I am looking into buying this, but wanted to know experiences (good and bad) with going 100% live with this tool.

I use vinyl/cd currently, but find the possibility of more creativity intriguing with MM.

I am going to use it with an external drive (USB 2), is this a problem? I also have some concerns with the use of an access database...does anyone have experience with huge catalogs (around 20,000 tracks). Can I use MS Access to optimize the database?

Does the 'scanning' of audio files effect the reaction of MM while playing? Is there a way to speed up the scanning?

Thanks

quote:

I am looking into buying this, but wanted to know experiences (good and bad) with going 100% live with this tool.

*Static* "Paging Monkey Dan, Would Monkey Dan report to this forum please! Thank You" *Static*

quote:

I am going to use it with an external drive (USB 2), is this a problem? I also have some concerns with the use of an access database...does anyone have experience with huge catalogs (around 20,000 tracks).

Ok 'am' welcome along to Beatmixing.com! Dan should be able to give you some tales from his gigs this year WRT Fusion.

External USB drive is fairly standard for a lot of us around here, and doesn;t really present a problem (certainly I've not had any). WRT number of track s in database - well I've got a similar number to you, and the only issue is length of time to carry out an initial plotting of all files when you first set up the library.

The mdb file is fairly easy to use (although it's worth backing it up before you start to play with it - just in case ). If you do a search for .mdb you'll find other posts that relate to how/when to manipulate this.

Hope I've helped a bit - even tho' I'm not a 'live' user - sure Monk will have some pearls of wisdom for ya!

R

I use Fusion for all my gigs and have never had a problem with the software itself, it's always performed flawlessly.

On one occasion the drivers for my M-Audio card went a bit funny leading to a couple of minutes of silence, and a restless crowd until the live act that was on before me covered while I re-booted...this was largely my fault though as I was nattering away in the chill-out room and arrived on stage late.

The only other problem I've experienced really is one of lack of space for my laptop and midi controller. I've never not had enough room to plug them in but I have had to quickly unplug and remove a CDJ1000 before the preceding DJ's last tune ran out.

Thanks for the info!

quote:

Originally posted by amnesia623:
I am looking into buying this, but wanted to know experiences (good and bad) with going 100% live with this tool.

I use vinyl/cd currently, but find the possibility of more creativity intriguing with MM.

I am going to use it with an external drive (USB 2), is this a problem? I also have some concerns with the use of an access database...does anyone have experience with huge catalogs (around 20,000 tracks). Can I use MS Access to optimize the database?

Does the 'scanning' of audio files effect the reaction of MM while playing? Is there a way to speed up the scanning?

Thanks

Depends what genre music you play and how much time you want to devote into pre-session setup.

If your a:
1. techno style 120+ bpm DJ, go for fusion.
2. hip-hop dance club 75~120 bpm DJ with adequate time to setup the songs pre-mix, go for fusion.
3. hip-hop dance club 75~120 bpm DJ with with time comtraints, send an email to Aaron about possibly purchasing a copy of MMpro6.

MMPro6 is not officialy for sale anymore, and I do not speak for anything official. The above statement is what *I* would do.

P.S. Aaron, you said in another post to the effect "let your money be your vote." Why not put MMpro6 back up for sale?

I think bXms is right on the money regarding Fusion in a live setting... in many ways I feel its a step backward in user-friendliness of putting together mixes live. I've been a user since 5... and have been using Pro6 almost exclusively in mobile events (school dances/weddings) for the past year. The intro/outro sprockets on Pro6 are quite easy to adjust on the fly to get everything on the beat. In Fusion, this seems like a huge convoluted mess.

I upgraded to Fusion largely for running music videos... because I was never completely happy with the video performance of 5 when it came to beatmixing, and video in Pro6 was downright awful. Fusion seems much better in that regard (used it live for the first time last night and still had a couple issues where the video hung and audio noticably slowed when adding songs to the playlist) but it seems much, much harder to set up mixes and adjust the positioning on the fly.

If you're playing dance music that MixMeister will analyze correctly the default mixes will work great... in my experience it's not as good at finding the correct tempo on a lot of 70-90 bpm hip-hop, and isn't on the correct downbeat for a lot of radio-type music in general. In Pro6 you could correct the tempo problems (it usually detects as 2x what it should be) you could just change the tempo in the track properties ("edit tag" in fusion) however when I tried to do that last night I got weird speed changes during playback that led me to believe it doesn't work the same in Fusion.

I haven't used it enough yet that I feel it would be fair to give a full review, but so far I definitely have mixed feelings about the "upgrade" in terms of live use.

I use Fusion to play live most weekends. I can't comment on previous versions because Fusion was my first experience with any of the MixMeister products, but I can say that Fusion always performs flawlessly for me, and I love it.

I had my share of teething troubles when I first made the switch to Fusion, but a lot of those were due to a lack of understanding of how best to use Fusion in a live setup. Now that things have settled in it's rock solid reliable.

Personally I find it very easy to use, and all the controls seem very logical, although you do need to put the effort in to understand how they work. The interface is one of the best I've seen in any piece of software. It deceptively simple to look at, but the capabilities are amazing.

I find I have two distinct styles of playing - straightforward crossfading between tracks of various styles (e.g. for background music), and full-on harmonic beatmixing. Fusion lets me switch easily between the two with a minimum of fuss, and takes the pressure off by helping with the boring, mechanical aspects of mixing.

For simple crossfading a mouse is usually good enough to set up and control mixes, but for anything more involved an external controller is pretty much essential to get the best results. There are various threads on the subject on here.

Hope this helps...

I've used MM to play live since version 5 and have had no problem at all. It is a very stable software compared to others I have on my laptop. I have found that when you're in control of things, it works flawlessly but when you're being influenced by the crowd that is when trouble starts. The introducion of a dedicated controller will make things even better. Can't wait.

oK oK oK I feel so out of the loop. Can someone lead me in the right direction on what to buy for using MM live. I have a compag laptop using vista 32bit 2gb strictly for spinnin live. I am using MM studio for a while but never understood what all I need to buy in order to play live using MM. Please Help

Hello....I been using MMF for the last month on live gigs, and it been working awesome. Only trouble I noticed is with some lower BPM tracks that the sound sometimes sounds choppy. I looked further into this and found out the tracks were ripped at 128k, I decided to redo them at 192k and the choppy sound went away.
I use the Numark IO to connect my laptop to my mixer and that has worked well also. I also make sure to remove all the virus protection, and also make sure the wireless card is turned off before preforming.
I find MMF is a breeze to use live. I have tried other productions (dekadance,serato,virtual dj), and found them too difficult to deal with them live.

Some tipps for the optimal setup for Live play:

- Best is to have a clean Windows, freshly installed. I one can afford you should consider having a laptop only for MixMeister. I prefer Windows XP but not all modern Laptops have driver for it.
- No Virus Scan, and as DJ CHUBJIM mentioned before - Switch off the WLAN Card before performing Live. I've written a Batch that stops all unneccessary Services before I call Mixmeister.
- Use an external soundcard, I have good Experiences with my Edirol UA-101 and the Terratec Phase 24 FW. Use ASIO for the Soundard. If you encounter clicks in the performance, increase the ASIO Buffer (I drive the Terratec with 9,6 ms Latency and 352 Samples Buffer). Feel free to increase the buffer to add safety (as long you are not using MixMeister Fusion & Video to play Music Videos - where the Buffer is between the Picture and the Sound and a bigger buffer desynchronizes the Video Experience).
- A Screen Resolution of 1280*800 is Minimum, if you frequently use Effects in MM consider a Laptop with 1440*900, 1680*1050 or 1920*1200 (The last should be a 17" but this is a problem in most Locations)
- Buy a MixMeister Control - it's awesome. Big but fantastic. And a big show for the audience to see you working on Knobs instead of Mouse/Keyboard.

Hope this helps to decide.

quote:

Originally posted by Dj Odysi:
oK oK oK I feel so out of the loop. Can someone lead me in the right direction on what to buy for using MM live. I have a compag laptop using vista 32bit 2gb strictly for spinnin live. I am using MM studio for a while but never understood what all I need to buy in order to play live using MM. Please Help

Studio doesn't allow you to 'jump ahead' and preview what's coming up while playing the 'performance'. if you can set up the entire set in advance then you can use studio. You could even export it as one big mp3 and just play that. Fusion allows you to preview the performance and make changes on the fly.


As for stability, etc. I've used a LOT of DJ software. Serato, Torq, MP3 Tunes V2, and many, many, many others. It took me a while to get used to the concepts of Fusion and get away from the deck a/deck b mentality. Once I did, I liked the flexibility.

I have a DJ business. You can check out my website at http://www.adjandmore.com. I'm one of the highest priced DJ's on the Gulf Coast, and I simply CANNOT have a failure during an event. Sure, I bring backup but I want my equipment to work - period.

While I use a variety of software to achieve the results - MixMeister Fusion has become one of my favorite tools in my arsenal. It allows me to set up the music for dinner, make my rounds to prepare for the upcoming festivities and make notifications without having to worry about anything.

However, layering VST's, rewiring, and some of the other more advanced feature sets are not available for Fusion. I'm still struggling with getting the mapping for my midi controllers right. It's great and all as long as the feature sets fit within your needs.

In short, if I have only one chance to get it right and I'm being paid well over 4 figures to insure it's right - I surely wouldn't use tools that I couldn't rely upon.

DISCLAIMER: I still heavily use Torq. I am a moderator for the Torq forums and M-Audio forums. I am NOT an M-Audio employee, just someone who uses their products and loves the creativity and flexibility they afford me. However, Torq will NOT allow me the ability to auto mix and create longer sets. Because of this I need TWO tools in my arsenal... Torq and MixMeister Fusion.

WOW

Hey there MusicMeister

I am also in Pensacola FL

Pretty small world