Vinyl acquisition

[PeteWoods]

i decided i needed some real vinyl for when and if my computer decides to crash, and found this guy who's going to sell me 75 of his old 12's, some of the tracks are absolute classics (I am ready-Size 9, The Bells- Jeff Mills, La La Land-Green Velvet) but at the same time i'm scared that 75 in one go is too much, and i wont have time to learn all my new tunes inside out. Is there any way you's would suggest organising them so i learn more about my tracks with each listen, or a way of organising vinyl for when its in my crate?

[Liambo]

When my father stopped DJ'n he passed me down his records (1000+) and 5 years later i am still trying to find out the hidden gems and learning them..

Something i did was just surf through them and have quick listens to parts of the tracks and put the ones that catch your attention to the side and casually day to day if your near your decks doing anything just have some records on in the background. Trust me even if your not concentrating on the tracks your still learning what the tracks all about..

Thats just one way i suppose.

[bumtsch]

Try sorting them from soft to hard. The back of my bag has the mellower, deeper kind of house. The front has the faster, harder techno. This way, I know I can't really move too far up/down from the currently playing tunes when digging.

disclaimer : I don't have that much vinyl myself - about 50 records. However my good friend has a few hundred and left a packed flightcase at my place for a week before our gig and that seemed to be the general idea behind his organization.
Be interesting what vinyl vets will have to suggest.

[dj stifffy]

download the magority of the songs on vinyl that you are getting and stick it on a playlist and play it in ur car or ipod and when you hear something that stands out look at the name and note it and put that aside later on , I do this with a lot of cd's my girlfriend buys me shit loads of ministry of sound cds and that kind of stuff, music I would never dream of listening too and then after a while you start to like songs and go track browsing

[The Bong Squad]

A lot of people recognise the vinyl they want to play by the artwork so try to familurise yourself with the artwork as well, it generally speeds up your track selection time.

But its always good to have a back up. We always have a mix CD with us at minimum. But most of the time (when we remember) bring a CD wallet just in case

[Hippie]

I add them to my Discogs collection while i play them for the 1st time and put them on the shelf by year then genre in a kind of soft to hard fashion.
It goes astray sometimes when there are soft and hard mixes or multiple genres on the same vinyl but generally everything within a few inches will mix ok and I know within a few inches where everything is now I've got 1210 releases in my Discogs collection.
There's a couple of apps that will access your Discogs collection and the wonderful Trainspotter program, or just a simple browser for PC and Mac if you have web access, and you can export your collection as a few different file types to help you keep track.

[djproben]

Just start listening to it and take notes or keep in mind which songs you like best. Write the BPM down on the labels for the tracks you think you'll play out. 75 records is nothing really; I have well over 5000 and still buying . I use a grease pencil to write on the labels so I can erase if I want to sell them, and I put a star on the ones I really like. And I have a terrible memory for the names of bands or artists but I remember what the covers look like of the ones I like best; one of the many reasons I still prefer spinning vinyl even after all these years of digital....

[Bassline Brine]

Just start listening to it and take notes or keep in mind which songs you like best. Write the BPM down on the labels for the tracks you think you'll play out. 75 records is nothing really; I have well over 5000 and still buying . I use a grease pencil to write on the labels so I can erase if I want to sell them, and I put a star on the ones I really like. And I have a terrible memory for the names of bands or artists but I remember what the covers look like of the ones I like best; one of the many reasons I still prefer spinning vinyl even after all these years of digital....

You know, that's something that stupidly appeals to me. I have some friends who can spout out the name and artist of any song immediately when they hear it, and know exactly what they are looking for every time. I have memory that's terrible for that straight memorization thing.

I've only just started collecting some vinyl, but there is something about going through the crate and not even needing to know the name, just knowing it by the picture on the case. I do want to put artist/track names on the vinyl at some point (grease pencil or otherwise) but I am really starting to understand that.

Another thing, vinyl in bulk is a lot cheaper than even buying digitally, at least for older tunes. Which can be great if you like sampling little bits of classic stuff.

But yeah, having 5000 tunes to go through, even 75, is a lot. But, just give yourself some time with it. Like someone said above, move the stuff you are interested in into one crate after you give it a quick listen, and then another that you can sell later.

[TreTuna]

It just takes time... I've got about 3000+ records as I've always been more of a vinyl guy the digital. I also buy a lot of vinyl deals that people get rid of where I get 50-100 random records for real cheap. I keep all of these in one area until I have the chance to go through them and sift through the good and the bad.

The suggestion of just having records playing at the house when you're there is great. I try to only listen to vinyls when I'm home really. You don't pay super attention, but you wouldn't believe how many gems I've found because of this. When you here that break or that one section that kills it, you'll know it, and you'll stop what you are doing, mark it, and put it to the side for later. Then when you are actually spinning, try to incorporate as many of those vinyls into your set as possible. Not only will this help you learn them, but will keep your roots of beatmatching to audio, not to the visual of Traktor/Serato (I HATE when people are constantly staring at the computer while beatmatching, even when I catch myself doing it!).

I do have to agree with everyone on how much easier it is to sift through records then going through everything digitally. The jackets of the good records will pop out at you immediately!

[Jason Cerna]

bpm the records. put labels on the sleeve and on the center of the record.

if the record is a single, use the label on the record to mark where the actual music starts. that way you can cue the track visually. the way i do it is to mark where the first bit of sound starts and then mark that in relation to the cartridge on the tonearm.