Track indexing / browsing software?

First of all, if you have all tracks in your Traktor library, they aren’t indexed?!

Second, it’s a really curious workflow using the powers of playlists only for lists based on purchase date.

Third, we are big advocates of tight collections, so buying/adding tracks in “batches” big enough to warrant folders and playlists of their own isn’t something I am used to. I buy 5-10 tracks a month, if that. And toss out the same number that go in from my core collection (they do get moved to my “requests” collection, being a mobile DJ having too much tracks is never and issue). Knowing when I bought them is probably the last search I’d use.

All that said, it’s your workflow and if it works for you, go for it.

On-topic: In my daytime job I help companies work more efficiently. And this involves helping them come up with solutions for problems. Often this means they will enthusiastically start trying to come up with a solution for symptoms, without asking “is this really at the core of my problem”. By asking why a number of times, it’s easy to get to that core.

So the first thing I’d suggest is to figure out what is at the core of your “problem” and see if there are ways to utilize the tools that you already have to tackle that, rather than going symptom-solving by throwing (more) tools at it.

On a final, practical note: If indeed your true solution can be found in a proper tool, while not specifically made for this purpose, Mixed in Key 8 could possibly be of use to you here. You run all tracks (bulk, unattended) through the software. It will obviously give you the musical key, an energy rating, 8 Traktor cues (should you so desire) and BPM. It also has a tags tab where you can do some basic tagging stuff. It has a nice Camelot Wheel at the top, to easily find tracks in the same key. The player gives you a waveform (where you can also see, move, add/remove the cue points). The good things is, you can click on a track you found and just drag-drop it anywhere.

Clearly there are plenty of media players with some kind of indexing integrated, stuff like Media Monkey comes to mind. But MiK is aimed at DJs, offers the mentioned advantages and could easily be a relatively straightforward collection tool.

The one thing it doesn’t have is a column option for track location, this might be a bottle-neck for you. Personally I don’t care where the track is located. If, once I found it, I can drag-drop it to play it, I am happy. But that is just me.

Just my three cents worth, hope it helps some.

Quick side-note: I don’t quite agree with the notion that key mixing works with whichever result from the key detection.

A wrongly detected key can clash in two ways:
1) It clashes with a track that was correctly detected in the same key (an Aminor, with an Amajor incorrectly detected as Aminor)
2) It clashes with another track that was incorrectly detected in the same key but is actually another WRONG key than the one it was detected as (two tracks both tagged as Aminor, one actually being Amajor, the other Bminor).

Traktor according to the latest (2015) comparison by our friends at DJ Tech Tools, has the amazing rate of 47% correct detections. More than half are tagged incorrect! Compared to MiK7 (I don’t think the actual detection has changed in 8) which scores 87%. Still not perfect, but definitely the best in the business.

Back on topic.
Mixed in Key 8 is definitely different from it’s predecessors. I had (just to test) about 5.000 tracks in my MiK, divided over local SSD and HD and a NAS (1GB wired network connected). The MiK data was kept on the local HD. I found the indexing (search function) to be rather fast and not changed much (if at all?) from the speed with only a couple of hundred tracks in the database. It also searches by instant elimination, i.e. you start typing it drops everything that doesn’t match the search string. So no need to type the full word or title or whatever and hit search. If you type Kaja… you will probably already be left with only the tracks from Kajagoogoo. You can drag and drop right from the list. Can’t currently check how long it then takes to get the track from it’s actual location though, but that would be a function of the location and identical in any indexing software I’d assume.

Again, just my thoughts.

One I forgot is beatunes