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Newbie question about files

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Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • September 13, 2016 at 4:22 am #2445291
    Karlton Bethea
    Participant

    Iain,

    I would encourage doing your tagging in the software that you are going to use. Not all of the information may save or transfer in the software the way you would like it to. This may also give you some practice at navigating around the software, and picking up some learning points (tricks) as you go along. Just my opinion.

    Hope this helps,

    Karlton Bethea

    “If Music Be The Food Of Love…Play On”
    -Billy Shakespeare

    September 13, 2016 at 9:08 am #2445351
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    If you only use the mp3 meta tags, then yes all tags will transfer with the file.

    Most DJs arganise everything within iTunes and then use Serato for the rest (samples etc.)
    But honestly Serato’s smart folders are not bad and you can get the job done with Serato alone also.

    I would not organise on the HD/FileSystem it is a waste of time.

    September 13, 2016 at 10:27 am #2445441
    Tord
    Participant

    Most DJs arganise everything within iTunes

    Does iTunes offer any advantage over other ID3 editors? I heard Phil say the same in the DDjT course vids..

    September 13, 2016 at 8:40 pm #2445731
    Peter Lindqvist
    Participant

    Terry_42, I don’t agree with you on either iTunes or organizing the music in the file system. They go hand in hand of course, as I definitely do not use I-tunes and never will. I waited to use any software until I’d seen where potential disasters could happen, and with I-tunes I saw a lot over a couple of years.

    When something goes wrong, and people don’t even know where the music is stored in the file system, or how the files are named, makes a hdd recovery very difficult, and every playlist is just gone and all the work that went into them. I’m sure there are ways to protect you from that to happen, but it’s obviously not known to every user. I prefer my organized music in the file structure as it is very simple to maintain and very easy to keep a few copies of all my music on several hdd’s/computers. If one goes down, I just drag my folders to Rekordbox and a few hours later, all my music will be analyzed an ready to go. Every folder equals a playlist so I don’t lose them either. What I can’t save doing this, is stored cue points/hot cues/hot loops etc. Not a big problem for me as I mostly set them on the fly or not at all, but is to consider if my way sounds good to someone. Pros and cons…

    I’m a Rekordbox/USB DJ but when I got a Rane SL1/Serato box a while ago, to use with my still going CDJ-1000Mk3’s, I just copied my whole music structure on to my laptop and dragged the folders in to Serato, and voila, in minutes I had all my music available to play with there as well and very familiar.

    Yes, agree, I am a bit of a nerd, and I also delete all my mp3 tag info, except for cover art. The info I need, I keep in the file name. Everything in the filename is searchable in Pioneers players so I can still quickly find a track when memory fails 🙂 . All my tracks looks like this, 01A 122 The Deepshakerz – What can I do (Orig)_pn.mp3/wav, except for some genres i don’t use tonality, just BPM. This also means that my mp3’s and wav’s has the same info, and will show up the same wherever I use them. Mp3Tag can store cover art in wav’s now.

    I’m still doing 2-3 nights a week and i am an open format DJ, so I need to have a lot of music organized. I can be booked for an 80’s night and when arriving be asked to take another floor and play house instead. I need to have my music in check for that. Doing this for 30+ years, of course I bring habits from other formats in to my thinking, but I’m prepared to put some extra time into something that makes my DJ life as easy and secure as possible.

    September 14, 2016 at 9:52 am #2445841
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    I tend to disagree Peter.
    iTunes is extremely simple to know what it does. It copies all your music and organises it in the file system very very neatly, that is why most of use it. It is not that it does not organise, but you need not worry about it.

    As for those “disasters”. No disaster happened ever if you can read your email. Of course if you are an Apple fanboy and activate any feature without reading the email and/or website than things can happen. I never activated those features (like Apple Music) and everyone in the DJ community knew that was going to happen and to those of us – nothing happened.

    As for finding analysing and recovering: I am sorry but if you are a “pro” or at least “semi-pro” or even a home user and you storre purchased music (stuff you paid hard earned money for) on a digital device and do not backup it correctly, you deserve it. And this is totally easy no matter Windows and Mac with iTunes. On my Mac I simply have TimeMachine and let if backup to an external HD. I can jump back in time on iTunes extremely easy.
    On Windows it is slightly less comfortable but I use the WesternDigital Software that comes with most WD Passport drives (that I use mainly) and even that saves your iTunes folder quite nicely. Recovery points are a bit harder to configure if you are not a geek, but it is managable as there are wizards to help you out.

    And the main thing is that all DJ software (Serato, Cross, Rekordbox, Engine, djay,…) interfaces with iTunes and gets your playlists etc.

    I have 20+ years in the DJ business and I have never felt more comfortable with my DJ collection. I am not an Apple fanboy, I am testing for example as we speak a Surface Pro4 for DJing, but iTunes has become the industry standard for organising music files. Am I happy about that? No, I hate monopolys and I would love to find alternatives, but I am also reaslistic. I have tried other things like Mediamonkey etc. and they are all worse for DJing (I love Mediamonkey for syncing with my Android phone).

    September 14, 2016 at 11:12 pm #2446211
    Iain
    Participant

    Interesting discussion, thanks for your input.

    As a newbie and therefore have the ability to adopt any file system, would you recommend going with something DJ specific like Beatport Pro or sticking with the tried and tested iTunes?

    Thanks, Iain

    September 15, 2016 at 8:49 am #2446321
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    Honestly I never bought into Beatport Pro or any “pro” site for that matter. Most tend to cater towards the “get much music” crowd, which funny enough is agreed on by most top DJs is the wrong way to go.

    Now what the top DJs agree on:
    Quality over quantity.
    You do not need to have a super large collection of tunes, you are not a jukebox, you are a DJ.
    You can easily start our with a collection of 200 songs and be perfectly fine to DJ.
    Most of us we limit ourselves to a “current library” of about 800-1000 tracks, if we get something new, something old has to go.
    Of course this is slightly different for mobile DJs, but here I would refer you to our excellent wedding DJ course.

    Now for example how do I buy music:
    I listen to music A LOT. I have Amazon Prime, so I listen to those channels. I listen to radios (like FG radio) through their Apps. etc. If a track plays I really like I put it on my wishlist either on Amazon or iTunes. But I have to really really like it, not just any track that sounds kinda good.
    At the end of the month I prolly have 10-20 tracks on that list(s).
    I go through them again, maybe try to listen to the whole song again through a streaming service and cut it down to 3-5 songs that I end up purchasing. Depending on pricing that is 3-5 bucks a month. Cheaper than any recordpool or “pro” service.
    The quality of my tracks and performances has increased since I use that method and I got a rise in re-bookings that was noticeable.

    September 18, 2016 at 9:33 am #2447171
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    I have a core collection in iTunes (and this is the software, not the shop!), currently rebuilding (as mine was way too big too as I had fallen into the “got plenty of GB’s, so who cares” trap) and hope to end up with a max of 1.200 tracks.

    This core collection will be FULLY decked out, i.e. all tags, artwork, keys, energy levels, genres, beatgrids, drop- and cue points set correctly. Everything run through Mixed in Key and Platinum notes. All in highest quality MP3, ripped myself from lossless originals that I am 100% sure of.

    As I am a mobile DJ too, the rest of my collection sits on an external HD. Those tracks are request-only. The search functionality in my DJ software when I just use the file browser in it is plenty to find a specific track I am looking for.

    As knowing tracks intimately is important (for me) to be able to fit them in correctly in a set, keeping the core collection somewhat limited is best practice for me. Also a core collection of that size fits on every device I have, including an older iPad 3 with 32GB and my USB sticks, so I have the same core collection everywhere.

    I will agree that iTunes is the worst (software) to ever come out of Cupertino, but if you use it ONLY for DJ-ing purposes, it will do it’s job properly and the integration with all major DJ software is priceless in that case.

    September 18, 2016 at 2:47 pm #2447201
    Iain
    Participant

    Thanks for all your input. Time to now to sit and tag my collection in itunes.

    Cheers,

    Iain

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