How DJ's organise their music libraries - DJ Tutorial
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- Опубліковано 6 лип 2024
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In this episode of Monday DJ Tips, we speak to Crossfader DJ's Jamie Hartley, Holland and Danny James and ask them to share a little insight into their own music libraries. From colour coding to organising by key, there are various ways of organising a music library to personalise it and make it work best for you!
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can you guys make a video with transition edit tracks that would be pretty helpful
a very useful video.RESPECT you guys
File organisation is such an underrated aspect of DJing/performing.
That's not DJing, that's programming and being a BJ (button jockey). Go grab about 300 12" remix records (vinyls for you poseurs) and fill up crates to about 50% so you can thumb through them and then use two turntables and a plain mixing board. Learn how to use a stop watch to get the BPM of your tracks and since we can't remember everything, create a book with your BPMs for future reference. That's how you learn to DJ. You're driving an automatic transmission car claiming you can drive like a pro.
@@FirstLastOne How do you organise your current library of tracks? Or is it only records as you described above?
@@FirstLastOne Say you’re meeting a buddy for drinks and you’re gonna run late. You could text that person, or you could grab a rotating phone, dial his number, start 3x over because it rings busy or doesn’t answer, and finally get on to telling that person you’re gonna be late 5 min. Because the low-tech option is more cumbersome doesn’t mean it’s better.
@@FirstLastOne You sound like one of those old bitter DJs who looks down on anyone that uses technology that goes against what you were brought up on. Sorry bud, it's 2022 and everything is way too advanced to waste time on that type of thinking. There isn't a DJ Bible where people must abide about a certain set of rules to learn to DJ and no one is going to go back to the old ways of doing things when they are much better and efficient ways to organize and DJ music. The days of lugging crates are far over unless you're an uptight purist. File organization is key to making sure you are prepared to play for your events especially if you're a multi-genre DJ...that is part of being a DJ. Everyone's approach to learning and DJing is different and at the end of the day, it's what works best for them.
@@proverbialwhatever depends … Messy People know exactly where their shtuff is … as a comparison.. most of us have 100s/1000s pics on our phones
I kinda know where all of them are.
It’s “visual organization”. Sometime “logical order” can be the equivalent of tiny screen Menu diving on some Hardware 🎛🎚
Here's a tip if you want to name a folder/ crate so that it always appears at the top to of the list start the folder/crate name with a underscore _
I also use genre-based folders but with sub folders sorted every song by energy. For example: "Dance" with three sub folders called "Dance - Low", "Dance - Mid" and "Dance - Peek". That way i can achieve certain energy levels at certain points in my set.
As a open format dj I use the same genre based system in Serato... very efficient, effective, and fast. I created a folder and labeled it "Hott Boxx" where I did sub crates of all the genres that I play and put the newest tracks in there that are hot and heavy in rotation. I rotate them out and move them to the main genre folder every 30 days so that everything in the Hott Boxx folder and sub crates is indeed current and hott.
'peak' not peek..
Organizations is a must for all djs.
Thanks jimmy,the part where you add the bpm to the key is great,not having to scroll so far to find a song in the range i.m worki g with,never realized this was an option,your library organization is excellent,cheers from bc
Really great video guys. Keep it up 🙌
For me, the easy way is to organize strictly by genre. Like I have a House folder, inside I have a Jackin House (I main this), Progressive House, Old School House, etc. folders. I do this with basically every other genres I like (for example, Drum & Bass, where I have Liquid Drum & Bass, Old School Drum & Bass, etc.). And every subfolder has the track sorted by month of release
my organisation stems back to my vinyl days.
i had my vinyls sorted to genre/style.
i still have this in my main explorer files on my pc.
each folder is a named genre and in each is the appropriate style.
no matter what software i use i simply keep my root files from my harddrive.
just simple record boxes (folders) of styles.
various software has its own management but simple file organisation keeps it multi platform.
styles are broken down into sub folders for ease.
my tracks are star rated and file tagged to key and comments etc....
This was super helpful thank you for creating this video 😁
Great video and useful info from all three of you guys. Just a quick question, when adding music into hardrive first will it update into rekordbox automatically or do you have to do that manually?
Thanks
Dean
Thanks guy's! Very helpful Tipps!
Sick this is amazing so helpful
thanks ! it is really amazing! thanks for sharing this can also see how it worked out~
Thank you ! Next video talk about DJ record pools
Does Serato Pro support syncing creates to directories so that adding/removing files in angolder does the same in a crate?
I'm just getting myself together on this file organization part. I've always been able to put my hands on what I needed when I had vinyl... Not with this!! To understand what I'm doing.. just imagine.. reverse cooking... Gumbo!! That's what it feels like to do these crates and folders!! Instead of just typing in an artist or song... Whew .. wish me luck.. thanks guys for this video. It does help.. 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿
Thank you gentleman this is great.
this was helpful, thank you
i sort mine by genre then vibe, for example. deep house, then downtempo or club. or house then funky or club. i then take each sorted genre and creat a folder with each 'club' track from each genre. its an easy way of browsing all my club track in each genre without having to swap folders a lot. plus you can then sort by key or whatever your order is.
Very cool to see, Thanks
Great info thanks guys
1:42 to skip the preamble. Great tips here thank you
I have a different question..
Whats that mini marquee display sign showing all the ads from FB / IG? Looks cool! I want to get one?
Very helpful guys. 🙏🏾🙌🏾
I keep mine super simple i use Rekordbox and folders are by Genre and with the Genre folder is subfolders which are year and then in those playlists they are colour coloured Red, Amber, Green so basically a traffic light system but for me that indicates what part of a set i will put them so intro, Harder music, Outro. Then i have a temporary playlist which is a set i created so ill literally drag and drop tracks that i want in my set into the temporary playlist.
Thank you. Super useful :)
Thanks for this video 👍
Very good 👌
cheers lads, very helpful
Cheers! Very helpful.
How do I set Serato crates by BPM and ALSO sub categorise by key as is stated? Thanx & I'm enjoying your videos!
Awesome video
love it keep it up 😃
Quick question crossfader. Can you have both crates of downloaded music and streaming from tidal at the same time?
My question is, How did Holland get the BPMs and the key organized like that together?
So I see that everyone create crates and playlist within the software. I create crates for a set I'm going to perform. I still manges to leave my music organized in the root of my hard drive and point to it from explore in Rekordbox. The folders are by different genres. Doing this option, will it cause any issues down the road?
Great stuff
Wonderful Job, great sharing 👈 😃
Thx bro for making this video. I want to know this from years. And thx for reading my email..
Always found iTunes way of file mgmt to be so clunky and it feels old school in playlist creation. Thanks for tips on managing in DJ software. Gonna go back and freeze frame lots of segments here to pick-up your tips and apply to my files. Thanks for sharing your pro tips! :)
What program do you used instead of itunes? I want to export my dj playlists from there!! any suggestions?
Is there a way to copy a song from your main folder to a folder for a specific night without losing the hot cue's etc? (rekordbox)
I would like to make a video about how I organize my music I use many of the idea mention here and lot of other . I do not play often and music tunes are growing to fast. I can't keep track of it that easy. One thing that is very important for a good music library organization is having clean IDtags or meta data on your songs.
Couldn't agree more on IDtags. I've had a 2 year process of cleaning up 60 GB of songs with bad or no meta data on them...
Thank You
How lonc did it take to organize that?
I am organizing my HipHop Crates and find it difficult to define proper subcrate folder names that cover every HipHop Style but wont get too big. Could you share DJ Hollands HipHop Subcrates here? Or could anyone else share their HipHop Crate Management with me? Thanks! ... Would really appreciate this!
where do you guys get all that music downloaded? i use beatport but i think i can only stream music with their platform, so my questions it will bere from where do you guys download all the songs? you just buy one at time, or there ar other methods? thank you! ☺️
thxs again cheers via dallas xx
Any ideas on how to make the songs appear with numeration? track number 1 2 3 4 5 etc..i see the total number of tracks but no numbering, like danny has in his rekordbox? thank you!
ok so i understand how to organize my library but how do u know what is warm up, build up, heavy tune, main set and commercial?
So funny how every djay organizes their library so different. Since I’m a mobile djay I sort all my music by decades, Top 100 of each era, Top 200 most requested and also different curated sets for cocktails, bars, lounges, weddings, etc. These can be my go to crates depending on the vibe. Just dove into Rekordbox from SeratoDJ and used Rekord Buddy 2 to transfer my hot cues, loops, etc. How do you maintain your music library to be able to switch back and forth with both softwares? Want to be able to sync both libraries and able to play either when needed. Thanks!
I use to work as an events DJ and this was what my work laptop was like. Decades work well when you're doing random events because one day it could be a 20 year old crowd the next a 70year old crowd. So just doing genres or energy levels doesn't work.
Great info. Thanks for the info from all three of y’all. Question: How do you keep the songs in Serato DJ Pro in the order you place them from the start? Whenever I close the program it scrabbles the tracks.
Go to the crate and then click the '#' toggle on the top of the crate. The same when you would organize by 'Song'.
At the top of the BPM list, you have a small arrow that points up and down. Clicking this arrow you will organize the entire crate from high to low or low to high if you click it a second time. Once you have the list as you prefer. Hold down the command key and click the "song Key" arrow, it will then organize the song key column without affecting the BPM column. This is also true for any other 2 columns you would like to organize. However, it only works on 2 columns, not 3 or 4 columns. It is a handy tool and helps with song selections and mixing in key when you don't have a set playlist.
Every track in my list is a Go to track...
😂 for real, me too... why have shit in your library?!?
@@billyracks true
Hi. Great advices. I have a question please: How can you set you library in serato by BPM and by key at the same time like DJ Holland did?
At the top of the BPM list, you have a small arrow that points up and down. Clicking this arrow you will organize the entire crate from high to low or low to high if you click it a second time. Once you have the list as you prefer. Hold down the command key and click the "song Key" arrow, it will then organize the song key column without affecting the BPM column. This is also true for any other 2 columns you would like to organize. However, it only works on 2 columns, not 3 or 4 columns. It is a handy tool and helps with song selections and mixing in key when you don't have a set playlist.
@@marcellodaureli6555 Thanks!!
Marcello D'Aureli UA-cam is a shitty app and I can’t read the second half of your response. Can you please?
Can anyone give me any tips (or maybe a good tutorial on yt) on how to organize your songs in these 4 sections he marked with A,B,C,D. Is there a rule of thumb arcording to how many beats it should be? How do I decide on where to put these sections?
I've just got onboard with serato Pro so have spent the last 2 days sorting my lists in combination with mixed in key which saves loads of time with cue points..... I used to use Traktor which is great as well but I worry that this is about to disappear, not sure what's going on at NI...... Decent insight, especially Holland who's kept it super simple, nice idea with the green colour coding 👌
Glad you're up and running!
Hello, does anybody know if you can sub categorise in key in recordbox?
Really nice video! Does anyone know the software or app called “finder” which is mentioned in the video around 11 minute? Please let me know more details regarding this software or app I’m really interesting to learn about that thanks 👍🏼
Sandun Dhananjaya thats the apple equivalent to Windows Explorer. Its macOS specific
So helpful! The intelligent playlist tutorial, is that one out yet? Need it so much!
There is more information here on our website: www.wearecrossfader.co.uk/dj-lessons/automatic-music-management-did-you-know/
@@Crossfader that link is broken. Has the info changed?
@@djvelvetgrrl Yes it has thank you for pointing that out the new link is
wearecrossfader.co.uk/blog/automatic-music-management-did-you-know/
@@Crossfader thanks so much!
“They’ll leave a heart if you’re early” the legend says
how do you sub categorize a crate by bpm and key ???
With the phase out of itunes, can anyone suggest a program that I can organise my mp3's the same way on Mac? even exporting my playlists? they are extremely organised in my itunes and with the phase out I know im going to have issues exporting my playlists when the time comes. Should I be creating tags and metadata for each song file so I can replicate playlists in other programs that support mp3??? Any help much appreciated
Thx U 🎧🎤🎧
i made my first song on Ableton and its actually pretty dope (i think). Any chance i can send it to you to give me your opinion?
have already music in hard drive and it is not organized is there a software to easily sort the music
Question - You've downloaded 3 songs. All three would work as House and 1 would work as Disco. Would you copy all three to House, then manually add to the House Crate as well as copy the single file to the Disco folder then add to the Disco Crate in Serato? Is there a way for Serato to auto-add anything new within your folders to avoid duplicate entries in Serato? I've mistakingly copied a folder multiple times to Serato only two find 3 entries for the same source track. I delete the two that are not relevant and end up with the single entry and no source file.
Would be nice to see how tracks are "processed", before they get into the folders/ crates/ playlists.
itunes to convert id3 tag to v2.3, mixed in key 'just because I own it', Serato DJ scanning in a crate. Then when I have selected tunes for a mix, I cue point, set gain, loops, test bpm and any temposhifts and make sure the beatgrid is right (which is pointless because I strictly use Scratch Live).
What version of serato is this ?
Holland touched on something very important, and the reason why I am here. That is, he fundamentally organizes in file folders using the MacOS file system. After 10 years, things change. You might change software, computers or whatever. Organizing directly in the filesystem is the best protection against those changes.
With any of this software, there is actually no need to create file folders on your hard drive. You can literally have one folder with thousands of songs and then let the library features (crates etc) organize things according to what you want. When you move to another software or whatever, you will lose all of that organization and this has happened to me several times.
Thanks!
this should be a on going topic
Does serato store music like a cloud
Great tutorial, did they guys do anything to break their library out of itunes to stand alone folders?
I was coming from an old laptop so I highlighted tracks in iTunes, created a genre specific folder on a external hard drive and dragged them all in. Then on the new laptop I dragged this genre organised folders into my music and then if you drag a folder into serato it will automatically create the crate for you :)
@@djholland4235 I use rekordbox (still ver5.8) and I'm wondering whether I can simply drag a new download into a folder in finder so it automatically appears in rekordbox in the respective crate, too? In other words, are folders synced to crates (or whatever you call them in rekordbox)?
I have a question, Im planning on buying the Denon Prime 4, I know i can prepare tracks with denons analyzing software but what happens if I play in a club and they only have pioneer gear? Will pioneer players still accept hot cues set by denon software?
CursedSound Nope, they wont. For Pioneer gear you need to put your collection into rekordbox
@@yvo95 Alright thank you for the answer 👍
How do I add preview to my playlist like the second guy does?
Any help will be appreciated!
If you mean the "preview" column with the waveform, you use Rekordbox, which has that feature. I don't think that is a feature of Serato.
If you're in Rekordbox and you don't see that column, right-click the header (row with the field names) and select "preview".
Great video I want to get away from iTunes and use my main hard drive ,what are the step to do it?
Just copying my previous reply as I think it will help you too :)
"I was coming from an old laptop so I highlighted tracks in iTunes, created a genre specific folder on a external hard drive and dragged them all in. Then on the new laptop I dragged this genre organised folders into my music and then if you drag a folder into serato it will automatically create the crate for you"
Thanks
That was facking great, thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm on Rekordbox and the custom tags features has turned me into a bit of a maniac, I probably waste way too much time on organizing rather than actually mixing, but it does make using the related tracks section a breeze if you're feeling stuck.
Yes, it takes too much time when I categorize songs by genre. In particular, the songs incorporate more styles, and my ears can no longer help me categorize them.
hollands logo on his laptop is dope!
Thanks! I was fortunate enough to have a super talent graphic designer work on it whilst he was on placement in Amsterdam!
I use the force!
The BPM is strong in this one...
QUESTION: is it possible in rekordbox to select a folder and show all the songs in all the playlist within that folder? Kind of like Serato when you can see all the songs within a crate’s subcrates.
Unfortunately not and I wish you could also! I think they should replicate Serato on this one.
Crossfader that’s a bummer. It’s literally the only thing stopping me from switching. Thanks for the quick response.
I also neeed this function Asap!!
If u have a song in one crate. But let’s say u want to put it into another folder can u copy paste?
drag from crate to windows explorer folder, I do this to populate USB sticks with database stuff for wav files. Opposite to dragging from folder into crate.
How do you guys would suggest on organizing music folders in laptop?
At the top of the BPM list, you have a small arrow that points up and down. Clicking this arrow you will organize the entire crate from high to low or low to high if you click it a second time. Once you have the list as you prefer. Hold down the command key and click the "song Key" arrow, it will then organize the song key column without affecting the BPM column. This is also true for any other 2 columns you would like to organize. However, it only works on 2 columns, not 3 or 4 columns. It is a handy tool and helps with song selections and mixing in key when you don't have a set playlist.
Genre > Decade > Year
Does Recordbox has a history function too?
Yes they do
How do you sort by BPM and Key at the same time?
Click one of the headers (i.e. BPM), then crtl+click the second header (key).
Which laptop did you upgrade too??
Personally I moved onto a 2017 13"" macbook pro touchbar with a i5 processor, 8gb of RAM and 500gb ssd
I need help with my dj creats
At 2:30 in, he says he's organises his files by BPM and sub-categorised by Key, how is this done in Serato please?
Matthew Pepler was wondering the same thing
Matthew Pepler Just figured it out. You just have to Command-click the column. Never knew that, this is great..
wow I watched it!!!!!😍😍
Nice vid ! i just wanna ask what does bass house and commercial house mean?
It's just me being lazy to be honest, bass house contains heavier tracks around 128bpm and commercial house is more chart, pop, main room stuff. The plan is to break down House into smaller categories when I get time :)
@@djholland4235 hi. Thanks for the reply. I often heard the term "commercial" .. does commercial mean a pop/top 40 song remixes into house?
@@rogue66v Everyone has their own take but for me commercial is anything the main stream radio's are playing so yes you are right in my eyes.
Why should I organize my files in folders? Wouldn´t it be good enough to put all the files in one folder an let the software do the job? Sort by genre, artist, album etc.?
What software does that Sherlock ?
Hell no
@@CP-kb1du rekordbox, traktor, serato. they ALL do this. that's what this whole video is about genius. the guy is asking what is the point of sorting your music in a database AND manually putting the files in folders with the same name to match that database. and frankly the only point doing this is OCD on the part of the DJ. back in the day having separate folders faster IO speeds for your hard drive.. ie compartmentalizing your data. however with ssds, and operating system improvements, that's not much of an issue anymore. you can jump everything in one folder and have the same retrieval speeds as you would compartmentalizing them on an old computer. DJ software like record box tractor and serato are simply database management software. it doesn't move the files around there is no point in having separate folders to match the crate names.
What do you do when you have a song that’s been analyzed by serato dj pro but the bpm is some high 181bpm number?
Manually override the BPM. After you load the file click on the actual BPM number (over the time stamp of that song) and tap (click) to the Beat while the song is playing, it will adjust the BPM to the song. Once you get it you can lock the BPM in or you can just enter the BPM if you know what it is. If you re-analyze your entire crate or just that song you will lose that info again. To prevent this find the song in your Serato library (lower section of Serato), on the left side there is a small song note in a white circle, press command key and click on the circle. A lock will appear this will prevent any auto adjustments to affect this song. In my library of approx 5000+ songs, I will have about 30 songs locked. These are the only ones that get messed up with any re-analyzation of my crate or individual songs. Good Luck and Enjoy your new library...
set the option for bpm scan to be lower than that. You can set like 75-150 or something. Most of the music I play is over 180 bpm so I'm fine.
Adding right tags to the tracks is key, date release, if you have a huge library, you will find out you have too many duplicates of the same, for a hip-hop head, getting a balance of explicit and clean version songs matters depending on the venue and event or surrounding, might have kids around. In an album only 4,5 people will know the songs you're playing, 80% of people would not know track 7 by fatboy slim, only download the tracks you need.
is 320kbps MP3 itunes good for clubs & festivals ? Or I Need the 1411kbps FLAC
FiaSto first get yourself booked in a festival and then start to worry about 320/flac
DigitalDJTips just did a video about "should djs abandon mp3s", conclusion was that the vast majority of people can't tell the difference, 320k is fine.
How do you highlight the “go to” tracks in green on that sidebar?
Just click (or right click) on the box and you can choose a color; there's 9-12 options.
steeb2er that was my first thought but I. Dont think it worked. I will try again later. Thanks
It does nothing if I click on it or right click. It just highlights the row
steeb2er never mind. Got it. Thanks
@@joeruvolo2544 Just click on the grey box immediately to the left of the song title. Right or left click, it brings up a color selector box.
Missing a #breaks crate but love the bass house too!
153,855 subs 18 months ago. That's not bad guys, more than double the number in that time 🎧🙃🎧
The guy in the back ground is tired...seems bored...
What laptops do the use???
I run a 2017 13"" macbook pro touchbar with a i5 processor, 8gb of RAM and 500gb ssd
Such a good video,
I like to have my stuff very simple. No more than 20 tracks per folder. I have main folders with genres and on them, folders with dates. Then I sort my tracks by energy levels and feelings I get when listening to them. One of my personal golden rules is to never get a USB with massive storage size. That way I always have what’s essential on them. Most of the time I would play with two USBs and a third one (as a “just in case USB”) on my pocket. That way it feels faster to get to the right tracks and is also a good way to really get to know your music, which are key factors when DJing.
So in most of the cases, the things I would carry with me when going to play are:
Headphones, Vinyl bag (only if there are turntables at the club), and of course my three beautiful USBs (which I named the same way as my cats).
Hope this helps:)
Thank you for this information
I have mine 70's 80's 90's hip hop rap and gangster rap various dance music rock and metal then any other on its own. So if get any new music cd al make a crate name it as the album say 70' skool days then drop it in the appropriate crate. Oh have soul n funk any dance music what ever year or type such as drum n base jungle house tech house piano house old skool stuff or anthems all go in various dance. Anything pop music depends on year goes in in one of the 70's 80's or 90's crate. I have a crate for beats n scratch tools i have crates that are sets where there done in key or in key and same beat. The only crate thats on its own is jean Michele jaer box set
how does he have the camelot key in recordbox???
@Josh Kingdom thankyou
Thanks josh
Easy use mixed in key to find the key of your tracks and write the tag to the comments. there is an option in rekordbox to not overwrite key so the mixed in key remains in the key field. If not just use the comment field as your key reference