Organising Your Tunes

[Jimbob-Squarepants 0]

Hello again

 

One thing I like about Vinyl is that you can flick through and pull a record out knowing exactly what it is. Obviously there are some disadvantages... i.e. the more you take, the heavier it all gets. This is the main reason I decided to use CD's, but I am struggling to find a good way of organising everything.

 

How have you all labelled your disc's & do you have all the songs printed out on sheets of paper in a ring binder??? At the moment I am relying on my memory, which as it happens isn't that reliable Requests can be a right pain as I know I have the record, but can't remember what position of what disc it's on.

 

Your idea's & help will be appreciated

Jim

[Dream Catchers 0]

Just think of us oldies that had no option other than vynil, I used to take about 2,000 7" singles (that was 3 full sized suitcase type cases and a few 'crates') and a couple of hundred 12" and albums to every gig. I nearly break my back now just moving the cases a few feet in my workshop LOL.

 

With my CDs I built a database of all the tracks and use that, I use 3 computers with my show and have the DB on all three so always have them available at my finger tips. I did prefer the feeling of the vynil and also with vynil you get to know what every single looks like, with CDs they all look the same, silver discs with unreadable tiny writing on them, that you struggle with in any low lighting.

 

Jim

[Dukesy 0]

The slapper organises my Greatest Hits Albums alphabetically by artiste. Please note, the 'slapper' is a CD case!!!

Singles are in folders or case alphabetically too.

 

Have used spreadsheets in the past but mainly for karaoke CD+Gs.

[Dream Catchers 0]

The slapper organises my Greatest Hits Albums alphabetically by artiste.

I thought you had employed my ex for a second there LOL

 

Jim

[BigBen 0]

I have various cases - the purple case contains the most popular CD's organised roughly by genre:cense: If it's not in there then I don't play it too often! The other cases consist of buffet style music, the Now albums, greatest hits albums, my music (as opposed to disco music), Karaoke CD's and show tunes. I also have a wallet containing all the freebie Sunday paper CD's.

 

I carry about six cases, over 1,000 CD's, to every gig. That's why I'm moving over to PC Dj'ing! Having done one gig with a 'record player' - an 80's party - my hats are off to the 70's and 80's DJ's who carried around those suitcases stuffed with singles.

 

In direct answer to your question, Jim, after many gigs you automatically know where your popular tracks are. Use whatever reference you need to begin with but pretty soon you won't need it anymore. I used to use CATraxx, but I've also used spreadsheets, little cards and I even had a separate box with all the CD's that I thought I would need for each gig!

 

:cense:My purple box contains soul, motown, rock, decade CD's, dance, rock n roll, RnB, indie, disco and party/floor filler CD's. I also keep a few Mastermix mix CD's in there...in case I need to be away from the console for a while..!

Edited March 31, 2009 by BigBen

[Dream Catchers 0]

I know where all the popular tracks are, it's the requests and playlists that throw the spanner in the works, expecially when you have a good dance floor and somebody comes and asks for a 'classic' that you had all but forgotten about and you know it will go down a storm NEXT LOL

 

Jim

[gadget 0]

Just think of us oldies that had no option other than vynil, I used to take about 2,000 7" singles (that was 3 full sized suitcase type cases and a few 'crates') and a couple of hundred 12" and albums to every gig. I nearly break my back now just moving the cases a few feet in my workshop LOL.

 

With my CDs I built a database of all the tracks and use that, I use 3 computers with my show and have the DB on all three so always have them available at my finger tips. I did prefer the feeling of the vynil and also with vynil you get to know what every single looks like, with CDs they all look the same, silver discs with unreadable tiny writing on them, that you struggle with in any low lighting.

 

Jim

 

Are you using any software in particular Jim?

[dj will 0]

There are various methods or organising cds: by title, by artist, by genre, by year, by most played etc. The key thing is that you know what the order is, so that you know album X is in such an such a place. The hard part is as said when a particular song has been requested and it is quite an unusual one and not in your memory of popular songs. One solution is to have a folder with all the titles of all the songs in your collection in alphabetical order with the album, track and location next to each title. But that would take an incredible amount of time to do even for a smallish collection and you would probably go mad before you finished if you didn't die of old age first.

 

That is why we have computers lol. tongue out icon Make life much easier.

[deejaymitch 0]

I used to have a phenomenal memory and, even when carry 100s of CDs to every gig, I could find any track in seconds. Now my drink and drug addled brain isn't quite so sharp which is why I prefer the digital set-up. Although I miss being able to browse through cases searching for a gem. An alphabetised database (by title and artist) is probably your best bet, but it's a lot of work.

[djn_discos 0]

i got 99% of my music on my laptop, i think its alot easyer than the cds. someone said earlyer in the thread it annoys them when someone asks for a tune and you know it will go down well but you cant remember what folder its in, all i do is use the windows search box on the start menu. finds that tune you want in a split second, even if you only know what part of the title is it will bring up all the suggestions for you. hope this has been some help and i havent just wrote the same as someone else ha ha.

 

 

[markthedoc 0]

i got 99% of my music on my laptop, i think its alot easyer than the cds. someone said earlyer in the thread it annoys them when someone asks for a tune and you know it will go down well but you cant remember what folder its in, all i do is use the windows search box on the start menu. finds that tune you want in a split second, even if you only know what part of the title is it will bring up all the suggestions for you. hope this has been some help and i havent just wrote the same as someone else ha ha.

I'm looking at moving from CD to a laptop in the next couple of months and that feature is going to be an absolute godsend.

[soundwaves 0]

Have CDs in generic order and tend to put most played in each genre front to back , had major clearout last week because just as in days of vinyl RIP i was carrying far too much music around.

[bluebirdnips 0]

i too use a laptop but still rely on an exel file created by "song list generator" and updated by me when ever i add a new album, could be used without a laptop though by inserting the cd into the computer and use the software to create a list for you, would make finding a track easier once you know the album. on the karoke front i only use sunfly so use their .pdf download song list which has a built in search option

[otronics 0]

Still use CDs and they are arranged in the order I purchased them (pretty much).

 

So, memory!