Reply to Fraa's Setup

I started DJing in '99 on a couple of old SL1200s and a crappy mixer, replaced everything around 2002 by 4 new SLs and a better mixer. I kept that setup until 2007 or so, then I updated the setup to two Super OEM turntables and a DJM800. I also switched to DVS with Traktor Scratch. A couple of thousand vinyls later I didn't feel like spending half of my paycheck anymore each month, so I pretty much sold everything (I guess I still have around a thousand vinyls left).

I play techno and it was dying a little bit, so I stopped doing anything music related for more than a year. At the end of 2009 I wanted to pick up it again, but I didn't really knew if I would come back to the same level. The safest way to go was with controllers, because in the end you can set it up like you want and find your own way. I've had bunch of midi controllers the last few years, constantly looking for something better. 2 Xone 1Ds, an S4, a Launchpad, the SCS controllers from Stanton. Now I have a simple but effective set up, although I sometimes miss the old way, just beatmatching on 3 or 4 turntables

- Akai APC20
- Livid Code V2
- Midi Fighter Classic
- Roland Octa Capture Audio Interface
- KRK Rokit RP6 Speakers
- Sennheiser HD25

I use it in Ableton, although I also tried mapping everything in Traktor, but since the LEDs on the APC20 are buggy, it gives me a lot of headaches. I can keep the LEDs on after I've pressed them (Send Monitor State), but when Traktor updates 8 leds at a time (for example hotcues on a deck load), the sound gets distorted or freezes for half a second, very annoying and unusable. It's only noticable on my Windows Desktop, on the Macbook it doesn't do that. I guess it has something to do with the USB bandwidth or something, although my PC is overkill according to specs. (Gigabyte Z68X, i7 2600k, 32GB RAM, Corsair Force GT 128GB SSD). That's why I stick to Ableton, Traktor just isn't doing it for me because of those bugs with the APC. I tried creating a patch in Pure Data to delay the midi signals, maybe that would help, but it's not very stable.

Anyway, enough yapping, here are some pics:







The APC20 works as the standard control surface.

The Code is set up like this:



The Midi Fighter Classic controls different Beat Repeat presets in each channel (using the momentary "trick"):



And this is how I work in Ableton, I warp each song and cut it up in different sections or loops. I usually have 2-3 channels open at once, which makes things interesting



Works pretty good

I also have an old Pioneer EFX500 laying around here, but I don't know if I'm going to implement that in the setup.

Greetings