best software for doing studio beat mixes?

Soz wobes but the answer is ableton

Not sure any other option even exists?

'Fraid Benny is more or less right. There's some cheapo stuff out there, but nothing matches the warp engine and feature set of Ableton. If you want to sequence mixes its more or less the only game in town.

Whatever happened to serrato?

Still around, but its for digital DJ'ng as opposed to track sequencing - which I think is what Matt wants. Ableton is more sequencing + loop based live stuff.

if your doing a really involved mix with edits, tempo changes, fx etc then you want ableton, but if you're just straight beatmatching house or techno or jungle or whatever and you have the tracks prepared then why not just do it live with traktor or something similar? no dj should be worrying beatmatching these days! its all done for you. i think its great because you've got all that extra time to concentrate more on selection, hard and fast choppage, long blends etc.

i went from vinyl to torque-plus decks (this was pretty crap) to ableton then finally virtual dj-plus little pioneer midi controller. i'm finally happy with my set-up. Uses very little space, sounds great and no more clangs!

like you i did a few mixes in ableton and though i was happy with the final results, it does kind of suck the life out of things (too much temptation to endlessy fiddle and fuss). my live mixes are much vibier

You'll want a cdj style midi controller really. The pioneer one i got cost me about 300 euros and it comes with virtual dj software with all the controls pre-mapped. You can record with that so you wont need another soundcard.
There is a free version of virtual dj if u want to test it first. Ive always found it more than adequate for recording mixes.

I think some people scoff at vdj but i cant imagine traktor being that much better, especially if ur just recording mixes in yr house. I like it

I was ambivalent about Ableton for DJng for a long time, primarily because setting up the beat grid properly used to take too long for my liking, and I found it much easier to just throw things on the decks and try things out that way. I mainly used it piecemeal to put recordings of various things Id done live together with the odd digital bit.

However - I started a mix last year that involved a ton of rare and/or difficult to mix electronica, streamlined the workflow and figured out some tricks to improve the speed and accuracy of the beat warping. Decks are in the studio so ableton let me work late at night at home or in micro sessions whenever I had a spare 30 mins. Definitely worth the time and effort - if you have a very clear idea of what you want to do, and can resist the temptation to tinker too much. Best way Ive found is to limit the amount of filters and FX to the bare minimum and concentrate on sequencing. Ive also found a couple of nice ipad apps that let me trigger things live and mess with loops.

Reckon the way forward for me is various variations on live mixing on 1210's or CDj's and live ipad messing with sequence based ableton sets. Serato is just too damn expensive. Beatmatching has, thankfully been drilled into me after thousands of hours of DJ'ng. Im sure it will be a useful skill to have after the apocalypse.

Woebot said:

do you reckon i really need the controller? also quite keen on the duet's sound quality. looking online it seems it would work with a bit of fiddling around. like i can use the mac's own soundport for the headphones :-/

Click to expand...

do you mean you want to use the dj mixer that you've already got and route the tracks through that, then record with the duet? I'm not sure, maybe theres a way of routing the channels seperately out to your mixer (droid?).

If you've got a dedicated midi controller with its own crossfader, platters, pots etc you get away from fiddling with a mouse/computer keyboard which is not much fun.

I wouldn't worry too much about the sound quality btw, i've always been happy with it. I suppose the duet is excellent for ripping vinyl though.

The duet is just an A/D interface - sounds great, but doesnt do anything for you DJ wise. its basically a sound card.

If you want to do anything live you need some kind DJ controller, connected via the midi port on the duet. You could use the headphones out on the controller.

Something like:



But I know nothing about controllers.

droid said:

The duet is just an A/D interface - sounds great, but doesnt do anything for you DJ wise. its basically a sound card.

If you want to do anything live you need some kind DJ controller, connected via the midi port on the duet. You could use the headphones out on the controller.

Something like:

But I know nothing about controllers.

Click to expand...

that looks decent. it will include the traktor software already mapped, you just plug it in your lappy, hit autosynch and away you go! haha. Anyone with any previous djing experience will learn how to use it in about 10 minutes.

I've got a pioneer ddj one thats something similar. they're very small and look a little bit like toys but do everything you want and are fun.

just download recordbox and press sync
it'll only take two minutes & is free
you'll have to use the mouse though

listening to the mix now and the mixing is fine, you made the right decision sticking to the decks. it probably would have taken months to do it with software, what with recording in and prepping all the tunes before you can even start.

good work!