I just beatgrid as I use tracks if I need to. 99% of the time my beatgrids are fine. Also: I don’t usually download half a gig at a time. I just got a mymp3pool subscription recently and splurged looking for tracks. Usually I’ll download 2-3 songs a week and figure out where they fit. I’m not at the point where i can really pick tracks at random so my sets are fairly planned out.
Then I just pull tracks here and there and figure out what fits. I rearrange sets constantly, destroy entire crates in traktors, and create new crates/playlists. I try to not get attached to certain transitions. That’s how I start to learn what fits and what doesn’t. Also, my iphone only has my “recently added tracks” on it which I listen to constantly on repeat.
stalk youtube.com and some subscriptions to diff artists as well as labels.
some offer free downloads(legit) others have links to beatport.com
gives me the latest out.
Really? I mean, let’s calculate: half a gig should be between 35 to 50 tracks. Which would take me about an hour (1,5h at most), I think. I just load the tracks into a deck, zoom in as far as possible and correct the first beatgrid-marker. Then I zoom out and skip through the track to the places where cue-points are in order (waveform-strip-view ftw), then zoom back in and check the cue-points if the grids still lined up. Then I lock the grid, afterwards rinse and repeat. Good task to do while commuting on a train
(Might be more complicated with genres not as stereotypical as techno/house, but for me and the music I play it works like a treat.)
I have to say though: I’m a lazy fuck and it can (and does) easily happen that I play out tracks I haven’t listened to in entirety. Oh, the marvels of modern DJing
Gridding takes me no more than 20-30 seconds per song if they are house/techno/dubstep/dnb/hip hop or whatever. Takes longer obviously to actually listen to the song, decide mix in and out points, set cue points, etc., but I usually don’t bother with any of that until I’m more familiar with the songs anyway. Then I just play my itunes on my computer by “date added” when I’m doing other stuff and when I hear stuff I really like I go back and do more with it. For just setting up grids though, a half gig of music goes pretty fast.
The real challenge is looking for things when you wind up with way too much music. The search function has spoiled me; my crates are a freakin mess!
Dude im sure all of these are really good, but try EARMILK. That website, and others like it are the best place to get music. Blogs are a really great place to find free underground and mainstream dj tunes or regular songs.
