Definitely read the manual, particularly sections on Concepts, Session View, Arrangement View, Clip View, and Tempo Control and Warping. And here are some tutorial’s I found with a quick look around:

• Video: DJ’ing in Live Part 1
• How to DJ with Ableton Live

They’re both pretty basic, so have a look, try some stuff out, and then dive into Ableton’s own tutorials. The things you’ll need to get a handle on are:

• warping
• crossfade
• zooming / moving around in the clips and the arrangement.
• adding effects
• moving between clips in session and arrangement views
• recording

(this is part of a my upcoming tutorial on KJ’ing in Ableton)

One of my visions is to see somebody DJ a karaoke night off turntables, mixing and scratching with synced video. It’s possible, I looked it up! The simplest way is with Serato Scratch and a $1500 Rane mixer. Ouch. But some clubs have these, so if I ever get a karaoke night at a clubby club… hmm…

Then there’s a $100 solution that doesn’t require any special hardware… Ms. Pinky / Max MSP.

Then there’s the free software / linux route: xwax. Which you can also use with Puredata using this thing. I fully expect to be in the company of tons of linux VJ nerds when I get to brazil. Maybe they can help me set it up. Woo!

xwax

Seriously, first purchase.

Here’s why:

1. More crap to carry around.
2. Sometimes you won’t have it on you.
3. You need a power supply or two USB ports and a special cable.
4. Which you’ll leave at home, or lose (or live in constant fear of this).
5. One more thing to set up / break down.
6. One more thing to accidentally unplug during your set.

$120 gets you a 500GB internal drive. You won’t have to lug an external to your set, and if you have an older laptop, your computer will just run faster.

On all Macbooks and the new (silver & black) Macbook Pro’s the hard drive is user-serviceable and it’s super easy to switch it out. If you’re nervous any mildly computer savvy friend could help.

On the old Macbook Pro you have to buy a special screwdriver and take apart your computer, but it’s not too hard. I followed this guide and it worked great: Upgrade Your MacBook Pro’s Hard Drive.

On Macs just use your external HDD and Time Machine to backup your stuff and move it over, just like you’d do with a new computer (you’ll need the DVD that came with your Mac too). It’s super easy.

After years of constantly having like 1GB free on my laptop, I finally did it, and it totally changed how I use my computer.

1. I never think twice about downloading something.
2. I’m not always needing to delete stuff.
3. I have all my music and karaoke stuff on me all the time.
4. Set up and break down is that much simpler.
5. Got a free USB port (I only have two).
6. I use my old external drive for Time Machine so I’ll never lose more than a few days of data ever again! When I think of all the awesome stuff I’ve lost from hard drive crashes, lost DVD backups, and stolen laptops it’s boggling.

So yeah, if you have $120, just get a big ass hard drive.