Rekordbox importing w/ iTunes encoding system..?

Thank you for the feedback so quickly. I know this is not a Pioneer DJ question, but maybe you could help...

The reason I organise into iTunes first is because in Rekordbox it has the amazing function of just clicking an entire folder of playlists and clicking import and replacing all the previous ones in rekordbox. This is so handy when I’ve just added a bunch of tunes into various complex subfolders etc

However if I’m just organising all my folder structures in Finder, how will I know which folders I’ve added new tracks to? It’s a hard one to describe. I’ll break it down.

Okay, sometimes I download literally over 100 songs.
My old method was to put them into various finder folders based on mood / energy etc. But I was struggling to remember exactly which folders I put them in and therefore, where I should be looking to import these into rekordbox.

So lets say i have just added the following:
— FOLDER: Downtempo / happy vibes / 10 tunes added
— FOLDER: Melodic House / Dark and dirty / 1 tune added
—- FOLDER: Techo / minimal / 56 tunes added.
— FOLDER: Deep house / dreamy / 33 tracks added.

Now this is quite easy to remember but sometimes i’ve put tunes into so many different folders within subfolders. Baring in mind under the techno, deep house, melodic house downtempo, I have tonnes of other sub mood folders, then even more sub folders on energy... how on earth will I remember exactly which folders I stored them in? I can try to remember, sure, but it’s likely I will forget 1 or 2 and then some tracks are not getting imported into rekordbox, and I haven’t even known about it. Blissfully unaware of beautiful music that I have forgotten about.

So, that leaves me with no other option but the go through every single folder that exists, within the sub folders and import them all one by one, to ensure that any newbies are into the software. Where as iTunes you just click the top end folder, click import and in goes every single subfolder that’s been created in iTunes as well as the playlists within those.

Unless I am totally missing a trick with finder, is that not the best thing ever about iTunes?

Sorry I know this is not for a pioneer DJ person to answer but, everyone is saying iTunes is the worst for sorting the music but it seems to be very powerful for time and mind melting matters with this one simply but effective function.

Unless you have heard of better work around that allow me to keep all my music natively in finder?

Keep your current method of organization, import the entire parent folder, browse through the Explorer view. Boom!

the solution is manually store your tracks. I use iTunes for all my basic collection management but you need to have your iTunes advanced settings as the screent cut. BTW. the Music.app in MacOS Catalina has similar settings under a new tab (files).

I'm not really sure anyone is understanding me here, or I'm missing something very vital.

Pioneer DJ - When I import an entire parent folder in Rekordbox directly from Finder, it won't have all the sub folders, within sub folders (within sub folders) in there. It just created a playlist named the parent folder so I lose my entire structure...

FOR EXAMPLE, in finder, here's an example of one folder structure...

Deep House (parent folder) / Mellow / Energy Lev 1 / TRACK I'VE JUST ADDED

After taking the parent folder 'Deep House' and dragging it into Rekord Box, it just created a single playlist called 'Deep House' and I've lost everything else after that in terms of folder structure.

So how on earth do you get around adding music into so many sub folders within sub folders in your finder, from different genres, to energy levels, to moods etc, and remember exactly which folders you've dumped them all in to know which folders to them browse and import the music in to Rekordbox?

I'm obviously not making sense. This is so so hard to describe, and it's not even for Pioneer DJ to answer, but I just don't see how iTunes is slated so much when I don't see any other way of literally dumping music into thousands of folders, and it being as simple as 'import' and it all just conveniently updates in rekordbox.

Mix Master G - thank you for trying to help, but again this isn't solving the problem of me sorting say, over 1000 songs I've just downloaded, into various energy level folders, and genre folders, all which exist in a maze of sub folders, within sub folders in my finder - how will I possible remember exactly which folders I've got to go back to to import into Rekordbox? Without literally having to to every single folder that exists and importing it to enable every single new song going in to rekordbox.

Feel like this is the hardest thing to describe, and someone needs to come on a screen share Skype chat to see what I'm getting at

You are missing the essence here

there is a difference between

• managing your collection with iTunes (which is what I do and highly recommend to stay flexible. 
• having the storage location of the tracks managed by iTunes. This is the root of all iTunes evil and you should disable it (as showed in the screen cut).

Now what will happen if you have the copy tracks enabled?:

iTunes will CONVERT any track you add to mp3, or whatever you specified under the iTunes import setting (from whatever it was originally, including wav)

iTunes will copy the CONVERTED! track to it's own storage structure and publish that track in the xml Rekordbox (and other software) use to access the iTunes information.

this is what is happening with your collection. and if you're not sure. do a "Show in finder" on a random track in iTunes and even if it originated as wav it will have been re-encoded to mp3. Give that track a red bullet (so you know it's THE track, goto the iTunes navigation part of Rekordbox (sync with syncmanager first if needed, reload if needed, the xml is static) right click the same track &  "Show in Finder" 

that will show you the same track as in iTunes.

I'm afraid that's not true... See screen grab of a track imported into iTunes... When I click show in finder

Now see when I asked iTunes in their forum, 'what is all this encoding about?' see this response... 

Now does anyone understand why this is so damn confusing? As far as I can see, iTunes is not converting anything, it's just storing stuff neatly into Artist / Album folders - quite useful if I'm honest wondering I've heard some DJs quote the most bizarre method ever

'Don't use iTunes, just stick everything in finder into one massive folder, and do all your playlist organisation in Rekordbox'...

Um? What? That's ludicrous. What if your Mac dies and you lose every playlist you've created. Sure you might have your music backed up, but those hours spent organising playlists in Rekord box... What a shame. So, it makes sense to keep them organised in folders in Finder (if not using iTunes), but then it comes right back to my original time consuming problem - adding 400 tracks to multiple finder folders, how on earth will I remember which folders I need to now sift through to put the relevant tracks in Rekordbox. This is what I'm mainly getting at.

But of course Mix Master G, I do see what you're getting at - if iTunes was indeed to completely convert a track, then yes, that's a stupid idea but the evidence is clear, it's just taking in tracks, copying them into folders, no conversion at all, and then playing them as and what they always were as far as I can see. Let me show you also what I chose as my iTunes options so you know...

I untick 'keep iTunes music folder organised' because it actually changes my file names - I don't want that because some files I've put important information on them. However, I DO chose, 'copy files to media library', and the results are clear... .wav files as the outcome... so, what's wrong with using iTunes, someone please tell me?

More on this, with the guy from the iTunes forum who's shed even more light on this - what he is saying is absolutely bang on true. On my system anyway..

Please don't think anything I am saying it undermining your incredibly helpful attitude Mix Master G. I know all you wish to do is help, and it's absolutely fantastic - but I'm hearing one thing, seeing another, testing another, then finding out something completely different from all of this and I'm desperately trying to work it all out so that I am not screwing myself over. What are your thoughts on all this new information?

@Ian >

"When I import an entire parent folder in Rekordbox directly from Finder, it won't have all the sub folders, within sub folders (within sub folders) in there. It just created a playlist named the parent folder so I lose my entire structure..."

...and I said:

"...browse through the Explorer view."

This is not the Playlist view. rekordbox doesn't support recursive playlist folder structure anyhow, so why not continue to use your existing folder structure and browse that way through the Explorer view. You can search anything you want through the Collection.

"iTunes is not converting anything, it's just storing stuff neatly into Artist / Album folders - quite useful if I'm honest wondering I've heard some DJs quote the most bizarre method ever."

Nope, totally disagree, and most DJs would as well. What iTunes does to the music organization is AWFUL. Oh, and should you ever edit the metadata to correct a typo in the artist's name? iTunes will move that music for you automatically to a new folder with that new name, breaking any other applications which looked at the file path previously stored... but as you say later, you don't allow iTunes to manage the music, so why are you even asking?

"I DO chose, 'copy files to media library'..."

Why would you do this? Because you like having iTunes double-up the amount of hard drive space used by your music collection? Because you don't care about how you organized the music and want iTunes to just do whatever with it? Geez. For someone who just told me they spend time carefully placing things into specific folders, you sure threw that to the wind pretty quickly.

And Marco said the same thing I did -- iTunes doesn't automatically cross-convert your files.

Pioneer DJ / Mix Master G,

"...browse through the Explorer view."

I have done this. It is not importing the folder structure that I have in Finder

DEEP HOUSE / Mellow / Energy 1 if the folder structure.

When I import, it just has a single playlist saying 'DEEP HOUSE', none of the other sub folders. I will show you via a video I'm doing.

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Regarding iTunes, yes, it's bad that when you rename a file - it changes the folder structure. I'm not disagreeing with that, likewise, I think it's totally whack that it just stick everything into it's own Artist, Album folders - why not actually categories it through the same playlist structure? Surely that would make more sense. But unfortunately, that's just how it works. However, when you quoted that 'I don't use iTunes to manage my music' ?? I do, I use it to manage all my music, I just mean I untick that box because it actually changes the file names, that' something I don't want to change.

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I think you're missing my point. Yes I am meticulous with folder structure, and yes I AM annoyed iTunes totally screws with that, but my original point was that, the old method. I used to use (organising all my folders / playlist in Finder - which I would much prefer and would chose any day) is hard for me to pin point which new tracks I have put in those folders, and iTunes eradicates that because of the bridge import function in Rekordbox.

I've done a video to try to explain what I am on about here...

In this video I also show you how .wav tracks I've imported into iTunes, haven't converted to .mp3 at all and are in fact, completely in tact as they original were. Please, if you have time to watch, I would be greatly appreciative. Thank you

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ykLDNV5G8kf2w4X7SSS8tn4e-DAZwXHa

Also, may I just point out that, when you sync all your wonderful amazing playlists from Rekordbox to your USB, shockingly, it does exactly what iTunes does... it puts them in these Artist / album folder structure... Which is useful to no one if they wanted to just find a track on the fly depending on mood etc. So why is the iTunes way it organises its folders such a problem with people, and yet, Rekordbox does exactly the same on your portable USB? I'm not getting any of this. I just simply want to understand why my method of iTunes is so wrong.

Hi, 

totally newbie to Dj world and Rekordbox. 

Just wondering if you found the final answer to your question: what's the best way to organize your songs and folders? Do you stil use iTunes?

All in all, what organization process is recommend ? 

thanks, 

David