+1

+1

There were a lot of people who wanted this in this old thread I mentioned above, but I think the reason we have to wait for it so long, might be the technical difficulty to accomplish this. I realise it is not an easy question.

I can imagine it would be raining complaints when people move songs or folders around on their computers, or move their libraries to another computer, resulting in broken links.
That is if the links refer to a certain path on your computer.
Maybe the solution for that problem could be that Serato just saves the songname-artist-album info of the compatible songs in the ID3tag, and that it uses the built-in search function to navigate to the song you choose from the list...

Another use for this feature would be for scratch DJ's, they can attach the right scratch samples that fit each particular track, for immediate access, not having to search for them in a huge crate of scratch sounds...

I know there are workarounds for all this, but I still think this is the one feature I'd like to see in Serato... - next to this one serato.com - but that's off topic

+1! This can susbstantially improve my set and add even more spontaneity to them

Please make it happen!!!!!

It would be a really nice feature to have!

Currently I am creating crates to store mini-sets, let's say, two or three tracks that sound great.

It would be nice to have it on a controller in the future.

+1
In my opinion besides technical skills and taste of music, library organization is one of the most essential things to be a successful dj

+1

I've asked for this before as well, as well as an auto-recommend functionality (rekordbox 3.0 has nailed it, and the approach in traktor DJ on iOS app is simple but effective). See here: serato.com

Can't be that hard to link 2 (or more) tracks together, can it now!!

Yeah I suggested a tool that does exactly that….

- The Shrink - A tool that dynamically filter the Serato library by user settings to fit different mixing scenarios.

serato.com

@Diego Sucaria: I don't mean an extra button on any controller. I mean a soft-button that can be triggered on the existing controllers. (or clicking onscreen) There are still unused "Shift + ..." keycombo's available to do that on Pioneer DDJ controllers for instance.


@TrashGordon:
Very true. If you take yourself serious as a DJ you must deliver consistently good mixes, not hit and miss. You can't do that without spending an awful amount of time just organising your library and finding out what works and what doesn't.
This new feature would definitely make organising more fun and dynamic instead of a drag.



@ DJwhizkid
While I like your idea a lot, as an additional feature, it is not at all "exactly" like my idea.
Of course you get my support, it's definitely a good useful idea, I like it.
However: There's quite a difference:
With my suggested link button, I'd have 100% control over which tracks should be linked, my musical human ear analyses whether two tracks fit or not. I personally prefer to be in control myself.
Your tool is based on computer analysis. I'd like to point out that computers are not always analysing music correctly, there's always a margin of error: especially with more complex syncopated rhythms and melodies.
Your tool would work fine with regular 4/4 house/tekno/hiphop... genres, let's say the majority of mainstream dance music, I'm sure. But not every DJ mixes that kind of stuff.
I can assure you Serato isn't always accurate when analysing the BPMs of the more complex syncopated music in my library. I don't even use the key analysis, I trust on my ears, but I imagine that's the same story. I think there's a limit to what programmers can achieve with automated music analysis.
Even if a computer detects another bunch of songs with a compatible Key+BPM+Genre to your currently playing track, you really can't be 100% sure it will match. It's more likely, and therefore a useful tool to help prepare your sets, but not a guaranteed match.
There's another problem with defining "matching genres", that is a highly subjective matter. How can a computer determine what will match? And how many DJ's have correctly labeled all the genres on their tracks? I think you'll agree with mee that "tagging" works better than just one "genre" field, but still.
I've had very surprising results by mixing seemingly unmatchable genres together. And there are so many crossover genres and subgenres that it's getting absurd to try to pinpoint every track to make it fit into a genre. I could elaborate more on this but I guess you know what I mean. You'll probably say: "then choose a profile that doesn't involve genre parameters, if that doesn't suit you." But that leaves only your "profile 1" (BPM filtering), and you can already sort any playlist by BPM, that feature is already there for me, and I use it. So my argument about the subjectivity of genres still stands.

So let me conclude: your idea is cool and would probably work for the majority of dance music, but I'd still prefer my link-button where I can decide and have more control.
Your idea would work instantly but with more errors, depending on the complexity of ones collection, my idea would certainly not produce instant results, it will take some time to build up a link library (like a web, or like neurons are connected in the brain), but keeps expanding, and the longer you use serato, the more solid, fool-proof, and usable it becomes.
Both ideas are valuable and should be considered, maybe we can have both :-)))
Let's agree that library management is still something to work on for the dev team.
They can learn as much as looking at ideas of other vendors, as listening to ideas on the forum here.
I can also see why your idea would probably appeal more to other people than my idea, as the majority of users probably plays music that is easily analysed without much errors and fits into a clear genre.
Time will tell...
Good luck and thanks for your input.

Oh right. I see and get the clear difference between them. They have a common general purpose of helping you to decide on which track to play next...
Your suggestion is very useful as well.

In my opinion it will work best if you could select a group of tracks and link them through a button- it can be a small link symbol somewhere around the library area, and when the option to "show linked tracks/songs" enabled in settings, whenever you play a track that have some linked tracks to it they will appear at the top of the library with a special highlight color.

By the way, both of our ideas can work together when linked tracks won't get filtered out by the shrink filtering. Thats way you'll have some linked tracks at the top followed by the filtered library. Sounds pretty neat to me.

this could be implemented on top of the existing smart crates. It's essentially a smart crate for the loaded track, showing the tracks that the user previously linked to it. When you load another track, the smart crate updates with its linked tracks, etc. Since RekordBox already has this feature and is promoting it pretty heavily, I am hoping Serato will notice. It's especially important for Serato DJ because without a controller hooked up, you can only organize and analyze your tracks. It has to be state of the art in that respect.

+1

Good Idea!

This is an absolute must! I've wanted this for years!

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Would this increase storage? As in, if we create a link to every song, isn't that the same as having songs the size of crates? Or does metadata like that not take up space?

I am pretty sure that the link data will take up very little space. It will be exactly like having a reference to the same track in multiple crates or play lists. The track is not duplicated; they are multiple references to the same track.

Rekordbox has implemented this functionality without much technical difficulty. I am sure Serato can get around to it.