best part is that the effects take place in the mid-high frequency range, thus leaving your kick drum and bass unaffected - maintaining dance floor groove!

Other notable features are maxing out the faders at 0db to maintain a clean, undistorted signal when fader slamming and also a visual metronome that helps you keep track of phrasing.

Hats off to Will Marshall for crafting this great enhancement to the APC 40.  I love performing with this template as it allows me to focus on having fun and being creative.

I’ll save track preparation for another post, as there is a workflow that revolves around preparing your songs in advance.  Once your tracks are properly cut up you can really get creative with live remixing, looping, layering and creating something new!

Feel free to send any questions/feature requests through my Questions page :)