With Live’s Audio Warping engine and friendly “Session” layout, DJing is a very real possibility. Whether you’re sidegrading from turntables/CDJs to an all digital setup or are an existing Live user looking to use it for all aspects of your musical work, chances are you’re going to need to build a type of live performance/DJ rig.

Intro

Like I said above, you can use Live for just about anything. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the live performance and DJ-centered world.

There are several things that I think you’ll need for a live performance with Live:

1. An interface with at least two outputs (this should be a piece of cake) or four outputs for a DJ set
2. A laptop running Live 8, 7, or what have you
3. Some type of MIDI controller – for either scenario
4. A mixer – two-channel or larger (not really necessary, but I like having a mixer)
5. Proper cabling (a no brainer)

Interfaces

The goal for this section is to provide you with an interface that will allow you to use Ableton Live as a replacement for CD players or turntables. To effectively do this, you’ll need an interface with at least four line outputs. If you have a four channel mixer and and prefer to do four “deck” mixes, then find an interface with eight line outputs. For now, let’s just stick with basic two deck mixing.

The interface I like the most for this job is the one you see to right left: the Native Instruments Audio 4 DJ. It’s $199, small, has four line outputs, and sounds about as good as you could hope it to. Alternatively, if you already have the Traktor Scratch Pro package, you’ll be more than at home with the Audio 8 DJ, the big brother to the Audio 4.

The other solid option is the Focusrite Saffire 6 – four line outputs at -10dBv, two 1/4″ line outputs at +4dBu. Two XLR combo inputs (for instrument or mic level), phantom power, and headphone output makes this slightly more than your typical DJ interface.

Conclusion: If you already own a solid recording interface that lacks the line outputs for a DJ set, go with the Audio 4 DJ. If you’re looking at grabbing an interface that will do equally as well in the studio and at clubs, get the Saffire 6.

MIDI Controllers

Oh boy. There’s a lot of options and lot of good choices. As a performer using Live for live PA style sets or for straight DJ sets, your controller can be something to set you apart from the rest of the crowd using CDJs and 1200s.

Obviously there are two major choices: the Novation Launchpad and the Akai APC40 (the APC20 will soon be an option as well). Both have their pros and cons, but I suggest reading my Launchpad review to see if maybe that controller is for you.

There’s a couple of new controllers that you should be on the look out for if you’re looking to grab a new piece of gear: the Livid Instruments Ohm64 and Block. While I’ve yet to have any hands-on time with these units, I don’t see how they WOULDN’T be able to fit comfortably into your Live setup.

Conclusion: There’s a lot of options as far as MIDI controllers go. I didn’t even touch on the scenario of using an MPD in your setup, but that’s an option to. Here’s how I break down the choices of controllers for Live:

• The Launchpad is cheap, built to be moved around, and so much fun to use. That being said, it takes a little time with it to really get used to all the page/mode shuffling. The User Modes are a godsend and Automap just makes everything a bit easier to setup.
• The APC40 has a slightly smaller grid than the Launchpad, but also has faders (including a crossfader) and encoders. It’s slightly less cryptic and a little easier to use. It’s also bulkier, more expensive, and therefore a little less “travel friendly.” In my opinion, while the APC40 is completely usable live, it’s much more of a studio utility.
• The Ohm64 and Block are amazing pieces of gear. If you want to distance yourself from the more cookie cutter/mass produced looks that are apparent in the Launchpad/APC, then the Livid Instruments controllers might be your way to go. I’m sure they map to Live just fine, but they do carry a more “boutique” price tag. Summary: If you want to stand out, be prepared to shell out some more cash.

Mixers

Mixers are another field that can get kind of crazy. There’s a lot of options, but for what I’m doing, I typically will choose from three brands: Allen & Heath, Pioneer, or Denon.

It should also be known that a mixer may not be entirely necessary. You could easily take your four line outputs (or two for that matter) and run them into the Front of House console. If you are using Live as a CD/turntable replacement, however, then an external mixer is absolutely necessary.

Let’s take a look at a few mixers, then. We’ll look at a couple of two and four channel mixers from each of the three above brands.

• Allen & Heath Xone:22 – In my opinion, you just can’t beat the A&H sound quality when it comes to DJ mixers. For $399, you get a beast of a two channel mixer that even includes a proper FX loop. The filters, EQs…the Xone series is legendary.
• Allen & Heath Xone:42 – Obviously the next step up from the Xone:22 and at around the same price as the soon-to-be-discussed DJM800 (around $1,300). The Xone:42 also boasts a USB port and the popular A&H filters and EQs.
• Pioneer DJM400 – For $599, you get a two channel mixer that sounds good and has a little more flash than the Xone:22. It has some pretty cool onboard FX (thus the lack of any aux sends/returns), and two 1/4″ mix inputs. Not much more expensive than the Xone:22, so if you really want/need some FX for your sets, maybe look the way of the DJM400.
• Pioneer DJM800 – Four channels, tons of FX, and the fact that this thing is found in just about every major club in the world make it the most popular option. It doesn’t have the USB connectivity of the Xone:42, but it does sport four digital (SPIDF) inputs as well as a digital out. Add to that an aux send/return and a ton of different I/Os and you’ve got one hell of a club mixer. At $1,699 it is slightly more expensive than the Xone:42, but it might be worth it.
• Denon DN-X120 – Denon don’t really have a lot of two channel options as far as DJ mixers. The DN-X120 is a two channel scratch mixer that definitely doesn’t look as club friendly as the Xone:22 or the DJM400. It will, however, do the job. At $199, it may be the best option if you’re on a budget.
• Denon DN-X1700 – Wow. What a club mixer. Two separate FX processors, bright LCD screens, and just about everything else the DJM800 has and a little more. Two different USB slots on the back are available. One for your flashdrive and the other to plug it into your computer. It’s got four digital inputs, one digital output, and the “world’s first” 32-bit DAC. It’s also got two different layers: MIDI and audio. It’s $1,799, but the extra money (versus the DJM800) seems to make it worth the money.

Conclusion

Whether its performing your original material live or strictly playing other people’s music, Live is up for it. The setup discussed here is just the tip of the iceberg – there’s a lot more innovation to be had and a lot of tweaks you can do to set yourself apart from the rest of the flock.

Obviously, if you’re looking for next level stuff, check out controllers like the Monome, JazzMutant Lemur, and even the Apple iPad when it comes out. Also, don’t be afraid to leave your mark on your DJ sets: get a mixer with an aux send/return so you can use some outboard FX gear (Kaosspad, etc). Don’t forget that you can easily create your own loops, sounds and FX inside Live to lay over an otherwise dry DJ set.

Next I’ll be discussing how to actually set up Live 8 to work for your live set. Stay tuned!

Soundcraft M12

First up is the M12, the largest desk in the Soundcraft M series. Twelve mono inputs, four stereo inputs, and four stereo returns.

Looking at the raw specs, this is a nice sized mixer for small churches, smaller home/project studios, and anything that might need less than 16/32 channels.

S/PDIF I/O is available on all the M12 which makes this desk very studio friendly. The pres are low noise, low distortion, and also include RF rejection inside of them. Souncraft also boasts “great sounding British EQs,” which is something we see on just about every mixer on the market (including the Behringer line of mixers). I’m sure the EQs sound good regardless of where they come from. The EQs are three-band and, also included, is a HPF (at 100Hz) on all the mono channels.

The M12 has four available aux sends making outboard effects processors possible to include while also giving you the option for a couple (or more) monitor mixes.

100mm fader throw means you’ll have precise control over each individual channel. Direct outputs (pre or post-fader) are available on all mono channels which makes this board extremely viable for recording. Mute/PFL controls are present, as well as metering on every channel and the master bus.

The M12 isn’t lacking much (it’s even rackmountable), but it is missing a couple of things.

• No onboard FX. For me, this wouldn’t be a big deal. I prefer to use outboard processors anyhow. However, for someone running sound at a church or smaller venue, this could be a problem and could prompt a potential buyer to walk on by. While external effects are great, most consumer level engineers don’t have the budget for outboard effects and don’t want to deal with hooking up and running separate reverbs, delays, etc. Obviously for recording onboard effects aren’t typically used, so this mainly confronts people buying an M12 for live sound purposes.
• No groups. In my opinion, this is not a viable desk for larger sized clubs, bars, or churches. Mixing drums, vocals, horns, to a group keeps you from having too much gear and is also flat out convenient. Again, most entry/mid level engineers probably aren’t worried about mixing to subgroups, but your more experience engineers will worry about that.

Allen & Heath MizWizard WZ3 12:2

I’m a bit of an Allen & Heath fanboy. I’ve used the MixWizard enough to know I like it, and I drool weekly over their Xone DJ mixers. So how does the WZ3 12:2 stack up against the M12?

Eight mono channels and two stereo channels are available. The 12:2 has a four-band EQ (as opposed to the M12′s three) as well as a HPF on all the mono channels. The 12:2 also has mute switches and metering on the individual channels and the master bus, just like the M12. However, the 12:2 has two additional auxes compared to the M12 – six in total making it a little more live friendly. The 12:2 also has 100mm faders.

Where the MixWizard separates itself from the M12 is the onboard effects and computer friendly editing option that’s available with it. The MixWizard can talk to your laptop via MIDI making the effects tweaking a little more customizable. Once again, the 12:2 lends itself slightly more to live applications than the M12.

Conclusion

Both desks are plenty capable for studio or live settings. They’re both made from companies with solid reputations for sound quality and build quality. However, the major deciding factor for most people is price. The WZ3 12:2 sells for around $900 while the M12 sells for around $850 – once again proving that you pay for the Allen & Heath name. It’s not much of a price difference, but to most people $50 is enough to make a decision for them.

My personal opinion is go with the M12 for recording and the WZ3 12:2 for live applications. That being said, both mixers are solid and would do well in either application.

The update will take place in the form of routine maintainence and will be out in the first quarter of 2010 to all registered AAS users.

Since we’re newly married, broke 20-somethings, she does a lot of online window shopping. Yesterday she pointed me to a couple of really cool wood-based audio gadgets that are sure to turn heads (and can’t sound that bad, either):

• Barky Turntable: Yep. It’s exactly what you think. A turntable made completely out of wood. For a cool $1,298 it can be yours. It’s made with high-quality turntable parts and looks absolutely amazing.
• Skullcandy Wood Earbuds: For $98, you can have these pretty amazing little earbuds by Skullcandy. They’re said to have the “natural acoustics of wood,” but I bet they sound like nice iPod headphones.

Not really ground breaking news, but if you’re looking for some cool accent pieces for your home or portable (read: iPod) setup, check out these devices.

Here’s a list of what apt-X says are the advantages of their new lossless codec:

Highly scalable and dynamically adaptive coding mechanism
High-performance lossless compression – up to 96 kHz sampling rates
Mastering-grade audio – sample resolutions up to 24 bits
Extremely low coding delay
Low computational complexity, run-time overhead and device power consumption
Hybrid lossy coding for communications links with stringent bandwidth constraints
Easily portable across multiple hardware and software platforms

Interested in the press release? Check it out after the jump.

apt-X® Lossless sets new industry benchmarks –
out-performs FLAC audio compression
Audio compression developer reveals performance of apt-X Lossless, the new, scalable, adaptive, lossless audio codec architecture for high-efficiency distribution of multi-channel audio
127th AES Convention, New York [Friday, October 9, 2009] – APTX, a leading developer of high-performance audio compression technology, today announces that apt-X Lossless, the company’s new, scalable, adaptive, lossless audio coding scheme, significantly out-performs other lossless audio coding formats in emerging application scenarios that depend upon the efficient transmission of high-quality audio over wireless channels and IP networks.  This conclusion is based on performance data obtained from rigorous and intensive laboratory testing of apt-X Lossless against other types of lossless audio codecs using a set of industry-standard reference audio samples.  The improvements in performance demonstrated by apt-X Lossless relative to FLAC, for example, include a significant gain in compression ratio – up to 10 per cent more data reduction – at time delays under 2 milliseconds.  This extremely low degree of latency (sub 2 ms) is of critical importance in applications involving video, interactive games, and 2-way communications.
apt-X® Lossless – scalable, adaptive, lossless audio compression
The new industry benchmarks set by apt-X Lossless are of particular interest to manufacturers of wireless audio devices, especially for consumer markets, because they have a positive impact on audio quality, bandwidth efficiency, power consumption, and processor load.  Such factors are critical in the design viability of next-generation consumer devices, such as 4G/LTE smart-phones and wearable, portable media players, and go-anywhere, touch-screen tablet computers.
The results of the performance testing of apt-X Lossless, together with a technical description of the architecture itself, are to be formally presented to members of the Audio Engineering Society in a paper session at the 127th AES Convention in New York City, October 9-12, 2009.  Speaking in advance of AES New York 2009, Dr. David Trainor, the architect of apt-X Lossless and author of the technical paper said: “This research clearly shows that apt-X Lossless – the latest addition to the apt-X portfolio of scalable audio compression solutions – has the potential to elevate the quality of multi-channel audio transmitted over wireless networks, and mitigate many of the deployment issues traditionally associated with lossless audio coding in these environments.  The superior performance of apt-X Lossless under real-world system conditions that vary widely over time – available processor cycles, remaining battery energy, channel bandwidth, radio propagation conditions, and other factors – has direct implications for the user experience.  This is especially important in consumer electronics where users have certain expectations relating to the minimum guaranteed Quality of Service.”
 
Founded twenty years ago in 1989, APTX, a Belfast based high-technology company, is renowned in broadcast engineering and professional audio post-production for its commercially successful series of low-latency apt-X audio codecs – standard apt-X, Enhanced apt-X, and recently, apt-X Live for 8:1 compression of full-bandwidth audio.  Available since July 2009, the new apt-X Lossless audio codec is implemented as C and C++ code, and has been verified on x86 processors, ARM 9E and ARM Cortex M3, Texas Instruments C64xx, and others to be announced.  From a system integration stand-point, apt-X Lossless is easy to port across multiple hardware and software platforms.

They’re USB-bus powered, about the length of a laptop keyboard, and thin enough to fit into any sort of messenger/laptop bag you can think of. Sadly, Akai wasn’t at AES this year so I couldn’t get any good info/demos of the units, but from what I’ve seen the build quality on these Akai units seem to be much more solid than the Korg units.

Go check out your nearest retailer and check them out!

- Fixed lots of preset change glitches;
- Fixed DC output saturation on some oscillator/filter combinations;
- Fixed filter cutoff glitch on large sudden pitch changes;
- Fixed Recorder crash on Windows;
- Fixed automation from plug-in window in Logic 8;
- Fixed audio cuts when the plug-in window was displayed;
- Fixed MIDI Link crash on “Default” channel;
- Fixed Cubase 5 crash on Windows;
- Now works with Cubase 5 64-bit VST Bridge;
- Now works with Sonar 64-bit BitBridge;
- Fixed “Fatal Error 417″ during authorization on Mac OS X;
- Fixed Edit MIDI Link dialog values glitch;

The update is free for all registered users of VA-1 and is available from the AAS website.

Waves Noise Suppressor and LoAir Subharmonic Synthesizer – $2,800 (TDM) and $TBD (respectively); both available in TDM and Native

Both of the above are part of Waves Post Production bundle. Waves Noise Suppressor (or WNS from here on out) is a broadband noise reduction tool thats aimed at both location and studio recording. It looks like your standard broadband noise reduction plug-in except for the fact that it allows you to work on multiple tracks at a time allowing you to do a lot of noise suppression in a little amount of time.

You know those scenes in movies where there’s a huge explosion and you can feel the rumble? Well, the LoAir Subharmonic Synthesizer is made just for those kinds of scenes. It’s polyphonic, works on either 2.1 or 5.1 setups, and can also be used to enhance the subharmonics on already existing tracks. Something tells me this plug-in will be widely used and abused in the electronic music world, as well as the post world.

Vocal Rider – $400 (Native), $800 (TDM)

This was a lot of fun to see in action. It was also great to see and will be desired by anyone who’s ever had to do lots of tedious vocal automation, whether for music or post. Vocal Rider takes a sidechain input (your music bed) and rides your vocal channel accordingly to ensure a (near) perfect vocal mix. It can also write automation as it tweaks your vocals as well as read any existing automation.

MultiRack – $600 (TDM only; includes a reverb and delay plug-in)

Part of the Waves Live suite, this is aimed at lightening up your live sound rig. The concept is forget all your dynamics and time-based processing racks; use this instead. And after working as a live sound stagehand for some time, this concept scares and excites me. It’s great because it will lower overhead and energy needed to effectively mix a show. It scares because my main job was hauling around racks of amps and processors so that the FOH/monitor guys could do what they needed do, so something like this could put a few guys out of work (which no one needs).

Each rack in the program is it’s own signal chain which can be customized from start to finish. It seems like it has a pretty rich preset function built-in. You can save racks for a band, song, or even part of a song and recall it on the fly. You can also use any Waves plug-in inside the rack which promises to give you that studio sound in the live sound realm.

All the plug-ins discussed above will be available the first week of November and will be included in all of the popular Waves bundles.

Obviously AES is an audio nerd’s dream come true: it’s wall-to-wall gear and like-minded individuals talking shop and other having fun. There’s parties, lectures, and even science-heavy white paper lectures (for those who are into those kinds of things). But most importantly it’s gear. Whether new or old, analog or digital, software or hardware, it’s all used for recording, mixing, mastering, post production, and more.

We literally walked by every single exhibit and gave every product some attention. However, some products blew our mind a little bit more than others, so I thought I’d go through the tech that I was most excited about.

• Cloud Ribbon Microphones:  Particularly the JRS-34. These microphones sound and look amazing because of their background and the people involved with them. Stephen Sank, who’s father replaced Harry Olsen at RCA, has been restoring and modifying classic RCA ribbons for some time now. RJ Cloud and Stephen Sank have been developing modern ribbons with vintage souls since 2006 and the mics are now becoming available to the general public. The mics sound amazing, are built inside the United States, and are considerably cheaper than buying an RCA 44/77.
• Audient Zen: It’s no secret that the way of the commercial studio is going the way of small, efficient, and hybrid. I love giant analog consoles, and while I’m sure they’re still being sold, I’m sure consoles like the Zen are being sold much faster. The Zen offers you all the flexibility you’re going to need from a small-form analog/digital console with a considerably lower price tag than it’s competitors (even if you buy it fully loaded). The console designer has been designing circuits/gear since the 60s and was on-hand to give me an in-depth tour of the board. And, as much as I love SSL, Neve, and API, I must say that this is the only desk that got me really stoked.
• Dangerous Music D-Box: Okay, confession time: I can be a bit behind in terms of higher end gear. I don’t work in a big studio. So while I was a bit familiar with Dangerous Music’s tech, I hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing and hearing the D-Box until Saturday. After being given a very detailed tour of the box, I have to say that if I was ever building a serious project studio around a Pro Tools LE system, I’d HAVE to own this thing. It’s a monitoring solution, cueing setup, talkback/headphone solution, analog summing box, and D/A convertor.
• Two Notes Torpedo VB-101: With all the buzz surrounding the Digidesign Eleven Rack, I have to believe you’re going to hear a little bit about this amazing unit once it starts coming around in the United States. The Torpedo is based on a convolution algorithm which delivers amazing sounds. It’s got 16 amp/8 studio microphone choices, USB control with the Torpedo Remote software, 24bit/192kHz analog I/Os, AES/EBU/SPIDF digital I/Os with a wordclock sync, and is fully MIDI assignable. That’s all well and good, but the two best features of this unit is the fact that you can use your own guitar/bass amps the box and you can create your own IRs (impulse responses) with the Torpedo Capture software! Have a buddy in Europe with a killer amp/mic combo that you’d like? This software and box gives you the ability to do that. A must have for any serious studio guitar player.
• Grimm Audio LS1/AD1: Confession time part two: I’m a scientist and I’ll never try to convince you that I am. So when Sanjay and I met with the Grimm guys and they went into the reason their gear is world-class, a lot of it went over my head. Which is all well and good because as much as I love great sounding stuff, I also love great looking gear which is why the Grimm stuff caught my eye (A/D convertor with wood front panel? yes please!). Knowledge of high-level audio science or not, the LS1 (they’re flagship studio monitors) were astounding. They’re sleek, built solidly, and sound like some of the best monitors I’ve ever heard. Make no mistake, though: this is high-grade, expensive, and most definitely pro gear. The price tag reflects this, but I’m 100% certain that this gear is worth every penny.
• Thermionic Culture: By now it should be no secret that I’m a huge fan of hand-made, high quality, analog gear. Thermionic Culture makes gear that falls under each of those three criteria for awesome gear. From preamps to EQs and just about anything in-between, these guys have all the bases covered for your tracking, mixing, and tone-shaping needs. The great thing about the gear is that while a bit more pricey than your run-of-the-mill dbx or M-Audio gear, it’s certainly well worth it for any studio desiring the all-valve analog sound whether it be project or commercial facility.
• Endless Audio CLASP: When I read the press release for this, I had to read it again to make sure I had read it right. A way to incorporate that somewhat forgotten tape machine into your daily digital work? Endless Analog is making that come true with CLASP (Closed Loop Analog Signal Processor). The way it works is simple: once the CLASP rack-unit is installed, it runs as a plug-in inside your Pro Tools system. As you record, it hits your tape machine first and then goes right into your Pro Tools system. Your PT transport now can control your tape machine transport, you can do tape punches just as easily as you can do punches in PT, and you can even change the speeds at which your tape machine is running on the fly. It’s kind of expensive but has taken a number of years to develop. It’s limited in it’s market as it’s really only open to studios that already have tape machines or newer studios that have a tape machine in their budget, but it’s amazing nonetheless.
• Novation Launchpad: The APC40 seems to be a pretty big hit with Live users, but I think this piece of hardware might put a pretty sizable dent in the market for Akai. At first glance, you may notice what this device doesn’t have: no faders, no encoders. But what it does have is much more important. It has a) a lower price ($199 retail), b) great feeling pads, c) the ability to link up to six units together at a time and work in tandem with an APC40, allowing you to work with both at the same time, d) the high-quality you’ve come to expect with Novation controllers, and e) Automap. Don’t write this thing off. You can still control sends, levels, panning, and all the other stuff with the Launchpad, just in a slightly different fashion.
• iZotope Alloy: I’ve been a fan of RX since I was introduced to it a couple of years ago so I make sure to check out everything that comes out of iZotope’s factory. Alloy is a somewhat rare departure from their normal territory, but I’m stoked to get a hold of this. I’d write a bunch of words about the software, but perhaps you’d like to watch our video in which the head of iZotope’s beta-testing department gives us a great walkthrough of the program.

So ends my giant wall of text. While there was tons of gear at this years show, the above pieces were my absolute favorite. There wasn’t a lot of disappointments at the show, but there were a few.

• No Digidesign!
• No Akai
• No Apple
• Overall smaller show than last year which means…
• SSL and Neve booths weren’t as large as they’ve been in years past
• I’m not meant to live in NYC, as this trip has shown me
• The Javits center’s food sucks and is too expensive

Other than that, it was a blast. We’re definitely going to be at AES San Francisco next fall, hopefully with an intern or two doing most of the writing (we missed a lot of great parties to write!). Maybe we’ll get a shot at NAMM in January? We sure hope so.

Closing note: Sanjay took quite a bit of video at this years AES including demos of the Launchpad, CLASP, Alloy, and new gear from both Monster and Waves. Be sure to check out and subscribe to the YouTube channel here!

The first item up for praise is the Culture Vulture Mastering Anniversary Limited Edition box. It’s a tube box that gives pretty much anything you run through it some interesting tones and really seems to inspire some creativity in the studio. They’re apparently only making 99 of these and I’m willing to bet they’ll sell out as fast as they can make them.

The Culture Vulture Mastering box will have all of the features of the regular Culture Vulture, but will include a number of additions that you’ll be able to appreciate:

• Balanced input/output transformers
• Stepped input drive and and output gain
• -10dB output switch and low level outputs for re-amping
• 10 different types of distortion with filters

Sadly, you probably won’t get one of these. I won’t probably ever have one of these. But if you ever get a chance to check this thing out, you need to. These kinds of units are what make recording fun.

The other piece of gear that was on my custom burned CDR press kit is the Phoenix Master Compressor. It’s the Phoenix compressor but with some additions, just like with the Culture Vulture Mastering unit. This one, too, is limited edition. And it sounds great.