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Why use SmartCrates/Playlists?
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Why use SmartCrates/Playlists?

Quipsilon 9:14 AM - 20 August, 2013
Hi all, lately I've been working very diligently to perfect the organization of my DJ music library and I've come to notice that 9/10 digital DJ's use smart playlists from itunes and or crates from Serato to sort. I'm not knocking on the method I just wanna find out if there's anything about the concept I'm missing, because personally I can't understand why so many DJ's prefer them, and heres why.
The purpose of smartcrates is to instantly make a group of all tracks in your library that entails the credentials you've given it, right.. but my first knit pick, anyone who says they don't have a COUNTLESS amount of tracks that have a tag in one genre when they believe it to be another is lying. I can't tell you how many R&B songs I've seen with a default tag of, "hiphop", and a lot of DJ's like to differentiate between the two for example. Sure, I can go ahead and retag them all as R&B, but that to me is far more work and possibly more time consuming than simply dragging and dropping into a folder manually...it just is
The biggest reason why I don't prefer using smartcrates or playlists is because they are just programs. What do I mean by that? I have very personally specific methods for sorting my music, as do many DJ's. Don't get me wrong, smart crates and playlists are obviously very specific, but they are specific towards genre, key bpm artist even particular dates added etc. I've already explained why I believe having a program sort your genres is something I just couldn't and don't see how any DJ can do, but what about something even MORE specific?
For example, I know many DJ's other than myself that like to have crates or folders of songs that are specifically full of HITS, or, "popular", stuff that wrecks the floor right? Can a program detect that? No, it's a program, it doesn't have a mind. Now sure, I can go ahead and once again like I said in the previous paragraph, change ALL the tags of ALL the tracks to contain some keyword like, "hit", or, "popular", or perhaphs do it based off of the rating feature. But EVERY time I create a HIT folder or crate? Hell no, I'll just drag and drop the bitches, way less time and work.
Now, I know itunes has a popularity system. Perhaps if they added a smartplaylist rule saying, popularity consists of this amount, maybe that'd be a step in the right direction but I honestly don't think it'd ever be accurate enough. We all know popularity differs depending upon location.
All of that being said I will acknowledge one superior advantage of the smart features and that is the ability to quickly sort by Key or BPM. Unlike genre, it's something that is fact rather than more or less preference such as the R&B vs. hiphop scenario I mentioned. However, what if I wanted to sort by key but only for tracks of a certain genre, ahaaa see we ran into that same problem again, no ITUNES! That song is NOT hip hop! It's freaking R&B!! And that one, and that one! Let me change all of these tags there's DOZENS of them! Nah thanks, I'll just drag and drop them.

Once again, not knocking, trying to see if there's anything I'm missing, feel free to leave your input and correct me :P
Dj-M.Bezzle 10:51 AM - 20 August, 2013
I think you put way to much emphasis on genre, specifically the difference between hiphop and r&b. Personally i primarily use smart crates to create folders organised by bpm and key, from there i let luck and fate take over..
SiRocket 12:43 PM - 20 August, 2013
I use smart crates that work by 4 years of grouping keywords and a rating system... Smart crates work great this way :)
Draven1327 2:35 PM - 20 August, 2013
i use it to make quick on-the-fly crates with my tags and specific keys and/or bpm ranges
DJ Art Pumpin Payne 3:35 PM - 20 August, 2013
My primary use for Smart Playlist is to have anything new I've added in the last 30 days to pop in a separate playlist. That way I can filter the hits and potential upcoming requests easier after research.

Also sometimes do a genre specific smart playlist - example - Old Gold genre is a VERY old song that may be used for weddings that I wouldn't call "Old School" - stuff like The Whispers or older Isley Bros - classic wedding songs and R&B stuff.

I would tag something newer and more club oriented as Old School but may tag it R&B or Rap or Hip Hop or even Disco so a smart playlist wouldn't work as well for that. I do that stuff manually.
dj_soo 4:44 PM - 20 August, 2013
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I think you put way to much emphasis on genre, specifically the difference between hiphop and r&b. Personally i primarily use smart crates to create folders organised by bpm and key, from there i let luck and fate take over..


I do the same but I let knowledge take over
Quipsilon 6:23 PM - 20 August, 2013
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I think you put way to much emphasis on genre, specifically the difference between hiphop and r&b. Personally i primarily use smart crates to create folders organised by bpm and key, from there i let luck and fate take over..

I have way too many tracks for that man.. seems to work for some people and it's true a DJ should really know his tracks, but I'm sorry unless you have photographic memory as a moble DJ pleasing a vast array of genres constantly adding new music, you can't possibly know it all..
Quipsilon 6:24 PM - 20 August, 2013
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My primary use for Smart Playlist is to have anything new I've added in the last 30 days to pop in a separate playlist. That way I can filter the hits and potential upcoming requests easier after research.

Also sometimes do a genre specific smart playlist - example - Old Gold genre is a VERY old song that may be used for weddings that I wouldn't call "Old School" - stuff like The Whispers or older Isley Bros - classic wedding songs and R&B stuff.

I would tag something newer and more club oriented as Old School but may tag it R&B or Rap or Hip Hop or even Disco so a smart playlist wouldn't work as well for that. I do that stuff manually.

I can def understand that, I could get into a system like that, I see you understand and agree about the genre thing
SeriousCyrus 7:15 PM - 20 August, 2013
I use smart playlists like art p, but with playlists for recently added, 3 months, 6 months, then variations on these. Like songs added in the last 3 months and has more than 3 stars, or playlists with songs that are skipped often excluded, or a playlist of new tracks with few plays. Then when i'm listening on the ipod, i can listen to my latest stuff, make sure i'm not accidentaly overlooking some, and rate them if i want to check back on them at home, or move stuff out if i find i'm skipping songs often.
Dj-M.Bezzle 8:51 PM - 20 August, 2013
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Quote:
I think you put way to much emphasis on genre, specifically the difference between hiphop and r&b. Personally i primarily use smart crates to create folders organised by bpm and key, from there i let luck and fate take over..


I do the same but I let knowledge take over

Tried that several times in my lufe....never turned out well ;) lol
Dj-M.Bezzle 8:57 PM - 20 August, 2013
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I think you put way to much emphasis on genre, specifically the difference between hiphop and r&b. Personally i primarily use smart crates to create folders organised by bpm and key, from there i let luck and fate take over..

I have way too many tracks for that man.. seems to work for some people and it's true a DJ should really know his tracks, but I'm sorry unless you have photographic memory as a moble DJ pleasing a vast array of genres constantly adding new music, you can't possibly know it all..

Im working with about 3tbs of library so i know the feeling but what works for me is having my groups grouped by BPMs of 5, because thats mixable and if your playing lets say an 80 bpm song why bother looking at 128, that shortens your library view by allllooot and you get a quick idea on what your bangers are in each crate so when i get bored with one ill just think of a song i like in the crate above or below it and mosey into my next group :)
dj_soo 9:28 PM - 20 August, 2013
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I think you put way to much emphasis on genre, specifically the difference between hiphop and r&b. Personally i primarily use smart crates to create folders organised by bpm and key, from there i let luck and fate take over..

I have way too many tracks for that man.. seems to work for some people and it's true a DJ should really know his tracks, but I'm sorry unless you have photographic memory as a moble DJ pleasing a vast array of genres constantly adding new music, you can't possibly know it all..


the idea is to use other criteria to generate the smart playlists other than just one thing. I use bpms like bezzle, then I tag genres and it allows me to parse down the list by say typing "hip hop" in the search field in serato which immediately eliminates anything that doesn't have hip hop in the tags - then I will tag by star ratings in itunes which I will then convert into color codes in serato.

I will also have a specific tag for stuff that I just don't want to see in my freestyle crates (tunes for weddings, uber cheese tunes, specialty tunes) and ensure that any track kept with that tag does not appear in my bpm freestyle crates.

Then I'll make serato crates for certain gigs, or residencies, or tours and reference between those and my freestyle crates.

The trick is to stay on top of your tagging system as soon as you get your tracks.
djnak 10:17 PM - 20 August, 2013
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The trick is to stay on top of your tagging system as soon as you get your tracks.

THIS.... I do not add anything to serato until everything I need tagged is tagged

and once everything is tagged the way you want it..itunes and smart crates are awesome!!!!
Quipsilon 11:05 PM - 20 August, 2013
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Thanks for the input my friend,
That's all well and great I getchu.. but again rather than tagging everything I'd personally just rather drag and drop. Another point I realized actually, a lot of us DJ's download from numerous locations, so the genre tags will be all over the place..Personally I have a rather humungous electro/house collection, I've got electro house tracks tagged as progressive house, club house, club, dance, all kinds of random stuff, but to me it's electro/house and I want it in that folder. Retagging the genre field for all of those tracks, and far more of them are incorrect than correct, just seems like a large amount of extra work for me in comparison to simply dragging and dropping lol..
In fact, this is the precise scenario that made me realize the smartcrates concept isn't something I can really get into..



Quipsilon 11:08 PM - 20 August, 2013
f library so i know the feeling but what works for me is having my groups grouped by BPMs of 5, because thats mixable and if your playing lets say an 80 bpm song why bother looking at 128, that shortens your library view by allllooot and you get a quick idea on what your bangers are in each crate so when i get bored with one ill just think of a song i like in the crate above or below it and mosey into my next group :)
Nice idea friend, so how do you group by BPM's of 5 ?
Dj-M.Bezzle 11:50 PM - 20 August, 2013
Quote:
f library so i know the feeling but what works for me is having my groups grouped by BPMs of 5, because thats mixable and if your playing lets say an 80 bpm song why bother looking at 128, that shortens your library view by allllooot and you get a quick idea on what your bangers are in each crate so when i get bored with one ill just think of a song i like in the crate above or below it and mosey into my next group :)
Nice idea friend, so how do you group by BPM's of 5 ?




Set each crate up by multiple parameters mine for example looks like

70 and below which is setup as bpm less than 70 or equal to 70

70 to 75 which is set up as bpm greater than or equal 70 and bpm less than or equal to75

And so forth
Dj Nyce 1:55 AM - 21 August, 2013
smart playlists are the ish. i always look dumbfounded when i see other dj's scrolling through crates.

smart playlists make your job of organizing and finding your music easier so that you can focus on playing. i think its just plain silly to manually add music to a crate when the crate has a clear purpose. just added 10 new reggae songs. let's drag it to the reggae crate. smart playlists will make that reggae crate automatically populate with those 10 new reggae songs as long as they are tagged.

but when you use smart playlists with an ingenious tagging system and tag your music before adding them to ssl...now you're music organization and searching is on steroids.

using that reggae smart crate as an example. let's say you only play 90s reggae (one drop and dancehall). if you tag the songs accordingly, now you can have a crate with 90s one drop and another with 90s dancehall. without having to manually drag anything. and you can further organize the dance hall crate by marking certain 'bangers' as such and creating a smart crate for it.

i will say this tho. it's been a while since serato has implemented smart crates. and they are not that smart at all. itunes smart playlists are waaay more powerful and i highly recommend using them over smart crates for your more complex stuff.
Dj-M.Bezzle 2:31 AM - 21 August, 2013
It still baffles me we still cant embed smart playlists
Chrisjin 2:34 AM - 21 August, 2013
Interesting. I have never used smartcrates before but after reading this, I may just have to get familiar with it
Dj-M.Bezzle 2:37 AM - 21 August, 2013
Its extra work that in the long run alows you to be lazier lol
dj_soo 3:01 AM - 21 August, 2013
I prefer overlapping bpm lists by 10.

So 80 - 90, then 85 - 95, then 90 - 100 etc.

I also double up my low and high bpms so i have playlists that have both 70ish and 140ish tracks - same with 80ish and 160ish.
Dj-M.Bezzle 3:13 AM - 21 August, 2013
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I prefer overlapping bpm lists by 10.

So 80 - 90, then 85 - 95, then 90 - 100 etc.

I also double up my low and high bpms so i have playlists that have both 70ish and 140ish tracks - same with 80ish and 160ish.

Ya i need to do that second part, i love it when serato halfs my bpms sometines because it gives me awesome mix ideas.....then again ive lost some hiphopbangers up in the 160
dj_soo 8:27 AM - 23 August, 2013
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I prefer overlapping bpm lists by 10.

So 80 - 90, then 85 - 95, then 90 - 100 etc.

I also double up my low and high bpms so i have playlists that have both 70ish and 140ish tracks - same with 80ish and 160ish.

Ya i need to do that second part, i love it when serato halfs my bpms sometines because it gives me awesome mix ideas.....then again ive lost some hiphopbangers up in the 160


it's super easy - just make a new smart playlist in itunes and make the criteria:

playlist *is* (your 70 range bpm list)
playlist *is* (your 140 range bpm list)

and then at the top where it say Match *all* of the following rule change the all to *any*
DTweed 3:42 PM - 23 August, 2013
Smart Folders/Playlist is what I use to keep my music organized at the top level so its 80s, R&B, Rap, etc.

I still use regular playlist for everyday things like if i have club bangers that wont be a smart playlist folder because that's time sensitive so I might move songs in and out of that folder.

Also in the grouping or comments i might have key words like Ruff Ryder Set, Mixshow, Dirty South where I'll create a smart playlist to access those songs quicker in one spot but im not necessarily playing everything in there.

I think you have to separate your smart folders from the folders you use to play a set with.