Organising CD Collection

[djabstraction]

Hey peeps!

I'd like to pick your brains and get some advice if possible.

Upto now I just burn CD's when I need them, just as a one off basis for the mix I'm doing. I try to burn 2 copies of the same disk with all 10 tracks on, so I can put them in each player without changing disk during the mix.

Now I would like to build up a CD collection with my music on but am not quite sure how to do it. I am going to burn CDA's as opposed to MP3 cd's as I just don't trust the continuity of MP3, but my main problem is how I organise my CDs.

Should I be getting as many onto a disk as possible and then burn 2 copies of each CD so then I never get into the situation of needing the disk that's in the other player? How do you guys do this?

Thanks a million for any feedback in advance.

[djabstraction]

I've just spent some time hunting around on the web and come across this topic on DontStayIn

DJ World comments - DontStayIn

Very helpful indeed and answers my questions really. But it would still be great to find out how you guys handle your CDs!

[djabstraction]

I guess noone here uses CDs, either that or don't want to share their secret mixing skillz

[Lazarus]

Hi mate! Well, my method is borne of 7 or more years of only mixing vinyl, whereby I remembered tracks based around their record sleeves. My issue with CD's has always been that I can't remember what an individual CD looks like.

Any arrangements via genre, name, title etc just seem a bit pointless to me. I once organised my records in alphabetical order only for them to return to chaos within 3 days and hence I haven't done it since.

My method now with CD's is quite simple. I put tracks on, numbered 1-9 or 1-10 or whatever, in the order in which they'd likely appear in a set. For example, all my intro tunes are on my CD's as a track 1, proggy stuff 2-4, peak stuff 5-8, harder stuff 9-10, there or thereabouts.

Because I used to recall record sleeves and search through them based on colour, I now write my track names on the CD's in various colours of marker pen. After that, it's the "simple" task of just memorising what colour a particular tune is (which, thankfully, I'm good at).

The only downside of this I've found so far was when DJing in a club near a red light that was flashing - it kind of made all my "red tune" CD's hard to read

But when I'm looking for a tune, I know what number thereabouts it would be on the CD already, which makes my search much more efficient. Plus if I also know what colour the tune is, I can find it in no time

[djabstraction]

Hi mate! Well, my method is borne of 7 or more years of only mixing vinyl, whereby I remembered tracks based around their record sleeves. My issue with CD's has always been that I can't remember what an individual CD looks like.

Any arrangements via genre, name, title etc just seem a bit pointless to me. I once organised my records in alphabetical order only for them to return to chaos within 3 days and hence I haven't done it since.

My method now with CD's is quite simple. I put tracks on, numbered 1-9 or 1-10 or whatever, in the order in which they'd likely appear in a set. For example, all my intro tunes are on my CD's as a track 1, proggy stuff 2-4, peak stuff 5-8, harder stuff 9-10, there or thereabouts.

Because I used to recall record sleeves and search through them based on colour, I now write my track names on the CD's in various colours of marker pen. After that, it's the "simple" task of just memorising what colour a particular tune is (which, thankfully, I'm good at).

The only downside of this I've found so far was when DJing in a club near a red light that was flashing - it kind of made all my "red tune" CD's hard to read

But when I'm looking for a tune, I know what number thereabouts it would be on the CD already, which makes my search much more efficient. Plus if I also know what colour the tune is, I can find it in no time

Hey cheers for the tips Laz, that's the sort of info I was after

I like the idea of putting the tracks on disk in order of a typical set as that is how I have always recorded them, but my only problem would be writing the 10 tracks onto the disk, either you have some micro sized hand writing or you write using special codes! I can just about write one track onto a cd, genre, artist, track, remix, and also label atm.

Only thing is it's taking me ages and I still haven't filled up my first box

So with that said it looks highly likely that I might give your method a go and burn 10 x faster than I'm currently doing!

Thanks for the tips mate it's much appreciated

[Lazarus]

Hey cheers for the tips Laz, that's the sort of info I was after

I like the idea of putting the tracks on disk in order of a typical set as that is how I have always recorded them, but my only problem would be writing the 10 tracks onto the disk, either you have some micro sized hand writing or you write using special codes! I can just about write one track onto a cd, genre, artist, track, remix, and also label atm.

Only thing is it's taking me ages and I still haven't filled up my first box

So with that said it looks highly likely that I might give your method a go and burn 10 x faster than I'm currently doing!

Thanks for the tips mate it's much appreciated

No worries mate

Essentially I can get away with Artist - Track on the CDs (I also use micro-fine marker pens, pack of 4 from Staples is about 3 quid!) and whilst my early efforts were neat, these days I'm full of abbreviations, dittos and scribbles. Using CD-text so you can read them in the CDJ is also handy!

As for the label, I just look these up when I post tracklists, and keep all my tracklists in an Excel file, so after a while, I just write tracklists by copying and pasting from old ones, meaning it's not such a chore! :smile1:

I guess you could print labels off and stick them on CDs but I've always found this problematic. Plus there's the colour issue, as I find distinctive marker-like colours easier to commit to memory, but then that's just me.

Before long though, you'll hopefully get to the point whereby someone can name any tune and you'll know the track number and the colour of it! I also find that using the same colour to write on CD's each time I go tune shopping means that if I remember one tune as being one colour, if I know I bought another at the same time then it will be the same colour...you get the idea!

[Config]

I use cd's , since i'm playing with CDJ's

Ahm , personally, for home use and for radiosets i don't really care how many numbers are on the cd, most of the time i burn 2 cd's with both different tracks. For playing out I do it a whole other way. I only burn ONE track to a cd, or in case there is another good track on the release, i'll burn it on that cd too. So for instance i'm going to burn the original mix and or remix(es) of a track. I never include 2 different tracks on a cd. Makes it too hard to put the tracks in alphebetical order then

For the cd's with more than one track on it, for my radiosets and home use, i just print a small paper with the tracks that are on the cd , and i put it in front of my cd in the map It's an easy way for me to work with so i guess i won't change it

[shamamster]

why not just get serato or something like that... it solves all problems.. i mean unless theres a club where you cant bring your laptop or w/e.

[djabstraction]

why not just get serato or something like that... it solves all problems.. i mean unless theres a club where you cant bring your laptop or w/e.

Hi Shamamster,

Good question! I invested in some CD Decks with the sole intention of removing a computer from the equation. I'm a computer programmer and spend 90% of time at the PC. DJing is a hobby for me and makes me forget myself and get lost in the music, if I'm mixing and the PC crashes it just makes me infuriated.

PC Crashes during sets can never be completely avoided and for this reason I'm staying totally clear.