Track waveform in “spectrum” display (similar to TRAKTOR PRO 2) VST/plugin
Hi everyone! Hope u doing great
I´ve been recently using a lot the spectrum waveform display in TRAKTOR in order to acquire EQ information from my tracks (R,B,G). The idea is to aggregate the maximum as possible track information (like BPM, Key, style, waveform) for my whole collection so I can build better set lists sequences.
The main issue in this case is that I have more than 200 tracks in my collection and it is been very hard working to cut the spectrum waveforms from TRAKTOR (screen snapshots) and paste in a different document.
Do you guys know any alternative for that, like a VST or plugin or standalone application that could provide me a timeline spectrum waveform in a list for all tracks, instead of screen snapshots and editing the picture?
Mixed in key will tell you what key it’s in. After that I add na energy number to the comment 2 field to help narrow down results. I’ve alsobneen playing with beatunes lately to add a color or mood to the tracks.
200 tracks how hard can it be to sort them without NASA documenting them. Listen to them and get to know them if you don’t know the songs you will need to listen to them anyway when making set lists. if 2 songs are in key C and BPM 128 and their spectrum are similar are no garantie they sound good together. 1 of them could have the bass on the beat and the other of beat witch would make the bass double as fast as each individual song.
i was about to get cranky at these guys for not helping you out, as the first time i read it as that you wanted a vst that would give you colored waveforms to use in ableton or something… But, if i understand this right, you’re rebuilding your collection in another document by hand so that you can make playlists for traktor, without using traktor…? That’s insane…
That´s it!!!
I just want “colored waveforms” to be displayed in a separate doc/VST/plugin so I can normally play my tracks in my CDJs.
From the comments I got above, Im kinda starting to believe that you guys have other ways/technics to sort your tunes when building a set list which is much better and not so demanding.
To be honest, the idea to aggregate the maximum as possible track information (like BPM, Key, style, waveform) for my whole collection would possibly give me more freedom to mix my collection in a sort of more random way. But I not that experient and really appreaciate if you guys could give me tips of which musical elements (kicks, snares, hats, ambience, specific synths) should I be aware in order to match songs more naturaly, and making my setlist more narrative.
I understand gullum and I ve been hearing this opinion from many other djs. But sometimes is really hard (NASA level!!!) to hear and test combination between more than 200 tracks to build a set list. I am just looking for good softwares that could put me in a more accurate target. I mean, a program that could analyze my tracks and, if not able to indicate which tracks must match, at least could tell me which ones should not match!! Did I made my point clear so far?
I would not trust visual clues for track info for mixing.
Go through all the songs, mark the genre, bpm and especially energy level, from 1 (one star) sleepy to 5 (five stars) high-energy. If you do in-key mixing and don’t have an ear for keys then mark the key, too.
Then when you mix and have this info in the Traktor browser it’s pretty easy to make ad hoc playlists. For example, start with lower bpm lower energy songs, at the highest peak of the evening, play the higher bpm and high energy tracks. Late-late at night take it down to the lower energy ones, again.
Photojojo, I use Mixed in key currently and it really helps me. But I totaly disagree with the advantage of using BEAtunes. The color that it gives just don´t make any sense to me. Once I was testing the software and I asked to analyze my tracks, it gaves me 3 different playlist orders in 3 different analyzing orders. Maybe I am just not used to it and must learn more about how it works and how this software can help me. Could you share your experiences with that?
A friend of mine uses a track tag which is composed by 7 different colors. Each color represents a track mood (like more deep, more disco, more tech, more acid, etc..). I really tried to do the same and organize my tracks by genre, but when performig everything is different and it is easy to finds song with similar genres that just don´t fit in the mix and makes the the whole atmosphere going too empty or too full. that´s why I decided to enhance more attributes to each track.
Good advice ksandvik, I really thank you!
But, when you tagging by energy level you mix songs with different styles also (disco with Deep for example)?
And sometimes it is hard to decide if a track will be level 3 and not level 2 or level 4. Don´t you use any kind of reference to know exactly with energy level should you tag your track?
Well, I’m of the school that it’s just fine to mix and match genres, monotonic sets with the same kind of music bores me to death. But others might have another opinion which is fine.
Anyway, as for energy levels, in my classification system it’s something like this:
1 - (or 1 star if we talk about iTunes star marking) - slow stuff, ballads, ambient, not moving a lot…
2 - some rhythmic variation but not that much energy, but at least there’s some pace
3 - basic rhythm and energy, the middle ground, average
4 - beyond average rhythm and energy, high energy
5 - high-high energy, the max, whatever that means in different genres
Then you could make your own classification system based on the genre itself, looking at dubstep the majority of my tracks are classified 3 here…
As for the final playlist, you just add more energy along the evening, peaking at a suitable time, let’s say if this is a DJ gig from 10pm to 1am, you peak around midnight and maybe slow down 00:30 or so forwards.
Play them and mix them over and over. Trust your ears and heart,not software analysis or tags as tunes should link to emotion and feeling at the time which is different on every occasion. If your ears can’t tell or you can’t pick a track to match the mood then maybe DJing isn’t for you.
Not being critical but I think many DJs become distracted by all this extra stuff which impacts upon being spontaneous and creative.
In today’s Young Punx video podcast they transitioned from Sting’s 500+ old lute music recording to contemporary glitch house. I wish more DJs would be as daring.
I hardly ever mix the same track into each other… i’m not slack… just been doing it a long time… and it is fun trying to get two tracks sitting in the mix… for sure the same genre .. in a club it can keep you on your toes a bit a good dj can mix anything in.
I have mixed in front of 1,000 people using another djs records as he collapsed and I had to quickly fill in for the last half hour.. piss easy… I had never seen half the tracks in his bag before… it was so good I carried on for another hour..lol
Twenty years ago I probably mixed the same few tracks into each other… but I was learning then and we where creating the genres in the first place… so not a lot was produced of real quality… plus we played dub plates of our own tracks so we knew what would work…
In my colour spectrum display waveform in tractor some of the tracks are very pretty shades of pink, purples and crazy shit.
I’m a mastering engineer… this is mostly bollox to me what trakor does and it never… gets the gain function correct.
I like the coloured waveform for two reasons it looks pretty and gives me acid flashbacks…
You can set your own mood color in beatunes. But let me clarify here, that I’m not a huge fan of beatunes for various other reasons. I think you need to get rid of the idea of having the wave forms there to help you pick songs. All this time you’re spending on that would be much better spent listening to and studying your music.
