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Newbie needs help sorting MP3s

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Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • September 1, 2015 at 12:50 pm #2247121
    DJ Chris Bush
    Participant

    I simply use iTunes to organize my tracks. Everything I do there is synced in my DJ software (Djay Pro).

    September 1, 2015 at 2:16 pm #2247181
    bob6397
    Participant

    I use iTunes to organise my tracks, I tag them with my version of genre, energy level etc. I then import them into my DJ software (Virtual DJ) and play… Easy!

    bob6397

    September 1, 2015 at 2:17 pm #2247191
    Dom James
    Participant

    Hi Robbie,

    Congrats on your SB, good choice!

    In terms of managing your entire music library, id strongly suggest going through and deciding what you’re actually going to play, from my 5k tracks/90gb library for general listening to on my laptop for djing i have about 500 tunes, i play predominately across 6/7 different genres, and then x amount of subgenres.

    My Personal Set up in Serato is a crate for each genre, i then add any notable sub-genres, say for example Drum & Bass > Jump Up, and then once in there i comment on all my tracks and have my own rating system which works quite well for me.

    For the purpose of you practising id stick to one genre, find 30 tracks of that genre or similar, searching through masses of tracks to find something else to play quickly gets tedious, stream line it, you’re not going to play S Club 7 that wangled its way into your library are you? Get started on them, learn the tracks and their phrases and go from them, if youre wanting to go down the digital route aswell, its quite essential to make sure all your beatgrids are set correct, it means things like the loop function work a hell of a lot cleaner for you and youll skip a lot of frustation while youre playing!

    September 1, 2015 at 2:17 pm #2247201
    Ian Hollinshead
    Participant

    This reply has been reported for inappropriate content.

    You can set up folders by genre, for example Deep house, House, Funk etc.

    You can name folders in whatever way suits you – when I started I named them House Major (for up beat tracks), House Minor (for downbeat tracks) and so on.

    On Serato there is an option for ‘Smart Crates’ which allows you to file by BPM, Key, Comment and may other options.

    When starting out its probably best to go by genre though, you will figure out what way suits you from there.

    September 1, 2015 at 5:45 pm #2247391
    DJ Nostalgia
    Participant

    In my opinion, how you organise your music ‘crates’ comes down to what ‘type’ of DJ you are/want to be, e.g. if you are a ‘genre’ DJ, then the obvious way to have your music sorted is by (sub)genre. If, on the other hand, you are a mobile DJ like myself then I have my crates organised by decade, with a few ‘custom’ crates for Christmas/NYE, general party tracks, etc.

    September 1, 2015 at 9:27 pm #2247541
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    I second and third the iTunes option. While the worst piece of stuff ever to come out of Cupertino, it is, when used properly, the best option to manage your collection. It is also natively supported in all major DJ software. With today’s technology there really is no longer a real need to organise things in folders. I just let iTunes take care of that.

    Also ++ on minimizing your collection. Only have in there what you will be sure to play, when in doubt, toss it. I think Phil Morse has about 600 tracks in his collection. My goal is to keep mine under 1.200 (am a mobile DJ so giving myself a little more wiggle room – I do carry a request collection on a seperate external hard drive though).

    Though not free, there is a time-limited (I think 2 weeks but not sure) full version of Mixvibes Cross you can download and try. DDJ-SB natively supported.

    Final word on the SB. Compared to what some people on here started DJ-ing on (me included), your SB is like a Masserati where we all started on Fiat 500s!

    September 2, 2015 at 12:03 pm #2247771
    Robbie G.
    Participant

    thanks everyone, seems ITunes is the way to go. Now what about missing ID tags for those tracks my PC has as “various artist etc”

    September 2, 2015 at 12:19 pm #2247801
    Ronnie EmJay
    Participant

    If you want to fix tags manually or in batches, there is the freeware PC software MP3tag.. if you rip your CDs/vinyl, it will allow you to – for example – select all the songs and label the artist and album in 1 go. I don’t like iTunes so I’ve never really bothered with it, others here can give better advice on that!

    Other free DJ software would be:
    Mixxx (completely freeware, you don’t need a licence).
    Pioneer RekordBox is free and you can mix with a mouse on it, but it can’t be controlled by typical controllers as we know them, eg. Mixtrack, Denon MC3000, Traktor S2/4/8 etc. Perhaps others with more experience can expand on wheter CDJs and DJM mixers will control REkordBox.

    And i believe Mixvibes Cross, Traktor and Virtual DJ have trial versions. With Serato you can get the software from their website but unless you have an officially certified controller plugged in, it won’t work for live mixing, just previewing tracks, beatgridding etc.

    September 4, 2015 at 8:46 am #2248931
    Lamid45G
    Participant

    PS If you buy those tunes legally, it will be properly labeled and tagged

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