Have a feature request or suggestion? Post your idea here!

Post

3 followers Follow
0
Avatar

Rekordbox suggestions

** I posted this in the general Rekordbox forum, and only just found the Suggestion forum.  Cross-posting for correct visibility.

Hello,

I've been using Rekordbox since 2012 (I think?) and it has become indispensable to my DJing, both at home in terms of cataloging my music, and for playing out.  Thank-you to all of the development, management, and social teams.

I have a couple of things I would like to suggest, that would make things a lot more intuitive for me.

  • Allow a function to add Separators within a Playlist

This may be my personal workflow, but it is one that I think other DJs could benefit from, if they implement it into their workflow.  Essentially, what I do when I prepare a set, is to pick tracks that I want to play for that night/set/crowd.  Because my music library consists of many different genres/tempos/energy and also because I play various positions in the night (opener/mid-night/peak-time/closer), I have to be prepared to swing between styles and energies readily.  Many times, even during a single set, I take the energy up, then down, then funky, then techie, etc.  I like to keep my sets fluid and be able to react to the crowd.  I used to have separate Playlists ready for a single set, each with their own category of energy or nuance.  However, I have found that having separate playlists is a bit cumbersome to move between, so I have implemented a single Playlist with all of the various styles and energies of music I think would be appropriate for that set.  Because of this, however, that single Playlist is a mish-mash of various music, so that makes it difficult to pinpoint what track to play next.  In the heat of a live, fluid, DJ set, it is paramount to find the next track to play quickly and easily.  So, I have utilized a method to add Separators within a Playlist, which I name in terms of what style or energy of music is listed underneath.  These Separators are white noise audio files (so I don't accidentally choose them to play, and their waveforms show that they are obviously not music files), but I give them names which describe the music they are representing (House, Breaks, Low-tempo, Peak-time, etc.) . This makes it so easy to select tracks without backing out and going into a different Playlist.  I can keep my focus within one Playlist and know that the music there can offer what I need, at a glance.  The problem with my method, however, is that when I change the Sort method for the Playlist (Alphabetical, BPM, etc.), my Separators are included in the Sort, so my categorization of tracks becomes mixed-up.  This only works if I Sort in Order (numerically sequential).  It would be great if Rekordbox could allow the user to add a Separator within a Playlist, that could be named anything they want and placed within the Playlist anywhere they want and not be included in any Sorting method.  Basically, they will retain their position in the Playlist and the tracks under them will sort according to the Sort selection.

  • Show a pop-up when device Sync is complete

When I finalize a Playlist, then want to sync it to my USB, there are times when the process of syncing takes quite a while.  I usually walk away from my computer during this time to do other things.  A lot of the time, when I come back to the machine, I can't remember if I had actually done the Sync or not... maybe I am getting old!  But it would be good to have a message box pop-up saying what Playlist and to what device has been synced, and that it is complete.

  • Automatic Library backup

It would be great to have an option to have backups occur automatically.  Since I perform my own music data backup, I only do the Rekordbox database backup.  I usually manually perform this every time I make adjustments to my Collection (either adding new music or removing music) and backup to the same location.  It would be cool to have an option to do this automatically, maybe on Rekordbox exit, or at the very least, retain the last-used backup folder when doing the manual backup.

  • Preview audio volume still too low

When I am choosing tracks for my set, I would like to hear the full volume in my headphones.  I would like the volume of sound in Rekordbox to be equivalent to my System audio volume.  Currently, it seems that the volume level in Rekordbox is lower than that of iTunes.  I am using Rekordbox for Mac. 

  • Have a button to clear ID tag information

I use Comments extensively for my own personal categorization.  A lot of the times, promos have text in the Comments (and other areas of the ID3) that I just do not need.  It would be great to be able to clear user-defined ID3 tags with just one click on a per-track basis.

Sorry for the long ramble, but I have been meaning to mention these for a while.  The biggest point for me would be to add the Separators in a Playlist.  That would help so much.

Thanks for reading!

Todd

Official comment

Avatar

Thanks for the suggestions, but removed the other post - crossposting is discouraged.

To add some of my own thoughts / ideas to your comments...

1) Use MyTags for your playlist tracks, then tag the songs into those different categories. You can then filter your playlist down to those specifics as needed. This is even better than using recursive sub-playlists (which we still don't have supported) because you can keep everything in one playlist.

2) I know half the crowd would love that, half would hate it. Best bet is to get a faster USB drive so it doesn't take as long! ;)

3) If you aren't already making a backup manually, or using a backup service like Backblaze, you should be. It will do that for you.

4) You can adjust the preview volume in the preferences.

5) Best to use a tag editor suited for that purpose. I use Yate for Mac, Tag&Rename for Windows - both are super-powerful and can do much MUCH more than any DJ application ever could.

 

Pulse
Comment actions Permalink

Post is closed for comments.

11 comments

0
Avatar

Hi, Pulse,


Thank you for your response and tips.

 

I will watch some youtube videos and figure out how to implement MyTags into my workflow.

For the message box pop-up when a sync is complete, I really think that some sort of feedback to the user is necessary.  If the message box is too intrusive (although I don't think it would be), perhaps a return message on the bottom-left of the RB window would do?  The bottom-left portion also shows the percentage of sync complete.  Would be good to have some sort of notification that it's done.

For the backups, I am talking about "auto" backups of the RB database as an option to be done on each exit, if there have been any changes made.  I am not speaking of regular data backups (which I agree should be a part of any computer user's system!).  I perform manual RB database backups each time I do major or minor edits to my playlists and folders.  Would be great to have this done by software on exit, so that I don't have to manually do it each time.  Or, again, if this is considered too intrusive to the user, it would be nice to have RB recall the folder of the last-done backup.  Currently, Library Backup defaults to /User/Documents (on Mac) each time.

I tried looking for the Preview Volume setting, but could not find it.  Where should I be looking?  I'm on 5.4.3 on Mac.

And I will try out your suggestions on tag editors.  Thanks for those suggestions!

Todd 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

@Todd > There are 3 backups of the database retained, one for each of the previous 3 rekordbox sessions, that way if there is a corruption or other error, it can be recovered.

Preview Volume is under the Audio tab:

Pulse 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

Pulse, good to know about the redundancy built-in to the backup procedure.

Hmm... my Preferences look vastly different than yours.

I am probably on an old version.  Will update.  Thank you!

Todd 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

Hmm, just updated to 5.5.0 and my Preferences still do not look like the screenshot you posted.


This is weird!

Todd 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

Todd,

Ahh - you are in EXPORT mode... here's my recommendation there:

Enable the LINK MONITOR feature (checkbox at the top):

Then when you have the mixer linked (at the bottom of EXPORT mode) and you click on a waveform to preview, with the LINK CUE button pressed on the mixer, you'll hear the preview in the headphones and see this icon on the mixer item:

The volume is then controlled by the mixer headphone volume.

I've also suggested either disabling the output (in the first image), or mute your computer speakers, as the preview would go to that source as well.

Pulse 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

Hi, Pulse,

 

Thank you very much for helping me out with this.

So, is it that I need to actually own a physical Pioneer mixer in order to be able to adjust the preview volume?  I do not own a Pioneer mixer (wish I did!), and I do not have any of my CDJs connected to my computer.

I did try going through the steps you described above, but I can't find Export mode anywhere... again, I do not have any Pioneer hardware hooked-up to my computer.

Todd 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

Yeah... that would be it. lol - I should have asked that earlier!

If you have your mixer connected via USB, you could use that device as the output and send the preview to one of the channels, otherwise it just comes out whatever you have selected.

Pulse 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

It would be great to have the Preview Volume slider available, even when no external mixer is connected.

So, since I have no USB mixer connected, and am just using vanilla Rekordbox and listening to tracks through my computer's headphone jack, is the default volume level for Rekordbox set to maximum?  It doesn't seem so, as iTunes plays tracks at a higher volume than Rekordbox does.

Todd 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

When testing this just within rekordbox, I was finding the preview audio volume was the same as the deck playback volume, which is controlled through the master volume control here:

No need to go into a preference panel for that.

Pulse 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink
0
Avatar

Pulse,

Thanks for your thoughtful replies.  Much-appreciated trying to help me with this small issues I am facing!

I do know about the application-wide volume knob at the top-right of the RB window and it has always been maxed-out.

I will do some more investigation on system stuff on my side.  If I find anything, I will let you know.

I have been doing some studying on the MyTags feature and, at cursory glance, it might not be as flexible or have the same speed-of-visibility as having sub-playlists.  In a live situation, simplicity and speed are extremely important.  I think that reducing the clicks and scrolls on the CDJ is more beneficial to the performer.  I will give this a try, though.

Would MyTags filter be available on the older CDJ-900's?  When I looked at the RB Preferences under CDJ & Device, the Sort tab didn't give the option for MyTags.  Since I am using older hardware, would MyTags sorting be supported on it?

Todd 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink