Michael Lawrence

I have the vestax pad one to control cue ponts, effects loops etc; You can do CC for additional possibilities as well. I also have the maschine mikro which I use as live input in deck D which adds a great deal more control.

lots of good advice in here everyone….thanks!! ….just bought the maschine mikro last month and there is alot to know, so this is great information to look into…i more interested though in using it with traktor and s2 for adding some variety to my mixes. The production side of things wouldnt hurt to know either!

softcore, post: 11040, member: 243 wrote: +1 on the “the dance music manual” by rick snoman.

Generally, read, read, read, read, ….lol…. The more you study, and the more you become familair with terminology, the more sense the manual of Ableton Live (or any other DAW) will make. I dunno why but sometimes I get the idea people seem to think that learning to make music is simply learning a program- if you think so, this is not the case…I’d say dont actually bother learniing a music making program for a couple of months, just find books to read that will make you familiar with terminology and the ermmmm technical aspects of music. You see, I have realised that DJs even though they have a great skill of “listening” to music, they usually have huge problems to translate what they are listening, (and what their brain is listening) to production-wise meaningful notions. “I want my sound to be beefier, deeper, warmer” mean almost nothing in the world of a producer – its all frequencies and dynamics, balances and levels, tricks and techniques. Sometimes Djs in my area starting to produce ask me to give them tips to make their sound “this” or “that” and I honestly – even though I try – I dont have the slightest clue what they mean because they are speaking from the listener standpoint. There was this guy who was asking me how to make his synth sound dirtier and I was thinking like “distortion” and the only thing he wanted was a 8 – 10 khz low pass filter to roll off higher frequencies.

So my best advice would be, try and learn to translate sounds into meaningful, scientfic terms. What is causing that effect to be so spacey? perhaps the fact that it moves from left to right? What is causing that bass to be so dirty? perhaps that fact that it has also high frequencies in it? Sooner or later, and by studying and practising you ‘ll catch yourself listening to music from a whole other standpoint, seperating the instruments subcnsciously, actually listening how the track was made. After this point, its all a matter of using the tools provided by DAWs to “imitate” behaviours of sound.

From personal experience, the beauty of making music is that its endless…you can never honestly say to yourself you mastered it. Upo finishing a tune, you think so, then you go back and listen to it 2 months later and you are like “what the hell was I thinking? the mistakes are obvious, NOW I ‘ve mastered it” and it goes on like that in cycles (no Im not joking, seriously).
In all honesty, I got like 10 releases on Beatport and I still think Im just learning music production.

The truth is, being an electronic music producer means you pretty much have to master various skills which in other genres would be required from different people….I mean you have to, first and foremost be a composer (the easy part really cause dance music is pretty simple in structure and melodies), a performer OR DAW user (either you perform with your midi keyboard or you work your way through the editing features of your DAW, sometimes you do a bit of both), an arranger/orchestrator (you got this musical idea, but what kind of instrument will you use for it, will it be an organic sounding piano or a whacked out dirty synth sound), a mixing engineer (levels of sounds, balancing, etc) and finally a producer (with the traditional meaning of the word) , not to mention that in 99% of cases as a beginner you will also have to do the mastering of your track (unless you are willing to pay a masterign engineer to do it).

The faster you realise these different aspects, the easier for you it will become to focus on each of them and learn to know which one is “bugging” you in your first attempts of writing music. Like, you had this idea, and you dabbled with your software but the result is dissapointing. Why? Is the melody poor? Or is it brilliant but played on the wronf instrument? or is it the correct instrument but the arrangement in the track chokes it? And 1000002290830123 other things.

Dont be intimitated however, I can honestly say making music is a VERY rewarding process….take it one step at a time and enjoy the ride…I can guarantee you ‘ll never grow out of it, just because its so deep and never ending…there is always more to discover! 😉

anyone else picture Rocky running up the steps after reading this? lol…..well said!

gr4v1ty, post: 18401, member: 1898 wrote: Well then, could you juste create a keyboard shortcu to it? For exemple mix with the Kontrol S2 and press something to Kil mid?

Hey, I have the Kontrol S2 as well and thought that they would have included something like this but they dont. So I edited some of the keyboard mappings on my mac to be kill switches for Deck A: Hi = (Letter I) Mid = (Letter K) Low = (Letter O)
and Deck B: Hi = (Letter L) Mid = (Letter P) Low = (;). It should be toggle like an on/off function. Definitely possible and works great!

DJ Doc, post: 18095, member: 1265 wrote: How can I add more effects to Traktor pro 2 and where is the best place to get them?

Cheers.. 🙂

I have traktor and feel like it has come eqipped with the right amunt of effects. Have you tired using them if different wys/ comnbinations and mappings? Example ean golden has a good mapping for the s2 and s2 where the jog wheels control some effect presets and you can create “super combos”. Good for building tension and energy in a mix.

theres not too much mention of any use of the effects units to help with transitions. The basic one I love to use and works great with transitions is the echo/freeze. Which is great to use if your swithcing to another genre/bpm cause that echo carrys on to the new song….sounds even better when the songs have the same bpm/genre.

I don’t know about anyone else but the quote “if your not living your own dream, then your living in someone elses” slapped me in the face when I read it lol. I got my bachelors in retail management. I work for Canadian Tire, a general merchandise retailer. I am on the store design team and build stores for them in design software called AutoCAD. It pays the bills!..and dj gear lol but agreed I can only do this for so long, I can do corporate but it’s definitely not me at all!