How can I avoid getting 'bogged down' with organising my music?
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- This topic has 11 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 2 months ago by
Alex Moschopoulos.
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January 14, 2015 at 9:38 am #2121061
Terry_42
KeymasterWorkflow is key:
Preparation: I have iTunes playlists as follows:
– High Energy Heavy Rotation
– High Energy mid rotation
– High Energy junk (titles go here before going to junk)
– Same for mid and low energy
– Junk
– Party crashers
– Plan B
– Wedding Stuff
– Odd Stuff you need to haveNow the workflow:
– Buy tunes
– Put into MixedInKey
– Put into PlatinumNotes
– Check in iTunes if all comments are OK
– Put into a playlist and be done with ittwice a year I do a maintenance day, to sort out tunes I no longer like.
I limit myself to not get more than 10 tunes per months, but get at least 2 tunes per month.
I limit my heave rotation playlist to 100 songs, if I go past that, one has to go.January 14, 2015 at 9:58 am #2121181Phil Morse
KeymasterbeaTunes is worth a look, it’s software that helps you manually sort out your collection “once and for all”. That, and just throwing away stuff you’ll never DJ with.
January 15, 2015 at 4:56 am #2122131DJ Nostalgia
ParticipantThanks to both Terry_42 & Phil Morse –
Terry_42 – My issue is less about organising the music in Playlists, etc. but more about ‘weeding out’ the dud & missing files. When I first ‘came back’ to DJ’ing I tried both MIK & PN – the latter COMPLETELY DESTROYED my music collection & made it unusable with Serato DJ (my chosen software – but that’s another story altogether!). Thanks for the Workflow though, I will implement the bits that seem helpful to the way I work – I’m not really a club/Genre DJ, more of a mobile, private-hire kinda guy so my Playlists tend to be in decades, plus special occasions such as Christmas/NYE & general party hits. As time goes on I’m sure I will find other ways of defining Playlists though. Question: What is in your ‘Plan B’ Playlist – I’m guessing we’re not talking about the artist/rapper! Just want to clarify the penultimate bullet-point in your Workflow list too – ‘Check in iTunes if all comments are OK’. By ‘comments’ do you mean the ‘Comments’ field in iTunes? I have noticed quite a few in my iTunes have a nonsensical, alpha-numeric string of text, along the lines of ‘00000000 00000210 00000714 00000000008E85DC 00000000 00812D64 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000‘! Where I spot this I have just deleted it.
Phil – Thanks for the tip. I will look up beaTunes. I take your point about throwing away stuff ‘you will never DJ with’ but, as a mobile DJ, I pride myself on being able to cater for music tastes from the 1920s to the present day chart so am pretty loathe to discard anything ‘just in case’.
January 15, 2015 at 9:53 pm #2122711Kevin Dahlberg
ParticipantI don’t “throw away” tracks I don’t used, I “put them in storage.” I have a 2 TB hard drive that will never be filled, so they just go into a folder. The great part about that, is that when the guy comes up at a wedding asking for a random song, I can find it.
Organizing music sucks. Big time. I’ve spent the last year going through thousands of songs. The way I did it was set aside a half hour a day for it. Yeah it took awhile, but it was way better than spending “a day for every hour practicing.”
January 16, 2015 at 5:14 pm #2123271Tonecraft
ParticipantGood idea, even I’m going to spend only half an hour a day for this from now. At least I can concentrate better on my DJing than getting into organizing music.
January 16, 2015 at 7:22 pm #2123321DJ Vintage
ModeratorHey Tone, if you say “concentrate on DJ-ing, I am assuming that you mean practicing skills. If you read Terry_42s article on the blog about the single skill that makes a “real” (note the quotes guys!) DJ, you know that music, having the right collection, the right tracks to pick from while DJ-ing is as important (if not more so) than whether your FX transitions are spot on or you can keep a 2-minute beatmatch going manually.
Just a thing to consider, imho.
January 17, 2015 at 2:05 pm #2123611ParticipantDJ Vintage –
Good point. Whilst other skills can enhance your performance as a DJ, reacting to the crowd & keeping them on the dance floor is paramount.
January 17, 2015 at 4:58 pm #2123681ParticipantBy “concentrate on my DJing” I meant pretty much everything from mixing to effects to track selection.
As for choosing the right tunes: I have only 1GB of music. Yep, that’s right only 1GB, because I cannot afford to keep buying tunes and then sorting them. I only buy a track if I’m absolutely 100% in love with it. Thats why my music collection isn’t big but I’m proud of it and it has only the best music.
Concentrating on DJing includes finding which tracks go well together too..
January 17, 2015 at 7:41 pm #2123741Moderator10MB for one track = about 100 tracks in 1 GB. If they are all as good as they are (for you), that is about 5 hours worth. So, a 2 1/2 hour gig should be about your maximum.
January 18, 2015 at 8:17 am #2123781ParticipantI haven’t played anywhere longer than an hour, and I have only played about 5 gigs. I don’t take requests because I don’t have a vast enough collection to keep up with it. Most requests come for Martin Garrix and Hardwell only so yeah..
But I’m always on the hunt for new music. Sometimes I ask an artists directly if he can give me a single for free, then I’ll maybe remix it for him or play it in my sets.. which works pretty good too.
LOL We’ve gone off-topic here 🙂
January 26, 2015 at 10:22 pm #2130361ParticipantI usually organize my music two times:
Once is just for storage, with some more “generalized” genre. I don’t use anything other than simple folders. From there, I burn said music on DVDs.
The second time is more for when I want to play out or make a new mix. I don’t put my entire collection on my hard drive, but pack a folder much like I’d pack a record box back in the day. You don’t need thousands of songs for a gig unless you’re doing a 8-10 marathon set, or you’re playing mobile events where you take requests.
I only keep on hand the music I will play. Stuff I barely touch I leave on the DVDs.
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