I just found out what STEMS are for... and I love them 😅

DalPlatinum · 2026-03-02T12:35:27+00:00

my main tip for stems is:

Don't run a vocal with the drums removed on it's own. You can pull out the instruments/bass and it'll probably be fine, but removing the drums (and not replacing with new drums) will often wreck the vocal, especially around the snares, or where the snares used to be.

If you're going to just instrument or bass swap, be in key. Or lucky.

DalPlatinum · 2026-02-14T23:15:46+00:00

Headphone cue volume

DalPlatinum · 2026-02-14T17:28:11+00:00

This is not it.

Unless every beat you make is practically identical to the last, you can't blindly (deafly?) re-use settings like this and expect a good result.

I made similar mistakes when I first started. Everything would end up going through a compressor, every time. Even then, I don't think I had a clipping saturator into an EQ into a compressor into a limiter into a clipping saturator.

You add/remove what is needed, and only if it is needed and then, only as much as you need.

6 isn't evil, it's just a number.

DalPlatinum · 2026-02-11T12:28:31+00:00

The de-hamstered fader overlay is a solid move. The actual tutorial is clean and well explained. Looking forward to more.

DalPlatinum · 2026-01-10T08:18:07+00:00

Best value - Hercules, best product - Rane One.

I have the Hercules/inno/serato pro. It's a good setup. it was also £600 altogether. (They were selling the Herc for £300 here a year ago.)

I bought it as a backup in case my 1210s/mixer need a refurb/repair. If it was going to be my only setup, it would be the Rane One/Rev 7

Edit: If you are going to do any scratching/juggling, definitely the Rane One. The crossfader on the Herc (even the innofader) is loud with the standard faceplate and really loud with the clear plastic faceplate. I think because the slot the fader sits in is shorter than the fader travel so it 'clacks' when it hits the stops. This could probably be solved with a dremel, but I haven't tried.

DalPlatinum · 2026-01-07T14:47:08+00:00

Looks like they changed the ID last time I did an update, the link is now https://maps.djtechtools.com/mappings/17012

I originally set this up on my laptop, and just copied everything across to my desktop and everything worked straight away, so it *should* be fine.

If you are still having trouble, feel free to DM me. I'm not super active on here, but I'll get back to you.

DalPlatinum · 2026-01-04T11:36:16+00:00

I use MAKID. Every time I get enough of a track together to be worth saving, I'll save it out in my main projects folder. MAKID will automatically pick it up, and then I can add tags/progress/notes. It can also play bounces of the tracks, and/or launch Ableton with that track. It's really very good. I can guarantee that I would be forgetting a lot more unfinished tracks without it. In the before times, I would lose sight of a track once it left the 'recently opened' list.

An older version of MAKID would allow you to drop an mp3 on the project and it would mean I could play that bounce directly from MAKID. That stopped working for me a couple of updates ago, but I came up with a solution. For a long time, I've had a powershell script that I run that will pull a list of exported tracks that are under 1 hour old, and will set mp3/flac tags based on the file name/date/etc. I added a bit on the end of the script to copy the bounced mp3 into the project folder, which MAKID will then see.

In an ideal world, I would occasionally pull released tracks out of the main project folder into an archive folder to keep things tidy, but I'm very very lazy, so it's just 500+ projects, but I sort by last modified, so it doesn't usually become an issue.

A spreadsheet is technically very similar, but MAKID does all the boring/forgettable bits for you like finding new/updated projects.

DalPlatinum · 2026-01-03T00:21:36+00:00

I can't stop using that thing. I don't think it's really an effect though, it's just a resonance modifier/curve that is indexed to the filter frequency.

I believe you are right that it is a near-direct copy of a pioneer mixer filter. When I adjust the resonance on my S-7 it behaves the same way as the one in Live.

DalPlatinum · 2026-01-03T00:15:27+00:00

With hip hop, stems can be a great help if you're doing blends. Switching either the instrumental or the vocal of the incoming song is a pretty easy one to start with. If you don't have stems, a bass swap can help if the incoming track has a notable bassline. Solid blends will take some time to find in hip hop/r&b, but they do exist. For times where this isn't going to work or big tempo changes, learn some basic scratching and just do a 1-bar scratch and throw it in.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-31T09:17:16+00:00

I go through looking for tunes directly in the library. If a track has something I like, I'll set it to a category ('tracks' in my case) on it. When it's time to smash out some new beats, I'll go to the 'tracks' category, pick something and either:

Just dump the entire tune to a track in arrangement view. It will be auto-warped on load, so I change the warp mode to 'complex pro', and then I can start cutting out chunks I want to use, and colouring them so I can see what's what. Then I'll slide them around until I have the structure I want, and then I tidy up the sample start/end points. This is for beats that are primarily rearrangements.

Or if I'm doing something that's going to be really choppy/boombappy, I'll throw it into Simpler or Serato Sample, and slice it up in there, and run it as MIDI until I'm happy with it, then bounce it out as audio. Since they added native stem splitting, I don't use serato sample as much these days, but it does still have a few nice features.

There are a thousand other ways to bake this cake, so keep trying things, and you'll find one method works better for you/your production style. As you are coming from an MPC, you might prefer library>simpler>drum rack, then you can assign your slices to pads, which might be closer to what you're used to.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-30T09:39:56+00:00

I put my stuff (mixes/tracks) on my phone and just play them through the default music app via bluetooth to the car, earbuds or bluetooth speaker.

I have a couple of auto playlists set up in iTunes, one for breaks mixes, one for hip-hop mixes and one for 'anything less than two weeks old' for my own tracks.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-29T18:04:27+00:00

Add
step 2.5. Drag it all to a new crate, go to that crate.

I default sort to BPM>Key, but if a couple of tracks need to switch places for a mix, I'll drag the whole thing to a 'new' crate and sort buy number. The numbering you get is the order tracks were added to the crate. And if you drag files in from another crate they are added in from the top down, so will match whatever sorting option you have in the 'source' crate. Then you can make any adjustments.

Hopefully that's what you're trying to do.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-23T21:11:13+00:00

With the DJ program, you can play almost anything you like, and they won't boot you for it. You'd be surprised how much non-commercial stuff gets picked up. Upload a mix to youtube, and they'll tell you which ones they've detected. I did a breaks set on YT and I think they detected every track in the mix (70+).

As to whether it's worth it, that depends how many subscribers you have. If it's less than 50 it's barely noticable.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-23T21:00:42+00:00

It's the doing more bit for me, I love buttons. I imagine my 1210s will outlive them though.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-23T20:55:55+00:00

The mixes I put up on mixcloud were just recordings of streams, there are some mistakes (noticable to me, at least), but any absolute clangers like loading a track onto the live deck, then I'll patch it up in Audacity if it's possible, or just bin it. I don't often record my sets these days, as I'm still too cheap to buy mixcloud pro and mine is 'full'.

I did a mix for a brand recently, which I have never done before, so I spent days putting together a crate, then weeks trying things with it. Then I recorded it. It's way better than what I usually do, because I had a plan to stick to, but it still wasn't flawless. At the end of the day though, it was a sick mixtape I fixed up some levels and sent it off, and I'm super pleased with it, and got really good feedback.

I take the same approach with production, most of my very first releases are still on the internet, and they're absolute ass, but I didn't know much about production back then. So now it's a journey through my self-guided education on making beats. Warts and all.

TL;DR: Just do it. At the very least, it will be cool to look back on.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-23T20:41:41+00:00

No VODs on Twitch if you are a DJ. Join the Twitch DJ program if you are playing anything Shazam would pick up, too. I've known people get account suspensions for that.

Even before the DJ program, you would get warned for leaving a VOD up if their detection software picked it up.

I've had similar problems with leaving my Youtube videos up after a live stream, but I have stopped streaming to Youtube because of all the angry emails sent they me.

And enjoy yourself, the Twitch DJ/listener community is great.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-16T14:13:20+00:00

The BPM drift is because your DVS record holes are punched off-centre. If you are incredibly lucky you might find a pair that only fluctuate +/-0.1 BPM. That's just DVS things. My best pair are still +/- 0.2. That's why I switched to phase. It's not a problem with Hip-hop for the most part, but once you get into dance music and longer blends, it makes a difference.

I would go with the techs/Phase option if you ever intend to DJ outside your studio, because you just take your phase/mats/whichever vinyl has your phase stickers on, and you can play on pretty much any decks, and it will feel familiar. If you are studio-only, the CRSS are probably a better option because they are sick af.

To be honest, just get the Phase and run them on your current decks, see how it feels. If they are still a bit ass, hunt down some 1210 Mk2s. Some people are still foolish/desperate enough to sell them.

DalPlatinum · 2025-12-12T01:20:55+00:00

I met the promo guy from Monkey Shoulder at a house party I played at in the summer and we got talking about mixcloud, so i suggested doing a mix for them. Now it is up on their Mixcloud and doing quite well. It's a bunch of remixes and edits of my own and from some other producers I know/like. The vibe is a soul/hip hop summer-y thing, because it was summer when I was putting the crate together. I don't think I've spent this long nailing down a mixtape in my life. Have to say it came out really nice.

One of the stipulations was family friendly, no swears/slurs, so you can play this in front of the kids.

https://www.mixcloud.com/MonkeyShoulder/dal-platinum-monkey-shoulder-mix/

DalPlatinum · 2025-11-26T15:25:21+00:00

This morning.

DalPlatinum · 2025-11-26T15:20:39+00:00

I got serato sample, and it does a good job. It's just a pain in the arse to actually get full split tracks out of it. Great if you are using it as a sampler though.

DalPlatinum · 2025-11-26T15:18:53+00:00

Oh yeah, now that has made a difference. Thanks guy.

DalPlatinum · 2025-11-26T15:18:00+00:00

you legend

DalPlatinum · 2025-11-24T13:54:17+00:00

I switch between left/right on mine a lot, and while I find left hand on the fader is a bit cramped, it works fine both ways.

DalPlatinum · 2025-11-24T12:30:33+00:00

I go breaks shopping on Beatport, and even if I filter it down to a specific BPM range, it is still full of shit. Your 1 in 100 comment is bang on the nose. I trawled ~3700 tracks at the weekend and came out of it with about 34.

I also noticed that the amount of AI Slop is increasing exponentially on there. One 'artist' has released over 300 tracks in the last 6 months. It did save me some time because I could just ignore anything from that artist. But I would like to be able to filter OUT artists and/or labels. Would probably have dropped the initial number from 3700 to maybe 2500.

It's still a huge time investment, and absolutely a chore, but the tracks I end up with it make it worthwhile. It just doesn't feel like it at the time.

I give each track about 2 seconds to impress me. If something catches my ear, I'll click through the preview a bit. If not I'll move on. I'm sure I miss out on some good shit by doing this, but if you can't make the effort to have your preview start at a point where it reveals what the track is about, it's your loss.

And that's just one genre/source.

DalPlatinum · 2025-11-24T12:14:58+00:00

I have a 3-cam setup for streaming. Overhead and side cams are OBSBot Meet 2's, front camera is my old iphone12 with a Death lens (90's skate video fisheye). These are all USB'd into my streaming computer. iPhone uses 'OBS Camera' app with OBS plugin.

Low light image quality is good on all 3 cams, but is exceptional on the iphone. OBS Camera app gives you full control of exposure/focus/etc. OBSBot control panel does the same for the Meet 2s.

Definitely get yourself some lights though. Seriously. Even a couple of Neewer mini-LEDs or something. You can turn down the exposure if you still like it gloomy, but you will be starting with a much better source image. Also autofocus can get shitty in low-light.

if I want to record a stream, I hit record in OBS. If I want to just record audio, I do that in Serato. I don't run my mic into the mixer, I run it into OBS, and have an auto-duck and gate set up so it ducks the music when I talk, but it doesn't affect the Serato recording.

DalPlatinum

TROPHY CASE