The One Folder DJ: Mastering music management with virtual crates
Recognisability – Think about the all-black cover of Spinal Tap’s Smell The Glove, the immediately recognisable prism on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, the iconic Pulsar CP1919 image on the front of Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division.
Ingenuity – Double fold-outs, peelable banana stickers by Andy Warhol – the album cover has had it all over the years. Even what should be a uniform black disk has not remained sacred; over the years that black vinyl has been clear, red, green, blue and white – the full rainbow of colours – and it has worked so well that some have framed our favourites and put them on a wall as a ‘proper’ piece of art.
At this point, if I can pull your focus out of reminiscing about vinyl and great albums, I want you to consider music management. In the beginning it was simple. We had vinyl, we put them into crates, and we carried them around. The music organised itself, the tracks were flicked through and the size and shape and all the things I covered earlier helped a DJ remember each song.
However, digital changed all that.
Gone were the large distinctive covers. Gone were the large backs where stickers that had the BPM and key and notes for other songs to play with that track.
We were left with a track1.mp3 and a tiny few pixels by few pixels of artwork.
Not so recognisable now!
So, for the digital DJ, it’s time to look at the tools that not only replace those stuck-on notes and memorable covers but surpass and exceed their ability to manage our music. Enter Digital DJ Music Management.
Having spent the last 13 years having a go at a perfect library, I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way. Skipping to the end: no, I don’t have a perfect library, but it is so much better than it was!
What’s the difference between physical, vinyl and digital?
Good size, recognisability and ingenuity were the areas I gave to vinyl and they also apply to a lesser extent to CDs. An MP3 track or a WAV file is none of those. However, we can use some ingenuity to work with digital in a smart way to take advantages of digital.
Meta-data and virtual crates
The first key thing to consider is that if you put your favourite UB40 ‘Red Red Wine’ 12” in your reggae crate, you can’t also have it in your 80s crate (unless you have two copies). Or, for that matter, your covers of Neil Diamond crate.
However, with the digital version of the track, you can do that.
However, there is a right way and the wrong way of doing this.
On your computer, you can have three folders (or crates): reggae, 80s, and Neil Diamond covers. You can have one copy of the digital track in each folder. It’s a digital file, so it doesn’t weigh anything and if you want to export it to a USB and playout on a standalone machine, you can do that.
However, that is the...
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https://store.promobile.online/products/pro-mobile-magazine-6-issue-1-year-subscription
Ingenuity – Double fold-outs, peelable banana stickers by Andy Warhol – the album cover has had it all over the years. Even what should be a uniform black disk has not remained sacred; over the years that black vinyl has been clear, red, green, blue and white – the full rainbow of colours – and it has worked so well that some have framed our favourites and put them on a wall as a ‘proper’ piece of art.
At this point, if I can pull your focus out of reminiscing about vinyl and great albums, I want you to consider music management. In the beginning it was simple. We had vinyl, we put them into crates, and we carried them around. The music organised itself, the tracks were flicked through and the size and shape and all the things I covered earlier helped a DJ remember each song.
However, digital changed all that.
Gone were the large distinctive covers. Gone were the large backs where stickers that had the BPM and key and notes for other songs to play with that track.
We were left with a track1.mp3 and a tiny few pixels by few pixels of artwork.
Not so recognisable now!
So, for the digital DJ, it’s time to look at the tools that not only replace those stuck-on notes and memorable covers but surpass and exceed their ability to manage our music. Enter Digital DJ Music Management.
Having spent the last 13 years having a go at a perfect library, I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way. Skipping to the end: no, I don’t have a perfect library, but it is so much better than it was!
What’s the difference between physical, vinyl and digital?
Good size, recognisability and ingenuity were the areas I gave to vinyl and they also apply to a lesser extent to CDs. An MP3 track or a WAV file is none of those. However, we can use some ingenuity to work with digital in a smart way to take advantages of digital.
Meta-data and virtual crates
The first key thing to consider is that if you put your favourite UB40 ‘Red Red Wine’ 12” in your reggae crate, you can’t also have it in your 80s crate (unless you have two copies). Or, for that matter, your covers of Neil Diamond crate.
However, with the digital version of the track, you can do that.
However, there is a right way and the wrong way of doing this.
On your computer, you can have three folders (or crates): reggae, 80s, and Neil Diamond covers. You can have one copy of the digital track in each folder. It’s a digital file, so it doesn’t weigh anything and if you want to export it to a USB and playout on a standalone machine, you can do that.
However, that is the...
To read the full article, you’ll need to have a physical copy of the magazine which you can sign up for here for 6 issues delivered to your door from just £16!
https://store.promobile.online/products/pro-mobile-magazine-6-issue-1-year-subscription
