DJ Music Collections

[sammyhkhan]

Aloha pienewsers! Long time no see... :clapping:

 

My music collection is starting to get pretty big. Up until now, I have sorted all my music according to sub-genres and then record labels. Many of my mates love sifting through my stuff, but I am finding it hard to remember all my CDs and tracks. I just tend to forget about some CDs and tracks and then every now and then I find an old gem that I love but have forgotten about completely. It sucks!

 

So, how is your music collection organised? How do you make sure that you have got the phatsest tracks at hand when you are practising or hitting the DJ booth?

 

All and any kinds of advice is much appreciated!

[Anoebis]

Well, my collection is splitted in some subgenres:

 

Goa

Ambient

Suomi/Experimental

Darkish/Forest sound

Vinyls

 

and then 3 small groups

 

good full on

good progressive

"normal" trance/goa-crossover

 

Within those subgenres I simply list all my cds alphabetical, both compilations AND albums, this means Balagan is next to Battle Buddhas for instance... But if you want to remember all your great tracks, the only "safe" way is excel... I have excel sheets with over 100.000 fields filled with information about tracks etc... if I have to play a trancy 6-8 set tomorrow, I simply have to order the list right, and I get a list of all "good" tracks within that sub sub genre

[Ormion]

I list them as Albums & Compilations in alphabetically order.

 

I thought many times to split them in sub genres, but I have many cds which don't fit anywhere

[NEMO.BOFH]

Before: Label -> Artist

Now: Label -> Cat#

 

Also, special releases such as the HH 10"s are seperate... Or Harthouse UK / Frankfurt are also separated hehe My system only works if you know your collection good enough though hehe, otherwise by Label and then Artistname (A-Z) is much easier

 

Oh, and my mp3 collection Label -> Format -> Artist (i.e. Harthouse - Vinyl 12" - Resistance D)

[Goa-Head]

I put all CD's in year order. Don't know how many people use this system.

[NEMO.BOFH]

I put all CD's in year order. Don't know how many people use this system.

I am in a way, since its all in Cat# 001 002 003 004 005...

[sammyhkhan]

Thanks a lot for the tips. I sort stuff almost like Nemo, but might start running one or another trick : )

 

 

I have excel sheets with over 100.000 fields filled with information about tracks etc...

 

Anoebis, what type of information do you write down? Do you describe the track etc?

 

Cheers!

[frozen dream]

keep all da killarrr trex on my harddisk, lossless

[Basilisk]

I keep track of my collection in a database using Rapid Evolution 2:

http://www.mixshare.com/

 

It is very useful to have key and BPM information for all tracks. Using the 5-star rating system is also very helpful; I work it like this:

5: all-time classic,

4: excellent,

3: in the pool,

2: common track,

1: ignore.

 

Then when it comes time to play a set I can use the database to pick out all full-on tracks between 140 and 144 BPM with a rating of 4 or 5, for example. This would give me hundreds of songs to choose from (I have a large collection) but it makes it much easier to sort from there.

 

A note about key: you can't rely on a program to get it right all the time (although RE2 is often very good). What I do is scan through my rated collection and start verifying the 5-star and 4-star tracks with the built-in piano. In this way I have been increasing the accuracy of the key information in the database.

 

Another sorting task I perform is recompiling. When I've gone through and rated a whole bunch of CDs I turn to the ones that have one or two highly-rated tracks in amongst a lot of commons--then I rip those out, meld them with tracks of a similar style, burn a new CD, and input that back into the database. This has the effect of refining what ends up in my CD binder. Of course, such a step would be unnecessary for those who are playing from a laptop or external hard drive...

[karan129]

I prefer Genre - Artist. If you sort by label than you need to have a really good knowledge of music and the genre to effectively browse. Genre -> Artist is a much easier way to get to what you want.

 

Besides, looking up the genre/catalog# for each release and renaming is a major pain.

[supergroover]

by year/ month. And by genre: prog/ fullon/ chill out/ non psy chill out

Then i make a little paper with the info of the tracks that i stick in my dj case. This makes it really easy to read within seconds what track i like on that cd and what kind of track it is.

[Sideffect...]

albums, comp's, ambient

 

and then by year...

[NEMO.BOFH]

I prefer Genre - Artist. If you sort by label than you need to have a really good knowledge of music and the genre to effectively browse. Genre -> Artist is a much easier way to get to what you want.

 

Besides, looking up the genre/catalog# for each release and renaming is a major main.

Uhhhh

[NEMO.BOFH]

I keep track of my collection in a database using Rapid Evolution 2:

http://www.mixshare.com/

 

It is very useful to have key and BPM information for all tracks. Using the 5-star rating system is also very helpful; I work it like this:

5: all-time classic,

4: excellent,

3: in the pool,

2: common track,

1: ignore.

 

Then when it comes time to play a set I can use the database to pick out all full-on tracks between 140 and 144 BPM with a rating of 4 or 5, for example. This would give me hundreds of songs to choose from (I have a large collection) but it makes it much easier to sort from there.

 

A note about key: you can't rely on a program to get it right all the time (although RE2 is often very good). What I do is scan through my rated collection and start verifying the 5-star and 4-star tracks with the built-in piano. In this way I have been increasing the accuracy of the key information in the database.

 

Another sorting task I perform is recompiling. When I've gone through and rated a whole bunch of CDs I turn to the ones that have one or two highly-rated tracks in amongst a lot of commons--then I rip those out, meld them with tracks of a similar style, burn a new CD, and input that back into the database. This has the effect of refining what ends up in my CD binder. Of course, such a step would be unnecessary for those who are playing from a laptop or external hard drive...

Looks interessting Will check it out actually!

 

I also use a MySQL database for my mp3s, which I am starting to put all my cds and vinyls inside as well. Re-Structure though, and its a major pain!

[Basilisk]

RE2 stores information in an XML document... that has to be good for something!

[sunwolf]

Rough subgenre group -> artist -> year -> title.

 

I have a good memory & generally remember all the years and my favorite tracks from every release.

[kathmandu]

keep all da killarrr trex on my harddisk, lossless

hi frozen dream,

 

what is the best way to put cds on Hard Drive 'lossless'? Is the Window's Media player rip function good enough for that?

 

There are now 1TB Hard drives in the market I have found..

[sunwolf]

Use EAC. The drive configuration can be complicated... the default configuration probably isn't correct.

[Kryll]

How do you make sure that you have got the phatsest tracks at hand when you are practising or hitting the DJ booth?

 

personally ?

 

i think that's truely a bogus way of handling mixture

wanting to play the fattest tracks u have is a bad method to start mixing with (imo)

 

 

but what are u really after with this thread ?

 

how others organise/keep-track-of their collection ?

or how others do this in practical terms of getting into a powerful mix, using their collection ?

 

 

i personally use discogs to keep track of what i have, and what i seek

but how i sort things has nothing to do with the knowledge/insights i have over my collection of records in perspective to making a mix

[kathmandu]

Use EAC. The drive configuration can be complicated... the default configuration probably isn't correct.

what is EAC?

 

ah... from google it says Exact Audio Copy.

and this then can also be burnt into cds in future if needed in cd format? this is pretty cool, i hope it really is exact audio copy.

[NEMO.BOFH]

what is EAC?

 

ah... from google it says Exact Audio Copy.

and this then can also be burnt into cds in future if needed in cd format? this is pretty cool, i hope it really is exact audio copy.

EAC is THE most accurate CD Ripper. You can use FLAC to compress later on

[karan129]

Uhhhh

I mean pain >_>

[Mike A]

hi frozen dream,

 

what is the best way to put cds on Hard Drive 'lossless'? Is the Window's Media player rip function good enough for that?

 

There are now 1TB Hard drives in the market I have found..

FLAC

[Sideffect...]

EAC is THE most accurate CD Ripper. You can use FLAC to compress later on

EAC rules, but it can take a while with a damaged cd,

 

it uses lame.exe to compress, I thought that was the best one ?

 

or is flac for another extension ?

[sammyhkhan]

personally ?

 

i think that's truely a bogus way of handling mixture

wanting to play the fattest tracks u have is a bad method to start mixing with (imo)

 

 

but what are u really after with this thread ?

 

how others organise/keep-track-of their collection ?

or how others do this in practical terms of getting into a powerful mix, using their collection ?

Thanks for your opinion! Or can be taken as both or either or.... Everybody else seems to have understood what I meant?

 

So, how is your music collection organised? How do you make sure that you have got the phatsest tracks at hand when you are practising or hitting the DJ booth?

 

All and any kinds of advice is much appreciated!