How to get familiar with all your tracks?
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  1. #1

    Default How to get familiar with all your tracks?

    Do you guys listen to your library during your the day? I usually listen to other djs sets, and only listen to my tracks when I am practicing....

  2. #2
    Tech Guru Kwal's Avatar
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    i wing it 100% of the time

    i dont suggest that though

  3. #3
    Tech Guru Patch's Avatar
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    It's a good point.

    When I used to DJ exclusively with vinyl (10+ years ago now), I ONLY used to listen to my tracks when I was DJ'ing. These days, I always have tracks I'm DJ'ing with on a USB stick, or on an mp3 player, and listen to 'em whenever I'm driving, or just chilling.

    And to be honest, I think I knew my tracks BETTER when I was ONLY DJ'ing with them. Funny, that.
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    Tech Mentor deathy's Avatar
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    I am perhaps more obsessive about this than most, but what I do is

    1. Keep my setlist small. When I started out, my setlist was capped at about a hundred tracks until I had a workflow that allowed me to know that size list, then I began to expand it. At this point, it's approximately 500.
    2. I mark my tracks up like MAD... when I was using Traktor, I had markers all over the place... cue markers for in-and-out spots, and I used loop markers to indicate where vocals were, etc. Now that I've written my own software, having the tracks marked up is a major feature of it - each phrase in a song can be marked as intro, verse, chorus, bridge, ending, fill, etc., plus whether there are vocals or not (or what I call "semi," which means there are vocal bites like hip-hop "yeah, uh-huh uh-huh" but not real singing).
    3. I tend to practice obsessively, 1-4 hours a night. That said, lately, I've been slackin', but movin' from one continent to another, I think I am allowed some time to get back on the horse.

    But, as I said, I am more obsessive about knowing my tracks than most. On the other hand, I can completely restructure my songs on the fly to make them fit together with tracks where you'd normally have a screaming trainwreck, so, I think it worth it.

  5. #5
    Tech Guru deevey's Avatar
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    These days, load up all new tracks on the phone or computer and play them while working/surfing etc... give them a low star rating when they don't sound as you thought they would for easy removal later.

    It doesn't take a whole lotta time to know a track well enough that you wont screw up a mix, of course if you are slicing/dicing/looping/preparing thats real "work"

    Most of the time I'll leave traktor running in the background anyhow so I can mouse-mix tracks from time to time if i think A would go well with B.

    I ONLY used to listen to my tracks when I was DJ'ing.

    And to be honest, I think I knew my tracks BETTER when I was ONLY DJ'ing with them. Funny, that.
    Snap, Turnover was lower On vinyl, the likelihood was that if something got a mediocre reaction the first play, then it wasn't going back the (heavy) box the following week(s).

    Alot of resident DJ's I know didn't have turntables at home, they'd come in early to vet some new tunes prior to the night in question and that was it.

    Also, we used to usually play the entire record (at least once completely) the first time live to find that "mix point" at which stage you knew it pretty well the next time round anyhow.

    No-one bought or played anything that they felt would not be memorable - not just due to money, but space constraints !

  6. #6
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    DJ Party Shuffle! Pull up a playlist, or songs I've added in the last 6 months, put it on random and just listen in the background. Anything that gets your attention...got your attention.
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  7. #7
    Tech Guru 3heads's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kwal View Post
    i wing it 100% of the time

    i dont suggest that though
    So do I. I used to have all the tracks from my DJing playlist on my phone to sort of push them to the subconscious parts of my memory. That doesn't work anymore since I started buying only vinyl, though.
    13,3" MacBookPro (Mid 2012) # 2x Technics 1210 # NI Audio 8 DJ # Ecler Nuo 2.0 # NI Traktor Kontrol X1 # Sennheiser HD-25
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  8. #8
    Tech Mentor elohyspoissonpilote's Avatar
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    From my point of viewn the thing is to considering how the human memory or abilities to learn is working.
    We used to say that you will remember easyer
    1- Things you do by yourself, manipulating
    2- Things you will see as pictures, images
    3-Things that you read
    4- things that you heard
    So, Dj purpose is to quickly put something to remember the tracks he want to play, you beed to associate a sign and a track content.

    So, no surprising that it's will be probably easier to remember vinyls than Digital files
    Vinyls: it's an object, you manipulate them whan you play it, there is picture on the record, on the sleeves, many way to make a quick and easy to remember matching beetween whay you manipulate and/or see with the track content.
    Don't forget also that most of the time, you probably buy /own less vinyls than you can buy/own digital files)

    Digital file: Small pictures for those who activate the picture view, bt mainly list of artist name, track name, labels,etc... We are now in the bottom of the list I dod to begin this post. It's normally harder to make quicktly matches bbetween thes e reading signs and listened content.

    As an example or proof of that, i can say that when I was essentially buy vinyl 20 years ago, I can remember 90/95% of then today despite I stopped deejayng for around 15 years (I own around 700 vinyls)
    If i compare with digital files, on a single folder of 250 tracks, I can make easy and quick match on no more than 50/60%.
    I try to often listen to them when driving, digging, but it's not really help.most of the time, I get attention on some few tracks , but some others will move away from my memory (OK, may be my 45 years old not help me with accurate memory )

  9. #9
    DJTT #1 setup pimp 2012
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    I've always kept a "New Tracks" playlist on my iPhone (iPod back in the day), and listened to those tracks on my way to work, etc.

    If I have a gig coming up, I'll create some playlists for moods (usually a Mild, Medium, and Hot), and listen to those as well. I never pre-plan my sets mind you, but I definitely filter things down to 100 or so tracks between all 3 lists (and will likely bring other music as well, but this keeps things focussed).

    Sadly, I can never remember track names. Or artist names. I'm terrible at that.

    But my musical memory is quite good, as soon as I hear a few notes of a track, I know what it is, where the breakdowns are, etc.

  10. #10
    Tech Guru Patch's Avatar
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    See - that's why artwork is so important!

    I have tracks that I LOVE, and always play - but I don't know the name! I just recognise the artwork...
    DJ'ing: 2x1200MK2, DJM 850, Dicers, F1, Zomo MC-1000, Sony MDR-v700, i7 Win 10 HP Envy
    Production: Ableton Live 8 and a mouse, Sennheiser HD400, Sony VAIO

    Click HERE to D/L Free Tracks from Soundcloud!!!
    https://www.facebook.com/Patchdj

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