Ever wanted to DJ with Ableton Live? Here’s how! While it’s true that you can produce a complete live show with Ableton Live, bringing your studio production to stage, some would just like to mix their favorite tracks “a la DJ.”
The most basic principle of DJing is to have a set of tunes playing continuously — no jumps, no cuts, no funny transitions, just as if all the pieces in the playlist were one. A long tune of an hour or more.
Thumbnail image courtesy of Dade.
There are many sets of tools to help you achieve this, the most common being turntables and a selection of vinyl records. Others DJ with CDs instead, while some resort to laptops and DJing software and a few even use iPods.
No matter what set of tools and techniques you choose, DJing will always require the smooth transitioning and syncing of musical pieces.
An Ableton Live DJ can do many things:
- Beat-match music almost effortlessly
- Add your own loops to the mix
- Apply internal and external effects to your sounds
- Add MIDI tracks for soft-synths or external instruments
- Change the BPM on the go
- Resample what you are playing
- Record your performance
What you definitely need:
- A copy of Ableton Live
- A laptop (PC or MAC)
What you might optionally want:
- An audio interface
- An effects processor (a Korg KAOSS Pad for example)
I don’t like plugging my laptop’s headphone output to the main mixer. I prefer to use either a USB or FireWire audio interface. You can get by without an audio interface, but there are definitely some advantages to using one:
Sturdier outputs: Your audio interface is bound to have better outputs than your laptop’s flimsy stereo mini-jack or headphone output. RCA plugs, for example, require triple the strength to unplug than mini-jack plugs, and they normally do not make any noise if they are accidentally touched.
If you have multiple I/Os you can plug your other instruments and FX units in: This is quite handy if you want to use that extra drum machine or that external FX unit, or even plug your microphone in and incorporate it all into your mix in Ableton Live.
You can pre-listen to your samples in your headphones: this is perhaps the most important advantage of all. Let’s say you have a sample collection from which you’d like to use some samples and you don’t want anyone else pre-listening to the samples while the mix is playing. Not to worry. Ableton Live will route the audio from these samples exclusively to your headphones.
If you decide not to use an audio interface you will not be able to pre-listen to your samples. All audio will be routed to your laptop’s line out (which is usually your headphone output). In this case it’s better to select your samples beforehand and program your playlist.
Getting Started
Download this tutorial’s Play Pack. It contains two songs and an Ableton Live project to practice what you’ve learned. The Ableton Live file is only for reference at the end of the tutorial so there is no need to open it as soon as you unzip it. Unzip the “LiveDJtutorial.zip” file on your desktop and open Ableton Live. You should now have an empty session.
A “tunes” folder should be in the zip file. Copy it to your desktop, and navigate to it from Ableton Live’s File Browser. You will find 2 minimal house tracks: Minimal1.mp3 and Minimal2.mp3.
See that blue headphones icon? It means that when you click on any song or sample in the browser list Ableton Live will play it a preview.
The Status Bar (at the bottom) will display a “previewing” message informing you of the properties of the audio file and its duration. In this case it’s a 4:06 minute 44.1 kHz 16 Bit Stereo file.
There are 2 main views in Ableton Live. One is the Arrangement View, which is pretty much like the arrangement section in Logic Pro or Cubase, as it has rows representing MIDI and audio tracks as well as a grid representing time in measures (top) and minutes (bottom).
The Arrangement View is ideal when you want to see a clear representation of your music within a time reference. Also it’s perfect for editing automated parameters such as track volume and pan with accuracy.
The other side of the coin is the the Session View which I find more suitable for working with loop-based mixes. It also gives us direct access to track parameters as each column represents a MIDI or audio track, a representation of a rack mixer.
For this tutorial we will use the Arrangement View.
Step 1 – Set the Project’s Tempo
Since we are working with 2 minimal house tracks, a good tempo would be 126 to 128 beats per minute. To set the BPM click on the tempo section of Ableton Live (upper left) and input “126.”
Step 2 – Import the Tracks
Press Tab or select the Arrangement View. Drag the file Minimal1.mp3 from the File Browser to the center of the Arrangement View. Do the same with the Minimal2.mp3 file. Ableton Live will automatically create a track for each audio file you import.
Step 3 – Open the Clip View
The files you’ve imported are now represented by a colored horizontal line. We call this a clip. Double click on the Minimal1.mp3 clip to open the Clip View (at the bottom). When you imported the track Ableton Live analyzed the file to determine its BPM. This is part of the “Auto Warp” function which will help sync your song to the project’s tempo.
Live did its best to guess the BPM in Minimal1.mp3—it says it’s 120.01 but it’s actually 120.00 BPM.
To correct it input “120” in the Seg. BPM field.
Step 4 – Set the Initial Downbeat of the Track
Next to the clip view we have the Sample Display section. This is where we can see a graphical representation of our audio clip. Ableton Live did a great job in guessing what the tempo of our audio clip is but it got the downbeat wrong.
To properly beat-match our track we need to set the correct starting point. Our audio file has a silence at the beginning. This is not the downbeat—this is where our file starts, but not where any actual sound starts. We need to tell Ableton Live where we would like to really start our clip.
To accurately do so, we must zoom into the first bar of our file, go to the Sample Display section, click-hold and drag down and you will see the zoom in action.
Notice the yellow rectangle with the 1 in it. That’s an Auto Warp marker, and it marks the downbeat or starting point our audio clip. You can drag it until it meets the beginning of the sound transient.
If the BPM setting on the clip is correct you will see how the grid aligns with the transients along the audio clip. This is an indication that our clip is beat-matched.
Repeat the previous steps with the Minimal2.mp3 clip. Notice that this audio file does not start with a kick but a silent note!
This is a feature in many house or techno tracks—don’t worry, just move the Warp Marker so that the second beat (1.2) aligns with the largest transient (the snare drum sound). Minimal2.mp3 has a tempo of 130 BPM.
Our clips should be beat-matched now. Things are a lot easier when you know the tempo of each track you import, but what happens when Ableton Live does not detect their tempo accurately? Simple: double click the beat numbers to create more Warp Markers and manually pin them down to the correct transient.
Step 5 – Position the Clips
Drag the Minimal2 clip to bar 97 where Minimal1 is about to finish. If you hit play at bar 97 you will hear that the two tracks sit well together, mostly because there aren’t many sounds that would clutter our mix. Many dance music tracks start with a long prelude with hi-hats—this has the function of giving DJs a cue or a guide to sync the incoming track with the one currently played.
The transition between tracks is achieved by gradually reducing the volume of the outgoing clip while increasing the volume of the incoming clip. We call this a crossfade. Most DJ mixers have a horizontal fader to mix the output of two turntables. We call this the crossfader. Ableton Live has one as well, but we will not use it in this tutorial as we will program our crossfade into the mix.
6. Draw a Crossfade Between the Tracks
To automate parameters in the track display we need to “unfold” the tracks. The unfold button is an encircled triangle. Once the track is unfolded it will reveal an area with drop-down menus—these are called the Device and Control choosers.
The device we want to edit is the Mixer and the control is the Track Volume.
As you can see there is now a graphic representation of the audio files and a horizontal red line. This line is the envelope of the control you choose, be it Track Volume, Track Panning, or X-Fading.
To draw our crossfade we need to create breakpoints in our envelope, and for that we need to double click it. We can delete them by double clicking.
Once our breakpoints have been created, we can drag them and give the envelope any shape. Just like our clips, every envelope is interpreted by Ableton Live left to right, so to decrease the volume on Minimal1 we must set the highest breakpoint to the left and the lowest to the right. To increase the volume in Minimal2 we must do the opposite.
Adjust the crossfade to your liking and you are done!
Try adding more tracks and some effects (perhaps a filter or a delay) and try to automate their parameters using the envelopes. Good luck!
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This makes for a good basic explanation. But its worth noting that presetting your tracks and mixes in the session view is superlame and should not be mistaken for what people who dj with ableton actually do. Tracks are typically / and should be triggered in clip view when performing live.
If people are getting onstage with totally preset mixes with predefined track changes they might as well turn on itunes and check their myspace.
Session or Clip View is where actual live mixing is designed to occur, not just for loop based sets but for regular dj sets.
Dj sugarpill, this article is (obviously stated) for beginners so that one day they become like you and mix only in the clip view capisci?
Much love.
Solare, are you the author of this post? If so, how unprofessional to reply to a reader with a sarcasm-laden comment like that.
Either way, thanks for the good explanation.
Hello Adrian, a lot of people want to be Djs, like Sugarpill is. I fail to see the sarcasm.
And you are welcome!
I hope to interest people in music production.
Cheers.
Got to agree, djing in Live is done on session view.
Technically, doing it this way is not even djing, is it?
More like producing a mix. Which is still a valid thing to learn, but you should do another tutorial on the session view.
Just my $.2
Don’t see the sarcasm? You’re responses to people replies to this post ALL seem sarcastic in some way..
I’m sure people appreciate your time writing the article – but really don’t feel your responses are warranted given the accuracy of the replies.
Thanks for this! I had a fairly good idea how people did this, and now I know the details.
Hey guys, I know Solare may come across as slightly sarcastic or abrasive in English sometimes, but he’s a Frenchman and English is not his first language. He’s honestly not trying to be sarcastic. Cultural differences, that’s all.
Thank you Jeremy your comment made writing the tutorial worth it.
Andrew, there was no sarcasm, chill mate.
DJ Groovy I will certainly try!
To make it clear to you all, DJ Sugarpill was pointing out something that most DJs/Musicians hate: to go see someone on stage with something pre-recorded or pre-arranged. I agree with him and no I was not being sarcastic to him.
If you read the introduction to the tutorial I state all the things (for a person who has never done this ike possibly Jeremy) one needs to do get a concept of beat-matching and mixing, after grasping the basics they can do as they please.
Please keep in mind that while Ableton Live might be a very intuitive and relatively easy to use for you, it might be very confusing to others.
If you learned to spin and mix with vinyl records this whole Ableton thing might be ‘baby stuff’ to you, believe me it can be confusing to others.
Thank you for your comments, no sarcasm, no trolling, peace.
Totally agree i began on 1200s 9yrs ago an Abelton live is something fun to incorperate into me set which is done mainly with vinyl.
It also allows me to play fresh tracks that i have made with out the expense off cutting to vinyl.
I think anyone starting out should learn to mix on vinyl with no bpm counters to train ur brain before even thinking off using live as it can cause people to lazy ……..PEACE
no offense taken, really i think this is a good tutorial for beginners especially if they have little or no background in djing… but i definitely couldn’t let any story (even for beginners) leave people with the impression that Djing in Ableton Live typically involves the procedure described above.
Since laptop djing without a traditional turntable interface is still in its infancy one of the biggest hurdles for someone trying to dj with ableton is getting people to realize that youre not getting up there with a preset mix in just hitting play.
Nice,
but covers only one side of the coin. I DJ with abe and i use the session view.
Otherwise nicely done!
Hello!
I have almost no experiences with DJing, but using a simmilar technique as described here I have done several mixes already, so I can say it works OK 
Well I think, we could be glad there are still people writing tutorials for free. IMO this one was quite good. The only problem I can see is the title. Maybe it should be something like “Producing podcast mix in Ableton Live” and everybody cold be happy
So thanx for the tute a nd thanx for the whole site!!!
Stepaan
anyone recommend a specific music file?? mp3 or wav because abelton doesnt playsome of my mp3s
plz email meback
another thanks from me for the effort to teach.
i got here to this site cos i punched in to google:
“ideal interface for mixing and djing ableton” cos that is what i want to know. I am trying to understand what interface i would need to ‘pre-listen’ as ableton calls it, but at same time, i would like to have live mics and instruments that would allow for live tracks to be mixed over the top of pre-loaded tunes. for me this is vital, but i am not sure that my gear does the trick: alesis multimix firewire 8
anyone know something about interfaces that can do all this?
thanks
“one of the biggest hurdles for someone trying to dj with ableton is getting people to realize that youre not getting up there with a preset mix in just hitting play.”
This is very true.
I experience it all the time…
I believe that Ableton DJing method is different for everyone because of the software’s infinite possibility of way it could be used. This tutorial should only be understood as ONE different way of using it to dj. It shall not be considered wrong at all, nor the ultimate method. I believe that if anyone wants to do anything with ableton, take your precious time and fuck with it as much as you need to. Thats where the creativity comes in effect. I DID come up with my own way of using ableton to produce, arrange a compilation and of course, to DJ on a live stage. My best advise to anyone who wants to get into this software is to be open minded. Peace guys!! keep ableton going!!
DJ spankinmonky(Japan/Seattle/Colorado)
Love the tutorial, Ableton Live is definetly going to be a major mover in the party world. Just like how Orbital used to use samplers to build entire new live versions of their songs, this is going to be crazy when all your favorite artists will start to give amazing live performances.
I saw Hallucinogen live and was blown away at how the set was, learning the music mixed live really makes it a whole different experience.
Yes, Live has a learning curve, tho many crusties would have you believe that it “does everything for you”. My mixes have progressed enough over the past year for the old ones to sound dated and rough.
One problem I have not solved is how to reset the downbeat while DJing in session view. Say you turn the metronome on and the high-pitched click is no longer on the correct beat (many tracks have subtle changes like this). How do you correct this so the next clip will drop on the correct beat and keep the phrasing intact?
Please excuse any bad terminology I may have used.
maybe one of you should paste some links which can tell us about mixing real ‘Live’ ! i have been looking but haven’t found much !
it sounds very exciting how people can shape songs live using not instruments (which to me seems easier) but laptops and a collection of zeros and ones !
cheers folks
Good advice man.. Well, I’m having also a problem.. when I click the speaker look-like icon in the arrangement view it plays only the line one, I know, but when I select to play the second audio line I can’t hear anything.
I will DJ with ableton soon at local bar, if i can record fingersteps, i will link you guys it along with the explanation. to give you a little advise, set up 2 audio tracks with 3 band eq on each, key map the eq, volume. arrange the tracks you want to play in those 2tracks. imagine that those 2 tracks are your 2 turntables. HA! and i will give u guys time to figure out how i do it.
I’ve been DJing with ableton for four years now. I don’t want to offend you solare, great tutorial but it should not at all be called a “how to dj with ableton tutorial” – I completely agree with Stepaan – Please change the title so it is more appropriate.
Beginners need beginners tutorials, but this is not a beginners DJ tutorial, this is a beginners production tutorial (not saying its not a good tutorial)…
And as an aside. IMO You should not DJ with ableton if you haven’t first learned how to DJ with Vynil or atleast CDs. You will completely miss the art form that was born out of those tools. Ableton beatmatches for you, but learning to beatmatch is important to understanding blending, movement, and builds in DJing – Ableton is the amazing next step, once you can handle the basics.
But more importantly – though a fine basic understanding of blending tracks in the production end of ableton, this has absolutely no information in it on how to DJ with ableton or just the art and form of DJ as a whole.
please change the title, but thanks for making tutorials solare, and please keep doing it.
As a beginner with Ableton Live generally, I don’t use it as a DJ or a producer, but as a live instrument to play with one or more other people. I can create loops from their inputs and use loops I produced to lead the action. If people need a break, I can coax a prerecorded song in, and then we can resume where we left off.
I just don’t want anyone to come away from this with the idea that you have to spin vinyl for a million years in order to bring the noise with Ableton. It seems very much designed for live use (hence the name, I suppose) and I happen to believe it should be practiced and used that way. If I want to really produce something, I will use Cubase or something… that’s where I can make loops for use with Ableton Live!
Most of all, thanks for making a tutorial, regardless of whether people think it might be misnamed!
Mixing In Arrangement View??? Come On… How Can People Improve Their DJing Skill With Techniques Like This.. Try To Mix In Session View, Thats How U SHould Learn To Mix…
OMG you guys are all a pack of whinging bitches, you all need a slap in the head
Just to clarify Evan Isacks comment- Ableton doesn’t beat match for you- warping of the sample is required (in most cases), as shown in the tutorial, to bring the sample into line. I totally agree that it is benefiical to learn beat matching on Cd’s/ vinyl, however the idea that AL beatmathces for you is a myth. There is a still a need to warp the audio, which can be very time consuming, and you still need to have an idea of beat matching to perfect warping, which is a hard concept to initially understand in itself. Perpetuating this myth only serves to reinforce the concept of ‘pressing play and walking away’ (i just made that up and it rhymes -woohoo!)
I totally agree with Andy B!,………woohoo!, that rhymes too!,……..and so does that as a matter of fact!!,…….and would you believe my surname is Samat!!,……OMG help me I cant stop,……Jesus Christ I am gonna pop!!
What are some of these people so uptight about, nitpicking at the title of this tutorial? This guy went through a lot of trouble to detail an (initially) complicated task in AL. It is obvious what he is teaching, regardless of the title.
I think the poilite response is “Thank you for the information that not ALL of us know”, not “I’m taking your free information and attacking you at the same time.”
So, Solare, thank you.
Thanks very much for the tutorial, I found that very useful indeed and very clearly explained.
Top stuff that mate.
Darrell
Excellent article. I’ve been Djing with SL1210s since 1999 and am also a seasoned producer with loads of outboard kit (909s, 303s, Akai Samplers etc). I’m also a software engineer so I’m fairly tech savvy. I enjoy a broad range of Dance genres and am really into the way that technology can influence music.
The thought that you have to be able to beat match or have spun on vinyl first before using beat matching tools like Ableton is just pretentious clap trap. The fact that technology can do this for you just opens up other creative possibilities for DJs. This article is an excellent “first 10minutes with ableton” article. I used it that way (having come from Cubase). Maybe someone above code post a “how I use Ableton to DJ” rather than hiding behind their attitude. I’m sure we could highlight a load of different ways that sets can be planned. For me, I like the idea of being able to load up a bunch of my own tracks (in their constituent parts) and then mix these with other broken up tracks on the fly, maybe concentrating on two bar loops to put a performance together. Is there anyone doing this sort of thing. I’d love to hear how you set this up in ableton. I’m also interested in doing this from controllers like Novations or Akai ableton controllers.
Ableton live mixing is for those who either create their own music and want to showcase it. And for those musicians to bypass any given layer and play it live whilst their backing track is played/tweaked live. Its not about having the ability to mix, and for those who are all full of themselves about vinyl mixing- its a beautiful skill, but if you are not making your own, and mixing it yourself you are not quite in the same league. (this message is aimed at some of the cockyness i detected against the composer of the tutorial. I found it an informative read.) Real instruments are the true live performance, incorperate as much as you can if you want to have a great performance with a high quality dance beat in the mix. ye?
Great tutorial. Thank you for spending YOUR time helping US people. You didn’t have to and you did
I’m not a DJ, but wanted to make a mix for a party I’m hosting. Ideal way to do that. Thanks
Ive been playing Records producing and doing parties since about the mid nineties and am just about to do my first Dj set with Abelton.
To overlook a tool that can allow you to cut and mix edits of your fav tracks add your own loops and preview your own tracks all being put through any vst you want would be crazy,this program rocks!
However in regards to this tutorial i really cant see this as “Live” or Djing in any way.I mean after you hit play what can you change? you expect to sit at home and predict a crowds mood? thats what your doing here.
What will you do while all those lovely laid out loops and envelopes do their thing?
Apart from all that nicely done on the article,just alter the title dude.
Peace.