Best tools to organise and tag your collection? Or should I make my own?

Hi there

I looking for a good tool to quickly organize my collection, need to set things like genre and tags. Doing it by hand in Traktor is time-consuming, so I'm looking for an alternative. Anyone?!?!

This alternative doesn't have to be Traktor specific, preferably something that works on the file-level by changing info in the files tags, rather than changing parameters in the Traktor collection. F.x. by storing information in the "Comment" field.

I used to use Trainspotter, which is now obsolete and not in development anymore. I tried Record Buddy 2, but the process isn't as smooth as in Trainspotter.

What I need to do is set the genres, would be nice if I could select from a drop-down list, so I don't need to type the genre name every time.

I also have a tagging system since I used Trainspotter. As an example I have tags for ENERGY, and FEELING. Each has different subtags, which could look something like this:

ENERGY:
EN-low
EN-mid
EN-high

FEELING:
FE-dark
FE-minimal
FE-happy
FE-sad

So a song could f.x. have the following tags: EN-mid, FE-minimal.

How they did this in Trainspotter when tagging a track, I could select the ENERGY drop-down menu and select any of the EN-xxx tags, then the FEELING drop-down menu to select any of the FE-xxx tags.

This process is much much faster and reliable than anything you do by hand in Traktor or Rekord Buddy.

This can partly be done in Rekord Buddy by drag'n'droping your songs to a tag in the tag list on the left of the song window. But a rather slow process.

So I'm hoping there is an alternative out there, please let me know if you know about one!

Another option is just making this program myself since I'm a programmer, but time-consuming non-the-less.

This is how I can see the workflow for tagging a bunch of new tracks. I would prefer the process to be completely keyboard controlled:

1. Load a list of tracks into the playlist of the program
2. Start tagging the first song by pressing SPACEBAR
3. Program starts playing track in the middle so I can quickly identify information about the track
4. I'm presented with a list of genres that I've predefined, and a number next to every genre.
5. I press the numbers for the genres that apply to this track (one or more genres)
6. Press enter to accept the genre selection
7. I'm presented with the ENERGY tag, numbers corresponding with the different energy levels
8. I press the corresponding number to set the energy level
9. Press ENTER to accept and iterate through all the tags until I've set them all
10. Press SPACEBAR to go to the next track and start over at item 3. in this list.

I mostly use MP4 files, and the result would be to update the "Comment" field with the tags: "tag1, tag2, tag3, etc..."

This would make setting the genre and tags a super fast process! And searching for a tag in Traktor would be quite easy.

I might just throw up a program like this if I find the time. But I'm interested in knowing if anyone on this forum would be interested in using a software like this? Would be good to get some feedback and have some people to help out with testing the software.

Regards
Frímann

 

I'd whole heartedly recommend Musicbee as the central hub for music tagging AND playlist organization, then use the itunes xml it writes out in your DJ package and ignore the internal library & tagging capabilities of any and all of them - imo they're abysimal in all of them and I seriously do not understand why people aren't up in arms about the **** they've been served within the last 5 years from all big 3, Traktor, Serato and Rekordbox... as all apply a metadata paradigm from ca 2005, and all have their own annoyances & half-arsed implementations on top.

There is a fair few buts though to this workflow using MusicBee...
As nice & well setup MusicBee is out of the box, it's equally configurable & powerful as well (i.e. it has tick-able in-line tag-drop-down-boxes like you seem to want...), but it helps if you're technically minded and want everything to be configurable as there is a bit of a learning curve attached.
Secondly, Serato & Rekordbox both work completely fine with every (itunes like) xml from MusicBee I threw at them. Only Traktor has a fair few issues, some legacy, some with specific file formats, some (and the most severe) in the latest 2.11.2 version.... I've just gone through a crash fest with the latest, which required me to uninstall my old 2.6.8 version, and I'm now trying to find the old trusty 2.6.8 installer again as 2.11.2 has proven to not work for me at all :/
c.

 

Great thanks for the recommendation! I'm a bit confused though regarding the iTunes XML thing. Do you constantly import XML files from MusicBee into Traktor f.x.?

 

Ahh damn, it's Windows .... but I'll try to run in through a virtual machine, might just be worth it!

 

Hey, there's multiple ways to go from the XML - I usually use the xml to transfer around 400 playlists (a mix of smart-playlists that update themselves and static ones to document past mixes/session/tapes) & 35k files, and occasionally pull new-files-lists through it as well. But yes, if there's a change, or new files, I need to re-generate the xml, but that usually takes less than a few minutes to do.
c.

 

THIS!
Any plans on writing this app?
I'm good with GUI design, love to help.

I've tried MusicBee, but I don't see this particular method to be working out there.

 

Made a customized version of foobar that actually does all above!
Check it out here: http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=95550

 

Happy with "Beatport Pro for Mac" so far. Quite powerful, if you use 100% of its features.

Beatport > Traktor tag fields (how to use Traktor's tags):
Mood > Comment 2 (Deep, Epic, Uplifting, Groovy, Soulful etc.)
Vocal > Lyrics (Vocal Female, Vocal Male, Indian, Russian etc.)
Set Time > Mix (Opener, Warmup, Peak Hour, Filler etc.)
Energy > Color (5=Red, 4=Orange, 3=Turquoise, 2=Pulm, 1=Magenta)
Venue > Playlist (just separate playlists for each type of event)

 

radiokrishna is there a way to have Beatport Pro write those tags to the Traktor tags automatically, or do you have to copy them manually?

 

Manually. For example, filter all tracks with Energy 5, drag-n-drop to the Traktor's playlist, Select All, apply the Color Code.
"Vocal" > "Lyrics", and any Beatport's tag to "Comment" or "Remixer" tag, can be done automatically by Metadata Assistant in Beatport Pro app.

 

But I'm going to wait for the promised new Traktor. And if the functionality of the browser and tags will not be updated, then use the following tag/fields structure in the Traktor:

• Ratings – "How much people like it" or "How well it is accepted on the dance floor"
• Colors – "Energy levels" (5=Red, 4=Orange, 3=Turquoise, 2=Pulm, 1=Magenta)
• Comment – just leave it for comments
• Comment 2 – "Mood", "Emotion tags"
• Mix – "Situation", "Set Time"
• Remixer – "What Next" (track titles that are well matched to be the next track)
• Lyrics – "Vocal type" (Female, Male, None, Russian, Rap, about something, etc.)
• Producer – "Track type" (Original Mix, Remix, Mash Up, Cover, Karaoke, Vinyl-rip, Mixtape)

You can search for each field separately using the search drop-down menu "Search in".