Rekordbox DB for files which are already on the USB drive?

If you mean old playlists on a USB drive or SD card?, no you can't import them if they are  not on the computer collection. And that is stupid, beyond me. Cause the music is not locked away or encrypted. And if people wanna steal your stuff they can. So this system is just another monkey in the wrench.

But if you want to make new playlists without putting them on the computer, its possible. Just import the files from the USB drive and make your playlists and export them to the same  drive again. Take note however that you get duplicates but that can be good if you happen to play on gear that don't support RBX.

Good luck

/MDB

I know its outdated now, but it sure was not before RBX 5, but i understand your point!

/MDB

Thanks everyone sorry it took me so long to reply.. I asked this question out of desperation when I was getting ready to play at a festival, then I went to the festival and things got crazy...

So basically the answer is, you can't do it.. I have to import everything into RB and redo all my old folders as playlists in rb and then export the playlists.  Then I am stuck with RB and can't do what I do now which is to be able to just for example plug my flash drives into my computer at work or at a friends house and see my folders and play the music I picked out for a certain party or after a certain party.. by folder.. without needing to import it into RB.  Or if I'm at a festival or party without my computer.. and I want to work on my music before I play, I can usually borrow a computer from someone who is using Traktor or Ableton and work on it.. of course those people all have computers with them but the RB users do not have their computers with them.. and even if they did I can't import all my music into someone elses RB!  The whole POINT of why we bought CDJ's and XDJ's is so that we don't depend on our computer... It's annoying.

So basically I have to decide if I really want the XDJ which is pretty limited without RB and buy an older set of CDJ2000 which work better with just plain AIFF files than the XDJ1000mk2 does (at least you get a decent waveform and BPM counter actually works).

Anyway, so aside from my complaining, I do have another question:

Is it possible to tag my AIFF files so that the key and BPM appears in the display on the XDJ/CDJ?  Without RB?  I wouldn't care too much about having to use folder search if at least the BPM and Key would appear in the tag area on the screen when I'm flipping though tracks...

I use MIK7 to tag things right now but the key does not appear.  But I would tag them by hand if I had to.. trying to find a program that'll do it as easily as possible.

Thanks!

I had hoped that this problem was solved already in newer RB

With RBX 5 you can take your device and plug it in whatever computer that have RBX 5 installed and "import" your music as folders or playlists. Re-order or rework them as you want to and then export the final product to the old or a new device again.

For me this is a step in the right direction and i see also in some way why Pioneer want you to import to the computer instead of messing around on your device. What happens if your screw up your device and you don't have backups with you on your tour?

Well if you import to the computer you can make several copies later on if you want to.

However, I understand what you aiming for. But i feel its a no go. And that just don't stop with Pioneer. Many competitors have it the same way. 

I do however would like to see a feature that makes it possible for me to rid off duplicates and files that i don't want in my playlists or on my device. last time i checked i had about 20 copies of the same track in different lists. and this is physical files. not just information. And that takes up a lot of space even for a 256gb device. Imagine if you had 2-3 duplicates of the same track on every imported track. Like in collections or from different labels / promos. Some guys just import the folders they get and forget to check the files 100%

That makes up for a great dupe-bomb surprise I'm afraid.

And if you have 5,10,20,30 thousand songs on a device you don't want to do them all over.

Just plug in the device, put on a search function, hey you have 205 songs of the same artist according to filename and tags. do you want to move them to a safe location YES / NO? And when you do, it won't break the playlists or make the players getting errors as of now. If you edit or change the content. The players won't find them and you get an error. Understandably.

Either make room on the computer, or put RBX on a separate device and use it as the main source for storage and import your playlists to it. like a "portable" device. and when you are finished just export to your ordinary play device again. What you should know is that this takes far more time then to use an internal SSD 2 USB / SD as the data needs to be rerouted. But it works.

Cheers!

/MDB

So you're saying that with RB5, it'll import my folders and keep them as folders?  Is it also possible to export them back out again as folders?  Because that's what I want.. for my music to stay in folders so I am able to see the organization not just on any computer, but also on my music player (Fiio X5-2 at the moment, it's very good, I used to have an iBasso DX50 which was also very good).. since the player works as a USB flash drive as well, that's not just my player and my way of listening to things before I play to make decisions.. but also my backup drive when I'm away from home...  So I want decisions that I make in RB to be exportable as folders not just as RB database files that don't work on my music player or on anything else.

As far as duplicates go, it's a price I'm willing to pay.  I don't actually think there is any really good technical reason that Pioneer does this...

..but can anyone tell me if there's a way to tag (manually or automatically) my aiff files so that the key and bpm appears on the CDJ or XDJ when I am scrolling through the tracks?  I don't mean search by key or bpm, I just mean show on the screen when the track is selected.. because yes MIK puts them in the filename, but the player displays a VERY limited amount of the filename.. another thing that really disappoints me about the XDJ-1000-mk2.. it has this HUGE screen but still can't display the whole filename???  All this space is wasted.  You would almost think that Pioneer wants to force us to use RB by artificially limiting the player if you don't.  I prefer playing on my old CDJ-900's right now...

Yes thats what I'm saying, I have put a lot of effort of understanding the mechanics of RBX V as this is my main source of income. I work as a professional dj and i have put a lot of money and time into this. So it has to work for me. And before it did not. Now it does.

I have a lot of music thats not in any collection of RBX, So i tried out the new feature to import both lists and folders and then re-export them to the same or several other devices. And it works flawlessly. Besides the dupes, but thats on me.

And when you are finished with your editing and have exported and checked the final version of it. take another Device and copy the Pioneer / Content folders and make backups. Instead of having RBX V exporting several collections that takes a lot of time. Just copy with whatever computer to any media you want. I now have three backups of every devices i have just to be safe. Time is money, and so is music and workflow.

/MDB

Ok I see, great I'll try it :)  When you export as folders does it still export the RB database so that you get those features on the player (eg waveforms, search)?  That's another thing that really frustrates me is that on the XDJ1K/2 you get a really bad waveform and it takes FOREVER to calculate it.. unless you use RB to process it ahead of time.  Yet on the CDJ-2000, a MUCH MUCH older player, the waveform is decent and it comes up fairly quickly.  I find it hard to believe that Pioneer put a much slower processor into a deck that is years newer.  My belief at this point is that they artificially limited the player.. which really bothers me.. these are not cheap players and if you look at my first post you see I am a long time Pioneer user, I've had 100's, 200's, 800mk2's, 900's, and now XDJ1000mk2, I rent my sound system out and many many DJ's have played on my decks.. so now having spent all this money on Pioneer gear over the years I'm really feeling screwed by this trend by them to make my life harder for their own benefit.  I'm a computer programmer as well and know perfectly well that given the progress of computer technology, you don't actually need the laptop at all.. the deck could do it all, easily.  They're deliberately hobbling the deck.  At the very least the deck should be able to scan the drive and build the database from it.. my tiny, battery powered music player can do it, why not the XDJ?  Same thing with waveforms.. the CDJ-2000 can do it, then certainly the XDJ should be able to do it.  Store the data in the tags, or in files in a subfolder.. there are so many ways to do it that are easier than this.

I think that since Pioneer DJ got sold things are just going to go downhill.  But I hope I'm wrong.

I'll try RB5 and see how it goes.  Thanks very much!

Well its simple really, if you use a computer the workflow is not put on the main player CPU and you can keep it clean and simple.

If you look and competitors that need quad core or multicores the heat will be a future problem. Sure CDJs would be able to output waveforms from mp3s without RBX, but then again the whole idea with a all in one solution would be useless.

When I'm out on the road i carry a computer with me, to have ready if need be.

And it does not have to be a super computer. Just be able to edit, export and copy if your device crashes or gets broken. The perfect thing is that you don't even need any music on it. so if you have wiped your playlists, its useless even if it got stolen. Especially if you use the "Portable" solution.

Before with the collection requirement it was another different ballgame.

Keep the faith M8, it will be great in the long-run I'm sure ;)

Cheers

/MDB

There's a lot of stuff in here, but just to clarify, no - it doesn't export "folders."

@ Pulse, Maybe it dont for you, but for me it does! ;)

When RBX V state its a playlist or a folder im exporting or importing, i dont know what else to call it.

Maybe you guys at Pioneer have a different language i dont know

/MDB

@Martin > Yes, it exports the songs to "folders" (in the Contents folder, by Artist), but if a DJ has an organized collection on their source drive, eg:

Music\Dance
Music\Disco
Music\Electronic
Music\Funk

Dragging those into rekordbox will not keep those folders, nor will they be retained on output to those folders; rekordbox does not make an easily-browsable folder tree is what I'm trying to say.

@ Pulse, i now a-days make alot of different folders and playlists, and today i imported over 25 folders and exported the same.

However, yes you are right regarding the folder-trees, i cant export or import in batches, so i have to do everything in single order. 

But im good!

/MDB