id take the time to organize all my mp3's into really specific folders.

exa.... Hip Hop\East Coast
Hip Hop\Dirty South
Hip Hop\Old School

whatever works for u. Then take each folder and make a relative crate in Serato for it. So your crates will look like

East Coast
Diry South
Old School
etc...

It will make incredibly easy to manage and update ur library if ur organized like this, especially if u ever need to setup ur laptop all over again

here's another way. I personally don't feel the need to have my entire mp3 collection wherever I go because there are tracks in there that I would never need to play. I think part of that is planning and organization.

So, in my case, I copy all of the tracks that I ever play to one location on my hard drive "c:\dj music". While it may be handy to organize stuff into folders, it is somewhat pointless because I will never touch that folder structure, especially because I'm moving tracks around in SSL. Plus, it makes importing new tracks *very* easy. Just copy the new tracks into the folder and import.

My main reason that I don't organize mp3s into folders is because it's too restrictive. In SSL, you can put the same song in multiple crates, and just by doing that, you've made the file structure essentially pointless. Example, I have a crate called hip hop and a crate called reggae. I may have a track that fits both genres so I will put it in both crates. How would you mirror that with folders? Put a copy of the same mp3 in two folders? of course not.

Also, Serato does not (and has no utility to) mirror your folder structure so you're kinda wasting your time by organizing it all into folders.. that is unless you're pulling in your entire MP3 collection that you access with other programs. Then I would move towards DJ Mo Rada's setup, although, I think you'll still end up breaking convention by putting the same tracks in multiple crates. I think that's one of Serato's most sellable features. Gone are the days of flipping through records to make sure you have all the applicable songs for a certain gig. Now you just create a crate for a type of gig and drop tracks in there and off you go!

"Restrictive" is the key word here. Thank you for this enlightening response.

I've been lurking for quite some time and expect to be "disc-free" shortly after the New Year once things settle down a bit so I can get comfortable with the Serato. I've been struggling with the various means by which all the jocks are organizing their music (iTunes, folders & more folders, etc.) I think this is the most logical solution.

Thanks again,
Blade

allright i see how to make a new crate in serato but all these other ones that are there are botherng me..how do you get rid of them i would just like to see the crates i created... so ok i make new crate "crate1" how do i add songs to that crate???? And once i do they will allways be there???? And about them other ones that are there are they handy should i use them????
So msoultan put the songs i want into a general file like you said djmp3's on my hard drive im going to allways leave them there evan after i add them to the crate??? Sorry im kinda slow you have to explain to me step by step PLEASE..... Thanks for your replies T-Mack

Hit control, shift delete to get rid of a crate. To add songs just browse wherever your MP3 music is on and drag that file or folder to the crate you want it to go to. Once you do that yes they will stay unless you delete or move them around. I think you need to try and read the SSL manual.

yea that would be the easy way to read!!!!!!!!!!
thanks viio0633!!!!!!!!!

What DJ Mo Rada said actually works extremely well and is the way I've been doing it for quite some time now. It makes it super easy to add new music (add songs to appropriate folder, reimport the whole folder. It only adds new additions) Makes it super easy to rebuild, restore, and organize. iTunes is my enemy

I hear ya J-Love i hate itunes.....

Does anyone use the itunes thing similar to Ro Mada's method? I use the same method as Ro Mada, but I find when you bring in new mp3s and drop them in the respective folder, then drop that folder into Serato. It can be a long process sometimes if you are adding several songs.

I can't see much of a difference between this and reading from itunes. Any suggestions? I have noticed that itunes does not read the BPM tags well.

Oops -guess I should have read the last three post, I got ahead of myself.

I found this to anser my question on itunes: www.scratchlive.net

organizing your mp3's in the filesystem isn't restrictive at all. this is your 1st point of failure. most people don't take the name to properly name their mp3's, organize them and tag them. so when you import them into itunes or ssl, you have crap.

you should at least organize your mp3's by artist or genre on the filesystem. their are very legitimate reasons that you may have to view the filesystem and not id3 tags. so how will find a song that isn't named correctly in the 1st place?

i personally organize all my mp3's my artist. and i have a few special folders i.e.

_DigiWaxx
Kelly Clarkson
Mobb Deep
Various Artists
Soundtracks

in the end, its all up to user preference. and all offer above is a tip.

I think it's very important to have your mp3s tagged correctly because otherwise you're just playing blind - that's a given.

However, if you're putting multiple tracks in multiple crates, sorting mp3s has afforded you nothing as far as SSL is concerned, if anything it makes your life more difficult when you add songs to your SSL library. What if you have a hip-hop remix of a rock track? There are so many tracks that break genre/artist/style boundaries that sorting becomes useless, especially because SSL doesn't make use of the underlying file structure. It can become especially annoying if you realize that you incorrectly catagorized something and move it and now it breaks all of your file links in SSL! (this is also assuming you're not using iTunes, btw)

Right now, I just copy any new tracks for SSL into one big folder and import all the tracks from that folder and sort into crates. It's easy to find the new tracks in SSL because you can just sort by date added.

I might mention that I also keep my SSL MP3s separate from my normal listening MP3 library. I think many people that use the same library for everyday listening and SSL, and/or play request gigs would probably benefit from a folder structure because their libraries are much bigger. My library reflects the tracks I play, not the tracks I might be asked to play. But those are two different worlds of DJing so I guess it affords me the luxury of having a smaller library.

mike

Here's how I organize my music files & make my crates.

1) I make sure I edit all my ID Tags (it's a mess in SSL if you don't do this.)
2) I make sure I have all my tracks with the BPM by using MixMeister
3) I then organize and categorize my music by genre out side of SSL. (example: Hip-Hop, RnB, Alternative, Disco, House, etc...)
4) In SSL I then create my Crates:

(this is how the average dj creates their crates)
Hip-Hop
RnB
Alternative
Disco
House
Club Hits
Party Favorites

(THIS IS HOW I CREATE MY CRATES)
Dj Uniq - Hip-Hop
Dj Uniq - RnB
Dj Uniq - Alternative
Dj Uniq - Disco
Dj Uniq - House
Dj Uniq - Club Hits
Dj Uniq - Party Favorites

5) I then import music in my crates as needed and into their specific crates!

(This helps myself & those dj's who do clubs, special events, mobile gigs and have other djs bring in their crates. Personally this helps me out a great deal.)


I'm still new to SSL, but so far I feel this is the best way for me and hopefully some help for others trying to figure out the best way for themselves.

- Dj Uniq
www.myspace.com
djuniq@gmail.com

Uniq,
I like your idea about prefixing your crates, especially if you are hooking up an external to play out on other people's setups.

I have to say, the crate organization issue is an interesting one. I can see where it would actually be handy to sort out folders as then you just drag everything in that folder straight into your designated crate.

On the other hand, I make specific crates for clubs I play at. So, for example, we have a club called Sachi here so I created a crate with music that I would most likely play there which keeps me from hopping crates as I cross genres quite often. Also, what ends up happening is that I end up having the same song in many crates so it kinda breaks the folder convention. For me, however, I organize my crates according to the gig so I'm not hopping crates. If you don't mind hopping crates and/or use the prepare crate, then uniq's method would work nicely.

The workflow is really the key and obviously will vary from DJ to DJ. The whole SSL thing has definitely been an interesting challenge for me in switching from vinyl to MP3. Now I have to know everything by name instead what the record sleeve looks like!

seet Uniq thx 4 tha reply great ideas..

I set up my music on my external hardrive.

I have all my genres + funkymix, xmix, mashups etc., than anything new goes into a "new music" crate and every month or two, I organize the new music into it's designated area. I then delete the crates and import them again.

This might sound weird, but I do this so my hardrive is always organized, just in case the crates are lost and also because it helps me remember all the new music.

yo whatz good guys,this is d.j. tommy gee mixx from wzfx foxy99.1 f.m. i use a powerbook g-4 mac,and i'm having a problem my ssl locking up!!! i can just be strooling thru music,and my computer will freeze,and while using serato,my laptop just stop!!!! do anyone knows whatz going on? holla back tommygeemixx@hotmail.com or yahoo.com

Hey tommy Gee, you prolly want to post this in the help section, not in a message thread about crates..

mike

Subcrates in the forth coming 1.7 are great (using the beta).. So I have my carts setup like this

House
-House_0001_electro
-House_0002_prog
{etc}
Breaks
-Breaks_0001
-Breaks_0002
{etc}
{etc}

The sub folders match up with the CD's I have burnt. That way I can smoothly transition from CD to Vinyl. I have also done the same with my vinyl.


I also have a folder called "unburnt_music" which has all my latest downloads that I haven't burnt to CD

-Otter

Don't forget your color codes, in 1.7 you can BATCH color code your tracks.