DJ VooDoo
Going into subcatagories is way too much. just seperate it by music style doesn't matter if its old or new. It is what it is, if its pop its pop no matter how old it is. Utilize the search feature if you are ever in doubt where you put it.
Posted Wed 13 Oct 04 @ 5:28 pm
bagpuss
This was an interesting topic.., and i'm still very interested to know how you guys organise your music?, as their are many new users, and also perhaps some of you changed your ways?..
Bagpuss.
Bagpuss.
Posted Sun 26 Jun 05 @ 4:34 am
DJ WizzKidd
I arrange my mp3 like this:
My Music = Root Folder
Then By Genre:
Hip-Hop/Rap
R&B
Pop
Oldies
Classic Rock
I then Have these folders:
Acappella's
Instrumental's
Sound Effects
Breaks, Intros/Outros, & Drops
Exclusive Tracks
Remixes, Blends/Mashups
Full Albums
In every folder its arranged A-Z Then By BPM & Key(code)
It works for me took some time to get it all organized but now I almost know where every tracks is.
Another tip is to go to the top folder and right click show all to view all tracks as if they were in 1 single folder also right click add to DB search to index all the tracks...
My Music = Root Folder
Then By Genre:
Hip-Hop/Rap
R&B
Pop
Oldies
Classic Rock
I then Have these folders:
Acappella's
Instrumental's
Sound Effects
Breaks, Intros/Outros, & Drops
Exclusive Tracks
Remixes, Blends/Mashups
Full Albums
In every folder its arranged A-Z Then By BPM & Key(code)
It works for me took some time to get it all organized but now I almost know where every tracks is.
Another tip is to go to the top folder and right click show all to view all tracks as if they were in 1 single folder also right click add to DB search to index all the tracks...
Posted Sun 26 Jun 05 @ 1:51 pm
bagpuss
Interesting DJ WizzKidd, we have our own ways.., and their are so many ways to tackle this.., I'm also interested in how house dj's organise their music.., how involved do you get with sub catorgories?, or do you just keep it simple?...
Posted Sun 26 Jun 05 @ 3:16 pm
mp3jrick
I do it like DJN, and to add, look at my playlist at the end of the night and add/subtract from there.
This allows you to change genre and mix right in by bpm.
I do mostly multi-age dances and constantly find myself "bouncing" around to suit one group or another.
I also look at each months genres and build "best of" folders for rapid scan and load to players, works like a charm.
This allows you to change genre and mix right in by bpm.
I do mostly multi-age dances and constantly find myself "bouncing" around to suit one group or another.
I also look at each months genres and build "best of" folders for rapid scan and load to players, works like a charm.
Posted Sun 26 Jun 05 @ 10:10 pm
bagpuss
I have tryed various systems, and eventually I find fault, and change, this is because i'm a perfectionist, organising music on computer is so much easier and more effective than traditional means, but yet, somehow, I continue to bother myself in pursuit of perfection here.
I think it is because of my style is pretty much House, this is my specialty, and everything else is a bonus, and I keep bothering myself with all the sub styles of house music, which is many, although, they are not all credible as styles, rather slight variations within a style.
What do you think?, be basic or get all specific within styles?.
Bagpuss.
I think it is because of my style is pretty much House, this is my specialty, and everything else is a bonus, and I keep bothering myself with all the sub styles of house music, which is many, although, they are not all credible as styles, rather slight variations within a style.
What do you think?, be basic or get all specific within styles?.
Bagpuss.
Posted Mon 27 Jun 05 @ 2:51 am
lemonzorba
From the DJing I'm doing - techno & sub genres - I'm finding that a noisy acid techno tune WILL NOT go nicely next to a minimalist tune, and i'm having to categorise things. Some tunes are builders, and some tunes are guarenteed to get everyone jumping. What i've found though is some tunes will fullfill more than one category, Kelis milkshake being a good example. What occurred to me the other day - is there a database program out there that can categorise your tunes? this way you could search using a whole variety of strings. Sure, yes i could program an access database, but that seems a bit longwinded. Is there a program designed to do this?
At the moment i've got:
acid house
house
techno - builders - choice tunes
- in between - choice tunes
- peak - choice tunes
- deep
-clickno
trance
but i'm not happy with this as a system. the idea of using shortcuts is a good one (thanks) cause i must admit i've been copying tunes & having them in different folders.
PS - I've just started using virtualdj, and have not got much further than playing & mixing tunes, so if there is some sort of database funtion on it, let me know & sorry for being stupid!
Lemonzorba
At the moment i've got:
acid house
house
techno - builders - choice tunes
- in between - choice tunes
- peak - choice tunes
- deep
-clickno
trance
but i'm not happy with this as a system. the idea of using shortcuts is a good one (thanks) cause i must admit i've been copying tunes & having them in different folders.
PS - I've just started using virtualdj, and have not got much further than playing & mixing tunes, so if there is some sort of database funtion on it, let me know & sorry for being stupid!
Lemonzorba
Posted Sun 17 Jul 05 @ 1:06 am
djdad
Hi...great topic
I mostly use playlists. I rarely play something out of them. I allways have around 10-15 named like dance80's, rock n'roll, rockies, rnb, nisiotika(ethnic) etc. I move the selected playlist in the middle search section and not in the right, so i can use the search engine and not "loosing" allready played songs. I have my playlists shown in the left panel so i switch between them easily.
The only problem i have is that i have to carry all my music library in an external HD, instead of carrying only the playlists. (Traktor has a function..!!! exporting playlist !!! in to a folder..that would help me a lot)
I don't make folders by artist, that would be chaos, i sort by genre, year comes with the tag, new or old is something that time changes, so i avoid doing this.
Allways sorry for my bad english.
I mostly use playlists. I rarely play something out of them. I allways have around 10-15 named like dance80's, rock n'roll, rockies, rnb, nisiotika(ethnic) etc. I move the selected playlist in the middle search section and not in the right, so i can use the search engine and not "loosing" allready played songs. I have my playlists shown in the left panel so i switch between them easily.
The only problem i have is that i have to carry all my music library in an external HD, instead of carrying only the playlists. (Traktor has a function..!!! exporting playlist !!! in to a folder..that would help me a lot)
I don't make folders by artist, that would be chaos, i sort by genre, year comes with the tag, new or old is something that time changes, so i avoid doing this.
Allways sorry for my bad english.
Posted Sun 17 Jul 05 @ 2:41 am
djbeware
Very interesting topic, this is just a guess, but I wonder? did most of you guys/gyals ever DJ with vinyl and switched to mp3's? Or have you started with CD's/Mp3's? I think this effects your organization methodology.
I say this becuase it seems whenever I talk to DJ's who have been DJing for a while and now they have switched to mp3s, this topic is the biggest issue. For instance I have over 40,00 mp3's and on any given night I could play Hip hop, Reggae, R&B, Soca, House/Dance, Retro hits and Disco all on the same night. So the way I organize is I have all my mp3's split into the above mention genres and I have one directory called Playlists, I simply go through each genre before a gig drag the songs I want to play for that night into a playlist with the same genre name, and just use my playlists for that night. If I get a epiphany in the middle of a set and I want to play a song that I didn't put in the playlist then I just browse to the directory and pick the song and play it. TO this works becuase the playlist idea is equivalent to what I use to carry which were my Crates of records. SO this works perfectly for me becuase honestly I think with being able to dj with mp3's now you spend more time than anything looking for songs during the gig, then what happens is you can not decided and you quality suffers, before I could bring 3 or 4 crates of records which is about 360 records and I would never run out of anything to play, and I really can't remember too many nights where I said "I wish I brought that record"
I think Dj's are getting too caught up with your organising of the music, I think you almost have to limit your self on what you are going to play otherwise you go insanse just looking what to play next during the gig. Maybe it was eaiser for me to transistion becuase I have a lot of records to begin with, so there was never a time when I could bring all my records to a gig.
anyways that my 2 cents, happy organising and remember what I always say "Know your music not your BPM's"
I say this becuase it seems whenever I talk to DJ's who have been DJing for a while and now they have switched to mp3s, this topic is the biggest issue. For instance I have over 40,00 mp3's and on any given night I could play Hip hop, Reggae, R&B, Soca, House/Dance, Retro hits and Disco all on the same night. So the way I organize is I have all my mp3's split into the above mention genres and I have one directory called Playlists, I simply go through each genre before a gig drag the songs I want to play for that night into a playlist with the same genre name, and just use my playlists for that night. If I get a epiphany in the middle of a set and I want to play a song that I didn't put in the playlist then I just browse to the directory and pick the song and play it. TO this works becuase the playlist idea is equivalent to what I use to carry which were my Crates of records. SO this works perfectly for me becuase honestly I think with being able to dj with mp3's now you spend more time than anything looking for songs during the gig, then what happens is you can not decided and you quality suffers, before I could bring 3 or 4 crates of records which is about 360 records and I would never run out of anything to play, and I really can't remember too many nights where I said "I wish I brought that record"
I think Dj's are getting too caught up with your organising of the music, I think you almost have to limit your self on what you are going to play otherwise you go insanse just looking what to play next during the gig. Maybe it was eaiser for me to transistion becuase I have a lot of records to begin with, so there was never a time when I could bring all my records to a gig.
anyways that my 2 cents, happy organising and remember what I always say "Know your music not your BPM's"
Posted Mon 20 Mar 06 @ 5:43 pm
musicmatch
Hi
Yes i started with vinyls back in the late 70''' The days when mixing was a art. . Myself i sort out my mp3's like this.
1 .Albums
2 .Current commercial music
3 .90''
4 .80'
5 .70.
6 ..60,50''
7. Rock
8. Reggae
9. local music
10. Classical
11. House
12. Dance Music
What i do with albums i take all the Madonna Hits etc and put it under Madonna in the album folder,i would do the same with all the 50 cents songs etc and put in under albums,you guys get it that way seems to work for me,as most of the artist today seem to bring a hit out every week.
Cheers Musicmatch
Yes i started with vinyls back in the late 70''' The days when mixing was a art. . Myself i sort out my mp3's like this.
1 .Albums
2 .Current commercial music
3 .90''
4 .80'
5 .70.
6 ..60,50''
7. Rock
8. Reggae
9. local music
10. Classical
11. House
12. Dance Music
What i do with albums i take all the Madonna Hits etc and put it under Madonna in the album folder,i would do the same with all the 50 cents songs etc and put in under albums,you guys get it that way seems to work for me,as most of the artist today seem to bring a hit out every week.
Cheers Musicmatch
Posted Mon 20 Mar 06 @ 6:51 pm
vpcdj
organizing music is tough work. its a full-time job in itself. if u sit down to listen to your whole catalogue and group it u can come up with the perfect catalogue. but its a lot of work.
eg kelis - milkshake can be in these folders/groups/playlists ALL, R&B, POP, Top 40 etc... good thing with the computer is that u dont have to have 4 of the same files. for me who works on Excel i dont even have to work with the file. i just put them in folders of 200 files as i get them.
If u place all music from different genres in one folder it even gets harder coz arranging them by BPM makes u one dimensional coz u cant think too creatively looking at BPMS.
Being a dj and a dancer, in hip-hop, just coz a song has a higher BPM than another doesnt mean its faster. eg. a song with 88 BPM like Get Ur Freak On is "faster" to dance to than say [usher] Yeah! which is 104. Coz ppl dance to the 88 like its 176 and not 88.
So arranging music by BPM doesnt really help one much. In hiphop u have slow hiphop btwn 78 and 85. and u have the fastest upbeat songs within the same range too.
Sometimes i just think Crunk is a completely different genre from regular east coast and west coast hiphop. coz of the way the same BPMS collide.
So organizing songs BPM methodically doesnt really work if ur thinking as a dancer. It just depends on the instrumentation of the song ur working with. and the mood of the song.
eg kelis - milkshake can be in these folders/groups/playlists ALL, R&B, POP, Top 40 etc... good thing with the computer is that u dont have to have 4 of the same files. for me who works on Excel i dont even have to work with the file. i just put them in folders of 200 files as i get them.
If u place all music from different genres in one folder it even gets harder coz arranging them by BPM makes u one dimensional coz u cant think too creatively looking at BPMS.
Being a dj and a dancer, in hip-hop, just coz a song has a higher BPM than another doesnt mean its faster. eg. a song with 88 BPM like Get Ur Freak On is "faster" to dance to than say [usher] Yeah! which is 104. Coz ppl dance to the 88 like its 176 and not 88.
So arranging music by BPM doesnt really help one much. In hiphop u have slow hiphop btwn 78 and 85. and u have the fastest upbeat songs within the same range too.
Sometimes i just think Crunk is a completely different genre from regular east coast and west coast hiphop. coz of the way the same BPMS collide.
So organizing songs BPM methodically doesnt really work if ur thinking as a dancer. It just depends on the instrumentation of the song ur working with. and the mood of the song.
Posted Mon 20 Mar 06 @ 7:32 pm
djbeware
I agree with you 100% vpcdj thats why I organize my files by genre and year for easiness of finding files and then playlists is what I primarily use when I am actually doing a gig. So I have a Crunk playlist, east coast, west coast ect. and in the actual playlist I can put the songs in a beat order that I know will flow properly, this way I never am searching for songs. In fact my BPM field is hidden, I know my songs so I know what goes good with what. I use the BPM as a last resort or if I am switching music and I have no idea what will mix.
Also I use playlist becuase I also use Serato sometimes, so it also support m3u playlists.
Also I use playlist becuase I also use Serato sometimes, so it also support m3u playlists.
Posted Mon 20 Mar 06 @ 7:50 pm
vpcdj
One thing which bores me about SOME software djs (me included) is that their mixes can be predictable. u can almost tell a software dj mix coz it tends to be more linear/one dimensional.
I say software djs coz this problem is not so obvious with vinyl djs.
since we're all good djs :( and we all have all the BPM ranges in our heads, sometimes u can tell after this song this dude gonna come up with this song, then that song then etc... (Its almost like listening to someone who's reading from a book; u know how u can tell they'r reading from somewhere as opposed to talking.)
same thing with mixes from someone who's looking at a BPM list. i am like that with PCDJ Red or just looking at a list. djs dont usually play randomly like this: 93, 96, 92, 95.. its gonna be more linear like 92, 93, 95, 96. and its unusual to play the songs backwards: 96, 95, 93, 92 coz ur just gonna get caught up playing the lower BPMs fast.
or if someone asks a dj to play a song he can get defensive coz the song bpm is out of the current playable range. who says a song cant be played just coz its 'out of range'? maybe the people want a tempo switch.
So to cure myself from that disease, i try to come up with the next song On The Spot without looking at a list. sometimes u could be trying to come up with a percfect mix in your head but u cant make it work coz the songs are too far apart.
i'd be nice if both decks of dj software programs had their own Master Tempos so that djs can stretch some songs and there by increasing their creativity range. this is a feature that TTs have that software doesnt. seperate master tempo feature would greatly benefit hip-hop and r&b.
or being able to change the pitch and not the BPM.
I say software djs coz this problem is not so obvious with vinyl djs.
since we're all good djs :( and we all have all the BPM ranges in our heads, sometimes u can tell after this song this dude gonna come up with this song, then that song then etc... (Its almost like listening to someone who's reading from a book; u know how u can tell they'r reading from somewhere as opposed to talking.)
same thing with mixes from someone who's looking at a BPM list. i am like that with PCDJ Red or just looking at a list. djs dont usually play randomly like this: 93, 96, 92, 95.. its gonna be more linear like 92, 93, 95, 96. and its unusual to play the songs backwards: 96, 95, 93, 92 coz ur just gonna get caught up playing the lower BPMs fast.
or if someone asks a dj to play a song he can get defensive coz the song bpm is out of the current playable range. who says a song cant be played just coz its 'out of range'? maybe the people want a tempo switch.
So to cure myself from that disease, i try to come up with the next song On The Spot without looking at a list. sometimes u could be trying to come up with a percfect mix in your head but u cant make it work coz the songs are too far apart.
i'd be nice if both decks of dj software programs had their own Master Tempos so that djs can stretch some songs and there by increasing their creativity range. this is a feature that TTs have that software doesnt. seperate master tempo feature would greatly benefit hip-hop and r&b.
or being able to change the pitch and not the BPM.
Posted Mon 20 Mar 06 @ 9:01 pm