Beatmatching the MPC into a vinyl DJ set

Hi all ---

Oddly enough my searching both on the internet and here haven't produced the answer to a pretty simple question I have:

Have any of you who are DJs tried to mix in some live rhythms and such with the MPC in your set? It's not really "turntablism" style that I do, I have traditionally just beatmatched techno , electro, house etc. in pretty long blended sets. I'd like to start doing live drum machine patterns within my DJ sets as a transition to making up a live set of my own, just mixing in and out of my own stuff on occasion (where the bulk of my set would still be records) .

I've seen this done with DJing on Ableton and a 707 (for example) and of course that's easy to sinc up with midi.

So what about manually adjusting the tempo with the MPC , cueing up to and from just an old school set of technics turntables. Easy? More difficult than beatmatching records together? About to try it out but wondering if anyone else does this.

Have any of you had better luck doing this by adjusting the tempo with the jog wheel or using a slider (i think you can set the whole master tempo to slider - newbie on the MPC!)

Is there a best way to set this up hardware-wise - do you need to make sure the venue has a DJ mixer with at least 3 channels ?

While on topic, if anyone has any favorite DJs or mixes that incorporate live drum programming, appreciate any recs!

Thanks!

adjust the tempo of the mpc so it's close to the record on the turntable. then make the fine adjustments on the turntable.

it was all the rage in the mid 90s to dj along with a drum machine. plastikman and jeff mills were doing it. actually, it's been a mainstay of djng since day one with the likes of frankie knuckles and ron hardy playing along with drum machines.

you could use a two channel mixer - but three would be much better - so you use two turntables.

I sometimes do it but it's a pain in the ass having to adjust the MPC tempo all the time to match the wax...
So you need this
http://www.redsound.com/products/soundbitemicro

It sends converts the tempo of the wax you are playing to MIDI clock and it does this pretty well..job done

Yes, I use my MPC along with my DJ kit. I just manually sync my mpc. A quick tap tempo then minor adjustments usually suffice, absolutely killer for adding in your own break beats.

thanks everyone ---- i'll give these suggestions a go

@ beach_break: are there any good live mixes (ie unedited, just recordings of live in the mix) of djs playing along with drum machines that you recommend? i know it was all the rage but i got into djing and watching djs in the 2000's .... its always been easy to find old school mixes to catch me up on what i missed firsthand but i haven't come across those that mix in drum machines.... like if i could hear examples of those ron hardy and frankie knuckles performances would be so great - where are they now?

greets ! =)

Jeff Mills is really the king of incorporating a 909 into his dj sets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKeVmmfeSPI

Of course since they are live, it's kind of hard to find good quality.

Richie Hawtin's old album "Decks, EFX + 909" is maybe what you are looking for. DEcks, fx units, + 909, get it? ;]

hi nogginj - re: decks efx 909 yes i get it i shouldn't pre-judge before listening to it but i had assumed that was edited after the fact, and really perfect and deliberate - i would like to find more raw, improvised, sloppy even, live dj sets -esp. the old school ones i read about. there's got to be someone on soundcloud who has shared mixes like this, i hope i discover his or her page!

i think the soundBITE micro is gonna be my next gadget thanks to this thread....!

Can't say I'm anything like Mills on a beat box but I do like to mess about with the MPC and decks some times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18EQRoc-wEw (Goes all MPC arround mid way then mixes out

And http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRJYRSvCZxk You can hear it drift a bit in and out of time here..always need to keep adjusting the tempo on the MPC

enjoyed the vids vinyl_junkie, thanks for sharing. looks like fun....

(ps - i think i heard a snippet of gil scott-heron's in the bottle --- nice!)

Most has been said, I would just say to use your ears and Tap Tempo is your friend.