How exactly to you go about syncing from the DJM-800 to Ableton Live? I got the midi cable connected and everything, Selected the correct MIDI device (Mixer midi cable going into Firewire Saffire Sound Card), set it to Sync? When I did all that my TAP and TEMPO boxes in Ableton went Grey, and it seemed like whatever the BPM on the Mixer showed up in Ableton.

But it didn't really seem to sync up. If I played a straight up Progressive Track on my CDJ-200, and then tried to launch a clip in Ableton, they would never sync up, never got the same tempo, it was all over the place! I was expecting to be able to play a track from a Cd Player, and then overlay beats on top, no problem...

Am I doing something wrong?

it will send a clock signal but that doesn't mean that the timing will be correct.

you can set quantize in ableton, but in the case of syncing clips to an external source, you need to trigger the clips at the right moment, then use the nudge buttons in the clip view to align (kinda like a push or a pull if you set the quantize to none in ableton).

its not automatic. it still takes practice and timing and the ability to layer your clips over external sound. Its not easy, but practice.

its a lot easier to sync external gear into live than the other way around.

rob.

Ah...
So its not automatic... It looks like your better off just assinging a knob on the 800 to control Live's tempo, and just do it that way?

Do u need to use the Midi Start to use the mixer w/ Live? What I found is if I try to launch a clip with them synced, the clip would never launch at the right spot, there was liek a pause.

right. and depending on which knob you assigned for tempo, you would then (with MIDI assignment engaged in Live) you can switch to arrangement view and set a range for your BPM for that knob. The smaller the range, the more resolution the knob provides. If you stay within a particular range during your mix, (like I do - between 120 and 140, usually) you should do that so it provides you more control when speeding up or backing off a clip to match an external source.

You can use the nudge buttons in clip view as well (you are using Live 5, right?)

I did a pretty detailed set up thread here as well. Check it out, it might help:
http://www.pioneerprodjforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Mixers&Number=141342&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

it does not, however, address syncing with external, non-midi clock driven sources like vinyl or CDs. that takes practice.

One thing you can do, if you want to make it more simple, is warp tracks in Live, calibrate them to a particular BPM, bounce them to disk (preferrably all to the same BPM), then burn them onto CD. Then you when are able to play them back in Live, set Live to the same BPM as what you warped and burned your tracks to, and then when you want to sync, its just a matter of triggering the clips at the right moment. Everything should then stay in sync. Just a little trick for megamixing too if you want to only use CDJs.

rob.

Yah I saw your other post on the setup. It definately got me started. I think I'm going to set it up however so its basically in Ableton Decks 1~3 linked to Channels 1~3 on the mixer, then have 1 send to Channel 4 on the mixer. That send will pust the audio from 4 to 8 or whatever other tracks from Ableton in which I'd use for just samples, overlay beats, etc... etc...

I actually burn all my tracks that I warp, but do them before the WARP process, just incase my computer Dies I can still spin w/ cd's. But thanks for the tips... I guess I just gotta practice =)