MIK, PN, Itunes, Mac and Traktor

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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MIK, PN, Itunes, Mac and Traktor

Hi, Newly inspired as I am expecting my first controller in the coming month, I have decided to get my Music files in order. I have seen Eans most recent method and would like to to do something similar.

Reading many post here I have come across many examples where guys build up there collection in a certain format, only later deciding to use some new software of program to enhance/Modify collection. For this reason I just have downloaded both MIK and PN. Maybe an overkill for a beginner but id rather do it right from the start.

My collection is within Itunes, and it is also copied to file under “itunes libary” Does this mean that i essentially have the song in two locations, If so, is it taking up twice the storage space, and, if I were to delete a track in itunes is it auto deleted in the folder and vice versa?

My basic plan is to run all my tracks via PN first, the tracks will then be stored in a seperate folder, I can then compare them to the original recording. Once happy I will replace the original and export it to an external hardrive, freeing up space and giving me peace of mind. Then I can run the tracks via MIK and store in itunes, then transfer to Traktor and Beatmap.

Inspired by eans recent tips, I have decided to not keep my whole collection in Traktor but rather just a few essentials and analize tracks as I select them from my itunes library, which leads me to my next question, If i have already mapped a track and then I decide not to keep it in my Traktor collection, when I later recall it from itunes, will my mapping still be there as its written to the tags???

Apoligies for my appallingly Simpleton questions, but like I said, im abouts to undertake this mammoth task and would love some input and direction, so i dont balls it up.

:open_mouth:

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You are on to a winner using those progs right off the bat man, honestly it has taken freaking ages to run our tracks through PN (about an hour per album). MiK isn’t too bad but its still a time consuming process. Personally i have a separate collection for traktor, but use itunes to organise everything. if you are gonna use PN i would suggest two things:

  1. there is no option to adjust the gain and it sets it way too low IMO so go get mp3gain of the interwebz and normalise your tracks with that.
  2. Use the clip detection and dynamics adjustment but not the pitch correction. (screws up grids)
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Thanks for the reply, If i were to utalize Mp3gain, what Is the workflow involved? PN (with pitch correction unselected) to MIK and then via Mp3gain. If I use Mp3gain, what is a Db level you would use?

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If you have copy to iTunes selected in your preferences, then when you imported them to iTunes, it would copy, not move them, so yes, there will be doubles. When you delete them in iTunes, it will remove them from where the database looks for them, unless you tell it to not permanently delete the files in the option that pops up when you delete files in iTunes.

Complicated question, if you make it that complicated. With the same instance of traktor, yes. If you switch to a fresh install or different computer with Traktor, and you’re using mp3’s, yes because the info is stored in the ID3 tag. If you use other music formats like FLAC or AAC’s, it is hit or miss.

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Thanks again fro the advice, much appreciated.

@ JesterNZDJ - I just had a search for the mp#gain program, when rsearching it demonstrates an option to eithier to use MacMP3Gain (application only) or
MacMP3Gain (project and source files)??? which one, the later or the former?

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get the app version. use mp3gain after PN. basically just load your tracks in there and hit “track analysis” it will tell you the relative volumes and as far as the level goes, thats up to you. i would suggest 94 db. no more gain knob for you mate lol

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When you say that using the pitch correction screws up your grids, Is this only applicable to tracks you already had gridded or does it apply to fresh tracks aswell?

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to be honest i’m not sure as i stopped using it after the first batch. you’ll work out your own system for processing tunes; geez i used to just load em up and play them straight away lol, and didn’t worry about quality just crankd up the gain on the crap sounding ones ha.

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cheers