I’ve been spending a lot of time moving my DJ setup from the analog arena to the digital one. Having DJ’ed with vinyl for the longest time, I’ve been slowly making the transition to playing with all mp3’s. It’s going to rock but is taking more time than I thought. Besides devising a system to digitze, manage, and store files, there’s also the aspect of choosing which program is the best to work with. Final Scratch seems like a crutch for those who don’t want to go all-digital (don’t get me wrong, I love playing vinyl – the warm quality of the sound from original recs- , the texture under your hands is the best thing in the world). I was reluctant to go for the CD-Js because it seems like a costly step out of the way towards playing directly from the ‘puter. About two years ago my friend told me about Ableton Live, which gives you the ability to play music in real-time through a seperate MIDI controller. I finally got myself a copy and am loving it. Granted it has a bit of a learning curve but is very functional and a quality program. I’m using Cubase along with a preamp (the Inspire 1394) to digitize my vinyl. Cubase LE is kind of crappy, so I’m in the process of bringing it directly into Live. I’m working on a really fun mix and Live is giving me the ability to cue, sync, and add effects without any problem. So far pretty kosher.
