Rodigan makes the point that he recently purchased Serato and says words to the effect of it “BEING LIKE A KID IN A SWEET STORE” where he states he has too many tunes to choose from. As a Traktor user myself, I feel like this at times where I don’t know where to start my sets or what to put in my sets as I’ve too much music. Does anyone else feel like this? When I played vinyl only, it was easy - I just went to the record store, listened to a load a records and bought the ones I wanted for my set. Nowadays with online music stores, I can buy loads of MP3s due to the cheap price and have too much to choose from. Tell me I ain’t the only one who feels this way.
I make playlists as I record a set and usually I shoot for 2 hour sets so that helps me trim it down. But I agree one day my wife was going though my Winamp of all my tracks and asked why I have 6 version of the same songs. Sadly because with beat port I almost always buy the whole thing I mean it’s mere pennies right.
Absolutely but just like in the old days where you would pick 100 records out of your 1000 records at home to take to a gig you do the same here, except it’s called a playlist. If someone is playing off their entire track collection then they’re lazy and ill prepared.
From 8.10, Rodigan says “Here’s a note to selectors. Too much music and in the abundance of water… the fool is thirsty. You can have too much music. The reason why I haven’t moved over to Serato, and I have bought Serato and I have a laptop and I tried it at home - it’s like a kid in a candy store syndrome. You’re sick. You have all this music and it looks like you’re reading emails in the dance. And what happens is you go to the dance and you see selectors playing everything on the chorus and just pressing button, pressing buttons. Life is not one continuous orgasm. You know. Life isn’t like that. And music has to have crescendo. It must build. We cannot be always be queuing to the chorus and playing 30 seconds. Sorry, I’m on my soapbox now but I do think this is very important. I’ve deliberately stayed with CDs because there is an element of excitement generated when you see it coming to the end - you gotta get another one in. It takes you back to the feeling of a dubplate box…”
The point I’m making though (and the one Rodigan is alluding to) is that it’s not reducing the amount of tracks you have in Traktor/Serato by Playlists but the fact with having this software we will mean we have TOO much tracks to choose from. With CDs and vinyl you could only have so much in your collection, but most DJs have hard drives with thousands of tracks at their disposal. When I DJed back in the day with vinyl, I could only carry so many record boxes but now I can carry my entire collection if I wanted on a hard drive.
Playlists are meant to emulate crates. If you find yourself with the too many options problem then limit yourself to building a playlist (order is irrelevant) before a gig with no more tracks than you could carry in 2-3 vinyl crates and stick to it.
I agree with him on the 30sec madness, but that is a problem of the IG generation.
Yup. You’ve either selected your tunes (and are prepared) or you haven’t (and are not prepared).
Back in the day, forcing you to select which records to carry forced you to be prepared.
This new tech merely allows badly prepared DJs to be badly prepared; only a problem for a badly prepared DJ.
absolutely agree with this idea… were in a transitional phase right now were were not exactly sure how to incorporate the technology into the work flow that was established.
Think we have a problem now, imagine when they find a way to link spotify into serato or traktor?!
Vast majority of the time I use Winamp and my entire collection and sticky notes on my desktop listen to Winamp on Radom and repeat and make note of the tracks that I want to work this. This is the same of my vinyl days of mixing for hours and organizing ones into different stacks to use. It’s same idea just done different.
i hear whats this article is all about, i just recently did a fresh install of Lion on my MBP. and Im only xfering the actually music that I play, Im going to keep the remixes down to a min.
Or maybe they just know their collection very well
While I prepare playlists, I will also pull from my library should inspiration occur. I have my physical files sorted my own way on my HD (by artist / folders), and I feel i know my library very well after maintaining it for many years.
If I switch software, the files remain in the same order should I need to access them that way.
Meh. I really prefer to go “on the fly” with my collection. But I also know most of my songs like the back of my hand. Because ALL I’ve done for years is listen to my collection on shuffle, so while I may not be able to name a track off the top of my head easily, I know the breakdowns and such. And even with the newer tracks I buy, it’s a matter of just listening to them a ton.
Also, when you get in the flow of mixing a lot… the pattern is pretty simple.
I just don’t like sticking to one playlist, because it allows me to flex my musical knowledge.
I agree that this is true about digital distribution of music in general. Thanks to no longer buying on vinyl ($15 per unit) and now buying digital ($1-3 per track), this has allowed me to buy a larger volume of music (and be willing to try new genres)… even if I’m unsure that it’s a track that I won’t even use much in my sets. And because my ‘crate’ has gone from 25-50 tracks now to hundreds, this is an issue.
Number one rule I’ve learned with going digital (especially when switching from CDJ’s to Traktor)… in-depth track organization (playlists/crates, labels, etc) skills is key. Otherwise searching thru my collection based on artist name, track name alone or even purchase date isn’t very efficient to find that one track you’re really looking to play next. Very true for me, as I don’t plan my sets (except for studio style recordings).
I’m with jojo and think that jprime might actually be able to do what he says, but in the heat of a mix at a club…I don’t think it works.
I honestly miss only owning 250 records at a time and only being able to carry 50. The weird thing is that I was more confident then…now…it feels like you have to have everything just to keep up with the people who do…even if you’re only playing 10 records.
i have allowed myself to buy more tracks in different genres than i used to…it doesn’t mean they are less quality…
buying music is still a personal thing to me…it will always be…do i have a couple of poopers that looked better swimming in the water? sure…but probably the same percentage as i did when i bought CDs and Vinyl…
Dumb that anyone would say that. Rodigan is stuck in old school thinking. It’s like saying he still watches normal TV because DirecTV has too many channels. It’s not that DirecTV is overwhelming you just need to find the channels that you enjoy and the rest are there and nice to have from time to time when they have a program you want to watch.
Anyone with this problem hasnt properly organized their library. I personally keep a very organized library and it personally takes me much less time to organize a potential set than it would if I had to skim through CDs and Vinyls.
Another dumb argument I hear is “my music is more thoughtfully picked because I brought CDs.” One of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard as someone mentioned my playlists are my crates, I’ve chosen all these songs by Key, BPM, flow etc.
I was riding in the car of a coworker the other day and I swear to god the mix on the radio was 8 bars of a track, then off to the next one. only once or twice in a half hour did they let a track play more than 16 bars.
