Duplicate Files

So this is the source drive (external) that you are asking about?

I'm not sure I follow where you say "if I use the explorer and go to the folder I keep all my music ("Rekordbox Music"), the songs appear as if they are not imported, even though if I go to a song in my library and check info the destination is the same as the song that appears un imported."

Does the song appear in the library and if you click it, does it play?

Sorry for the confusion, let me restate what I meant in a clearer way. 

My music was kept in a folder called "Rekordbox Music" on an external flash drive. Everything was normal. Some months ago, I duplicated this drive to a new SSD of the same capacity (256GB). All of my music, cues, etc were maintained perfectly. If I click on a song in Rekordbox it will play fine. However, if I use the explorer in Rekordbox to manually look through my computer directories, browse to the folder "Rekordbox Music" on my external drive, all the songs that were there prior to duplication do not display that they have already been imported to Rekordbox. If I double click on this file, it imports to Rekordbox, creating a duplicate that has the exact same destination information set as the corresponding file in my Rekordbox Library that has already been analyzed and had cues placed. My temporary work around was to create a folder "Rekordbox Music 2" for all my new music so that it appears properly, but I'd like to get this issue fixed. I hope this explanation offers a clearer perspective. Thank you for your time Pulse, as I know they keep you busy around here. 

Edit: 

Yes this is my source drive for Rekordbox.

Sorry for the double post.

Just so I follow:

• you had music on a drive (Drive X)

• music on Drive X was imported to rekordbox

• you duplicated Drive X to Drive Y

• loading music plays when Drive Y is connected (assumption here is Drive X is NOT connected)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess your two drive names are either not identical or you have at some point had both connected at the same time?

Correct -- 

Both drives were plugged into my computer at the same time for duplication, yes. Then the OLD drive X (named "rekordbox files") was renamed and removed, and the NEW drive Y named to "rekordbox files". The drive name is exactly the same. 

During this process Rekordbox was not running. 

I want to verify -- the location information showing for a duplicate file has the exact same path?

Correct. 

There's got to be something going on with regards to the path within the database, I'm going to see if the engineers can shed some light on this.

That would be great. Thank you.

I would have gone through the process I've ready many times about moving the files, using the missing files relocate, and then not clicking on any files specifically and pressing relocate, but that process never resulted in a menu popping up to select a location for all the files (I press the button but nothing happens).I started using Rekordbox after v3 came out so perhaps it was lost in the changeover from v2 to v3.

Since the cloning, have you disconnected the new hard drive from the computer?

Many times.

Have you thought about renaming the drive to something different and trying a relocation from there?

That would definitely solve the problem, but I simply don't have the time to manually relocate 2000+ files. I've never been able to get the trick where you -choose "locate missing files", and then don't select any individual file, and press "relocate" to mass-relocate the tunes - to work.

Unfortunately it would seem that somewhere along the way there was a step taken that made things difficult for the database. In most situations the mass relocation does work as advertised. Do you have many of those 2000 tracks with cue points / hot cues?

Hundreds of them have cue point / hot cue data in them - representing many many hours of work. 

As a side question, if I have my master database on this drive as well as the music files, is all my work in one place? For backup purposes I was thinking of making a clone of this drive. If my current drive died, could I just plug in the clone, rename it to "RB Files", and be set to go? How about if my computer died? Could I install RB on a new computer, and plug in the clone (or the original). 

Also as a side question I was wondering if it's possible to easily move the location of my music files from an external drive to an internal drive, without losing all the cues/hotcues. 

Sorry for all the questions - Thanks so much for your help Pulse. 

My suggestion is that you house your library on an external drive, tell rekordbox you want to store the database on that same external drive, which allows you then to move it from computer to computer (think "syncing") without having to do any conventional "sync" because your database and music are always in the same place and up-to-date.

Always, of course, keep a duplicate of that external drive. Any exports then wouldn't be as important to have duplicates as the main library would always be doubled and ready to move to another computer at a moment's notice.

If your computer died (in your current situation, and without any kind of backup), your library would be toast and you'd lose all your cue points and waveforms, etc. You could still import your music from the original source or the export drive, but all playlists would be lost as well because you can't rebuild your library from an export drive.

So how to progress from here ... unfortunately the best thing you could do would be to try renaming the drive and attempt another mass relocation. Failing that, either track-by-track relocation (or at the very least, album-by-album for any track in the same folder), or starting from scratch with the library and rebuilding all your cue points.

"Always, of course, keep a duplicate of that external drive. Any exports then wouldn't be as important to have duplicates as the main library would always be doubled and ready to move to another computer at a moment's notice."

Not sure what you mean by exports, since this is just an external drive with the root files & master database, not an export drive (I use flash drives for export purposes). 

"If your computer died (in your current situation, and without any kind of backup), your library would be toast and you'd lose all your cue points and waveforms, etc."

I'm a little confused by this - my library and master database is on an external drive. So wouldn't I be able to do as you say in the beginning, plugging it into a new computer and everything being up-to-date? 

"or at the very least, album-by-album for any track in the same folder"

I 100% understand what you're saying here, but all this music is just sitting together in those 2 big folders, not in any further sub folders. Is this safe? Do you happen to know how many files this practice is good for in a single folder? 

With rekordbox you have the source (which can be anywhere) and an export drive (which is where you send the music / playlists to in order to use with a CDJ). The export wouldn't be as critical to back-up if your library and database are duplicated.

As I understood it, your rekordbox library was on the internal drive? If you have it on your external drive, the same location as your library is located, then there's no problem moving it to a new computer and being up-to-date.

I don't advocate putting all your music into a single folder. I use sub-folders to categorize my files just a bit, even if only by month.

The Rekordbox Library + Masterdatabase is on an external drive named "RB Files". 

I borrowed a friend's Macbook and installed rekordbox. The files that appear not imported (but actually are) did not appear imported on the other computer.

Also, even on the other comp I couldn't mass relocate (I moved some files so they appeared missing) . It did nothing when I clicked relocate with no specific file selected. 

In order to relocate you do need to select a bunch of files.

If you're able to discern which files are absent when connected to the other computer but present (and not playable) on yours, can you check the location info for those files to determine what their location is and why they are missing?

Sorry for the delayed response,

I managed to use the mass relocate, thank you for pointing out that I needed to select a bunch of files. 

As for backups, here's what I'm doing. I partitioned a 1TB drive into two partitions. The first is named "RB Files Clone" the second is just a regular drive name. Rekordbox only seems to see the first partition, but this is fine. I'm using the first partition "RB Files Clone" as a backup for my "RB Files" SSD that I keep everything on. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the SSD to the partition. As far as I can tell if I simply rename the partition named "RB Files Clone" on my 1TB Drive I should be good to go in case my SSD dies. 

Also I had a question about gain structure for my 2 wireless microphones. My mixer is the DJM2000 NXS. As you know it only has 1 microphone input. So what I'm doing to get around that is using a mixer that takes multiple microphone level inputs and mixes them down to 1 single microphone level output. What I'm wondering is what is the best way to set up the gains? My Wireless Microphone receivers can output anything from mic level to line level. Then each mic signal goes to a separate compressor/gate/feedback control box. Then the microphone sub mixer has gains on each mic channel, as well a master gain. And then on the DJM2000 as you know there is a microphone gain control. What I'm wondering is how should I set up the gains through each stage? 

The gain stage looks like this: Wireless Mic Receiver Gain-> Compressor/Gate/Feedback Box Gain -> Mic Mixer Channel Gain -> Mic Mixer Master Gain -> DJM Mic Gain -> DJM Master Gain -> Rest of my signal processing. 

I typically run my CDJ channels at 0db and the Master at 0db as well. How would you recommend calibrating this system? 

Sorry I was mistake on the gain stage; here's the correction 

The gain stage looks like this: Wireless Mic Receiver Gain-> Compressor/Gate/Feedback Box Gain -> Mic Mixer Input Gain -> Mic Mixer Channel Gain -> Mic Mixer Master Output Level -> DJM Mic Gain -> DJM Master Gain -> Rest of my signal processing. 

Your backup plan sounds good, provided you're backing-up your music and rekordbox database together, you should have no problems if need arises for recovery.

As for the gain-stage question, my recommendation would be as follows:

Wireless Mic Receiver Gain -> Unity

Compressor/Gate/Feedback Box Gain -> Unity

Mic Mixer Input Gain -> Unity

Mic Mixer Channel Gain -> Adjust each channel level per the required amount as each mic user will be a different "level."

Mic Mixer Master Output Level -> Set to peak around 0dB; output at mic level

DJM Mic Gain -> Set so your mic input is also peaking around 0dB

DJM Master Gain -> Also set so the master level peaks around 0dB

Rest of my signal processing.

Hopefully that helps!

Pulse - how do I know if I am at "Unity Gain". The Wireless mic receiver can output anywhere from mic level to line level, in 3db increments. As for the Mic mixer, it doesn't have level meters on the inputs or output; only overload indicators. 

You want to be at "MIC LEVEL" for everything prior to the mixer as you are inputting to the MIC channel (which accepts mic level only).

If you don't have meters, don't overload and you should be okay. ;) Just put it anywhere south of overloading, allowing your mixer a bit of headroom and you should be fine.

Okay - just one more question - If I set a single channel level to peak at 0db, then turn the master up to 0db, then turn down the channel level, and turn up the mic gain until the peaks are at 0db, is that a representation of the mic gain level? (assuming there are no other sources coming into the master level meter have I turned the master level meter into a faithful representation of the mic channels level?)

If you mean a channel that is not the mic (eg. music on CH2), peaking at 0dB and set the master to 0dB and then adjust the mic level to also peak at 0dB, yes, that should be pretty close... but you may not want to have the mic that hot. It's all situational! ;)