Any experienced DJ will tell you that as well as having a current selection of music to play, organising it properly is essential for a successful set. In this article we are going to look at some key points that need to be covered.
In the old days DJ’s would hump around large crates stacked full of vinyl records. Each record would come with a beautiful cover which included a full playlist and lots of useful information, such as where each track was recorded and who was performing. There where some limitations, for example if you wanted to play two tracks back to back you may find yourself struggling through boxes trying to find the relevant tracks. In addition to this of course this none-digitised musical medium can not be manipulated at really.
So with the advent of digital technology DJ’s have a variety of slick looking platforms that they can play music from. These break down into two main ones which are via CD and the other is on a PC.
The benefits of these new formats are numerous, DJ’s can perform really dynamic sets easily applying lots of digital effects and using tools that will beat match and so on. The new digital world means that we can receive and move music quickly. This for me is not only a key benefit but also presents quite a challenge that I have witnessed a number of my colleagues struggling with.
The challenge I am referring too is simply organising the music effectively. This is so important if a DJ is going to do well. You see with DJ music information such as artist details, genre and sometimes even the accurate naming of the track can be missing. Because producers want to get the music to the market as quick as they can, they often leave this information off or just do a rush job. It is tempting on receipt of such music to just add to the playlist and move on to the next track. However the problem comes down the line when you try to find the track or want to talk about it in detail.
My solution to this is to save all tracks I receive in exactly the same digital format i.e. MP3 or WAV. I then update the properties of the track to include all the information I can possibly find. This includes artist name, album name, track name, track length, GENRE (very important) and even the BPM (beats per minute). The way to update the properties of a track is right click on the track, then select and click on ‘properties’ from the menu that appears. This will open the properties window. There are three tabs too choose from, you will need to select the ‘general’ tab.
Once you have this information you will be able to sort your music on your pc using anyone of the key bits of data recorded using window media player and similar programs. Make sure when burning to CD you take time to write a sleeve and record all the key information on both the face of the CD and the sleeve.