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Best Way To Organize CDs (pg. 3)
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by Transfusion
1 Song for 1 cd, with remixes.
Different styles, different color. Works great :)
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Very nice, I expecially like the label logos. Not sure how I'd take to having to pick a genre for each track (in order to colour it) though.
I'd love to put a bit more into the presentation of my CDs but I barely have time to burn off all my tunes, let alone do anything fancy! So they just scrawled on with a CD marker...
I personally arrange the tracks in my main wallet chronologically - that way, you can just add your new tunes on the end and it stays in order, plus I can find my most recent stuff really easily. I used to arrange stuff by key but I found myself looking for tracks in the same key when I had to pick the next record rather than looking for tracks I thought would work well at that time in my set etc. So now I pick a track first then check the key - if it's in an appropriate key I know I've got myself a nice smooth mix... and if it isn't I either pick another track or I make sure I mix it pretty sharply to avoid clashes, depending on what kinda feel I want to go for. |
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by Michael May
How many tunes do you need when you play out anyway?? Trust me, not that many unless you are spinning all night long.
Mike |
Well even then, that's what the larger CD wallets (~250 capacity) are for! Or take 2 of them if you need to... I've got 7 CD wallets now, 4 of which are 200+ capacity - obviously I don't take them all to every gig, I usually take 1 or 2 at the most, but I can find anything I like in a matter of seconds wherever it is in any of the wallets, which I'm sure I'd find much much harder if I was burning 10 tracks to a CD.
Actually, having said that, a lot of my older stuff (classics etc) is burnt to CD with 9 or 10 tracks per CD, but that's relatively few CDs which I like to have at every gig so I know exactly where everything is on those. |
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| Michael May |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stu Cox
Well even then, that's what the larger CD wallets (~250 capacity) are for! Or take 2 of them if you need to... I've got 7 CD wallets now, 4 of which are 200+ capacity - obviously I don't take them all to every gig, I usually take 1 or 2 at the most, but I can find anything I like in a matter of seconds wherever it is in any of the wallets, which I'm sure I'd find much much harder if I was burning 10 tracks to a CD.
Actually, having said that, a lot of my older stuff (classics etc) is burnt to CD with 9 or 10 tracks per CD, but that's relatively few CDs which I like to have at every gig so I know exactly where everything is on those. |
I see what you are saying, but, I think if you are good with track selection, and JUST have GREAT tracks in the binders you are playing out of, then you would only need maybe, TOPS, 50 cds to select from in a one night period. And then again, 50 is alot. That is just me though. I am not saying anyones way of doing something is wrong. I use to think I needed all these tunes and would haul around 2 big cd binders all over the place. Then I realized I play less than half of the tunes in the binders. Way less than half. So, I bought two small (Cheap Office Depot Binders, Best Purchase In A Long Time) binders that hold only 48 cds. I have one that has trance & techno in it, and the other one has tech house and vocals. And they are not full. There are some empty slots. I am always taking tracks out and putting new tracks in, so it is never the same. My collection stays at home, I do not lug it around with me. And since I have been doing this, and playing out of 2 small binders, I have been really focusing more on track selection. My track selection has gotten WAY better because I really take alot of time on deciding what tracks will make it into the 2 small binders. Like I said, there are more ways than one to do this. This is just what works best for me.
Mike |
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by Michael May
I see what you are saying, but, I think if you are good with track selection, and JUST have GREAT tracks in the binders you are playing out of, then you would only need maybe, TOPS, 50 cds to select from in a one night period. And then again, 50 is alot. That is just me though. I am not saying anyones way of doing something is wrong. I use to think I needed all these tunes and would haul around 2 big cd binders all over the place. Then I realized I play less than half of the tunes in the binders. Way less than half. So, I bought two small (Cheap Office Depot Binders, Best Purchase In A Long Time) binders that hold only 48 cds. I have one that has trance & techno in it, and the other one has tech house and vocals. And they are not full. There are some empty slots. I am always taking tracks out and putting new tracks in, so it is never the same. My collection stays at home, I do not lug it around with me. And since I have been doing this, and playing out of 2 small binders, I have been really focusing more on track selection. My track selection has gotten WAY better because I really take alot of time on deciding what tracks will make it into the 2 small binders. Like I said, there are more ways than one to do this. This is just what works best for me.
Mike |
As you say, people do things in different ways - I've been a victim of planning to much for a set in advance in the past, having turned up with a load of records I thought I'd want to play with what I thought was enough extras without going over the top (i.e. about three times as many tunes as I was actually going to play) and I've always found myself wishing I had a particular track that I hadn't brought with me, be it because I've ended up in a different mood when I've got to the club, someone's requested a certain track or the whole night's turned out completely differently from what I'd expected.
Don't get me wrong, I don't just take every tune I've got with me - about once a month I go through the rigorous process of picking out and removing a load of the tunes in my CD wallet to make space for the new tracks that'll be added that month. Usually one of the main critera for a track being removed is whether or not it's been played in the last month - obviously if the answer is 'no' for a track, had I predicted this I could have removed it from my wallet the previous month (keeping things concise, as you say), but more often than not there have been tracks I've kinda considered as borderline which I've decided to play on the spur of the moment and they've worked really well, so I've been glad I kept them in the wallet.
As much as anything else, my gigs vary quite widly (from house to breaks to trance to techno to hard dance, from warm-ups to peak-time sets) so it makes sense to keep all of the tracks I'm likely to play in any of these gigs in my wallet at once to save me decanting CDs from wallet to wallet before every gig... yeah it means I take a load of CDs to a gig that there's no chance I'll ever play there, but also it quite often means I'll decide to play a track from another genre I wouldn't have planned to play but it's caught my eye and seemed like a good idea at the time, often quite successfully (and sometimes not so!)
But I agree the situation of having too many tracks with you can be a really good reason to burn a single track to each CD - I find it gives each track more identity and it's very easy to lose which track is which, what style each track is etc if you've got 200 CDs with 10 faceless tunes on each CD. |
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| Michael May |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stu Cox
As you say, people do things in different ways - I've been a victim of planning to much for a set in advance in the past, having turned up with a load of records I thought I'd want to play with what I thought was enough extras without going over the top (i.e. about three times as many tunes as I was actually going to play) and I've always found myself wishing I had a particular track that I hadn't brought with me, be it because I've ended up in a different mood when I've got to the club, someone's requested a certain track or the whole night's turned out completely differently from what I'd expected.
Don't get me wrong, I don't just take every tune I've got with me - about once a month I go through the rigorous process of picking out and removing a load of the tunes in my CD wallet to make space for the new tracks that'll be added that month. Usually one of the main critera for a track being removed is whether or not it's been played in the last month - obviously if the answer is 'no' for a track, had I predicted this I could have removed it from my wallet the previous month (keeping things concise, as you say), but more often than not there have been tracks I've kinda considered as borderline which I've decided to play on the spur of the moment and they've worked really well, so I've been glad I kept them in the wallet.
As much as anything else, my gigs vary quite widly (from house to breaks to trance to techno to hard dance, from warm-ups to peak-time sets) so it makes sense to keep all of the tracks I'm likely to play in any of these gigs in my wallet at once to save me decanting CDs from wallet to wallet before every gig... yeah it means I take a load of CDs to a gig that there's no chance I'll ever play there, but also it quite often means I'll decide to play a track from another genre I wouldn't have planned to play but it's caught my eye and seemed like a good idea at the time, often quite successfully (and sometimes not so!)
But I agree the situation of having too many tracks with you can be a really good reason to burn a single track to each CD - I find it gives each track more identity and it's very easy to lose which track is which, what style each track is etc if you've got 200 CDs with 10 faceless tunes on each CD. |
Thanks for explaining more in depth as to why you bring as many tracks as you do to your gigs.
Rock On,
Mike |
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| Chris Allen |
- 2 tracks per CD
- Usually Original + remix or 2 good remixes
- Cheap labels (staples, $20 for 80 lables)
- Printer
- Time
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| ill0gical0ne |
I'm lazy (in a sense)...
I burned roughly 75-100 songs (001.mp3, 002.mp3, etc) per CD, each CD twice, and labeled each CD (001, 002, etc). I then stored all of the ID3 tag data (as well as other search references) in a MySQL database and created a PHP script to search the database that spits back the CD and filename/track number. Works like a charm, and saves CDs. |
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| Transfusion |
| But you can't do a gig in a club because their players probably don't support MP3. |
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| Omega_Blue |
| i throw on as many mp3s a cdr can fit and sort it by genre. i haven't had the need to burn to cda yet, but i can always do it later. and when i do, i'll most likely do it by artist (one artist to cd). |
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| DJRecess |
For home use, I throw as much tunes into separated folders onto an MP3 disc as possible (the folders are genres) - then make two copies.
Then, for live use, I make normal audio CD's with four or five tracks on each - but never two from the same genre - each of the titles are then printed onto the CD - colour coded. (The same colour code across all CD's)
So, for example, I have:
House - Green
Vocal/Club - Brown
Elektro - Bright Red
Progressive - Blue
Trance - Black
If there's a track with several mixes, I put them all on the same CD, put the title in capitals, with the colour code as the most popular one I play (ie, Vinnie Troia 'Flow' has one mix that's trancey, and one that's more elektro sounding - I play the elektro one more, so it's title is in capital Red.
This means that I don't just rely on the discs, titles and colours etc - I also make damn sure i know the tunes, so I know that certain tunes have different remixes etc. It's incredible what the brain can retain!
It's worked so far anyway... Oh, and the last thing i'd say is to make sure if you're putting multi tunes on one CD, to put some kinda inlay sleeve into the wallet too - you might not remember what tracks are on the CD you're playing - and you don't know while it's turning inside the deck! Sure, you can eject it once the last tune has finished, but why delay? Just print off a quick note and slip that in the sleeve too.
Hope this wasn't useless addition... |
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| dJuan |
Thank you guys! amazing thread! Nice ideas too!
btw im wondering if the labes can make trouble with the CDJ'S.. like getting stucked! or could make damage to them?
Thank You!
:eyespop: |
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| Transfusion |
| Use printable cd's, I've been using them for about 2 months and my pioneer cdj 1000mk3 is still alive and kickin' :p |
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