Match BPM Between Itunes & Traktor

Well, iTunes does not calculate BPM. So you either have that done when analysing tracks in Traktor (automatically for all tracks added), or you chose to use external software like Mixed in Key.

As for double/half, if this happens a lot, you really have to set your BPM range to include your most used BPMs.

I chose to have my own folder where I keep my tracks, so I told iTunes to NOT make a copy or move the track to it’s own default storage location, but look for the tracks in the location I want. I sync my own folder with my NAS (Network Drive) where I keep the backup.

Depending on the software you either have to add your tracks to your collection and then analyze them or you can analyze them right from the iTunes folder. As long as you keep your files in the same place (i.e. the iTunes location or your own default location) it will work.

What I do is pick the playlists in the iTunes browser, add those to my collection and then analyze everything. Done.
You can, if you like, just empty out your entire collection after a gig, so next time you start you only have the tracks for your next gig in there. Or you can just delete the playlists you added and keep the tracks or you can keep everything. That is more a matter of workflow than technology and features, imho.

Hope that helps some.

Welcome to the wonderful world of digital DJ-ing. BPM, like key and beat grid isn’t exact science. Traktor is notoriously bad at beat gridding anything that isn’t neat and tidy EDM-ish music. Some other software, notably Serato and Mixvibes Cross are at the other end of the spectrum and get even “hand-drummed” tracks right a lot of the time. And while the chance of getting the beat grid wrong is bigger than the chance of getting the bpm wrong, there is often some correlation.

Since we are advocates of very slim DJ collections (500-600 tracks for Phil, between 1.000-1.200 for me for example) and also of being extremely picky about new tracks entering your collection, it is unusual for me to add more than 5-10 tracks a month. And with that minimal amount of tracks, it’s not a very big deal to manual check them all for bpm and beat grid (and key if you like).

At the end of the day there is no software that gets all of those things right all of the time. So no matter which way you go, you will always have to spend the time checking and where necessary correcting things. It CAN pay to do some tests with other software to see if the results there are better. If they are, this might be enough reason for you to switch. Be careful though, if you switch, you me lose your cue/loop info and such and thus replace one time-consuming task with another.

I used to feel lots of frustration like you years ago when I was tossing tracks in my collection by the boatload, but no longer do I feel that way. I now consider the attention I give to those 5-10 new tracks each month as valuable and a great way to get to know the tunes intimately.

iTunes: I am not sure I will get all the exact terms right (I am using a Dutch version and doing on the fly translation), but this should help you find the right settings:

btw: Best is to start with a clean iTunes database to try this, so you can always go back to the old one should you need to.

Click Edit
Pick Preferences from the drop-down menu
Click Advanced tab
You should see a relatively big text field titled “location iTunes Media”
Type the path to the root of your music folder here (d:\Music or C:\User\Tracks or wherever you want iTunes to look for your tracks)
Under the text box is a check box with “update iTunes Media folder” (or something similar). When checked iTunes will toss each music file in folders for albums and artists and give them a name based on things like disc #, track # and title. This is not what you want, so uncheck this one.
The next check box is “copy files to iTunes Media when adding to library”. This is also unwanted behavior, you want iTunes to leave your tracks where they are when you put your tracks in. So uncheck this one too.

As far as settings for files this should do it I think.

It’s what we are here for 😀