Replacing tunes with higher quality. Some tips i picked up.

[Forau]

Getting a new laptop soon as im sick of using serato with a desktop and when i get it i want to start as i mean to go on, everything all tidy and shit. So tonight ive been sitting down for a few hours collating all my music into just a couple of folders as it was all over the shop.

Ive got:

- shitty quality 128kbps versions of tunes id completly forgotten about but would love to give a spin
- tunes ripped from youtube that i had to have on the ipod instantly, not caring about quality, just had to have it! (Verdict is one of these, which i later bought vinyl and digi)
- tunes ive ripped from vinyl myself
etc etc

Just thought id share a few tips i picked up in the last hour or so on getting your shit together, as i know quite a few people on here who are in a similar situation.


Sort By Bitrate

Little know fact, in a folder full of music, you can right click up the top where it says:

TITLE ARTIST LENGTH


And add a little tick next to Bitrate (or add it from the More option).
Click the bitrate tab up the top next to title, artist etc and it'll sort in order.
You can now see what shitty quality tunes you have and whether you need to replace em. I moved all my low qual tunes to a folder called "TO BUY" for example.



Sort by artist (assuming your tracks are titled right) and slap into folders accordingly (i have Jump Up, Dark and Deep, Liquid, Jungle etc).



Invest in TuneUp or something like it

Tuneup scans your library and fixes file name problems. It also gets rid of the annoying numbers before tunes (particularly ones youve ripped from cd's).
Ive bought quite a few tunes off Amazon MP3 that have no Artist info for example, or are just pretty damn screwed up title wise.

It works reasonably well for dnb. Didnt get quite a few old tunes. But picked up pretty much everything made in the last 5 years.

Can get it here
http://www.tuneupmedia.com/


This is all i have at the moment, will update as the night goes on and i pick up some more tips for organising shit.


So far i have a 3gb folder full of tunes from about 4 or 5 years ago i ripped from cd without changing the bitrate upon ripping (having no clue what this was at that point in my life) that i need to either re-rip or buy again.
Everythings lookin pretty tidy now though, looking forward to getting my laptop and getting some well organised virtual crates going on.


Might get round to organising my actual vinyl at some stage >_<.


Post your own tips on keeping music collections (digi or vinyl or cd) organised.

 

[Ozmatic]

I order mine by key using mixedinkey, only thing i really need tbh

 

[richie_stix]

broolest thread ever tbh imo idk

 

[cptunicorn]

thanks for the tipps mate!

its really funny how i also never used to give a shit about the quality of tunes, as long as i had them in my library. but nowadays, tunes with less than 320kbps just dont sound good enough anymore. once you've heard the best quality possible, you always want it and shittier quality doesnt seem as good. even though there is hardly a difference to the human ear between 256kbps and 320kbps, the 320kbps version is just more satisfying.

anyway,
i order mine in itunes. sort them by size. bigger size means better quality.

 

[Fallen.GeMiNi]

I order mine by key using mixedinkey, only thing i really need tbh

+1

 

[Dubsta]

thanks for the tipps mate!

its really funny how i also never used to give a shit about the quality of tunes, as long as i had them in my library. but nowadays, tunes with less than 320kbps just dont sound good enough anymore. once you've heard the best quality possible, you always want it and shittier quality doesnt seem as good. even though there is hardly a difference to the human ear between 256kbps and 320kbps, the 320kbps version is just more satisfying.

anyway,
i order mine in itunes. sort them by size. bigger size means better quality.

there is a definate differnece between 256 and 320......i can defo hear it on my set up.....not on my mp3 player or iphone on the tube tho.......mix the two together and you'll also notice it.....ive made an habbit of anything below 320 goes straight into the recycle bin......last week i done a guest show on a friends radio, we went two tunes each b2b.....he used mainly wavs and i used mainly 320's.....every mix was a struggle with the mixers eq as my tunes and my mates were either louder or quieter then each others lol.

as for how you file them i do this

LIQUID main
LIQUID classics
LIQUID rolling
LIQUID amens

DEEP

JUMP UP

JUNGLE 94 / 95 / 96 / 97 / 98 / 99

OLD dnb 2000 - 2008

SOUNDCLOUD TUNES

MY TRACKS

 

[Salvus]

I order mine by key using mixedinkey, only thing i really need tbh

Same. Bit of a faff when you import into rekordbox though =/

@Dedbult - Nice tips man. I too need to sort all my vinyl at some stage. What a facking bawlache

 

[cptunicorn]

there is a definate differnece between 256 and 320......i can defo hear it on my set up.....not on my mp3 player or iphone on the tube tho.......mix the two together and you'll also notice it.....ive made an habbit of anything below 320 goes straight into the recycle bin......last week i done a guest show on a friends radio, we went two tunes each b2b.....he used mainly wavs and i used mainly 320's.....every mix was a struggle with the mixers eq as my tunes and my mates were either louder or quieter then each others lol.

as for how you file them i do this

LIQUID main
LIQUID classics
LIQUID rolling
LIQUID amens

DEEP

JUMP UP

JUNGLE 94 / 95 / 96 / 97 / 98 / 99

OLD dnb 2000 - 2008

SOUNDCLOUD TUNES

MY TRACKS

i know exactly what you mean and its really annoying. its really difficult to keep the tension going when the track your mixing into is quiter than the track you are mixing out of. thats why i always have my master turned down by about 10%, just in case i need to pump up the volume of a certain track. quality is a problem with digital tracks. looks like vinyl is the best option regarding quality.

or whats better, .wav or .mp3 (320kbps)?

 

[Shotty]

i know exactly what you mean and its really annoying. its really difficult to keep the tension going when the track your mixing into is quiter than the track you are mixing out of. thats why i always have my master turned down by about 10%, just in case i need to pump up the volume of a certain track. quality is a problem with digital tracks. looks like vinyl is the best option regarding quality.

or whats better, .wav or .mp3 (320kbps)?

Considering vinyl is cut from .wavs I disagree with the first bit of the bolded!

As for whats better I think I answered that above. .wavs are a hell of a lot better quality than .mp3s but due to the quality difference also a hell of a lot bigger.

.flacs are supposed to be similar to .wavs as far as quality is conserned but also manage to keep the file size down.

I would only bother with wavs if you are planning on playing on a large system (anything over 3 or 4 killowatts)

 

[cptunicorn]

Considering vinyl is cut from .wavs I disagree with the first bit of the bolded!

As for whats better I think I answered that above. .wavs are a hell of a lot better quality than .mp3s but due to the quality difference also a hell of a lot bigger.

.flacs are supposed to be similar to .wavs as far as quality is conserned but also manage to keep the file size down.

I would only bother with wavs if you are planning on playing on a large system (anything over 3 or 4 killowatts)

thanks for the info mate. didnt know the stuff about vinyl being cut from .wavs.

what do you use? so if digital .wav tunes are better in quality than vinyl, is it worth investing in vinyl?

 

[Howitzer]

Personally I use http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Its free and does a good job of sorting out the tags and names of tunes.

When I did this a while back I just sat down and went through every folder one by one with mp3tag. It was a proper mission but since then I've kept on top of it one track at a time. My library and playlists are as clean as a whistle!

Get a pipeline down for how you handle tunes when you bag them. As long as youre strict with it, you wont have any issues at a later date!

I can't speak for those automated renamers/sorters but I'd be pretty dubious about letting some piece of software raid my music collection.

Whatever you do, dont let iTunes manage your music. I HATE that piece of junk with a vengeance. So much so that I ditched the iphone in favour of android and uninstalled it from every computer I own.

 

[Shotty]

thanks for the info mate. didnt know the stuff about vinyl being cut from .wavs.

what do you use? so if digital .wav tunes are better in quality than vinyl, is it worth investing in vinyl?

Neither did or I and a lot of people don't. I was informed by someone on Dubstep forum who runs a label and cuts dubs for a living. It is quite obvious if you think about it though. When a producer finishes a track they would normally export it as a wav. Apparently wavs for the digi release and wavs for the vinyl release are mastered slightly differently.

I'm a vinyl junkie, I love the crackles and the warmth of the bass you get from vinyl. The quality is necessarly better but that doesn't mean it doesn't sound nicer! Also, when you buy a digital track it doesn't really feel like you own something. I like the experiance of going to record shops and getting my vinyl or waiting on it to be delivered to my house and then being able to hold it and play it on a set of turntables. Digital djing imo feels like your taking the soul out of it. Don't get me wrong it doesn't require anyless skill etc.. It's just taking part of the fun out of it.

 

[richie_stix]

also, the volume of tunes has nothing to do with quality... it's the mixdown & master that affect that

 

[Forau]

Hmmm, in my experience volume has been affected by quality.

 

[Dubsta]

also, the volume of tunes has nothing to do with quality... it's the mixdown & master that affect that

all my wavs are louder than my 320's........dont know why.

 

[richie_stix]

Hmmm, in my experience volume has been affected by quality.

right, let me re-phrase... there will be a neglible difference in volume due to the cutting off of the top and the bottom ends, but this perhaps is often moe 'percieved' volume than actual volume difference (remember we are talking about digital that has a max volume of 0dB).

however, go to my soundcloud (nopromo) and listen to the tunes, they vary in volume but they all the same quality, yagetsme!

 

[cptunicorn]

Neither did or I and a lot of people don't. I was informed by someone on Dubstep forum who runs a label and cuts dubs for a living. It is quite obvious if you think about it though. When a producer finishes a track they would normally export it as a wav. Apparently wavs for the digi release and wavs for the vinyl release are mastered slightly differently.

I'm a vinyl junkie, I love the crackles and the warmth of the bass you get from vinyl. The quality is necessarly better but that doesn't mean it doesn't sound nicer! Also, when you buy a digital track it doesn't really feel like you own something. I like the experiance of going to record shops and getting my vinyl or waiting on it to be delivered to my house and then being able to hold it and play it on a set of turntables. Digital djing imo feels like your taking the soul out of it. Don't get me wrong it doesn't require anyless skill etc.. It's just taking part of the fun out of it.

you are totally right. going to the store to buy tunes or selecting tunes that you want to buy on vinyl becomes like an additional hobby to the actual djing. sounds really fun. whereas with digital tracks, you listen to a tune on youtube and then open a new tab and get it.

i myself do digital djing. about a year ago, a friend of mine got an s4, so he sold me his old midi-controller for a ridiculously low price. i got the hang of it quite fast. even though ive always been listening to dnb, i started off mixing techno first (because its much easier) and then since january i started mixing dnb. i watched alot of videos on how to dj with vinyl though and its really quite inspiring. and its also the visual feeling of having a small square midi-controller as a setup, or 2 vinyl decks + controller. just seeing andy c going mental on his decks made me really want to start using vinyl.

but i heard that a good vinyl deck costs just under 1000euro, and thats really quite an investment. and dont get me started on the vinyls.

and just to gain a perspektive, how much do you assume one would have to spend on a vinyl setup with 2/3 decks and a 4-channel controller?

 

[Forau]

you are totally right. going to the store to buy tunes or selecting tunes that you want to buy on vinyl becomes like an additional hobby to the actual djing. sounds really fun. whereas with digital tracks, you listen to a tune on youtube and then open a new tab and get it.

i myself do digital djing. about a year ago, a friend of mine got an s4, so he sold me his old midi-controller for a ridiculously low price. i got the hang of it quite fast. even though ive always been listening to dnb, i started off mixing techno first (because its much easier) and then since january i started mixing dnb. i watched alot of videos on how to dj with vinyl though and its really quite inspiring. and its also the visual feeling of having a small square midi-controller as a setup, or 2 vinyl decks + controller. just seeing andy c going mental on his decks made me really want to start using vinyl.

but i heard that a good vinyl deck costs just under 1000euro, and thats really quite an investment. and dont get me started on the vinyls.

and just to gain a perspektive, how much do you assume one would have to spend on a vinyl setup with 2/3 decks and a 4-channel controller?

I have 1210's and serato, but still spend a bomb on vinyl.
I still maintain vinyl is the most satisfying medium to mix with. And hunting through crates of vinyl in a store is so unbelievably satisfying i cant even explain it.

As for price. Can get a nice little set up for around £400.

I bought my 1210's on ebay for £350 including postage and used my VMS4 midi controller as an analog mixer for a while, then about a year later got a xone92 and serato SL4 on finance.

 

[herojuana]

Wavs are what vinyl is cut from these days (obviously this hasn't always been the case) but they are mastered very differently. vinyl for instance can't have stereo bass below a certain frequency (40 or 60 hz or something) so is always mono. That shouldn't really matter though as apparently most club sound systems are mono only (according to data). There are other differences in the way it is mastered I am sure.


Richie, surely the sound will make a difference in quality if you have to drive up the gain on a track to make it as loud as the other and start clipping?

 

[cptunicorn]

I have 1210's and serato, but still spend a bomb on vinyl.
I still maintain vinyl is the most satisfying medium to mix with. And hunting through crates of vinyl in a store is so unbelievably satisfying i cant even explain it.

As for price. Can get a nice little set up for around £400.

I bought my 1210's on ebay for £350 including postage and used my VMS4 midi controller as an analog mixer for a while, then about a year later got a xone92 and serato SL4 on finance.

the way you just explained the shopping experience got me really hyped. im fucking jealous. all my digital music saved in invisible files on my harddrive. aaarrrgh.

alright. price seems decent, though i suppose as you get better you would always want to have better equipment.

i have one question though:
why do you run a software with the vinyl decks? i thought everything is done with the mixer.