How do you organise your music (for Dj'ing)?

Zascar

I’ve just gone and bought a set of CDJ 800 Mk2’s and progressed from mixing using a laptop that contains all my music, to having to have it all on CD. I’m so used to being able to scroll through an explorer window and drag the one I want into play, or simply right click to preview in headphones. Now I have to categorised it all on CD and I’m wondering how to do this most effectively.

The CDJ’s play mp3’s (thank god) so I can fit somewhere around 70 tracks per CD. I know a lot of CD’s think this is too much to manage and only have 8-10 per CD – but I’m too lazy to burn that man CD's.

I’m interested to hear how everyone here does it and if there is any particular method which is most effective?

Seanie M

Hi Zas,

I saw your thread about getting the 800's - sweet move! The stuff you'll learn with them will make your head spin!

I rewrote my CD collection about 2 years ago by alphabetical artist, then track (like This Band Here - Their Song). I back up every CD I had at the time to MP3 (min 224kbps) and put the originals into storage. As I have my working day centered around the PC, and almost every device in the house capable of playing CD-RW MP3's, the choice was easy to make. Therefore, it was also handy for me to rewrite my DJing CD collection alphabetically. It took a while, yes, but when you cover everything from nightclubs to pubs, weddings to parties, and all the bits in-between, alphabetical is handy. Every time I write a new CD with the latest (downloaded) tracks, I just do that CD alphabetically too, calling each one Newest & Latest XX (where XX is the latest sequential number.

I now carry over 230 audio (WAV?) CD's in a nice carry case 16 X 9 X 6 inches, each disc in a soft paper sleeve. When one degrades for whatever reason, just whip up the artists as before and burn. Easy peasy.

As a tip for the above if you try something similar, I use Easy CD Creator (still on 6, no point paying extra for an upgrade, but 7 is also out). Easy CD, unlike Nero, will display your list of audio tracks in the programme window as you would see them in e.g. Windows Explorer (Nero seems hell-bent on finding something in the ID3 tag to use that gobbledeegook instead). Therefore, just print a screenshot of the playlist in Easy CD Creator window (Alt+'PrntScreen', then paste into Word, increase the size of your 'picture') and print it, then cut it and insert it into the jewel case, or (as I do) stick it to the paper sleve with tape. Saves having to do any writing (or even re-typing with Nero of the playlist), AND if you have 2 CD burners, you can do 2 different CD's at a time, getting the job done faster.

Seanie.

PS. I'm still on DJing with regular audio CD's because my preferred players which I bring with me everywhere are my CDJ-500 MkII's - they still have better realtime control with the jog than the CDJ-800's or 1000's, which I also have - plus, they are more portable!)

Zascar

Hey Seanie,

I usually categorise my music on my hard drive according to style anyway. I don't think alphabetical order would work for me really. I have folders like: Funky House, Tech/Tribal House, Electro, Commercial etc etc. What I think I'll do is just have one style per CD and burn two copies of each, cause I'll generally play a lot of the same style back to back. I'll prob then print out a sort of booklet with all the names and numners and just work from that. Much easier than trying to read the tiny screen.

Zascar

Just found a program that is great for printing directory trees etc with all the details you want in a variety of formats..

http://www.coolutils.com/HowPrintDirectoryTree

jonny68

I use this (although i need to spend a few hours really sorting through my vast collection of MP3's)



http://www.mp3-tag.com/

Executive Steve

records, in a bag, grouped into clumps of tunes that work nicely together

rollers in the front, hectic stuff at the back, tunes for teases etc at the back

a pen-torch

whiskey for the afterparty

Riesen_Meal

I usually only put 6 tracks on a cd (for mixing purposes) and never use the 1000s Mp3 functionality... As I feel things would clog up far too easy!



Cds - In a monthly order!

IE - June 2007 - Disc 3 - 6 Tracks

1.XXXXXXXXX
2.XXXXXXXXX
3. XXXXXXXX
4.XXXXXX
5.XXXXXXXX
6.XXXXXXX



Then whilst burnin them in Nero, do a quick CD inlay with Nero Cover Designer, hit "insert tracklist" and bobs your uncle

God bless Nero cover designer!

adnans

pop them into seperate crates in scratch live plus some help from http://forum.scratchtools.de/index.php

Ronan Raver77

3 caselogics with everything from hed kandi,60s,70s,80s,90s,house chill out...... Some cds in categories indy dance etc.

I have two seperate oldies collections which are catalogued on two seperate booklets which are sorted by nam title and genre.These 2 collections are not backed up on computer...
Im dreading tidying everything will take me forever.Also have 20-30,000 tunes on external hard drives that need to be arranged with my cds.I dont use a laptop while djing just use cds...