How does PvD's DJ-set up work? - TranceAddict Forums

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-- How does PvD's DJ-set up work?

Posted by Microlab on Nov-30-2008 16:55:

How does PvD's DJ-set up work?

I've read hundreds of times in his interviews that he has been using 2 laptops synched with each other, each of them running Ableton Live. According to him, he can play a specific track but with a different kick, bassline or vocal. I've tried the same thing with my Ableton, looped several elements, and played another track in the background. It really worked, I was pleased with the results but how in the world do you remove for example a kick from one track and put it into another, so that the latter would have a different kick? Or how would you cut a bassline and play it simultaneously with another track? Is it all about working with frequencies or what?

Posted by Zak McKracken on Nov-30-2008 17:13:

heavy eqing and filtering should do it, i dont have ableton tho so i dont really know but doesnt sound too hard, tho live...

Posted by Microlab on Nov-30-2008 17:17:

You won't get good results if you filter/eq. The element will sound either muddy or muffled, especially the bassline. I think there's another way to do this but kill me i don't know which.

Posted by jupiterone on Nov-30-2008 17:26:

chances are it's all precise filter work

there is no magic "remove kick/bassline" tool

and i'm sure it's not all done live, he works on edits and duplicates before gigs a lot as well

Posted by raconteur on Nov-30-2008 18:46:

Moldover uses special plugins made with reactor for this kind of effects:

http://www.moldover.com/controlleri...lerism_2007.mov

Posted by downpat on Nov-30-2008 19:17:

Attenuating frequency's isnt too difficult, and someone like PVD had a life's worth of loop libraries I'm sure. Even the default eq in Ableton is pretty good at cutting particular elements when you start layering the envelopes and tweaking the Q value.

Posted by Watts on Nov-30-2008 21:54:

I'm sure he can't do this for every track. If he has stems (which he probably does for most of his own tracks and remixes), then this is no problem.

On the other hand, he could have gone back and recreated all these tracks or requested the stems.

Posted by Zak McKracken on Nov-30-2008 22:02:

quote:
Originally posted by raconteur
Moldover uses special plugins made with reactor for this kind of effects:

http://www.moldover.com/controlleri...lerism_2007.mov

that was pretty wild

Posted by Stef on Nov-30-2008 22:39:

Since he uses mac', everything just works

Posted by EgosXII on Dec-01-2008 01:26:

quote:
Originally posted by Watts
I'm sure he can't do this for every track. If he has stems (which he probably does for most of his own tracks and remixes), then this is no problem.

On the other hand, he could have gone back and recreated all these tracks or requested the stems.

+1

being PVD it can't be that hard getting stems

for the other stuff, i don't think he does epic stuff to EVERY track... sometimes he just mixes/mashes em, which isn't particularly difficult

Posted by kitphillips on Dec-01-2008 05:49:

Err, its pretty obvious. He runs one of the biggest trance labels, plays half his own tracks and has lots of friends = having lots of accapellas to work with.
As for basslines, how hard is it to recreate a bassline? He might be rebuilding some tracks from scratch, I imagine he has engineers to do a bit of that work for him...

Posted by Acton on Dec-01-2008 10:30:

Layering your own kicks over tracks is pretty easy, You just need a bit of EQ and maybe some filtering to get it to fit nicely.

Basslines will be substantially more difficult, I haven't dived into that area personally.

Posted by ponsshin on Dec-01-2008 14:22:

I'd go with center cancelling and eq'ing.

Posted by Adam420 on Dec-01-2008 21:06:

Maybe it's because he's PvD and he gets his hands on a lot of the source material?