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

Zascar · 25-06-2007 03:53PM #1

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 · 25-06-2007 04:48PM

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 · 25-06-2007 06:05PM

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 · 25-06-2007 10:00PM

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 · 27-06-2007 10:55PM

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 · 28-06-2007 04:51PM

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

02-07-2007 03:07PM

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 · 09-07-2007 10:48AM

pop them into seperate crates in scratch live

plus some help from http://forum.scratchtools.de/index.php

Ronan Raver77 · 10-07-2007 07:10PM

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...

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

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