Ableton controllers? I'm looking at taking the step into the darkside and going ableton. I've got a laptop, got some tunes, and now I'm looking at controllers. I've seen the akai APC40 and like the look of it, but I'm not sure I'm ready to blow that much money on a controller. What are people's experience of ableton with controllers, and what would you recommend? Also, what do people say on integrated vs external soundcards - am I better off getting a dedicated one instead of the one on the board?
i've got a behringer BCD3000 thingy. cheap tat really and although can be used with ableton - not very good tbh - works well with traktor and thats about it there is another Behringer one about called the BCF2000: i can imagine that would greater capability to control ableton alot more, and the sliders are automatic, looked rather cool on the demo. i'd say just save the coin and get the APC40, because if you get a cheaper one and decided that you need more functionality - you'll just regret getting the cheaper option to start off with (i.e what i done) /Edit External sound card if its behringer - the on board sound is fucking abismal! i can imagine the akai's one to be spot on tho.
akai is not a great company, despite its mpc range giving off that impression. its owned by numark for a start. i had the mpk49 and it was returned the same week, they hadnt finished half of the commands before they released it and there was (and still isnt) any updates to fix it. it felt solid, but didnt do what it said on the tin (or the demo video they put out) support was rubbish and it wasnt until a week later i received a call from akai (the U.S division) asking me what the problem was. this was after i returned the unit and emailed them to take my name off the registration. so 2 emails and 2 weeks later to get a call from a yank who wasnt any the wiser. brilliant. if you do decide to go digital, you're far better off going with a dvs like traktor / serato / mixvibes etc, then its still hands on ableton is great if you dont enjoy the actual djing side of things. you just want to play the music and not have to worry about beat matching etc if you want to try and play more than 3 tracks (serato has a 3rd deck coming soon) at the same time traktor is the way forward and has auto sync, but you might want to try putting 4 tracks on top of each other for a while before you make the commitment. it usually sounds gash to my ears why is it you want to move from your current setup?
good point on numark there, completly forgot about that. you seen the controller that they're pushing under the numark name? the NS7? http://www.djstore.com/item/numns7.htm?affid=froogle its fucking laughable! why anyone would pay that much money for a numark pile of COMPLETE and utter bollocks is beyond me! even since the Xone 3D (which is beyond pointless explaining how much better it is) is less fucking coin than it! http://www.decks.co.uk/products/mixers/allen_heath/xone3d boils my blood entirely. i really do hope that numark falls on it's arse because of it - they should stick to the bottom end bedroom DJ market and start knocking out middle of the road midi controllers.
I'm not really moving from my current setup, I just want to experiment more with the digital side of things. I've had a fair bit of fun mucking about with ableton in the house, but I don't feel I'm getting the best out of it with a mouse and keyboard. I'm happy mixing on a PC (I've had a go at Traktor), but I'm wanting to muck about with looping, acapellas, and possibly use it as a platform for production. Ableton feels a bit more intuitive than Traktor for this (or maybe it's just that I've taken to one more than the other). As things are for the moment I'm in the fortunate position of being able to keep ahold of my mixer, cd players and EFX. Depending on how well I take to this I might look at changing parts of my setup for new bits of gear...
Once the mixer manufacturers come up with a combination mixer, soundcard and dj surface controller then the game is up. Denon managed to put a midi soundcard in the HS5500 so you only needed to connect the thing to your laptop with a usb cable and you were all set up. If the pioneer DJM800 had that, and then an extra panel for controling tunes (and a big dial to switch decks) then all you would need to do the whole traktor/ableton thing would be a mixer and a laptop. Things like the 'fader start' bit on the current DJM mixers are pointless and probably only useful for dj's who play at City Vault or Balmbaras
the A&H 4D (and the 3D before it) look like they're going down this route, but I'm not sure I want to splash £1500 on a new mixer. Fader start was pap with CD decks - I don't want to start using it on MP3
I was shocked to see the DJM800 is now 1500 quid cause of the pound (put that in another thread) .... nuts eh. Still, if a 'club' mixer starts at 500-600 quid, then once you've bought a semi decent midi soundcard, then a few hundred on an extra controller your knocking on the doors of a grand anyways.
mistak, you cant really compare the xone 4d with the numark ns7. they're both completely different machines. the xone 4d is a midi controller / mixer and the ns7 is a purpose built all in 1 controller that is operated exclusively with serato itch software. it was only designed to work with itch. (but will probably get hacked soon enough) ive heard its crap too many times however. same goes for the vestax model the vci300. i nearly bought that too many times over the last 6 months but its just not built right. the two (itch) units are aimed at the hobby/bedroom/amateur market as well and that a&h mixer is clearly a flagship controller for a professional capacity. conway, you can muck around with looping and acapellas with a dvs - have you heard any of my mixes?
