Downsizing traktor library & getting rid of nonDJ tracks, anyway to make this easier?

[completej]

Like I mentioned, I started with a 25,000 track library from over 10 years of collecting mp3s, and the only time I experienced that type of slowdown was was on my W7 HP laptop. Perhaps it might be an issue of not allowing iTunes to consolidate your library and organize the files the way it would prefer, and optimizing the .xml file the way it needs to be.

This would be my suggestion if you were willing to give iTunes one more chance - it also still allows you to use your Traktor library and collection the way you want to. Also, I hope you've spent time "locking" each file. I hadn't my first time through Traktor, and the result was re-stripping each file a second time. Won't make that mistake again!

-- Get a external hdd / partitioned slice / whatever.
-- Back up all your files to that spot (including iTunes playlist)
-- Remove that source from iTunes and prevent it from being recognized in any scan in iTunes and Traktor.
-- Also, back up your Traktor collection files to prevent any unwanted changes from occurring (stripes / transients / etc).

At this point, you have a point at which you can resume your old state. Backed up iTunes files, backed up Traktor files, backed up original mp3 files and locations.

-- Change your settings in Traktor to prevent it from importing your collection, as well as changing the location where it looks for music to a dummy folder that is currently empty.
-- Close Traktor
-- Then go through and delete your Traktor collection files
-- Allow iTunes to organize your library (will probably take a little time considering the size of your collection).
-- Once that is done (and I usually reboot in an OCD-kind of way), open Traktor, point the music folder at the new iTunes /Music/ location where it has organized everything, and see if that improves any type of loading speed.

After that, you can either enable Traktor to import any new files and analyze them, or simply drag / click them into your collection when you load from the iTunes list. If you re-import your old Traktor collection files, you could do a consistency check to scan and find locations of files (which will take a while), or just re-import your entire collection playlist by playlist in iTunes.

On my 2010, it's so quick that if I make a change in iTunes while I am mixing (reordering a file, making a comment, removing from a playlist, etc), I can highlight "iTunes" in the Traktor browser window, click and refresh, and it takes roughly 5-15 seconds, depending on what else I am doing inside Traktor.

Anyway, that's what works for me.

[Xonetacular]

Is there any way to lock all of the files instead of doing it one by one in traktor? Right now none of my stuff is locked.

[completej]

Good question, and I don't know. I'm going to say no, unless there was a way to find a flag maybe in the collection files, but even then that "lock" (I believe) is associated with the mp3 and nothing else.

Rainer, Karlos, Jojo might know. Sorry :/

[Alex Wild]

Short and skinny - use iTunes and let it handle your library for you. Use smart playlists. Play off of your iTunes library in Traktor. I've found no real benefit with Traktor's library that can't be accomplished with precise tagging and playlisting in Traktor. What's better is all the added benefits of having all your music set nicely in iTunes to copy to handheld / other devices immediately if you ever need to do something with it (work out with most recent playlist, burn last night's tracklist, copy things to a different computer without hunting for files, etc.).

Nice idea, I've been thinking about this. But, do you also need to have all your track stored in traktors collection too, for them to be analysed and so on? It seems that if make a playlist in itunes with music that is already analyzed, then go into traktor and load into decks from the itunes playlist it wants to reanalyze, or sometimes has wrong beatgrids????

[photojojo]

As far as I know there's no way for Traktor to not import that music again.

Ah let me clarify, I don't allow itunes to manage or copy my files (I hate how it does it).

I have a few other folders which are giant unsorted clusterfucks of electronic music

I prefer iTunes method of storing it as artist>album>track to giant clusterfucks of electronic music. Itunes is great for organizing music. It may be bloated and slow running, but I've never had issues with that as long as i had enough RAM.

[completej]

Nice idea, I've been thinking about this. But, do you also need to have all your track stored in traktors collection too, for them to be analysed and so on? It seems that if make a playlist in itunes with music that is already analyzed, then go into traktor and load into decks from the itunes playlist it wants to reanalyze, or sometimes has wrong beatgrids????

Let's say you have never added a song into your Traktor collection. Let's say you also point Traktor to iTunes folder only. Let's then say you open Traktor, do NOT import that music into your collection, and do a consistency check.

If you open the iTunes folder on the lower-left in the browser, then drag a file from iTunes sub-folder / playlist into a deck, it will attempt to analyze the file and store necessary information in it. If you then grid it, lock it, and close Traktor, the next time you follow those steps it will NOT analyze it, and the information will have been locked to the mp3.

So - it doesn't work the way you're thinking it does. Regardless of import into Traktor collection, the information after analyzation (depending on locking the file) will stay with it. edit: one caveat - if you were to uninstall traktor, reinstall, and then load one of those files, it would go through a process of analyzation, but the grid / cue points / loops would remain (almost 100% on that)

I stopped importing files into my Traktor collection after I did my huge library purge and go solely off of iTunes playlists. Have not had a problem yet.

[Xonetacular]

So is there any way to mass lock tracks?

I want to do some major library surgery tonight- remove like 15,000 non dance tracks from my laptop then redo my itunes library...

So you think I should really just surrender and let itunes manage my files? I have quite a few record compilations from different labels and it would be a shame if itunes split this type of stuff up.

Also, does traktor and or trainspotter write the id3 tag info to the file itself? I noticed it keeps the file names the same.

[completej]

For your record comps, if the album is the same across the board, you won't lose them. Basically, if your ID3 tags are in order, then iTunes won't have a problem with them. Reference my above digitaldjtips article to identify other applications you might be able to use to help identify ID3 tags where they are missing - Picard Music Brainz is free and fast, but ultimately succumbs to missing information where users haven't uploaded info from their library.

edit: I guess this is the most important part of the equation - keeping your ID3 tags consistent, almost to a fault, is what allows this solution to work so well for me. Some people rip files, import with little regard to accuracy, and play off physical location. Different strokes, and all that...

As I've not used Traktor to modify "ID3 information" about the mp3, I can't speak to that. I know that beatgrids and cue points travel with the mp3, however.

Trainspotter writes directly to the ID3 tags, so if you overwrite an album name with something wrong, you will now have wrong information showing up in iTunes. It will take a few attempts at running through the files to be able to do this with confidence. As always, trudge through the options / preferences first, make a few changes, save / exit and check in Traktor / iTunes and adjust where you need. Also, you can update as few or as many ID3 tags at one time in Trainspotter. I used it mostly for missing album art and year / genre. Also, Trainspotter writes directly to your collection.nml file, so be wary when making changes if you want to maintain any level of consistency. I used solely to update ID3 tags with concern for future iTunes segregation, as I choose not to use the Traktor collection method.

Note: YOU CANNOT adjust things like ID3 ratings inside Traktor - there is no capability to write to ID3 tags when you load from iTunes playlists inside Traktor. That is - if you are cueing / playing a track in Traktor and you want to adjust the file's ID3 tag to add something like "play this track with Eric Prydz - 2night" for future reference in iTunes, you must alt-tab to iTunes and change the file there. This can be an issue if you adjust file locations inside iTunes. For instance, if you drag a file and remove it from "Electro House" playlist in iTunes and place it into "Progressive Electro" playlist in iTunes while Traktor has already loaded the locations, then try to play the file from the "Electro House" playlist inside Traktor (where it appears to still reside) you will receive a flashing warning inside Traktor. To remedy this, simply highlight "iTunes" from your lower-left area in the browser layout, then choose refresh. It will grab the newest version of the iTunes .xml file and you can continue as expected. This is where that quickness comes in handy, so if you know querying against the iTunes .xml file takes a long time, you might want to wait to adjust any file locations until you're done gigging or something.

Note: Don't trust most Discogs genre (which is where Trainspotter gets its info from). Especially compilations. You will end up with genres like "House, Progressive House, Progressive Trance, Trance, Electronic, Other" all in the same line, because the comp will span that many. In the case of all my legit Global Underground comps, I lost a lot of valuable information that way unknowingly, and resulted in my taking the next step of my process which was creating "creates" (playlists) in iTunes with what *sounded* like Electro, Progressive, etc.

The only thing "different" you will notice immediately with how iTunes groups physical files are their locations on your hdd. If you have one track as "Steve Aoki ft. Diplo" and a similar track as "Steve Aoki vs. Diplo" and all things are the same, it will put them in two different folders, respectively.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. They will ALL reside under your consolidated /Music/ folder, unless you otherwise instruct iTunes to place them in another manual folder (thus negating some of the consolidation benefits). Traktor, too, will not have a problem with this, because it will be going off of your iTunes .xml file. In the end, you will be able to drag / drop files directly from iTunes into 3rd party devices / iPods / phones with little to no concern about where they are on your file system. Ditto playlists, smart playlists, genius mixes, etc.

A big concern for you is the locking of tracks. In the event you 1) delete your collection.nml and 2) import all files into your collection on next Traktor load after your "file surgery," (and please, Jojo keep me straight on this) I believe it will then attempt to reanalyze all those files - either immediately if you do a consistency check / have analyze on import selected in options, or any time you load a file into a deck (will only occur once, as would be expected). This is also the case if you upgrade from TSP3 to TP2, as the wav forms changed and had to be reanalyzed anyway (or at least was true in my case - I had never locked my files before TP2 + Kontrol S4).

Can you tell I'm bored at work? :P

[DJMM]

I have like 1000 dj songs right now, just listened to 200 of them again, and rating them with stars this time so I will get rid of 1 star songs, that shouldn't be there cause its bad =p

Rather have 200-300 songs that I like and build from there back with only the songs I like. I just figured it out I have way too many songs that I don't actually like.

[completej]

Yeah I kinda wish something bad would happen, like a hdd unrecoverable failure, or someone steals my external, that would force me to just re-purchase only files I really remember / use / cherish. So much is listenable via spotify and other avenues that if I really needed to hear the "Nirvana - Nevermind" EP, I could find it, but something about having it on the offchance someone wants it or I can remix it... I dunno. It's like being a hoarder.