Блоги: заметки с тегом DJing

Ask Me Anything 002

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:45:48 +0500

Discovering New Music, Gig Pricing, Beatport Improvement Ideas, and My Top Productivity Tip

The second instalment of the AMA series is here! In this episode, I answer the following four questions:

	Whenever I look at your tracklists, I’m always amazed at how many new artists I discover thanks to your show, and it makes me wonder how you discover all those names and tracks in the first place. What does your process of finding new music look like?
	I am a beginner DJ and I want to ask how much I should charge for my set to make it fair.
	If you were given the opportunity to make any changes Beatport, what would you change? (You can make several). What from this list is already in the backlog?
	What would be your number one tip for someone who wants to become more productive?

Preview:

Daniel Sokolovskiy – Ask Me Anything 002 (Preview)

My entire DJ collection: I’m sharing all of my 84 playlists!

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 17:53:31 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Back in 2019, I published an article ‘How I prepare my DJ playlists’ (which now has over 21K views), providing behind-the-scenes into the structure of my DJ collection. Since then, my collection has evolved, as it’s an ever-changing process that reflects my DJ needs.

And today, I’m sharing my entire DJ collection with my Patreon subscribers. This is something that sane DJs probably would never do!

So, here’s the thing. I have my DJ collection with over 7000 tracks on iTunes (‘Music’ app on macOS), which I use as the main hub for all my music. To keep all of the music sorted and to find tracks during my DJ sets easily, I keep all those tracks in over 80 playlists, neatly organised by energy levels and mood. This collection and the playlists are mirrored in Rekordbox, which is the main DJ software that I use to export music to USB sticks which I then plug into the DJ decks on my gigs.

I also have that music collection and playlists mirrored on Spotify, and this is what I am sharing with my Patreon subscribers. While I can’t share the physical audio files from my music library for copyright reasons, even Spotify playlists are a pretty big deal.

First of all, that’s a lot of great music. A lot. Secondly and most importantly, this is my real DJ collection that I am actively using and keeping up to date – so it’s a great material for learning and inspiration to see how I organise my playlists, a real behind-the-scenes peek into the mind of a DJ. I’ve also recorded a video walkthrough to provide more explanation of my playlists.

If it sounds interesting to you and want to get access to it, consider joining me on Patreon (and have many more goodies besides this DJ collection): patreon.com/daniellesden

Unveiling the true purpose of a DJ

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:11:40 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

What exactly does a DJ do? What’s the main objective, and what tools are employed to achieve that goal?

There’s a common belief that a DJ’s primary task is merely to play music. But in reality, a computer can execute that task by streaming tracks in succession, compiling a lengthy playlist.

Conversely, some assert that a DJ’s essential role is to blend tracks seamlessly in a continuous mix. Yet, this, too, can be accomplished through pre-made mixes, leading to the misconception that a DJ’s skill hinges solely on their ability to mix tracks manually. This often leads to unwarranted debates, like comparing a DJ who uses vinyl records to one using a controller, which, frankly, holds no merit.

In essence, playing music and mixing tracks serve as tools, not the ultimate purpose. Surprisingly, mixing tracks is considered one of the simpler skills in DJing.

So, what is a DJ’s primary task?

The core purpose of a DJ is to create a proper vibe on the dance floor, making sure the crowd is having a good time. The definition of “good” varies based on the event’s nature, of course. It might involve providing a fresh musical experience or eliciting nostalgia through familiar tracks. Sometimes, it’s about setting a soft backdrop. But at its core, it’s about ensuring the audience feels good.

An adept DJ tunes into their audience, intuitively selecting the right tracks to suit the moment. It’s about gauging the energy levels—whether to play a chart-topper that ignites the crowd or introduce something novel to elevate the mood.

When viewed from this perspective, endless debates about equipment and sound effects become trivial. However, does this mean a DJ should cater solely to the crowd’s whims? What about personal enjoyment?

Ideally, a DJ’s music aligns with the event and the crowd’s preferences, offering both freedom and a chance to build a fan base. But it’s important to recognize that these perfect circumstances may not occur every time, especially for new DJs.

In essence, if making people feel good on the dance floor is the main goal, then the primary tool is simple: playing the right track at the right time. Achieving this requires understanding the event’s expectations, cultivating musical taste, maintaining a diverse music collection, mastering set construction, and the nuanced skill of reading the crowd. It’s a lot more than merely ‘playing music’.

Extreme tempo change

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 15:54:32 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

I usually try and recommend playing tracks more or less close to their original tempo, not to speed up or slow down the tempo by 20 beats per minute, as some DJs do.

But Dax J is the only one who does such extreme tempo changes in an awesome way! Check out how he played the track in Boiler Room and how the same track originally sounds.

Dax is great, there’s a lot to learn.

3 tips for opening DJs

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:01:50 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

The opening DJ is one of the most underrated roles in the club event format. But who are these “opening” DJs? What they should be doing and what things they must avoid?

Watch the video about it on my YouTube channel:

P.S. This is the video version of my advice written in 2016. If you prefer text over video, read the article: the details are slightly different, but the main message is the same.

Cleaned up my DJ collection

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 12:21:13 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

I made a big thing: I cleaned up my music collection, reducing the number of tracks from 11084 to 7559. Minus three and a half thousand tracks and about two hundred gigabytes. Some tracks I moved to some remote storage, and some tracks I deleted completely. This is the most ruthless music cleanup I’ve ever done.

The point is simple: to have in my media library only those tracks that I can and want to potentially play at gigs or at least on a podcast. All the tracks that I haven’t played once in years (and some I haven’t even really listened to) or that stopped resonating with me have gone down the drain. It seems logical that this is the only way it should be, but when you have been actively searching for new music everyday for over a decade, then as time passes, you inevitably end up with some morally outdated and non-working tracks in your collection.

The whole process took me almost two months. Phew!

How to record a DJ set with crowd noise

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Fri, 08 Jul 2022 14:26:58 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Recording one of my DJ sets on that tiny little box. Photo © Schneider Family

I try to record my sets during my shows to listen to them later. It’s also great content that’s nice to share.

But I especially like it when the music is supported by the crowd cheering from the dancefloor: it gives a much better sense that it’s actually a real live recording and not just another studio mix.

Here is how I do it.

The recorder

Just recording a set is usually not a problem: some models of DJ equipment have this feature built-in, and if you play with software like Rekordbox or Traktor, it is even a matter of pressing a button. However, to record a set with crowd noise, you’ll need a special device – an external recorder.

Tascam DR-40X recorder, Joby GorillaPod and 2×RCA-2×Jack cable

I use the Tascam DR-40X. It’s a four-channel recorder, in other words with two pairs of stereo channels: one pair of channels records clean audio directly from the DJ mixer through the line input, and the second pair records the dance floor sounds through the built-in microphones.

The recorder uses an SD card as the media. I bought a SanDisk Ultra with 80MB/s and 16GB capacity, and it’s enough to record about ten hours of audio. It powers from AA batteries, as well as via micro-USB. There is a 1/4” screw jack on the bottom, so you can put the recorder on a tripod.

Connectivity

The recorder is connected to the mixer this way: from the mixer via Rec Out or Master 2 using RCA connectors to the recorder via Line In using XLR or 1/4-inch jack connectors. A cable like this would work, for example.

Schematic connection of the recorder to the mixer, scale is approximate

The main difference between the Rec Out and Master 2 outputs is that Rec Out ignores volume changes on the mixer’s master channel. It means that if you change the master volume during the set (I usually do not advise doing so, but sometimes you need to), it will not affect the recording in any way: the audio will remain even, without volume dips. Therefore, if possible, it is better to use Rec Out.

Settings

This recorder has a hundred different settings, but in this context, only three are important: the selection of an external source, the type of recording mode, and the volume level adjustment.

The external source is switched on the side using the slider: Ext In → Line. This way the recorder will know that the incoming signal is line level (and the output from the DJ mixer is exactly that), so no distortion will occur.

The recording mode is selected by a dedicated button of the same name: Rec Mode → 4CH. In our case, we need to use all four channels, as I explained above, so we select 4CH. The corresponding indicator to the left should light up.

The volume level is adjusted in the main menu: Menu → Rec Settings → Level: -48dB. This means that the incoming signal will be recorded very quietly, but this is not a problem since we can increase the volume afterwards during processing. This way it is guaranteed that there will be no clipping and the recording will be clean.

Obviously, if you have a different recorder, these settings may be somewhere else, have some other name or not be present at all. But you need all three for quality set recording, which is why I chose the Tascam DR-40X.

Processing

After the recording, there will be two audio files on the SD card: a clean recording from the mixer and a recording of the dancefloor from the microphone.

It’s worth understanding that the microphone can’t record people’s screaming only; instead, it records everything, including music from the dancefloor, usually with overloaded low frequencies. So don’t be surprised if you hear a muffled “boomy” audio in this file, it’s okay.

Then it’s just a matter of increasing the volume of the mixer recording (since we recorded it at -48dB), lowering the volume of the microphone recording, removing unnecessary low frequencies with a filter, and stacking the two audio tracks. All this I do in Ableton Live.

Processing and mixing in Ableton Live

Here’s how these audio tracks sound individually and together:

Clean audio from the mixer

Audio from the mics

Audio from the mix with a high-pass filter

Both audio tracks together

Well, and that’s about it. From there just hit export and upload it to Soundcloud to make your fans happy :-)

What I need for a DJ set

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 23:51:01 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

What I really need for a DJ set: one USB stick.

What I carry with me in my backpack:

My standard basic package. There are any snacks yet (I didn’t have time to buy them): usually I take some chocolate bars and bananas. For long journeys, I also add clothes.

P.S. See also my old advice on “What’s in your DJ bag”.

“What are you going to play?”

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 01:00:00 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

When I announce a new show, people sometimes ask me in the comments or private messages: “What are you going to play?” It’s an understandable question, considering the musical diversity of my DJ sets, mixes and podcasts, with tempos ranging from 120 to 150 BPM!

The short answer is — I don’t know :-)

I don’t plan exactly which tracks and in what order I play, and I usually go with the flow instead. I’ve talked a little bit about this before, for example, in the post “How I organize my DJ playlists”.

That said, I have a sort of “wishlist” – a playlist where I throw in tracks I’d like to play at an upcoming event. It could be some hidden gems I recently dug in the depths of Beatport, or some hot promos I’ve recently received and am now eager to give them a road test, or just some cool old tracks that seem appropriate to play at this particular event.

Typically, there are many more tracks on that wishlist than I need for a set. For example, I can put a hundred tracks on a playlist, even though I only need about thirty tracks for a two-hour set. There were times when I played almost the entire set from my wishlist. And sometimes I played almost nothing from it, and that’s okay.

The key here is that it’s not a plan but rather something like “it would be nice to drop some of these tracks”. Just my own feeling and educated guess, given the lineup, place, and time.

Ready check

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 14:43:42 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

At Skazka Festival two hours prior to the doors opening. Photo: Schneider Family

No matter when my set time is, at 1 or 4 AM, I always try to arrive at the venue prior to the doors opening, especially if it’s the first time.

Is all the equipment functioning properly? Is the volume of the DJ monitors controlled by the Booth Monitor knob? Does it have sufficient overall volume, or should I ask the sound engineer to turn it up? How does the acoustics sound in this room? Won’t that spotlight over there hit my eyes?

Does LINK work? Is the USB port for the USB stick broken, or should I play from my SD card today? Is this the right deck model for me, or is it better to get a controller out of the backpack? Is there room on the table for a laptop, and if it isn’t enough, how can I move everything to make other artists feel comfortable too? Where should I put the recorder?

Are sound guy and stage manager here? What do they look like, and where to find them in the middle of the night if necessary?

What’s the audience like tonight and what’s they up to? What tracks do other DJs play? How do people react to them?

And it is only a tiny part of the technical and organisational questions. Of course, you can’t think of everything, but if you know at least these moments in advance and not five minutes before your set in the middle of the night, chances for a successful performance slightly increase.

How I prepare my DJ playlists

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Sun, 19 May 2019 13:29:13 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Organising playlists by energy levels, vibe, and flow

It would be interesting to know how you prepare your DJ sets, how you decide which track will be mixed well with the previous one, how on stage you choose such tracks that were not included in your planned tracklist, etc.

Vlad Zabolotsky

How to organize your music collection in order to quickly pick the right track at the right moment out of tons of material?

Dj Nerva

Preparing for the performance includes a lot of things: negotiating with the promoter, visiting the venue (when possible), agreeing on a technical and domestic rider, researching the lineup and communicating with other artists, thinking through and launching an advertising campaign, recording a video invitation or a promo mix, working on social media and much more. Maybe someday I’ll tell you about it, but today is all about the “creative” part, the music.

I don’t think of DJ as a creative profession, hence this word is quoted. I’ll write my thoughts on this later

Vlad, to answer the question of how I decide which track will be mixed well with the previous one, I have to explain the structure of my DJ collection first. A similar question was sent by Dj Nerva, so I will combine them into one.

Rekordbox and playlists

DJs play on various media, apps, and gear: laptops, disks, flash drives, vinyl, smartphones; on Pioneers, in Ableton, Traktor, Serato, and many more options. Speaking of myself, I use three things: Recordbox, USB sticks, and Pioneer media players.

On audio formats support

Here is how it works. First, I add music to Rekordbox on my laptop. Then I carefully tag the tracks so that they are automatically distributed among the ‘intelligent’ playlists, and sync these playlists to the USB sticks. Then in the DJ booth, I connect my USB sticks to the Pioneer players, and inside I see all the playlists exactly as I structured them on my laptop back home. And this is the key moment because thanks to these playlists I can easily find that very track I want to play next within a few seconds.

Now I’ll tell you about the key playlists that make up the structure of my collection.

Energy levels

First of all, after adding tracks to Recordbox, I assign them the energy level. This is the main criterion. The most important thing here is that the level of energy is how I feel the tracks and not a formal thing like the tempo or anything like that.

How DJs usually do

Here I want to make a little detour and tell how DJs usually do. Most DJs pre-select the required amount of tracks in advance and arrange them in the order in which they plan to play. So that is complete predestination. Of course, such pre-planned sets can sound great at home, but they might be completely inappropriate on the dancefloor.

It may seem that only newcomer DJs do this, but no: even those who have been performing for more than a decade are doing this, so it’s really common. Some DJs even record the whole mixes in advance and during the performance they basically fake, but this is just so wrong so I won’t even discuss it.

More proficient DJs don’t prepare sets in advance in such a way but select tracks right during the set looking at the crowd in front of them. Most often, they use tempo as a plain simple criterion for choosing the next track.

So it turns out about the following. Let’s assume the following track is playing on the dancefloor:

Dylhen, Paul Thomas — Diablo (Original Mix) 122 BPM, Em

A DJ thinks: “Aha, 122 BPM. The dancefloor is going on well, everything is fine, let’s not slow down the pace.” He is looking for the next track in his digital library of hundreds of tracks, scrolling and scrolling that rotary knob, and he finds this — a track in the same key and even two BPM faster:

R3cycle, Roy Lebens — Babylon (Rise & Fall Remix) 124 BPM, Em

Obviously, the energy on the dancefloor went down; people going out. Lowering the energy during a set down is fine if you know why you are doing this. But if the DJ from the example above wanted to keep the driving vibe, then this is a failure.

Or here’s the opposite example. Suppose a DJ is playing such melodic progressive:

Tim Penner — Oceans Between (Original Mix) 125 BPM, Gm

He does not want to speed up the tempo, so he finds the track in the same key and even one BPM lower, and in addition also from the same record label:

Aaron Cullen, Tommy Conway — Glack (Original Mix) 124 BPM, Gm

Do you get it?

It is clear that the energy is partially correlated with the genre, and as a result — with the tempo. However the relationship of energy level and the tempo is not always that obvious, and it is not always predictably linear.

This is why relying simply on the tempo of the tracks and thus mechanically selecting the next track for mixing is clearly not worth it, and hence I organise my tracks by the energy levels instead.

So, now going back to the energy levels I use in my Rekordbox. In total, I make five levels:

★	Opening
★★	Build-up
★★★	Driving
★★★★	Peak-time
★★★★★	Banging

Experienced guys might have noticed that these names resemble a type or time slot of a DJ set: opening, warming, “peak-time” and so on. Indeed, speaking of the energy level, I immediately think about the scenarios for using a particular track. In other words, I ask myself: “At what point of the event would it be appropriate to play that particular track?”.

For example, I can easily put a driving track in the middle of a warming-up set if I realise that I need to cheer up the dance floor a bit, or vice versa – put a warming-up track in the middle of the night, if I decide to give the crowd a little rest.

energy level is how I feel the track

Update from February 2024

I’m now sharing my entire DJ collection and all of its 80+ live-updating playlists as one of the exclusive benefits for my Patreon subscribers. It’s a great material for learning and inspiration to see how I organise my playlists, a real behind-the-scenes peek into the mind of a DJ. If it sounds interesting to you and want to get access to it, consider joining me on Patreon (and have many more goodies besides this DJ collection). For more details, visit dsokolovskiy.com/patreon.

Inside the energy level playlist, I make four more sub-playlists nested according to what I call vibe and the flow:

Dark Hands-up

Dark Heads-down

Melodic Hands-up

Melodic Heads-down

And here the most interesting part begins.

The vibe

“Dark” and “melodic” are more or less intuitive terms, although the names are very nominal. This is the emotional ‘colour’, the mood of the track.

First, a couple of obvious examples. Here is the “melodic” — think of rainbow, butterflies, flower meadow:

Ivan Nikusev, Platunoff — Aura (Original Mix) 121 BPM, Cm

And here’s the “dark” — twilight, anxiety, hypnotism:

Don Argento, Paul Angelo — Final Sentiment (Alfonso Muchacho Remix) 122 BPM, Cm

Please note that these tracks even have the same key, but how different their mood is.

But there is also a less perceptible difference. This is especially true for Techno, where a pronounced musical part is not always present.

Listen to this:

Section One — Arcadia (Roby M Rage Remix) 132 BPM, Gm

Is it “dark” or “melodic”? Someone can say, “what are you talking about, there are just a kick, bass, and hi-hats, how can you understand anything?”. For me, the answer is clear: if while listening to the track I’m smiling like an idiot, then this is “melodic”.

Now listen to this track. I specifically chose a similar style and even the same artist to shift the focus of attention only to the vibe:

K-Hate, Roby M Rage — Floating (Original Mix) 130 BPM, Am

To me, this track is colder and more aggressive, hence clearly “dark”. And if you think there’s not much of a difference when listening at home, there is a huge difference on the dancefloor.

The flow

“Hands-up” and “heads-down” are pretty unique entities, and I didn’t see anyone using these terms for their music libraries.

To me, this is all about the structure of the tracks: build-ups, breakdowns, pitch-rising effects, big drops, climax etc. In other words, how the tracks flow.

If the track goes smoothly, and you can just dance and keep dancing without being distracted by the breaks and big drops every minute or so, then this is the “heads-down”. In a sense, we can say that the heads-down tracks are more monotonous. This is not very accurate, but sufficient for a general understanding.

What is Progressive

If there are constantly some breaks, new leads, intense breakdowns and all those big things where people literally put their hands up, literally, then it’s “hands-up”.

Below are a few examples:

Filterheadz — Synergy (Sisko Electrofanatik Remix) 128 BPM, Fm

Pay attention to the breakdown in the middle and drop at 1:30. This is “hands-up”.

Another example:

Proff — What It Feels Like (Original Mix) 127 BPM, Dm

You probably realised by now that this is “hands-up” too.

From the two examples above it may seem that the hands-up is always something melodic and cheesy. But for the vibe, we have another criterion, and here we are talking only about the structure. Just both of these tracks are “melodic hands-up.”

Here is another “hands-up”, but this time it’s “dark”:

Dylhen — The Upside Down (Extended Mix) 124 BPM, Fm

And now let’s take a listen to “heads-down”, for contrast:

Chris Sterio — Zen (Matter Remix) 121 BPM, Fm

Can you feel how much smoother this track is?

If it seems to you that heads-down is necessarily something slow and deep, here’s a driving Psytrance example:

Sonic Species — Smashing The Veil (Original Mix) 142 BPM, A#m

Note how this track just is going and going without interruption, you can close your eyes and just dance without the breakdowns.

Speaking of breakdowns, listen to this track:

Union Jack — Cactus (Jonno Brien Remix) 125 BPM, F#m

Here the breakdown is stretched for a minute and a half, but notice how smooth and even monotonous it is, again, if we compare it to breakdowns in the hands-up tracks.

Therefore, knowing the energy level, the vibe, and the flow of the track, I can fully control the direction of the set. And thanks to the playlists, I know exactly where the next track is. This classification of all the tracks and new arrivals in my media library is the main work on the preparation of my DJ sets.

My music library editorial standards

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:10:40 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

I have quite a large music library, and I care about keeping it nice and clean a lot. To do so, I use editorial standards — a set of few simple rules that help to make all titles accurate and informative.

Organizing music library

Today, I’d like to share some of these standards.

Words capitalising

I write all words with a capital letter. This way, all titles look cleaner, and it makes them easier to read on CDJ small screens:

No	Yes
A night in botanic gardens	A Night In Botanic Gardens
The Last of our Kind	The Last Of Our Kind
We come in peace	We Come In Peace

Artists with a comma

When the track has several artists, I used to split them with an ampersand. Then I realised that if there are three artists (and sometimes even more), then things start to get messy. So now I simply use commas instead and put artists in alphabetical order regardless of how “big” their name is:

No	Yes
Relativ & Yestermorrow	Relativ, Yestermorrow
Vini Vici & Avalon & Tristan	Avalon, Tristan, Vini Vici
John 00 Fleming ft. Sascha Cooper	John 00 Fleming, Sascha Cooper
Liquid Soul & Zyce feat. Solar Kid	Liquid Soul, Solar Kid, Zyce
Xerox & Illumination & Sandman	Sandman, Xerox & Illumination

Look how the right column is easier to read. The bottom row on the right in an exception because Xerox & Illumination is a project name as a whole.

Version is mandatory

After the track title, I always add its version, whether it’s an original mix, remix, bootleg, mashup, radio edit, extended mix, dub, vocal, etc. When I see another DJ playing before or after me has some track with the title “Rmx”, I can’t stand it:

No	Yes
Model Reality (Rmx)	Model Reality (Nerso Remix)
Scorchio (Bootleg)	Scorchio (Activa Bootleg)
Existence	Existence (Original Mix)
Indigo	Indigo (Dub Mix)
Freakuencies	Freakuencies (DL Edit)

Note the last row: DL Edit is my edit. It means that I cut the breakdown off, adjusted the structure to make it more DJ-friendly, or somehow edited the track to make it better fit the mix.

Reflecting on my CDs DJ past (glad that’s over!)

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 13:56:07 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Oh, check this out! This picture is intriguing—not just for my baby face or the Stanton CD players (Stanton!), but also for that folder filled with disks.

I remember having to manually “burn” each disk, creating covers for all of them: typing titles and tempos into a Photoshop template, printing, cutting, and carefully inserting them into the CD folder. It was quite a laborious task. Fortunately, the era of CDs in the DJ market didn’t last too long.

This photo dates back to September 2011, taken by Alexey Druzhinin. Huge thanks to him for capturing this moment!

What setup I use

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:00:00 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

This post originally appeared on my Facebook page. Watch also my 2017 Ableton setup (vlog)

People often asked me what setup I used in my recent gigs. Well, here is it.

So, I’m using 8-10 channels. First three audio channels – main tracks for mixing. Channel #4 I’m using for mashups (melodies, voice etc). On this channel – sidechain-compressor which use kick pattern from another midi-channel to prevent kick overlay. Channels #5-6 with some hats and percussion loops.

On each on these channels – EQ-Eight with Hi-Pass filter. Then few midi-channels with VSTs – I’m using it for live versions of my own tracks, playing some melodies or modulate synths in real-time. Then Send/Return channels with various effects such as Reverb and Redux.

So all these effects send to other channels via return, except several effects such Beat Repeat. So all of these things and many more such scene select, play, pitch control, filter and more I controlling in real-time using midi-controller.

p.s. So, who said “performing using laptop easier than CDs”?