most COMMON effects club DJs use ?

oN a good tape delay you can really mess with it .. up and down. and when you change the speed thats when the sound starts to get really interesting. Seriously go out and look for a real tape echoe. Or a good digital implementation. Try out a boss d-3 or d-12 stompbox. Youll fall in love with it.

as for the long winded implementation .. .. make a macro out of a hot key. to get the settings and then you should be able to turn two knobs and y oull have your effect.

 

KP3 rulez for teh Tape Echo.

It's a bit smaller than a Roland Space Echo too.

 

yea that space echoe wieghs about 30 pounds.. .. its the same model that carlos santana was using. or at leas thats the brag on it. hahahaha

 

thanks again Rufus with your insights.
the whole fx phenomenon is becoming much more approachable for me, as you suggested I have began to minimize the effects to loops, delays and filters.

i find the soft takeover a little strange with traktor software, i wonder how much better control i would have over the effects with them being built into the mixer ie. Pio DJM800 or another hardware based fx processor....


cheers all and thanks for the posts...very helpful!

 

no worries mate. I'm still learning what can be achieved with effects, although I think I'll still be learning the day I hang up my headphones (or you pry them from my cold, dead hands, whichever comes first).

The Traktor effects can be a little fiddly I've found, and this comes from having 4 seperate knobs to control each effect. On top of this you're invariably using a midi controller that wasn't designed specifically for Traktor use. Hardware effects, on the other hand have been designed from the ground up to give you the control you need at your fingertips, with simple controls like a jogwheel (Pio EFX) or a touchpad (Kaoss Pad) that let you control multiple parameters at once.

To set up something similar to this in Traktor, I have 2 of the knobs in each effect mapped to the X/Y control built into my mixer, which gives me Kaoss Pad style control over the effects built into Traktor. This works really well, and if you want similar functionality on the cheap you can pick up a Korg NanoPad, which has an x/y pad built into it. There's some vids of James Zabiela using this setup in NI's YouTube channel.

One other thing you might want to try, if you have a knob/fader you're not using yet on your UC33e (or maybe set up a modifier so the FX channel knobs switch function), try setting up a knob mapped to 2 FX params in Traktor (I find knob 2 & 3 work best for most effects). Have another knob set up with one of the params inverted, and the final knob above that with the opposite param inverted. Then you have a series of knobs that control 2 params at once in different ways - this way you can create some really crazy stuff with just one knob!

Fus

 

hey Fus,

thanks again for the great reply.

Wanted to get your quick thoughts on how I have mapped my 1d to Pro concerning the FX we have been posting about.

I kind of wanted to minimize as much as possible concerning the fx to sort of "reduce everything down to a more manageable size."

So... what I have done, and the reason for the post is to get an idea from your greater experience if indeed I am missing something important that I might not be aware of.

Basically, instead of having the advanced bank of FX I have opted to use the FX chained.

This seems to be working much better for me as i have limited each deck to the same three more common effects. (delay, flanger & reverb)

The 1d has two rows of four knobs. (that i use for FX)

The top row, I use for Deck A and the Bottom row for Deck B.

The first knob on the top row I have mapped to the Deck A filter in the eq section of Pro.

The neck three knobs I have mapped to the three effects in the chain.

For the time being I am keeping the same effects in the chain until I understand each one well. This has the benefit that whenever I go back to the knob its always in the exact same place both physically on the 1d and on the software.

The wet / dry for both deck A and B have been mapped to two sliders under the two rows of knobs. ( and the on/off button for each effect is controlled by buttons under the slider.)

So basically my question is...

Would you think im missing much of the functionality of the effects in PRO by minimizing the effect to chained rather than having them in advanced mode?

I am not using multiple effects at the same time for now.

Each effect is controlled by only two knobs! The wet / dry slider and the knob which has been mapped directly to the effect.

Hope this made some sense and I really do appreciate your thoughts and comments , you have been an invaluable resource !

Cheers Mate!

R



P.S.
if you don't mind.. could briefly explain the concept of filter sweeps or sweeping any knob in general. I presume sweeping is simply "sweeping the knob back and forth"..but just a quick clarification would be great.

I actually live on a small rural island in the Pacific so everything im learning is basically on line, hence my need for constant and probably annoying clarification.

But i am very much enjoying my new hobby!

 

That sounds like a pretty nice way of setting it up Rich, good idea to stick with 3 effects first, and learn those! Because you always have access to the effects you most use, you should find this a really efficient way of working them. You could use the buttons for something else though if you mapped the on/off to the same knobs as 'effect amount', so that as you turned them above 0%, it would turn the effect on at the same time.

Something you might want to think about though: I find the delay effect in chained mode quite limiting, as you don't have access to the 'freeze' function of the effect, or a seperate control for feedback. Because of this, I find the Delay T3 effect is almost constantly in one of my fx panels in advanced mode. This way, whichever deck(s) I want to use delay in this way on, I can just assign to this panel. So you could have one panel in chained mode with flanger/reverb/? and the other panel for delay T3 in advanced mode. Use the buttons you saved earlier to assign the decks to panel 1/2, and you should have a bit more of a versatile setup. I'm not saying you have to do this by any means, but having the same fx set up in both panels, whilst convenient for learning purposes, might be a bit of overkill in the long run, since the decks are assignable to either.

With regards to filter sweeps, this term is generally used to refer to "sweeping" the filter from low to high, or vice versa, usually quite slowly as the track is building up out of a breakdown. It's pretty much the "whooshing" noise at this time. If you want to make those whooshy noises without filtering the track itself (say you want to add a bit of drama to the track, without taking the bass/treble of the track itself out), just make a track containing a load of white noise (most sound editors will generate this, Audacity is a free windows one that will). It doesn't have to be long, as you can always loop it. Play that in another deck, and use the filter to swish and swoosh away! Practice making your own buildups using this and the delay on an instrumental hook or acapella. Another good one is white noise + filter + gater Have fun!

Fus

 

Rufus excellent advice - will try that out later

I'm personally a big fan of using the Ice reverb when bringing new tunes in to give things a spooky feel, using the gater to mimic scratching and of course beat masher for messing with people's heads

 

Doing this without software

So, i've read this thread a million times, basically looking for info on how to create interesting buildups and tensions. I just got my new DJM800 so I finally have effects. Problem is I don't know how to apply them to create the effects I often see DJs at events performing (think big buildup at an Armin or...yes....Tiesto "concert"). Even the Sebastian Leger clip has had me analyzing it over and over, including your comments. There's a lot of mention of using loops.

Could someone break down exactly what Leger is doing, since we can see that he's not using any software.

the first part:
I get that he's using a delay effect on loop but how was the loop created. Obviously not by the mixer given he's using the delay effect (and so not roll). Does this mean that once were already into the video, he's created a loop with the CDJs (1000s they seem like)? If so, how did he do that given they don't have auto-loop (like 800s), just In and Out loop function (which I'm way too scared to do live lest I don't create a perfect loop).

Also, he seems to be doing some chopping on the mixer. This would only make sense if he HAD created the loop in the mixer, but if so, how on earth did he create it with a DJM800 (I can never get an in-time loop). IF he did create it with the mixer, how does he "release" the track when he drops it since the roll doesn't pause the source?


second part:
could someone explain the tape delay concept in terms of doing it using just what he has (again, no software). It didn't seem like he was using pitch control, but I could be wrong.

Sorry if the answers to these questions are too obvious, but I've really been racking my brain and I can't even sleep. Also any advice on creating a perfect loop live would help (all of ellaskins ones are "in the headphone" stuff). Thanks!

 

Rufus?

For your action.

 

xone filters are always good. i would like to use beat repeat but u cant get that in traktor

 

BEat repeat can be achieved using loops.. and loops + beatmasher is just amazing to use

 

I've watched the video again - at no point does he create a loop on the CDJs, basically he's just using the delay effect and changing the timing of the delay on the mixer - there's no loops involved here, he's just delaying over an already existing buildup in the track.

Fus

 

Yeah, after reading your post, I realized how I was reading too much into it. I just hear so much about loops and how they are used for buildups. I still don't get how he did part II using the "tape delay" when he doesn't seem to have any computer-based samples running. An explanation would help for those that were talking about tape delay. I just bought Ableton LE, so give it to me straight...do I need to use it to do what he did at the 3 min mark?

 

I think once again, there's a little confusion creeping in with all the talk of things seperate to the video. A tape delay is a delay that feeds back on itself and saturates at the same time. As far as I know the Pio 800 mixer used in the video (correct me if I'm wrong because I don't have much experience with this mixer) does not have a tape delay effect built in. Again, Leger is just using the delay effect over a pre-existing buildup in the track. A lot of House/Techno has filter sweeps in the buildups (which can sound like feedback, but doesn't saturate, which is what differentiates it from tape delay). Running a straight delay over this filter sweep adds even more energy.

Remember when trying to work out what a DJ is doing that the simplest explanation is usually the most likely - most times what you'll be hearing is 70% the original track and maybe 30% FX. A good DJ will make you think it's 70% him and 30% FX

Fus

 

cool, understood, however if that is the case, how is he creating that aforementioned spacey lifting off effect? The obvious answer is, as you said...it's the track. BTW, anyone know what track that is. If it's not, then he could be increasing the pitch (note) on the CDJ, which is pretty far from him, but somehow without increasing the tempo.

and no, the 800 doesn't have a tape delay effect, just delay. Gotta give it to the guy, he knows his track (when to shut off the delay at the end of the fairly long buildup in "part II").

Thanks Rufus!

 

Boombreck

"The Clappper"



Great track!

 

ha, 70% is right. I just listened to the beatport sample...

it's all track.

 

some more discussion here

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85769

 

little help with this:

I keep coming back to this thread cuz there's some interesting stuff in here. Signature, do you think you could elaborate a little more on what you mean? Are you referring (in the part in CAPS) to what you would do on a mixer (like the DJM800) or to some effect implemented through traktor. I have ableton 7, but I barely use it for anything, I prefer to play deck to deck. When you say set the feedback knob to a high value, what are you referring to vis-a-vis the mixer? My guess is the time parameter, so something like 32/1? When you talk about speed, do you mean of the CDJ and if you do, what would be playing on it? Just a single synth note? When you cut playback, I get that you'll have some delay but won't it be fading away and since you already said start off with a high feedback value, what do you mean turn the feedback up? Also..."dial in the frequency", i'm confused again. Anyway, if you could explain to me how to generate this effect either on a mixer or through something setup in ableton (that would be playing on a different channel than your track playing), it would be really helpful. I've been looking at many tape delay echo vsts but I can't seem to replicate this effect. thanks.

TP