Live remixing/editing in your software: The thread

[PartyMcFly]

While I do have the tiniest bit of sound design and engineering experience from old bands I used to play with, it isn't practical for me to keep a dedicated production studio at home for remixes and edits.

I've been working inside of Traktor to record edits by playing them live on three/four decks with a lot of controllerist/performance techniques I've learned on this site over the years. This way I really don't require any more gear than I already use regularly (decks, mixer, laptop, and software) and can bang out an edit to play in a couple of hours or less. I know that compared to studio work it's a barbarous travesty, but for non-release stuff it really gets the job done surprisingly well. I reckon throughout the decades, DJs have been recording live mixes for their own edits in similar ways.

Here's my typical workflow:

1) Get an idea, go out and buy good .wav files for the tracks and acapellas I want to work with.

2) Set up hotcues throughout the song, and use these to record my new arrangement by playing them live into Traktor's internal recorder. Likewise for acapellas, drum breaks, drum fills, loops, samples, etc.

3) Do a couple takes of live performance with my custom stems, bounce my file to a 320k .mp3, then go out that night and slay the club with the result.

This thread is dedicated to simple, mixable edits made within your DJ software. Share your techniques, workflow, ideas, and results.

[JesC]

sounds like a awesome way to work on live remixing. I wish i could get my hands on some 80s new wave stem...HA! But i must try this method.

[sm00sh]

i used to do this all the time before I started exploring ableton live as a production platform. even though ableton is much more capable, its just plain fun to remix with the decks instead of looking at a timeline.