for the past weeks I have been trying to order my music in all kinds of different ways.
This is obviously to ensure that I find the most suitable tracks to play together, not jump in genres etc.
Here are the parameters I use at the moment, for some reason I do not feel they are sufficient though, which is why I would like to hear how you do it:
Mixed in Key indications.
Very much stick to that, however still having hundreds of songs in one key is still difficult to browse through to find the most suitable one in a few minutes or seconds
Genre.
Trying to keep this very simple already by only having few, predominantly “Deep”, “Tech-House” and “Techno”
Rating.
I stick to 1 star for mellow, 3 stars for average groove and 5 for peak hour
Comments
I recently added Comments to the tracks, such as “Girlie vocal house” “progressive feel” or others
Playlists
For my resident clubs I do have playlists with about two to three hundred tracks, however I occasionally want to jump out of the playlist and that is where the searching and complications begin
META playlists
such as “All” or “Pool”, or “Favorites” or “Negatives”.
All of this seems not to be sufficient. I have so often tried to re-order my playlists and half way through realized that it is not actually a very efficient way. That is why I am now turning to you to find out what works best for you guys?
Looking forward to your replies!
I don’t mean to sound like a dick so don’t take this the wrong way but instead of spending all of this time organising and reorganising your library why don’t you just get to know your music better. Mixed in key and comments are great but nothing beats knowing your music.
I try to keep my library organising simple. On my HDD I have it organised Year>month>genre.
Then I import into Traktors collection and I have it sort by genre and key.
I spend a lot of time getting to know my tunes so this works well for me.
I have a really simple method: I have a great big folder with all my music in it. Inside the great big folder are lots of other folders, named thus: ‘artist_release name’. Inside the little folders are the tunes that comprise that release.
that is actually very true. the issue is getting to know your library better and constantly making sure you get new music to keep your weekly resident clubs happy. but you are totally right, i should do that more!!
Knowing your music inside out won’t help you if you don’t know how to find it (fast!) while playing out…
@January: you seem to be on a good way, but in the end only you can tell what works for you and what not…
What kind of tunes are you looking for when you want to play stuff that’s not in your regular playlist? If you can narrow that down a bit you can make a playlist for exactly that kind of stuff.
For example I have some “classics” playlists besides my standard playlists, so if I want to drop in the occasional classic tune I know where to look. The same could be done for e.g. “bangers”, “slow songs”, “genre X”, etc.
I also use a rating system like you and I apply this to my playlists. So I don’t have one big playlist for my gigs but several one organized by energy of the tracks, since I’m most likely to play a track of similar energy next or, when I want to switch the energy, I can simply switch playlists and have number of tracks in front of me that would work in this respect so I can focus on other things for my selection. I apply this system also to my classics playlists, so if I’m playing peak time and want to throw in a classic, I can go to my peak time classics playlist and don’t have to browse all my classics to find one that fits.
I have playlists by date whenever I purchase music, it automatically goes into that playlist.
I usually have Mixed in Key as the first in comments. Generally when I’m playing, I sort by comments and pay pretty close attention to the harmonic value, but depending on the track, there is always wiggle room where I want to go.
I generally then do a ***** star rating. ***** = must play, **** = alright for a filler, *** = very situational, * = probably shouldn’t play ever, ** = ??.
I then usually have a comment with a simple hook that helps me remember the track a little better, or a certain part of it. “High Energy” “Slow breakdown” “Fuck my nuts PLAY THIS” “Wubbles” are all examples of notes I put in comments.
That way I can keep track of everything and the tracks I really want to play generally have comments next to them of some sort or another. Always going through and adding more notes and organizing.
keep your collection small, archive songs that your not going to play, this is what my CDJ flash drive folders look like.
-Closing Songs (maybe 5 or 6 songs)
-Disco (this has original unedited 70’s and 80’s disco tracks about 30 tracks)
-Disco and House Edits (this has club edits of old disco tracks, and some “disco house” about 60 tracks)
-Good House (this is my gold, just amazing house tracks, super funky, maybe 50 tracks)
-House (this more of filler house music, not the best stuff, but tracks that get the floor moving and take up time. about 30 tracks)
-House Loops (a collection of only the best house music drum loops and bass loops. about 150 different loops.)
Thats pretty much it, if i cant get the job done with those tracks than i dont need to be playing that night lol. Keep your collection small and focus on mixing in key and good song selection.
On my HD I have my music organized by where and what date I bought it. In my DVS I organize by jungle, breaks, 4x4, core, poop, rock, and urban. I use comments to create quickly searchable tags for different types of tunes which go together. I also have a pocket notebook for keeping track of mashups, scratch routines, and tracks with breaks or emotion. Knowing all your music helps but having an enormous library on vinyl, MP3, and CD has forced me to organize and categorize.
Guys, thank you very much for your input up to this stage.
Adding what I am doing already I got some very valuable new ideas from this.
Probably the two most important:
KNOW YOUR MUSIC EVEN BETTER
KEEP YOUR COLLECTION EVEN SMALLER (and exclusive, cough cough) not just everybody will be let in
On top of that having “Bangers” or “Peak Hour” folders can surely help too, even though I have my doubts, because you do not always play the same kind of bangers in different environments right?
Also a huge fan of Bassline Brine’s “Fuck my nuts PLAY THIS”!!! HAHAHAH!
Actually, keeping a smaller bunch of tunes that you are actually going to play out with is a very good idea, and you will probably find yourself thinking on your feet a lot faster. As long as you rotate what’s in that playlist, it’s all good - and it’ll force you to actually learn how those tunes work. I think too many DJs think that having access to everything all the time is the way to go, but less is quite often more. Having a smaller pool of tunes you know inside out will make playing more instinctive.
There’s DEFINITELY an argument for keeping all of your tunes in a single folder, and doing all of your sorting via iTunes Smart Playlists based on suitably detailed tags.
I wouldn’t use iTunes man. I’ve seen too many libraries get muffed up from iTunes. Even my wife who just listens to music got pissed when iTunes reset all her custom albums the last time it updated.
my library is simple… a folder for all my music… inside a folder with old stuff i do not play. I know all my music very well. i have no need for special software
I just posted this in another thread but this is how I sort mine…
I use Live and Im pretty meticulous about my library. All my stuff is just named by key, BPM, Artist, Song, Genra/feeling, energy level from 1 to 10. So it looks like this:
I run all my stuff through Platinum notes, as indicated by the PN at the end, and also Mixed in Key.
I keep everything in one big folder. If there is something memorable in the song I will put it in the end like if its a good opener, closer, vocal hook, something like that.
I dont like mixing in all the same genre and BPM all night. Im all over the place. so one big folder sorted by key works best for me.
Yea, there are a few very small things Live could do that would make it sooo close to being perfect for DJing (IMO) its sad that it hasnt happened. Supporting tags, flags for cue points, etc. Im so happy with other areas of Live though, so I wont complain.
