50.000 hits!

I not exactly an AMAZING number, but I've got about 200 readers every day and over the last couple of months it's been pretty much flattening out. Yesterday the counter passed 50.000!
To celebrate my continuing effort to spread the good word on the amazing world of digital DJing and TRAKTOR!

Show your support by clicking my LIKE on my newly Facebook page! Cheers!

DubSpot gives us some good advice

This is DJ Shiftee. He's very skilled and down right hilarious.

The DubSpot guys gives us some wise words on how to DJ. They brush on stuff like what to play when warming up, preparation, keeping up with technology and some mixing tips.

Read it by clicking here

Cleaning music libraries

The topic of cleaning your music library is pretty hot at the moment. I started the work of running through my music a while back, just after I started Digital DJ Tips wrote an article on the topic and now DJ Techtools has posted an article with a couple of tips to sort your music. DJ Techtools also posted a couple of articles some time a go on this and I thought that it would be helpfull for those of you wanting to sort your music, but are not sure on how to do it.

Read the DJTT article here

Other DJTT articles:
Organize your music by track type
Get more from your library
Itunes power tips


Here's what I did

1. I pulled out my entire music library to an external harddrive.
2. Took each and every track and evaluated if I wanted to keep it and if I actually had played this track in the last couple of months and copied them into different folders.
3. The folder structure will be different for each and every DJ. I play a couple of tracks almost on all my gigs, so I had a mainstream folder. Some gigs require more either of R'n'B or House, so I have a HipHop folder and a House folder with several sub-genre spesific folders underneath. I also have some folders for music that doesn't fit the structure and tracks I want to exclude, but still bring along like very commercial tracks or old classics.
4. After I moved the keepes back in to my folders, I whent through my tracks (using Tag & Rename) and renamed the files to the format of "Artist - Title (Remix)", filled out all the ID tags and added images to the tracks.

I loved the way Phil Morse put it: Your music library is like laundry.
If you don't clean it regularly it'll really pile up and be a REAL mess. It's aweful to do it all at once.

My notes on playlists
I (normally) have three types of playlists in three different folders.

1. Profil
2. Music
3. Sets

Profil
Each venue has a different flair to it though often many tracks are played at all the venues. I create a profile playlist for each venue. I run through my track folders that are relative for the venue, and being VERY selective, I put tracks into the profile playlist. Bi monthly I clear my profile playlist and do this over again.

Music
I have one for HipHop, one for chillout, a couple of house playlists and so on... You get the drift.

Sets
I create some set lists for when I'm doing performance pieces or mix tapes. These playlists are sorted after the order I play the tracks in.

I also sometimes import folders as playlists... That's the great thing of using folders to sort music.

Preparation list
While I play I sometimes stumble upon tracks that I want to play that night, but it doesn't fit at the time. I then have an empty preparation list that I add tracks into to not forget to play them.

Win a Kontrol S4

This competition is quite simple.
Just write the answer to a pretty simple question and your name, send it all to wintraktor@native-instruments.com and wait for the draw.

JOIN THE COMPETITION

PS: Answer is written in the comments below on the competition site.

Harmonic mixing

Found this great run through of harmonic mixing using Mixed in Key by DubSpot. Enjoy

Creat loops for Traktor in Machine... Smart...

This tutorial shows you how to quickly use Machine to create loops to use in the sampler section in Traktor.

Simply a mindblowing creation!

Pioneer DJM-T1 review

As the DJ-scene moves more and more into the digital age and controllers take a larger part of a DJ setup, the question is where does the mixer fit in and how does it evolve to still be an essential part of the setup? Enter the next step in Mixers: Built-in soundcard and buttons for application control. I believe that this type of mixers will be more and more seen in clubs all over the world in the years to come, but is this mixer the one?

DJ Techtools’Chris Cartledge takes a closer look.

My opinion:

I haven’t had hands on experience, but judging from what Pioneer normally deliver on their mixers this is a best buy item if you are using Traktor with time code and need the perfect center piece.

In the review they get hung up on the fact that they think the unit VERY pricy, but it’s actually about as expensive then the CDJ-800. Ok, so you lose two channels and mixer the effects, but you gain the built-in soundcard and Traktor tuned layout.

The thing I don’t like about the layout of mixer is actually that there are only two channels and yes, if you compare it to other two channel mixers, it’s a bit on the pricy side, but not all that much.

The thing that stuns me is the fact that Pioneer makes a fully integrated unit ONLY for Traktor and choose to send control signals via MIDI! WHAT? Why wouldn’t they develop a HID driver like the Kontrol S4 has?

To sum it all up

This is the ultimate unit for DJ’s using time code and Traktor DUO. If you’re looking for a unit for the Traktor PRO you should check out Rane Sixty-Eight.

Is you soundcard buzzing?

Is your soundcard making alot of unnecessary noise?

Some times the AC adaptor to your computer can create some unwanted noise that sounds terrible. The reason for this can be quite many, but I've learned that some laptops are better on this then others. Right now I'm using a high end laptop from HP and I've changed the power supply to the one that's for the docking stations. It's quite alot bigger, but the noise is almost gone.

I've also experienced that if you put your power adaptor on a different electrical circuit then the one the amps are plugged in to there is alot less noise beeing generated.

1. Use a rugged power supply (Overcompensate)
2. Use a different electrical circuit then the amps are using
3. Use a good external soundcard
4. Use short and good cables (A good shielded USB and good audio cables)
5. Move the soundcard as far away from your laptop as possible.

Digital DJ Tips has more on the subject...

New layout and new features

I figured the old dark and gloomy design was out of date and updated my blog with a much more viewer friendly and brighter layout.
The result is actually that more people click on more links, so thank you everyone for reading on.

Also there is a new feature that makes it possible to schedule posts. Most news are posted at once, but videos that I find about and other gems makes me able to make this blog a bit more interesting for you readers. '

Hope you like it!

Beatgridding in Traktor

This is a must read for any Traktor users!

10 Tips For Perfect Beatgridding

Dj PowerTools from DJ Techtools

I think this can be a new trend, and I'm definitely jumping on.

With all the new time that track collections, playlists, sync and visual assistance that now free up time for finding tracks, cuing up and beat matching this can be something to fill the time with.

Be careful to not overdo this!
Train while you're playing in your headset or practice at home to find some tracks that you can perform with in front of a crowd and drop it like there’s no tomorrow.

Great idea! Kudos to DJ Techtools! I can see a lot of new packages being made.

Read all about it!

BeatJazz controller...

This video just blew my mind!

Too much music?? Part 2

After a long and hard run-through of my music library I finaly got to try it at my resident venue this weekend. It was simply amazing to work with! All my tracks where there and even the tracks that I wanted to experiment with was super easy to find and manage now that I don't have to run through thousends of tracks. I whent from about 7500 tracks (about 2000 was loaded in the library) to about 300 tracks.

Ofcause I'm not that veritile and if I'm doing a job where I'm not what to expect I'll bring along my harddrive so that I can try it out.

One of the errors I did when converting from hardcopies to digital was that I felt I had to rip everything. That just grew as I was pretty careless of adding new tracks to my library from my promotional sources and was buying ALOT more tracks then I should have done.

From now on:

1. Only add tracks that I know I'm gonna play.
2. Regularly (weekly) go through and remove tracks that are beeing "phased out" folder which I purge monthly.
3. After I buy a track I'll put it into a stage folder for qualifying it and tagging it with correct information before putting it in a correct folder in my collection library.
4. Stop buying tracks that I don't use for DJing. (Use Wimp or Spotify)

CLEAN UP YOUR ACT!

(Part 1)

Denon DN-SC2000 vs Traktor Kontrol X1

Nice "little" video by Phil about the X1 and the Denon SC2000.

Read more here

Too much music?

Think you'll find a record quick enough??

I read this piece by Phil Morse on Digital DJ Tips about how he cut down his music database from 10.000 songs to about 5-600 and I laughed a bit cause I'm actually in the middle of doing the same thing!

I've copied my entire music database out to a portable harddrive, deleted the music on my computer and I'm only copying back the tracks that I like or "need" (I still play a couple of places where I need ALOT of different music still). I sort them into a couple of folders, but keeping the structure as flat as possible. After the sorting is done I'll will run through the tracks and tag them properly and add album art to the few that are missing it.

The reason for doing this is EXACTLY the same as Phil's, so read what he said and I suggest you do it yourself as well. I would like to point out the first reason in his list. Focus on the tracks that you like and don't fill your Track Collection with stuff you don't need.

Read more at digitaldjtips.com

Free upgrade for Kontrol S4 to Traktor Scratch.

So Native Instruments announced that they are going to give all S4 owners a free upgrade to Traktor Scratch Pro 2 which basically enable the user to access the timecode of Traktor. The package contain the software and two timecode Vinyl and CDs. Value: $139.
This offer is for all new users registering purchasing from July 2011 and existing users have got 3 months to register their upgrade.
You can upgrade your S4 Traktor Pro 2 License to Scratch Pro 2 license HERE.
For the discount you'll need to enter your e-voucher sent from Native Instruments.
If you haven't recieved it yet? Contact Native Instruments directly NOW!



More information here