VDJ vs tractor vs Serato best file search

[y2kindyz]

Here is a question for all the DJ's here. I have used m-audio's torq and Virtual DJ. vDJ is much better at finding songs than Torq.

I have over 60k songs and searching for a song in torq was slow. VDJ is much faster.

For those that use tractor and Serato how efficient is the song search with those programs?

I know tractor is very popular so I would think it would do well. Please give me some feedback on your experience

Thanks you all in advance,

[escapemcp]

Traktor's search is awesome and works instantly. I've stopped using it for a while (don't have a PC good enough to use it playing out) and the search is one of the things I really miss.

[y2kindyz]

Thank you escapemcp. I tried tractor a few years ago and I wasn't impressed, but that was with a older slow mac book. I have a much faster PC now Maybe I will try and download a free version and give it a try.

Thanks,

[dswpro]

Traktor works very well. Honestly, however, i use Spotify any more for dj-ing.
Ten bucks/month and I don't need to buy current music. (Unless I want Taylor Swift)

[y2kindyz]

Hey dswpro, how do you mix with spotify? Are you able to download music? I have used spotify, but never paid.

[88h88]

Rekordbox is pretty damn quick, same as Serato. I have about 12k songs in total in both of them (the entirety of my collection).

Serato struggles to accept some files though and bring them up as corrupt.

...is there any reason you have 60k files though? Sounds like you need to trim the fat on that collection.

[SoundInMotionDJ]

I have over 60k songs and searching for a song in torq was slow. VDJ is much faster.

I use Traktor. I use Media Monkey to rip and a manage my overall collection. I load all the mp4s into iTunes because of the Traktor integration...but I have to rebuild the library several times a year to keep it in sync with Media Monkey.

60k songs is a LOT to have loaded into Traktors collection. That is not the intended usage of the tool. Traktor is designed to work with iTunes. (I don't like it either, but don't shoot the messenger.)

iTunes can hold your entire music collection, I have about 50k songs in iTunes. Playlists, especially smart playlists, can help to categorize those songs: by genre, by tag, by comment, by key, by year, by artist, etc, ad nasium. Smart playlists can be setup with many different filters. This is THE killer feature of iTunes.

Traktor makes it EASY to import or just view iTunes playlists (both user created and smart playlists).

Traktor's Collection should hold the songs that you are likely to play at a gig. Keep that number (relatively) small. I have about 3k songs in my Traktor Collection. These songs are analyzed, with grids, load markers, etc. The searching is fast....BUT a single text search covers ALL the available tags. Searching can be limited to a playlist or done over the entire collection. One feature that I hope for in a future release is a search option limited to specific tags that I pick (e.g only search in "Comments", or only search in "Artist").

I hope that helps.

[dswpro]

I don't really "Mix" with Spotify, I play lists and use a hefty 12 second cross-fade.

Frankly their user interface ( at least on Windows) is a little touchy, you can be looking up a song and click a link too hard and -- Wham! the song starts, interrupting what you had been playing.

They are launching a beta DJ program currently available only on the MAC and Android platforms with full dual-deck operation, scratching, trigger points, etc. It's like fifty or a hundred bucks. I don't use a MAC, and my android tablet is dedicated to remote controlling my X32 so I wont try it until the windows version comes out.

I really like Spotify otherwise. I mean I have Traktor if I want to get serious with music I already own but who can keep up with so many titles all the time? I don't want to Pirate music but only play out a couple times per month, so Here's what I do:

I generally DJ for bands I run the PA for. I play pre-show and between-set music. (If the girls keep dancing, the bar stays open, right?) For each band, I keep a playlist of music in their genre that they don't play.

So I have a funk list, a country list, a dance list, a dinner music list, a couple wedding and party lists for when I DJ special occasions and they send me a list of "must haves" I also have a Stripper Music list, (for those special parties or embarrassing moments) and a Radio Paradise list. (Radio Paradise is my favorite internet music station ... This list is the stuff I really like. )

What I also like about Spotify is I can mark a list as "local" and use it even if I don't have an internet connection at the venue. ( This and commercial free play comes for the ten bucks per month ) I cna also use the same account on my phone and PC, so I use it in my car. My user name on Spotify is also DSWPRO -- you should be able to see my lists if you are interested.

[y2kindyz]

Thank you guys for your replies.

Yes my collection is fat. I have traded collections with friends and there is a lot of redundancy in it. I actually have more than 60k. I don't like to delete music because you never know when that request from a friend comes in and you know what I have it. Lol. I also get a kick out of people's reaction when they see over 60k in the music count in tunes on my HTPC. I never get paid for playing music. I mainly play for youth dances and family

88h88 yes my collection need to go on a diet. I guess I need to at least start deleting music on my 1TB hard drive

SoundIn. I use iTunes and am trying media monkey. Still need more time to get use to how it works. Is there a function in media monkey that allows you to move selected music to different folders? For example, I would like to get all my classical and instrumental music and move it to a new folder. Currently all my music is in folders by artist then albums. Then do the same for hits in different generas. How do you organize you music?


DSWPRO, I will check out your play list on spotify. I like that idea of creating a playlist and letting it run. I see how that works for what you do.

Thanks again

[SoundInMotionDJ]

How do you organize you music?

It's complicated.

I use Media Monkey. I use the "Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix" add on. It makes finding duplicate files easy. So, the first thing I did was cull the actual multiple copies of files. That took 1/3 out of my collection.

In the 90's and until about 2005, I thought of my collection in terms of how it was organized on CDs. So, the files were organized in ways that made recreating CDs easier.

In the last 10 years, I have moved to thinking about the files being organized into categories by how I use the music. In terms of folders and files, I organize music by my use (per dance), or my genre classification, or by collection. I use playlists (sometimes by searching and sometimes by hand assembling) to group specific songs.

I DJ for professional dancers. So, I need music organized by partner dance: two-step, waltz, cha-cha, salsa, etc. Songs that are appropriate for a given dance are in folders by dance. I "move" these songs from their "source" to the per-dance folders instead of making a copy. "C:\Music\DanceBallroom\WTZ" "C:\Music\DanceCountry\2ST" "C:\Music\DanceSwing\WCS"

I have a LARGE collection of CDs that I ripped. These are organized by genre (I have about two dozen genres that I use). The genre folders do not typically have sub folders by artist, but sometimes they do if I have enough albums by a single artist. "C:\Music\MusicByGenre\Blues\BBKing" "C:\Music\MusicByGenre\SmoothJazz"

I have a LARGE collection of various artist boxed sets that are also organized by genre or decade...it depends. The genres are similar to what I use in MusicByGenre. There is no good reason to keep the "various artists" separate from the "bands" except that I did when I was first ripping my collection 15-ish years ago. "C:\Music\VariousArtists\50s" "C:\Music\VariousArtists\Disco"

I have subscription services that go back almost 20 years - PrimeCuts now and PromoOnly before that. These are in folders by Year and Genre. "C:\Music\DJCompilations\PrimeCuts\2015\CHR" "C:\Music\DJCompilations\PrimeCuts\2014\EZMix"

So...it's complicated....but it makes sense to me.

[DJPhatman]

They are launching a beta DJ program currently available only on the MAC and Android platforms

Is it also iOS (iPad, iPhone) compatible?

[y2kindyz]

It's complicated.

I use Media Monkey. I use the "Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix" add on. It makes finding duplicate files easy. So, the first thing I did was cull the actual multiple copies of files. That took 1/3 out of my collection.

I need to do that. Does it find by name only or does it consider file size?

[/quote]
I DJ for professional dancers. So, I need music organized by partner dance: two-step, waltz, cha-cha, salsa, etc. Songs that are appropriate for a given dance are in folders by dance. I "move" these songs from their "source" to the per-dance folders instead of making a copy. "C:\Music\DanceBallroom\WTZ" "C:\Music\DanceCountry\2ST" "C:\Music\DanceSwing\WCS"[/quote]

Do you copy the music to these folders or move them?

[/quote]
I have a LARGE collection of CDs that I ripped. These are organized by genre (I have about two dozen genres that I use). The genre folders do not typically have sub folders by artist, but sometimes they do if I have enough albums by a single artist. "C:\Music\MusicByGenre\Blues\BBKing" "C:\Music\MusicByGenre\SmoothJazz"[/quote]

In my iTunes I have over 200 genre. lots of them are 1 or 4 songs. Can you send me or post your genre list? Is it possible for a song to have more than 1 genre assigned to it? Example New Order's "Blue Monday" could be 80's and Dance as a genre

I have a LARGE collection of various artist boxed sets that are also organized by genre or decade...it depends. The genres are similar to what I use in MusicByGenre. There is no good reason to keep the "various artists" separate from the "bands" except that I did when I was first ripping my collection 15-ish years ago. "C:\Music\VariousArtists\50s" "C:\Music\VariousArtists\Disco"

So are some of your songs duplicated due to the original under artist and in the VariousArtist?

I have subscription services that go back almost 20 years - PrimeCuts now and PromoOnly before that. These are in folders by Year and Genre. "C:\Music\DJCompilations\PrimeCuts\2015\CHR" "C:\Music\DJCompilations\PrimeCuts\2014\EZMix"

So...it's complicated....but it makes sense to me. [/quote][/quote]

I need to look at those subscription services. Are you able to download and keep those songs?

Thanks again guys I appreciate all you info

[dswpro]

Looks like the Djay player which works with spotify has an Ios (I-phone / Ipad ) version.

[SoundInMotionDJ]

I need to do that. Does it find by name only or does it consider file size?

It starts with "Artist" and "Title" (in tags, not in filename), and can consider other factors like "bitrate," "file size," and a few more. The review of the duplicates is still a manual process, but the tools are ENORMOUSLY helpful. I culled about 1/3 of my collection (about 15k songs at the time) over the course of about 4 to 6 weeks. I went slow, make backups often, and tried not to obsess.

I have about 50k songs in my collection today. On a quarterly basis, I probably only listen to about 2000 of those songs. So...the "core" 3000-5000 songs in my collection are what I am really concerned with.

I DJ for professional dancers. So, I need music organized by partner dance: two-step, waltz, cha-cha, salsa, etc. Songs that are appropriate for a given dance are in folders by dance. I "move" these songs from their "source" to the per-dance folders instead of making a copy. "C:\Music\DanceBallroom\WTZ" "C:\Music\DanceCountry\2ST" "C:\Music\DanceSwing\WCS"

Do you copy the music to these folders or move them?

When putting a song into a "dance" category I MOVE. I keep as much information in the tags as I can. So, since I keep "Album" and "Track#" correctly populated, I can always re-assemble an album even if the songs are not in the same folder on the hard drive.

In my iTunes I have over 200 genre. lots of them are 1 or 4 songs. Can you send me or post your genre list? Is it possible for a song to have more than 1 genre assigned to it? Example New Order's "Blue Monday" could be 80's and Dance as a genre

I don't obsess. Well, I don't obsess anymore.

For instance, I have a top level "C:\Music\MusicByGenre\Rock" folder. Songs in that folder have a variety of things in the "Genre" tag: "Rock", "Southern Rock", "Folk Rock", "Classic Rock", "60s", and others.

I also use tags in the "Comment" field to provide some additional information to help search for songs. The songs in my "dance" collection are "fully" tagged. Songs in other folders, less so.

This article describes a method that uses the "Genre" tag. I tend to keep that tag "vanilla" and use the "Comment" tag instead. The specific tags might not work for you, but the idea is solid.

http://www.djtechtools.com/2014/01/16/g ... libraries/

So are some of your songs duplicated due to the original under artist and in the VariousArtist?

Some, but I use the tools to cull those duplicates on a regular basis. I tend to prefer the earlier release of a song (e.g. with the least "Loudness War" effect)...but that's not a hard rule or anything.

I need to look at those subscription services. Are you able to download and keep those songs

Yes. I use a digital delivery system....so I download mp3s.

[y2kindyz]

One more question SoundInMotion, When using Prime Cuts does the CD on the "monthly shipment" they send you have all songs on it or just the ones you download?

Thanks