Also I have a very hard time figuring out how to organize, I started to organize by month but I thought it was too specific. Then I thought maybe I'd organize and create a folder by year and sub folders by month, any opinions on this?

itunes + smart playlists + good system of tagging = best way to organize.

honestly what dj_soo said. i was against itunes at one point in my life but its all i use now.

for instance, if you have your release dates tagged, your bpms tagged, your genre's tagged you could just create a playlist that looked for all hip hop tracks made in 1996 that are between 95 and 105 bpm without having to move a single file anywhere...

haha and Dj soo makes it sound so much easier, your right Itunes it is.

Funny thing is I have never tagged a song before I'll have to look that up on the forum

When using itunes to organize...Do you also make seperate folders to save on your hard drive or if you go to itunes folder the smart play lists should already be in there?

yea, tagging your collection from scratch definitely takes a long time... and you have to stay on top of tagging all your new tracks, but once you have a good system, it makes freestyling through your collection so much better...



I just let itunes organize for me - i don't even bother to look in the folder anymore, I just use itunes go through my tracks - a lot of modern designers are desperately trying to shift away from the old folder/file paradigm of organizing into a more database-oriented system...

If i need to isolate the actual file, I just drag and drop it from itunes or select "reveal in finder" on the track.

yea, tagging your collection from scratch definitely takes a long time... and you have to stay on top of tagging all your new tracks, but once you have a good system, it makes freestyling through your collection so much better...



I just let itunes organize for me - i don't even bother to look in the folder anymore, I just use itunes go through my tracks - a lot of modern designers are desperately trying to shift away from the old folder/file paradigm of organizing into a more database-oriented system...

If i need to isolate the actual file, I just drag and drop it from itunes or select "reveal in finder" on the track.

you can use an applescript (dougsapplescripts) to add a tag to a number of files at once without overwriting the existing tag. i use "add/remove group" to add/remove tags from the grouping field. ssl can search the grouping field so it works nicely.

iTunes plus smart playlists, or iTunes + codes, or iTunes + codes + SSL smart crates
or Media Monkey + SSL.

So I heard on the Media Monkey cause I don't use that. lol

I was exactly the same way, I never let iTunes organize my files and always did it manually. I had folders for genres, then from there folders for years, then months.

Example: Music > Club > 2011 > June 2011

It was a good system at first, but when I hit a certain number of tracks, it just got too difficult to keep track of it all.

The truth is, the physical location of the files should only matter if you like your crates to match your folder structure. But having crates with a very large number of tracks can be hard to find that one perfect song.

So I finally checked that little checkbox in iTunes and let it organize my library by artist/album. I then unchecked it (leaving the "copy to iTunes" box checked) because I tend to change tags and I don't want the files moved/reorganized every time I change a tag.

Tags are incredibly useful, whether you use iTunes smart playlists or Serato smart crates. But to use them, your tags have to be accurate and specific enough for your needs.

I use Media Rage, it's a Mac application that gives you a lot of tools for managing your music files and tags. Search Google for it, I highly recommend it if you're on Mac and looking for a Media Monkey-like program.

DJ Joe Fresh I see 845 is in the building.

Thanks for all the tips hopefully I will get some time this weekend to put them to use and start organizing.

I hear you Dj soo problem is starting a good system that works for me, because my mind is all over the place with what I want to do, I think I saw on another post in this forum you said you had your by BPMS as such 89-94, 95-99, or am I thinking of somebody else?

I go by overlapping sets of 10.

So 95 - 105, 100 - 110, 105 - 115 etc.

When I'm in a certain range, I can then type in the genre I'm feeling at the moment so it pares down the list. Then I sort by artist, date added, key, or color code depending on what I'm playing at the time.

To get color codes, I tag my tracks with stars in iTunes, create a smart playlist for each star grouping (since ratings aren't saved to the tracks) and then mass color tag the files in scratchlive.

Good looks I was curious about that, because If I'm just making folders on the desktop and dragging into serato I can't have the same song in 2 folders unless I duplicate the song. I have a hard time figuring out what to keep on the macbook and what to send to hard drive. I'll have a song that I know i'll never use but I still can't bring myself to delete it because its that time I delete the song is the time I will need it

big reason why I switch to itunes and straight playlists. For instance what happens when you have a tune that has both a reggae and a hip hop verse in it? For me, I just tag the track with "reggae/hip hop" and bam, it automatically goes into my reggae smart playlist and my hip hop smart playlist.



For songs like that - and other songs that I will only play in certain, non-regular gig situations, I tag them with 2 stars and set my regular bpm/freestyle smart playlists to exclude any tracks with 2 stars in them. That way they only appear in my "wedding" list or my "shitty top 40 garbage" list...

the only problem with this system is if you're super-used to using your smart playlists, it makes working on someone else's computer a pain cause it's not set up the way you want to.

Every couple months, I'll mirror my smart playlists with regular serato crates on my external so on the occasion I do plug into someone else's computer, I still have all my info the way i want it...

I just started grouping with the smart playlists, I don't know why I was so against it to begin with. Only thing that I am not sure of I have a macbook, do I go into the file finder, go to itunes folder and create a music file and store all my music there or?

Also at the moment in itunes, I have un-checked copy files to itunes media folder when adding to library should I leave as is, or check because I will be using itunes as the my main music organization now? I unchecked because I had a problem with duplicates.

lol I never understand why people are against it. Here is what I do: First of all, I let iTunes organize my music. I see no reason not to, but I know not everyone does. Drag all your music into the iTunes window (not the folder, but the actual application window). The result is that you will have some duplicates—iTunes keeps all your music organized in your "music" folder. You can then delete the original files if you want (be SURE they have been copied first!). Now your smart playlists can access all your music. Good luck! (ps here is a short explanation of how I organize my stuff: reggaedelgado.blogspot.com)

Some people are still stuck in the old ways of organizing through the folder paradigm.

That's fine if you still want to root through your folders to find a track for some reason, but after a while, working with smart playlists, search fields, and ordering fields, you start to realize that it *doesn't matter* where the files are or how they are organized so long as you can search via the database with various parameters. Once you understand that concept, you start to realize that just throwing the files into folder works fine and it doesn't matter what folders they are in cause you're never going to be looking at those folders in the first place...

Yeah, that's the part I don't understand! At my day job, I have a secretary. I receive thousands of pieces of mail/paper a day, and she sorts and files them. For all I know, she files them based on the first letter in each sentence, but it's fine because she can find what I ask for. It would not be a good idea for either of us if I were sorting all those files instead of her! It would be a waste of my money (that's what I pay her for) and my time! For me, the same thing applies to my music. I still spend plenty of time learning each song & categorizing it, but as long as I can find a song when I need it, it's all good!

it's like some companies still want to use old paper memo's and the like while some are fine going strictly e-mail... one is easier and provides more tools, but the other is more traditional and some people don't want to have to learn a new system...

I refuse to use itunes with serato as i hate the "find missing files" feature that really doesn't exist in itunes.... if i move a folder or get a new computer its just a pain to move things around if the paths aren't the same.

Plus when i edit tags, i like to be able to add my loops and cues right there along with cue names, so i do my tags in serato, plus the auto bpm is def nice.

I use crates, sub crates, and smart crates, been working great for me for a long time.

Just a look at why i do it this way :)

itunes messed up the dates in the date added column for a lot of my songs so I'm never using itunes again.

i dont use itunes either. But i see DJ Soo's point. seems nice.

I have 160 gigs right now, mainly EDM and my folder organisation method works well for me. i dont want to start a new organisation method now, maybe if i get a new mac, but now im good.

i sort mine out in folders then move those tracks to serato once they are in their respective folders.

Once in serato, i organise the file names and tags there.

If i get a new mac, all my hard drive files are still organised in folders well enough for me to re-add to new serato crates etc..

my main concern is distinguishing the files outside of serato and not relying on a program like itunes. i want to be able to go to my DNB folder, scroll down by date and find what i want. i know its a little harder but since im mainly EDM, it works well for me.

Im getting more and more into hip hop again, so im going to need to work something else out or learn the track names and art much better so i recognise it when i scroll past it.

See, I just make a dnb playlist - or better yet mark my dnb tunes with "dnb" in the genre field and then make a smart playlist that says "genre contains dnb" and it automatically generates a dnb playlist for me. If I want to sort by newest to oldest, I just sort by Date Added.

As long as I make sure all my dnb is tagged with dnb, it will automatically appear in my playlist.

Even better, let's say I want to distinguish between my old school jungle and my new dnb, I just tag those tracks with "dnb/jungle" and when I want to find only jungle tracks, I can open up my dnb folder, type jungle in the search field and then only tracks tagged with "jungle" will appear...

When I'm using itunes and I drag the songs into itunes...and store my music there..itunes makes a new folder for each and every song...which I don't understand for example say I have usher love in this club...the folder will say usher..then I click and theres another folder which says single which I also have to click just to be able to get to the song..is this normal?

why bother? why not fire up itunes, type "Usher love club" in the search field and right click on the title and choose "show in finder?"

or if you're copying the file, just drag and drop it and it'll automatically make a copy of it at the destination you choose to?

The way itunes organizes folder-wise is:

Artist -> Album -> Song

The problem is if the artist field is say "Usher feat. Pitbull" then it will create a separate folder for "Usher feat. Pitbull"

That said, if you're using itunes, there's very little need to ever find the folder that the file is in - everything can be accessed via the program.

For instance, let's say you want to eliminate all songs that are under 192 kbps with the exception of whitelabel tracks...

Simply create a smart playlist with the following conditions:

Bit Rate is Less Than 192

and

Comment Does Not Contain "whitelabel"

Only thing that will show up in that smart playlist is tracks that are under 192 with the exception of any track that has whitelabel in the comments (cause they appear as 32 for bit rate).

then mass-tag all those tracks with the word "delete these tracks" in say the comments

Then switch to the master list, type "delete these tracks" in the search field, select all, and delete selecting "yes" to move to trash

Bam, quick and easy way to get rid of all your tracks less than 192.

the only issues with using iTunes is that any comment or tagging changes made in serato will not show up in iTunes until the track is loaded. So after scanning BPMS for new tracks, you still have to open up iTunes, and load up each track to get the bpm to show up (I just start playing the first one, then hammer on the Right arrow key to load the next track).

Used to be that you could select all, choose Get Info and just press OK and it would mass load the changes, but that changed in recent builds for some reason...

Well said, Soo!

see the way i differentiate my dnb from jungle, is all my jungle goes in the trash folder. where it belongs. i just dont like jungle'y tracks.

Blasphemy.

The point still stands though. You could tag your tracks dnb/tech step, dnb/liquid funk, dnb/clownstep, etc.

Then have a dnb smart playlist and each time you want to freestyle a certain subgenre, you type it into the search field and only show the subgenres you want...

Ahhh see this really pisses me off, I started tagging tracks I wanted to trash with a delete code in SSL as well as changing shitloads of other tags, but like you said it doesn't show in itunes til they are loaded. Is there any workaround for this? I wonder why they wrote out the Get Info trick, would have been handy...

dam you have all your dates tagged. that must have took forever. I wanted to do so but would take too long.

music organization is key! It can be tedious but after a while it becomes a habit. A good habit at that. I used to complain at the start but you start getting faster at it. Ever watch a producer make beats? Tagging and making crates is nothing compared to what they do, finding plug-ins and sounds and going from one program to another.

Check this write up by my boy, he actually got me into tagging my music properly and laid a base for my crates ie. Genre and Date
www.crossthefader.com

LOL Soo, some of these guys will never really understand.

The way I used to explain it is iTunes and the folder thing is like a Bloody Tampon in the Bathroom trash can - Just IGNORE IT and enjoy the Pussy.

You don't have to know why the Tampon is there, where it had been and why it is bloody. Just like iTunes - sure it's fucked up but are you willing to give up on Pussy just because of it???

Again if you need the track - click "show in Finder" or just drag frpom iTunes to folder/desktop...

Ok now when I'm tagging genres and I make a smart folder that contains the genre hip hop , how come if a song is tagged hip hop / rap it doesn'
t show up

nm i figured it out I didn't know it is very specific with wether I write hip hop with 1 space or hip hop with 2 spaces.

Make sure you use "contains" instead of "is"

Another thing you can do if some of your tags are "hip hop" and others are "hiphop" is to creat one field where "genre [contains] "hip"" and another where "genre [contains] "hop"" and that will include both styles.

another powerful tool is to switch the "all" option with "any" which allows you to search in an either/or situation.

Lets you you want a playlist that automatically adds stuff from you hip hop smart folder as well as your rap smart folder (assuming you distinguish between them). Simply create a new smart folder add on field that is Playlist [is] Hip hop and Playlist [is] Rap and then set the rules to Any instead of All.

Now anything that gets tagged with either hip hop or rap gets thrown into this new folder automatically.

I like using star ratings where 5 stars are heaters, 4 stars are personal favourites, 3 stars are early evening and downtempo favourites, 2 stars are "keep them the hell out of my freestyle playlists" songs, and 1 stars are "Delete this shit" songs.

Then I create a playlist for each of the stars (Rating [is] [5 Stars]) open up serato, select that playlist, select all songs, and tag them by color code so I can distinguish them while freestyling.

For instance, here's my usual freestyle smart folder:

BPM [is between] 100 and 110 +
Rating [is not] 2 Stars +
Rating [is not] 1 Star +
Album [doesn't contain] acapella (I tag all my acapellas in the album field)

Then I create the same ones for every 10 BPMs overlapping (i.e. 100-110, 105-115, 110-120, etc.)

Once I'm using that folder, if I'm in the middle of a hip hop section at 100ish bpm, I select the 95-105 bpm folder, type "hip hop" in the search field (which gets rid of any track that doesn't have " hip hop" in any of the fields), then sort by either Artist, Key, Date Added, or Song Name and then go from there. If I want to transition to a reggae section, I'll just type "reggae" in the search field, etc. etc.

Good looks on that, Seems like you have a pretty great system down there should copyright that shit! I don't really have a system down I usually just went through BPMs at 1 times using serato or freestyled from memory, I'm def going to try it out

I just wish I started tagging songs from the get go, It's def one of the most important aspects because I've been Djing at mobile events and get so wasted I can't even think straight.

takes forever to find the next song

ITunes works for many people and Doesnt for others. I've said it before and I will say it again. I am OCD, so I am all about the self-organization, outside of iTunes. Yes, You can clown, say I am stuck to the folder paradigm but my organization is impeccable down to the tee. Codes, BPM, Keys, Full ID3 tags, Years, Genres... To each their own. Don't knock them for not using iTunes to organize.

Do what works for you.....

I don't think anyone is clowning - just explaining what works for them... The thing with folders and files is that when it was originally developed, it was with the current storage limitations in mind. That was back when 40 megabytes was a huge amount. I don't think the designers at xerox ever envisioned people have hundreds, much less thousands and thousands of files to keep track of...

If organizing in folders works for you then go for it. Some of us just see posts like "I hate iTunes" with no discernible reason other than iTunes messing up their folder system and like to explain exactly why you don't need to use a folder system anymore if you use a database system...

Ok art was clowning but I think I just blocked that post out of my mind cause seriously... There's got to be a better metaphor than the one used...

Im OCD. Yay. Finally. The best excuse to not use iTunes... but no seriously, Even my record collection is organized is such a fashion. When Greg J helped me move, All my record boxes had specific genres, years and BPM's written on them. LOL

No disrespect to A1, you have more DJ experience than most and probably have been in the game as long as Soo or me, so you can organize however you like, and LIKE U SAID your method is a carry over from vinyl days.

I was clowning a little but seriously, the biggest reason why people avoid iTunes is because of the folder structure. If people learn to ignore that folder structure (like a bloody tampon) and learn how to use the search box (finder, itunes, and SSL) - iTunes can be one of the most powerful organization tools ever (newer versions suck, I stuck with iTunes 9)

Some of these newer DJs have come into the game as strictly digital and may always ONLY view music on a computer so old methods may not apply but I do get what you are saying and U know I respect your methods A1.

Indeed, Watson.

You still need to be pretty OCD even if you use iTunes - you just have to be OCD about tagging your tracks instead of putting them in the right folder... I think for me what ultimately stopped the whole folder thing is I like to organize by genre and there are so many crossover tracks that could be described under many genres that I never knew where to put. Say I had a track that had a hip hop vocal over a dancehall riddim, with a whompy bassline. I would agonize whether to put it in my hiphop folder, my dancehall folder, or my bass music folder... Now I just tag it hip hop/dancehall/bass music and it automatically disseminates to the proper playlist... Or if I'm free styling, I type any of the genres an I know it will show up rather than wondering if I had put that song in the hiphop crate or the bass music crate...

I also like to organize my tracks like I did my vinyl - first bpm, then genre, then artist which iTunes does for me for the most part (as long as I stay on top of tagging)

@ dj soo ...... good info bud

+1

the beauty of itunes is you can use it without having it fuck up your folder structure. best of both worlds. if you care bout your folders turn it off, if you don't leave it enabled. either way you get to use the power of iTunes + Scripts.

The biggest prob for die hard folder organizers with iTunes is that they default the rearranging of folders to on. So a lot of people who don't want their folder structure messed with often don't know and iTunes rearranges all their folders when they load up all their songs...

Have you thought of using the Grouping option? ie. Lable or even Crew. It adds another dynamic.

I was never big on sorting things by label personally... maybe in my drum n bass days.

But yea, the beauty of the smart playlist is that you have close to 40 fields to choose from and a myriad of combinations of those fields... you can basically create endless combinations of rules and get some very specific playlists setup.

The biggest problem with coming up with a new criteria is having to go back and back-tag your tracks...

i wish serato search worked with minus signs. for example, i'd like to be able to search "-hip hop" and have it show me the playlist without the hip hop.

I have a haloween party this saturday, allot of the music is music I have on my hard drive and don't use much, what do you guys do when you get a gig like this? I figured easiest would be to make a folder on the desktop and just add music to and drag into serato since its a 1 time use?

Yea, you can make a smart playlist to exclude that but you can't do a real time search excluding something. That would be dope tho - should add that to the feature requests...

That's exactly what I'm doing. I have a "Halloween" folder on my external drive, which stores everything, and I just copied it to my laptop, then added it to Serato. Anywhere on the laptop drive is fine, because after Halloween I'll just delete it.

This is an old topic, I stumbled across but one important factor you are missing here, is this is all good if you bring your laptop to the gig, but what if your sharing a set with someone, and you just bring your hard drive, itunes doesn't crossover, serato crates do.

True so just copy & paste your playlists in Serato then back it up on your gig he & your good

everytime i know i need to do a show where i only bring my harddrive, just mirror your itunes playlists to crates - it's easy and because crates don't show doubles, all you have to do is select-all and drag em onto your crates and just the new tunes will copy over.

If you want to automatically update an iTunes playlist (and Serato/Traktor) when you add a file to a folder, check this tutorial I put together: youtu.be

Good stuff neoteric