My name is Alan and tomorrow I will be joining the Denon family once more! Having sold my original turntable/cdj setup and all my vinyl a few years back I realised I miss this as a hobby and wanted to get back into it again. I have regretted selling my collection and equipment ever since but needs must at the time.
I had a Pioneer ddj1000 for a few weeks before sending it back as it was buggy and using my laptop bothered me more than I thought it would. So after a lot of research I decided to go with the Denon SC5000 and the X1800 setup. Was tempted by the sc6000 but it was nearly £1000 more in the end!
I had the dn-s3000 in my old setup so I was more than happy to embrace Denon again.
Now i’m just trying to figure out the best workflow for managing music. I’m pretty much starting fresh so is Engine Prime the best way to go or would anyone advise using Serato for library management & track analysis preperation?
The program is a bit raw around the edges right now but denon have been promising a much enhanced version for the last 3 years so that’s gotta land soon. Maybe next month, maybe next year, maybe buy a 5 year calendar and just wait.
Don’t go with any other DJ software, like serato or traktor and then try some flippy flappy floppy conversion process - as you’re not running a serato or traktor system, you’ve got no need for it.
If you can, I would do the main library management in iTunes/ Music.
Reason for this… If you in 5 years from now, want to switch to another software/ hardware, you can easily import your folders to that, with the same structure.
Not saying that EP aint good, but I manage all my tracks in iTunes and then import in to Engine Prime, where I analyze them afterwards.
Engine prime reads those databases natively without a need for 3rd party conversion apps. Only a few clicks and your serato library is in your engine prime with hot cues, loops and BPM intact.
Why you may ask
A cohort of users are still losing databases in Engine Prime (2020-May-19)
I have never lost my Serato database since 2010
You have more features in Serato eg changing tags, creating smart crates etc
If you decide to use Engine Prime exclusively, you have to manually create your own back up, which itself is not as simple as it may sound. It’s not automated.
Welcome @dale976
I would suggest a bit different approach and a bit maybe more work needing in the beginning but it will for sure bring back benefits in the end.
Use Your folders to sort the tracks.
In example: main folder: Music
Sub folders: House, Techno, Pop, Jazz
Then In these folders or keep music in sub genres or albums, year - what ever makes You comfortable.
Keep all music files in one naming system.
Example:
Artist - track name (mix/remix/master/what ever)
This way even when all data bases fail, You will be able to manually navigate in matter of seconds to find the right track.
I do that, always when new music comes, I tag it, name it, sort then import to any management or Dj software I need.
In the all softwares I keep the same structure, so I can find always all I need in my 2TB library in matter of seconds.
This is my way and it works since I started to play with traktor and later on with cdj’s, now with Prime - still works good.
Welcome @dale976, you will enjoy the Primes a LOT!!! Concerning the music management software… I only use Engine Prime, but I would love to be able to do it directly from the players… Anyway, this is very personal, I recommend you to try different alternatives and pick the one that fits you most
I see this approach workable if you only get tracks from one source and you can see what you have downloaded before. I download from many sources.
I see a very good chance of getting doubles or triples. That’s how I ended up with tons of duplicates in my case.
Especially as there is blur in genres these days. A track may feel Hip Hop today and tomorrow it’s in the Pop Top 40 charts.
Good example is Drake’s Tootsie Slide
Another very workable approach is not to use any folders or crates at all. But you have to put in the work before adding the tracks to your dj software.
Have a DJ MUSIC Folder and Download folder
Download tracks to the Download folder first
put the track through a tagger of your choice and fill in as much details as you can find on the track. You can also use the comments field for extra stuff like Vibe etc
Then move the tagged tracks the DJMusic folder
then to Engine Prime
Eg if you need to do a 90s hiphop party, just type in HIP HOP, RAP, PARTY, 90s, CLEAN
This sounds like a clean approach, i was previously using Rekordbox so I was tagging everything as it was added into my collection. If i were to use iTunes as an example, would the comments I add there be carried through into EP?
I’ve been playing with EP for a couple of days prior to receiving my SC5000’s, I can’t seem to find a way to search for any tags or key words that i enter for a track. Is this a current limitation with EP?
edit: I’ve just found the toggle in EP to enable searching in the comments field!
Its the same on the players as well, you need to enable all the search fields
I also use Rekordbox for granular tagging as it writes the tags in the comment field which is saved in the file itself, so serato and engine prime can use the comments
