Tutorial: Using Traktor + Ableton to Beat Grid Disco, Live Drums (Unquantized Tracks)

[colinmcsorley]

Traktor beatgrids are awful, ableton is so much better, quicker and accurate, the grid in traktor floats about way too much, unlike ableton when you set your markers it's perfect, if traktor could just fix this problem I would definitely change to them over ableton

[Guakamolitz]

track name pls ;)

[DeeJayEndo]

@Guakamolitz Maceo Plex - Vibe Your Love with Prince - Controversy - Endo

[wwsshockwave]

tnx

[JohnnyParkification]

why to bother with the exporting when you can dj with ableton ?

[DeeJayEndo]

@JohnnyParkification Because DJing Ableton isn't as fun as it is in Traktor. The Browser is very limited, there are no playlists, you have to prepare (warp) all of your music and prepare your sessions ahead of time, looping is hard, there is no scratch control in Ableton, beatjumping is very hard, you're not able to sort your tracks by key unless you do a lot of prep work, the sound quality isn't as good as Traktor, I could go on and on. Ableton is more of a producer tool in my opinion.

[JohnnyParkification]

@DeeJayEndo

You have to warp song only once, no beatmatching, everything is to the beat. Always.

You can use itunes or foobar to have playlist but I dont really see a point browser is enough for me especially that I prepare my live acts and mixs very carefully, it takes some time but then they are next level. If you use mixed in key you can change to file name to Key - Song name so I can just search 8A and have all the tracks that are in this key.

[DeeJayEndo]

@JohnnyParkification yes, it works the same in Traktor but better since iTunes is intigrated and you can use itunes smart playlists inside of Traktor (without having to use an external program like itunes for your browsing). Renaming your files with mixed in key can be a total disaster because you will have missing files in your audio programs. Lets face it, Ableton is geared for producers, not DJs. - Endo

[JohnnyParkification]

@DeeJayEndo Looping is not as fun as in traktor but if you have the idea you can do it even better.

Sound quality isnt as good ? WTF ? where did you get it, never been a huge fan of scratching too

[DeeJayEndo]

@JohnnyParkification I'm sorry but the sound quality of Ableton Live is not good, using warping or not using warping. I hear a "film" over the sound. People fight me on that all the time but I know what I hear. I love Ableton but they need to do something about the sound quality. However, I use a program called Platinum Notes to help out with this after bouncing out of Ableton. Works like a charm.

[cigarcityg]

Thanks for the info! Very informative! Keep up the great work Dubspot!

[DerrickMayFan]

What if it's not even on sync IN ABLETON? You didn't show us how to fix that. :(

[DeeJayEndo]

@DerrickMayFan Usually Ableton 8 will get your tracks warped correctly if you follow the steps above. If you know the BPM of the track (roughly) you can type this into the session before dragging your song into Ableton and it will warp it more accurately. Check out our other warping tutorials on the dubspot youtube for a more in depth tutorial on warping. This is more to show a trick on how to get your tracks on a grid using ableton and how to bring them into Traktor and re-beatgrid them.

[frankiepells]

If you're playing live classic disco records you probably shouldn't be fucking with them in Ableton and Traktor effects

[TheMaxSvc]

can ableton live intro do these track warping feature

or these feature is only found in ableton 8 live

[eklyy]

thank you for the tutorial, it helps me. but i the same in mac and pc "just right click" for both :)

[walhallax]

Careful using Prince music, he will FLIP SHIT FOR COPYRIGHT OHMYGOOOOOD

[SeeSickNYC]

Also check the warp after the breaks!! usually Ableton jams that part up. if it is off drag it to the nearest whole numbered bar and check the metronome to make sure it is back on time.. Dunno if anyone mentioned that yet..

[SeeSickNYC]

Props tho to Endo.. Alot of this ish has helped me tremendously.. Massive props.. 

[DeeJayEndo]

@SeeSickNYC Hey man, thanks for the tip. This video wasn't so much as a "How to warp in ableton" tutorial and didn't go into all the detail on warping. Just how to do the quick way of getting your tracks on a grid. We have another in depth video on warping in Ableton that Steve Nalepa did. Check that one out. Cheers! - Endo

[SeeSickNYC]

Homies - I LOVE DUBSPOT and all of the great tutorials but, and don't get all mad at me, this tutorial misses some spots. When you find the down beat and set the 1.1.1 and your song does not match the metronome and you have followed this tutorial thru every step try warping at the bpm set in the seg bpm section in the warp envelope. For example when I try to warp Love and Happiness - River Ocean it won't work if you 'warp from here' . You have to warp at the bpm of the song.

[TheMKUSH]

I JUST WATCHED THE VIDEO AGAIN 100% EXCELLENT. FINALLY OLD SKOOL MUSIC MEETS TRAKTOR. ENDO YOU'RE A GENIUS

[badazzboomboy]

looks like hella work comin up in order to warp all the acapellas that TS does NOT beatgrid correctly automatically, and gave me a heradache when i tried to grid em manually!

thx a lot!

[DeeJayEndo]

@badazzboomboy No program that I know of can accurately guess the BPM of acapellas unless there is a very noticeable rhythm in the acapella. Beatgridding and warping acapellas is both equally as hard. This video however is not "how to beatgrid acapellas", its more for beatgridding actual songs. Thats an idea for a future video though. Maybe some advance in technology will come soon that will help with this ;-)

[TheMKUSH]

@DeeJayEndo Nice work man. Can you give us a tutorial of routing audio from Traktor to Ableton for Pc users? PLease. Thanks in advance

[OracularBoy]

Awesome tutorial.

[danielsmeyer]

controversy mixed with vibe your love...nice :P

[vanhaze2000]

Very nice tut !

However, would have been nice to see what you have to do in ableton when it doesn't warp a track with tempo fluctuations completely right.

Thus, manually adjusting the warp markers in Live throughout the track.

Cause Live does a good warping job but it is not 100% full proof.

Thx again !

[DeeJayEndo]

@vanhaze2000 If you want a more in depth tutorial on warping in Ableton be sure to check out Steve Nalepa's video tutorial on the dubspot youtube

[rhoggard76]

doesn't ableton's warp change the pitch or time of the track?

[DeeJayEndo]

@rhoggard76 Yes warping changes the time, but not necessarily the pitch. It is time stretching the track but keeps the pitch (unless your using re-pitch warping mode). As long as you export the audio at a speed thats the same as the original (or close), your track will still sound perfectly natural and like the original. It will just be perfectly quantized to a grid.

[rhoggard76]

@DeeJayEndo thank you so much for the explanation! same tempo makes sense, small pitch adjusts dont change that much, esp on technics 1200s... 

[CarlitosDJmx]

amazing man...thanx

[entyce66]

great tutorial endo live and traktor perfect combination

[ThePioPro]

once again ENDO dose it again TY dubspot.

[chrisrawles1]

Great tut - Thanks

[sebply88]

Does it have to be in .wav form or can I save it also as mp3?

[DeeJayEndo]

@sebply88 As of now you can't save as an MP3 in Ableton, however I would recommend after doing this throwing the track through platinum notes. This will enhance the sound quality and will also give you a nice remastered 320 KBPS MP3.

[Mattlethew]

Thanks for the tut !

[Batzenlurch]

great explanation!

[majora158]

under 100 club and sick tut