Hey how’s it going everybody? This is a topic that continues to come up over the years and so far it seems no one has really cracked it: track organization and workflow. I’m wondering how everyone here handles track organization and what your workflow is like. For me track organization is something that can’t be ignored anymore. My library is out of control and I haven’t even done much digging because I don’t want to add to the mess. So i’m hoping to find a better system or some tools that would help.
Currently I get tracks from 3 sources: iTunes, record pools (DJCity, DMS) and Soundcloud. Once tracks are downloaded I run them through MIK. Then tracks are added to iTunes and i’ll try tagging them by genre at which point they get thrown into a smart playlist. A big problem i’ve ran into now though is even my smart playlists are starting to get cluttered. I’ve considered using beatunes but the workflow didn’t seem very intuitive.
So what is your current method for track organization? How do you keep things fresh and make sure your playlists don’t get too cluttered? Do you ever delete stuff? Do you limit yourself to new tracks? Let’s hear it!
I have roughly 12,000 tracks and don’t feel much clutter.
If I ever find myself playing a track and I have lost touch with why I like it , I delete it.
I dont think there is any issue with having too many tracks in one play list but if they are all different genres it gets a little frustrating.
Do you have your tracks in a play list or a folder then for every event or set you do create a fresh play list.
I play 4 or 5 genres so have a crate for each with about 50 tunes that I currently play in each, then I have a crate with each genre that I rarely play.
New tunes go in the current crate for the genre, Tunes that have worn a bit thin go in the old genre crate
I try to keep my track list down to a minimum. I try to never have more then 350 to 400 tracks in iTunes (covering 3 dif genres). Once a month a go through everything and delete any track I don’t love or see myself playing. Saying that everything I have ever owned/downloaded is stored away on a hard drive.
Yea, it takes some time but if you keep ontop of things before they get out of control (as you’re adding new tracks in) its relatively easy. First run through does take a good amount of time though but I find it to be worth it in the long run.
In the end its all about what you prefer. The only reason I had no problem sorting all my tracks like this was I had hours upon hours of time to kill while I was at work & able to access my personal computer.
Yeah I do something like this. A current selection of potential set songs (I try to keep it under 80 - 100 max so i’m not scrolling through my playlist a ton)
Everything else is tediously sorted into playlists of sub or sub-sub genres. I’ve stopped buying compilations because they’re too annoying to sort though and classify, in spite of getting a good price for a lot of songs. I just sit on singles I’m really feeling and then buy them as I feel I need to freshen my sets (which is like daily lol)
I keep my folders organized by year/month (IE - 1211,1212, 1301) This keeps the folders somewhat managable with volume and browsing. Then, depending on the “energy” and “feel” of a track, I’ll give them star ratings… 5 being peak time bangers, and 1 being an opening type of track. After that, I’ll enter tags in the comment field to help when searching for sub-genres. For instance, if I pull up all my house tracks, I might want to find all my Latin House tracks. I’ll tag the comment field with latin. If it’s a techno track that has a really dark warehouse feel to it with a good build, I’ll put “Dark/Warehouse/Build”. Then I do a bit of redundancy, and I’ll take my sub-genres (ie - latin house, deep house, tech-house), and throw those tracks into corresponding playlists. Then I can do more focused searches like going to my deep house playlist, and searching for comments like vocal or bouncy.
All of that is pretty much a back up though, as for gigs, I’ll dig through my MP3’s like I did my records years ago. I’ll pull a “crate” for the night I have to play that lasts me a couple hours or so. Then if I feel like taking it a different direction, or the crowd isn’t feeling the style I planned on playing, I can revert to searching through those playlists and keywords for what might work for where I need to take the music.
It’s essential to keep up with your organization on a very frequent basis ( EACH TIME you add new tracks is best).
Be consistent.
Be methodical.
Be organized.
Over time you’ll save a ton of time.
All files go in similarly named folders:
Artist - Release[label][YEAR]
Playlists:
-monthly release favs (201X-01,201X-02 etc)
-genre/slot/mood favs (which evolves over time, 50-150 tracks per list)
-Smart Playlists (according to rating level=corresponding energy level). Rating means a keeper, unrated not so much.
I occasionally add comments(vox, long break, slow peak, etc)
Not so different than sobi’s system(especially the star rating). But I don’t do folder “categorizing” I find that confusing long term if you’re having to go through various time periods/genres.
It’s all organized in itunes, and some in Traktor, and I do some exporting on Rekordbox once or twice a month (I don’t use Rekordbox gear too often, but I do keep up to date, 80-200 tracks on a usb key).
This all takes time, and sometimes you hate yourself WHY AM I DOING THIS? Vinyl is so easy…
But you get better and faster. 50 tracks are sorted tagged labelled/playlisted/beatgridded in maybe 30-60 minutes but I can go faster (I’ll start making notes as I’m buying tracks so the sorting later on goes faster).
I don’t buy tracks too often and will build shopping carts for a while before making a final purchase hence sometimes 50 tracks at once.
When playing I’ll use a playlist as a starting/referencing point, including playlists made exclusively for a show… but I tend to bounce around and not stick to one at all. Very often, seeing a list will actually give me an idea for something else, so it’s not pointless doing them.
It’s only recently that I’ve forced myself to make some playlists and used them exclusively and not bounce around searching through my whole library. It helps focusing
