Live sets with a sampler?

[TomD]

right, i dj on friday nights at my student union, it's mixing up mainstream dance/house/etc, but it's a chance to play out to a reasonably big crowd of people, and a chance to experiment (within reason). so i like it.

 

however, i'm wanting to take it a stage further and instead of just playing the records, actually maybe do something a bit more "live" on-stage. i'd like to be able to cut in short samples of other tracks, mix them up and [censored] about with the EQs. do something unusual, like bring in a looped acapella vocal that someone might recognise, put it over the top of another track, chop and change really quickly, throw in quick samples, etc, generally playing "live" almost (even though it'd be other people's tracks). so instead of just mixing in tune after tune, it'd be a bit more interesting and fast-paced and i could even through in a few loops of my own in there.

 

two questions:

 

1. does anyone understand what i'm trying to do

2. how would i go about doing this? what equipment would i need - is it a sampler? and how easy/difficult would it be to learn to use? what about memory constraints?

 

i went to see a techno dj called "Suade" in March and he was pretty good - i think he was working off a sampler but he definitely also had an iMac and was playing literally just small samples from tunes, layering the riff from one song over the bassline of the other, and this was all happening really quickly. an example of his set is here in case anyone wants a listen, it's techno with housey elements thrown in, all happening so quickly, it was pretty amazing, forward to about 19:00, you'll be able to hear the sample from Basement Jaxx "Flylife" over the top of Octave One's "Blackwater" and then the riff from "The Man With The Red Face" comes in! it all works perfectly together as the tunes are in the same key and builds to a peak at about 23:00.

 

long post i know, but any advice much appreciated! i'd really like to get into this and explore my creativity... (for want of a better phrase)

[tommy]

Tom: come and sit on my knee and learn about the wonderful world of samplers

 

Don't really know that much, but I did buy me a roland sp505 the other week. Basically with that, I can sample up to about 70 mins of samples and trigger them at any point in my mix. I can also use all the filters off it 'live in da mix'.

 

What actually made me want to get a sampler for mixing was hearing Fatboy Slims' cd of the big beach boutique when he looped the intro to born slippy over and over then brought in right here right now, and then just kicked in this really nice funky beat

 

Now get off my knee u little brat

[Wub Wub]

Samplers can timestretch the samples so that they fit in time with whatever tune is playing.

 

the SP505 is superb for this, but if you've got a bit more cash to play with go for an akai 3000 or similar, avec Lab4.

[Blink]

There are different priced samplers, depending on what you are aiming for, you get "phrase samplers" aimed at DJ's aiming to do the sort of thing you are doing, all the way thru to full proper pro-audio samplers like the akai.

Also, as you mentioned, having a laptop opens a whole new world, anything from loading and triggering samples and Mp3s from that (I think Ableton Live software is aimed at doing that).

 

To be honest mate, I would look at seeing if anyone has something you could borrow, cos I would find the idea of trying to sample and time stretch etc on the fly quite daunting.

[Wub Wub]

Alternatively, use the sampler at home to timestretch samples onto tracks, then burn these onto CD-R and play the already timestretched track out!

[TomD]

cheers for the recommendations, people

 

i was looking at the SP-303 at first tommy, but then thanks for the recommendation of the SP-505 mmmmmmm *dribble* .... not that i have any idea how to work it, mind. i'd also seen the Cycloops which is aimed at the DJ wanting to throw samples into the mix but to be honest it looks a bit simple and not really what i'm wanting to do (which is basically construct my own "track" made up of samples from other tracks).

 

ideal situation i guess would be to get two soundcards in a powerful laptop and run it off that, because once you've got the power on the PC, you can just choose which software you want to run on it and upgrade when you like, maybe even write your own software. but that's way too expensive, like.

 

i don't mind putting the time and effort in sampling tracks and editing them down because i'm used to working with Sound Forge and know it well.

 

if anyone's interested, i checked out what gear this Suade guy has, and he's actually built his own box out of components from other stuff and called it "Rex"! DIY job!! it looks pretty good, like: link here.

[LiamStyles]

Tom, check out the redsounds "cycleloops" sampler aswell. Its aimed at djs to do exactly what you stated. Mauro Picotto uses one and so do loads of techno djs.

 

I bought one a while ago and they are amazing, best thing i ever bought.

 

And under £200 !!