rev.dennis 3 Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Where do you get all your music to keep up to date? It would cost a small fortune and a big guessing game on what is hot and what's not as I navigate through iTunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support_Admins DJ.ZAh 1 Posted December 11, 2017 Support_Admins Share Posted December 11, 2017 iTunes would kill you if you relied on that for all your music. I use iTunes only when I need something I don't have and someone is requesting. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. There are a lot of different music source vendors out there which I will list in a later post. I use to use a company by the name of Promo Only for my music and music videos. Now I use them strictly for my music videos and my music is now delivered through TM Jones... Prime Cuts. Why did I switch? I love getting a CD of music every week and that CD containing the top hits for each genre versus Promo Only has one CD per month of one genre. If you want more genre's, that means more CD's and you still only get one per month. Quality is the same but the CD's are prettier from Promo Only but they are both functional and work great for importing as I run everything electronically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support_Admins DJ.ZAh 1 Posted January 11 Support_Admins Share Posted January 11 So last time I discussed music source it was quite a few years ago at which time CD's was still happening. We would get our CD's and import them into our system but now it would be tough to find anyone still supplying CD's since we are in a digital world. I'm still a huge fan of Promo Only but now its all digital (no more getting CD's in the mail). So many DJ sources for music are (in no real order): Affordable ways to discover new music Soundcloud YouTube Spotify TikTok Shazam Paid DJ music sources Beatport (Best for electronic & EDM DJs) BPM Supreme Traxsource (Best for house DJs) Beatsource (Best for open-format DJs) iTunes Store (Best for mainstream music) Bandcamp (Best for supporting the artist) Amazon Music (Best for the penny pinchers) Juno Download Boomkat Bleep Free DJ music sources Soundcloud (not all free but you can find free music from emerging artists typically) Free Music Archive (All MP3's are free to download) Noisetrade Jamendo Demodrop CCTrax You might want to know which streming services work with which DJ Software The biggest factor in a DJ’s choice of streaming platform is their music library. Does it cover everything the DJ needs, and does the library have a well-varied and constant back catalogue? Audio encoding: MP3 or AAC – Some platforms encode their music using the generic MP3 file format, and others use the newer AAC format. AAC has a more intelligent way of compressing the file without it losing quality. As a result, a lower bit-rated AAC file will have the same audio quality as a higher bit-rated MP3 file; for example, AAC at 256kbps is equivalent to MP3 at 320kbps. Service DJ Software Audio Quality Amazon Prime / Music Unlimited Engine DJ (SC LIVE 4 & SC LIVE 2 ONLY) (Music Unlimited only) up to 24-bit/192kHz FLAC (music unlimited) Beatport Streaming rekordbox, Serato DJ, Traktor, VirtualDJ, Engine DJ, WeDJ, Algoriddim Djay (Mac/ iOS only), DJuiced, Reloop Advanced: 128kbps AAC Professional: 256kbps AAC Beatsource rekordbox, Serato DJ, Traktor, VirtualDJ, Engine DJ, Algoriddim Djay (Mac/ iOS only), DJuiced, Dex3 Base: 128kbps AAC Pro+: 256kbps AAC Soundcloud Go+ rekordbox, Serato DJ, Traktor, VirtualDJ, Engine DJ, WeDJ, Algoriddim Djay (Mac/ iOS only), DJuiced Go: 128kbps AAC Go+: 256kbps AAC TIDAL rekordbox, Serato DJ, Traktor, VirtualDJ, Engine DJ, Algoriddim Djay (Mac/ iOS only), DJuiced 320kbps MP3 – 1411kbps WAV (HiFi) and up to 24-bit/192kHz studio master quality FLAC (HiFi Plus) Tidal and Soundcloud have a similar offering as iTunes as they give decent access to material from top 40 and mainstream charts. To Stream Music or Download Music Owning your own music in the shape of downloaded, locally kept music files is still a non-negotiable. Why? Well, in no particular order… Local files are more reliable to DJ with – Once these tracks are on your computer, or your USB drive, it’s as good as having the record or CD with you They’re truly yours forever – No streaming service going bankrupt, or licensing agreement with a record label running out, can affect the availability of tunes you actually own You’ll think harder about each track once you go to the trouble of downloading and organizing it into your collection – The act of downloading/buying, tagging, and protecting your local music takes effort and often money, and so you’ll give more thought to each new track, which is always a good thing for keeping the quality of your DJing high. And finally, if you’ll permit me to share an artistic reason… An actual collection says something tangible about you – These individual tracks become part of how you view the world of music. By owning them, you’re making a statement. To put it more poetically, the tracks you play are the words that form the sentences you “speak” to your audience when you DJ. And as all great communicators know, if you want to convince anyone of anything, you should never use borrowed words… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support_Admins DJ.ZAh 1 Posted May 11 Support_Admins Share Posted May 11 I'm settling into my new configuration that I like. My scenario is two different configurations Mac plugged into my Denon Prime Go running VirtualDJ and Soundcloud with my Control One noMac - Denon Prime Go (run built in Lighting, run music off USB thumbdrive with Playlists) NOTE: Previously I was iTunes dependent meaning I would create my playlists and purchase music from iTunes since iTunes can be read from every DJ software out there so it makes sense but I want to not be so dependent on iTunes. File Storage In both scenarios, the location of the music isn't really relevant but I don't want my music files all over the place so I like to keep it simple and the pickest of the software appears to be iTunes (or Apple Music) so I use the default settings provided by Apple Music which is annoying since they use the word Music in three different folders. HDD --> Users --> yourusername --> Music --> Music --> Media --> Music SCENARIO 1 - Computer Mode Virtual DJ ability to import playlists any .m3u playlist (engineDJ, iTunes, etc) ability to export playlists support for many streaming services including TIDAL TIDAL subscription EngineDJ DB organizer ability to create playlists ability to import playlists ONLY from iTunes no streaming support on desktop version iTunes create playlists of music owned purchase missing music sync Playlists between iOS devices (iPhone, iPad) NOTE to self.. Curious if I should be doing my prelim playlist in iTunes (so I can sync to iOS devices as a backup) and then open EngineDJ and I can import the playlist from iTunes (so EngineDJ can analyze and assign the BeatGrid to each song in the playlist) then I can Export that playlist to Virtual DJ. Setup Instructions Connect Macbook to Denon Prime Go USB on back of unit Launch VirtualDJ Turn on Denon Prime Go and swipe down on screen and click Source and at the very top of the screen click the little computer and you'll get a warning popup saying: This will stop all audio and restart the player into Computer Mode. Continue? <-- Touch Yes to reboot the unit into Computer Mode from Standalone Mode Watch your VirtualDJ to pop up a message asking where you want your speakers to go Computer or Prime GO <-- click Prime Go and click OK Create Playlists in EngineDJ So I organize my music in enginedj (mainly because I use a denon prime go which runs on enginedj and the playlist I create in enginedj can easily be transferred to my portable mixer). Now there are several times that I need Virtual DJ since EngineDJ does not support automix and they are very passionate on not ever adding automix so VirtualDJ is my primary platform. Instructions on how to Export Playlist in Engine DJ and Import in Virtual DJ You can create playlist in EngineDJ then right click on the playlist and click Export Save the file as M3U Then go grab that file and paste in the VirtualDJ playlist folder found: HDD --> Users --> yourusername --> Library --> Application Support --> VirtualDJ --> Playlists Open VirtualDJ or ReOpen VirtualDJ and the Playlist should now be in there. So the playlist you export and import have the file locations in them so this way you can keep all your files in the same iTunes location and everything just works. Instructions on how to Export Playlist in Virtual DJ and Import in Engine DJ No clue yet but this would be nice since I fine tune the playlist during an event and I would like to just export the playlist in VirtualDJ (which is very easy to do by right clicking on any playlist and click Export and click Playlist Only and make sure you select the M3U version). Just not sure how to import this M3U playlist into EnginePrime.. haven't figured it out yet. SCENARIO 2 - Standalone Mode Open Engine DJ Software on your Mac and at the bottom there is a Sync Manager, utilize that to move over music to thumbdrive that you can plug into the Denon Prime GO. Need to research the lighting scenario as well (do I still use the control one or just the soundswitch dongle) more details to follow Engine DJ - User Guide - v3.0.0.pdf VirtualDJ_User_Manual.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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