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Please help manually administering iTunes Library

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Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • February 3, 2015 at 8:55 am #2134271
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    Do not use the file system. period.
    Organise all your music in iTunes. Delete and add tunes in iTunes. Instead of folders use playlists and let iTunes do the work for you.

    So reset iTunes to factory default. Import all songs again and start there.
    Never delete or add in the file system, do it inside iTunes. You can switch views from playlists to organising folder views in iTunes very very easy, just do everything inside there. There is absolutely ZERO need to use the filesystem.
    Making it all with playlists has the added bonus that all of this will automatically sync with VDJ, Serato or djay and you never have to organise anything inside those softwares too as all the playlists and smart playlists will be available to you inside those titles.

    February 3, 2015 at 11:50 am #2134331
    salim_rind@hotmail.com
    Participant

    Terry_42 has said it far better than I ever could. I don’t know about DeeJAY Pro but I use VDJ8. I also use iTunes extensively and as terry said, use the Playlists. VDJ picks these up automatically. I also tag all my tracks in iTunes, so it seems that you are over complicating things.

    By the way as a Windows user, still contemplating moving to Mac it’s good to know VDJ8 runs well on it.

    February 3, 2015 at 1:05 pm #2134411
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    I WAS a big anti-iTunes support group member. I think the application is the worst thing to ever come out of Cupertino. When I took Phil’s DJ Masterclass and heard his explanation on why to use iTunes, but SOLELY for DJ-ing, I decided to switch. And with the iTunes integration in all major DJ Software and in RekordBox 3.x, I have to say it DOES make sense to do it this way.

    Once you get around some of the quircks of iTunes, it works.

    Still a lousy app, but unfortunately no better alternatives around (or in view for the foreseeable future).

    February 3, 2015 at 6:14 pm #2134461
    DJ Tucker
    Participant

    Thank you for your suggestions! Unfortunately, there’s no way I’ll ever use iTunes to manage my files. I’m about as morally opposed to the idea as one can possible be. Basically, I refuse to cede so much control of my DJ tracks to a specific program, especially one that’s as big a kluge as iTunes has always been (to me). I can tell that it runs way better in OSX than it runs on Windows machines but it’s still an extremely offensive program to me.

    The cool thing is that I don’t need it to do much. I keep all of my DJ tracks in their own folder called “DJ Tracks” (lame, I know) that is divided into sub-folders like House, Breaks, Rap, etc. That’s where I tag and arrange them via MIK, sometimes-Bulk Rename Utility, and Media Monkey on a Windows machine. The only thing I need iTunes to do is (1) make a database of these tracks without moving or copying them and (2) keep the database updated with added and/or subtracted tracks when I make changes to the DJ music folder or sub folders.
    I don’t need iTunes to arrange the tracks or make playlists. I only need for the tracks to exist in an iTunes database so that they are seen by djay Pro. If they aren’t in the iTunes database, there’s no way to make them appear in djay Pro. That’s much different From VDJ where you can use a traditional file system tree. It’s a limitation of the djay Pro program but I don’t mind because I only use it when I need to DJ from Spotify. However, it’s nice to search my DJ tracks within that program if I happen to have a song that Spotify is missing.

    VDJ8 runs great on the mac btw and my mac is less powerful than my Windows DJ rig, as it’s the basic late-2012 MBP with default components. I’m beginning to believe there’s something to the folklore about macs running audio production programs better than Windows machines.

    February 3, 2015 at 7:05 pm #2134491
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    That my friend cannot be done. Hence why we all use iTunes, however offended we are we had to face reality.

    February 3, 2015 at 7:11 pm #2134511
    DJ Tucker
    Participant

    If that’s truly the case, I’ll just drag selected tracks into a djay Pro deck from finder. Sad that it’s come to that but with iTunes, I wouldn’t expect anything more.

    February 3, 2015 at 9:50 pm #2134581
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    One word of caution, I have used the same exFAT option you are using. I did most of my MiK, PN and some other things on my PC, then loaded the tracks on the disk and hooked up the disk to my MacBook. Granted, I used the external HD as vessel for both my collection metadata and my tracks, but I ended up with quite a few messed up tracks and at one point changes I made would not record anymore, because of some rights issues. I now prepare my tracks on my windows machine, then transfer them through my NAS. Only THEN do import them into iTunes. When I am done fixing everything in iTunes (album art and such), then I put it into my DJ software.

    Not saying anybody else has to do it and I didn’t believe I would ever use iTunes either (was actually a MediaMonkey fan myself), but at the end of the day, it DOES make MY workflow a lot easier.

    February 4, 2015 at 2:35 pm #2135241
    DJ Tucker
    Participant

    Me and iTunes got off on the wrong foot when they didn’t support flac. I’ve even converted all of my flac files to mp4 but I still resent iTunes for that.

    February 4, 2015 at 10:43 pm #2135721
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    Don’t have to convince me that it’s the worst thing ever to come out of Cupertino :-). Unfortunately the alternatives (for DJ-ing!) are pretty meager.

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