I think your talking about the key of the song. Melodies gives the song its energy.

No it's not the key. The key is just the group of notes that are used. You could play Bartender or Goodies in another key and they would still have the same energy. In fact every time you pitch a song up or down it's in a different key, assuming you have keylock off. So key doesn't dictate the energy of the song. Minor or major key helps set the mood only because of what our ears are used to/trained to, but a song with a minor key can still be happy and a song with a major key can still be sad. I mean if you know music theory, every key has a minor version and a major version, like C major is the same as A minor.

DouggyFresh, I know exactly what you mean, and you gave great examples. It just has to do with the energy of the song. I've been wanting to come up with a way of tagging them too.

In the slower bpms, more hihats and percussion in fast rhythms help give it that energy. But yeah, it's all about the overall energy of the song.

I think you are thinking too hard.

The way I tag "intensity" is in the comments field.
I just rate from 1 to 5 (5 being the highest energy)

what would that be for?

Dayumn, that sounds like programming music for a radio station...
You guys thinking too hard, just throw it in the crate.
If you know your music, you know what fits together and what's not, let your brain do all that work in the background, it will provide you the right decision, if not, I'm pretty sure you'll know it after a one time experience.

But it's about organization and variety for me, if I'm playing that slower groove, I keep it going for a few songs, then usually, people decide to get a drink or whatnot, then I speed it up for a while, slow it back down (both BPM and intensity).

It may sound like radio station programming, but it's actually room programming.
I was taught this concept by a 35 year veteran club DJ (who still DJs today at clubs).

You can play for the crowd, beat match songs perfect, but you don't want the crowd to be running you, you want to be able to run the crowd. You want to make them stop and go when you want to. I can let some of the crowd trickle over to the bar, get some drinks, I change the intensity/groove and pack the dancefloor again. I have certain songs I have mentally tagged that I play to do this, and others are just "filler songs". Basically, you have your slow grooves, and your fast dance songs, the rest are somewhere in the middle. But with an ever expanding library of songs, and the rate that top 40 cycles out to bottom 40 it's hard to keep track of it all. Especially if I'm sitting in bed listening to songs on the computer and trying to fit these never been played songs into these categories. This kind of thing is the thing that really separates the guys with Virtual DJ and auto sync from the people who really rock crowds.

I was just hoping that someone had a good name for it, I think WarpNote hit it right on. Intensity is what I was looking for.

I got you (no homo) Doug. Because of intensity, energy and all that I said it's like music programming for a radio station...
When it comes to R&B I know my ish...and even if Bartender is 105 BPM and One night stand (Big Boyz RMX) is 106, those songs are so mellow, that I can only use them in the pre and after time, again it depends on where are you playing, of course...
But what about mark the songs with their intensity or energy level or however you want to call it and then put 'em in crates. Use the smart crate feature and get it done even faster, then sort by genre and boom you got all your R&B songs with intensity 3 in one folder and so on...

At the lower bpm range (80ish): the one's you're perceiving as higher energy move most crowds at twice that tempo, and the others don't move them at all. At the higher bpm range(105ish): the first list of songs have (mostly bass) beats that move crowds, while the songs in the second list don't. It's a matter of the beat conveying energy that makes people want to dance.

Sometimes it's an endless pushing energetic flow made by the voice like Sean Pauls So fine, Watch them roll,....and the stuff that's going on in the song beside the bass line, because a bass line at let's say 70 BPM will always be a bassline at 70 BPM, but there is a difference between an Slow Jam at 70 BPM and So fine at 68 BPM.

Yo Jensen, the reason I started tagging with these numbers, was the absence of star ratings in SSL. So I might write "2 Star" or "3 Star" for something that has medium intensity/energy.

However, my star ratings is not for intensity alone, but how well I beleive they will do on the dance floor (not how much I like the tune myself). Got no use for high energy/intensity songs that don't work on the floor... ;-)

This also makes for a very good way of organizing my SSL/Gig library, when I initially listen to a track, I add a star rating (I've set up smart lists in iTunes, so I also can add ratings with my iPod) Any track that don't deserve a star rating will get the comment "-", which makes it very handy when I need to weed out tracks to make room for new ones. I play an eclectic mix of music and always struggle to keep the library slim enough for smooth SSL usage.

I've set up smart crates for genres, so it is just a matter of sorting by comment (ie star rating) to find the bangers in a rush.. ;-)

Now, before you go on about radio programming and auto pilot, it's not like I depend on star ratings for doing my sets, I always think ahead 1 song or 3, planning my direction. Still, I think the ratings sometimes help me find that old gem, forgotten hit, really cool remix, smashing b-side, etc, that I didn't think of. It's just about having more options really.

Before converting to SSL (about 3 years ago) I didn't have the same need, as my memory is more visually based, and flicking through the crates always got my associations going for the next tracks. The cover artwork in 2.0 really helped me in this department, but ratings work so well for me, so why not take advantage of it...

Thanks for showing and explaining you way, Warp and much respect!
Sharing your knowledge, letting people know, discussing things and giving inspirations, that's great! That's why we all love this forum, don't we?

I look at it from a producer's point of view. I think intensity has a lot to do with what is going on between the kick and the snare, like the high hats. I know when I'm working on tracks in the slow 75-85 bpm range I can make it seem more intense by adding rapid high hats or drum rolls to the beat. Eve's Tamborine got the tamborine's going in the background and that gives it a lot of energy. Another part of the beat that can make it more intense is the pitch of the melody. Look at usher's Yeah and T-Pain's Bartender.

I don't think he's thinking too hard. I think he's doing a good job of analyzing the music he plays and how to work it. More D.J.s need to do this. Most of the new and up coming D.J.s think all you need to do is play the hot shit in any random order. But who is taking the crowd on a journey, or just fuking with thier emotions? It's like playing Jedi Mind tricks on your crowd. You move them from the bar to the dance floor and they don't even see it happening to them.

I honestly think its all about your ear for music. As a DJ you should know the songs you are playing and intensity. Its not so much about organization. There's a lot of songs with the same BPM but have completely different melodies and keys. Its just knowing your music and your ear for what you are playing. I understand you want to organize them by crates, but be real. if that's the case you might as well organize EVERYTHING in your library because its not with just Hip Hop and R&B. That's just my opinion though! =)

hey guys. there are cords that help determine the groove of a song. that is why you could find an upbeat fast tempo song BPM 78 to 84 and another song with the same tempo sounding softer. the bpm of a song can be laid in either half or full scale to create the necessary cords to determine whether the song will have a happy hip hop or sad rnd feel. so the songs could have the same tempo but different BMP structure. a BPM laid in full scale helps create a groovy jam while halving that bpm yet with the same tempo gives the song cords that provide it with and RnB feel. these cords dictate the number of instruments, their pattern and wight of the kick.