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[DrKNo]

I use JRiver for preparing crates for my DJ Program (Serato). What I do is the following:
All Songs are tagged with Genre and Style (e.g: Salsa and Salsa Cubana or Rock and Folk Rock). I have a Category view that structures by Genre first, then style. That way I open Serato and JRiver, grab the style-categories,. and just drag them into Serato to create crates. This saves me hours each month, I love it. But I think I can do better, but I need help. I would like to give some songs multiple styles in different Genres, if they have a crossover nature: Soha's "Mil Pasos" for example is a Latin/Tango, but a viable African/Kizomba. The thing is: Categories work relationally, and I cannot just use two genre and two style tags, since that would generate the category tree African/Tango and Latin/Kizomba.

I understand that it is sensible for Fields to work that way. I figured I need a manual solution. So I created a custom field [Genre Key] in which I typed out the paths manually in list form: "Latin/Tango;African/Kizomba" and went to work with regular expressions. I created a new view, First field I regexped the first group before the slash (In this case Latin and African) and used that for the top category. First problem: Only the first of the List was used, not both. So Question one:

How can add a song to multiple categories in category view with an expression?

and especially, question two:

Do I understand correctly, that an expression field groups songs by the result of the expression, and uses only these songs for the next level of the category view?

The intention being that this song turns up in Latin/Tango, but not African/Tango.

Thanks for any and all answers. I'll happily provide any info that helps.

[DrKNo]

Soooo, I solved my problem. JRiver had an onboard solution of course:

Instead of all that regex weirdness, You can just use backslashes for a seperator. Tadaa, instant drilldown! The other thing I learned, is that you have to cast lists to a list datatype, even when using ListBuild(), otherwise the category views will mistake it for a string. Maybe that should be added to the function reference?

So what I will do now is to use lists in genre tags in the following manner: African\Kizomba;Latin\Tango, then just plop that in a pane or category view.

I love this program.

[blgentry]

It's really interesting to me that a real deal DJ, using one of the premiere DJ software products, is actually managing his main music metadata in JRiver instead. 

I'm assuming you're using Itch, as that had become the program of choice a few years ago.... but maybe that's the whole "problem".  DJ software seems to change about as often as ITunes, so you're always left having to learn the latest thing.  Whereas JRiver stays largely the same from an interface and workflow perspective.  Nothing to re-learn.  Just keep on chugging. 

If you feel like sharing, I'd like to hear  your thoughts on using JRiver in conjunction with any DJ software you use or have used.

Oh and glad you figured out a solution to your issue!

Brian.

[marko]

He's using Serato...
https://serato.com/

[blgentry]

So Serato keeps changing their software, and it's name, over and over and over again.  Serato "Itch" was popular about 3 years ago.  Before that it was Serato "Scratch".  Now I see it's Serato "DJ" or "Intro" if you buy the less expensive less capable package.

Actually, I think I remember seeing that Serato DJ was the new thing about 2 to 2.5 years ago.  I have a hard time keeping up.  I don't do ANY DJing at all.  I'm just mildly interested in the subject.

I think it's really amazing where we are with DJ Controllers and DJ Software.  Things that were very technically difficult to do correctly like beat matching are now automatic if you want them to be.  You can even create a "good mix" without doing anything!  Because the software analyzes the musical key of each song and it's timing (beats per minute) and can just make a random mix on the fly that matches in key and beat.  That takes all the fun and the humanity out of it of course.  But it's available.  Technology has really changed this field a lot in the last 20 years.

Brian.

[DrKNo]

To clear up the confusion: A few years ago, Serato Itch was fused with Serato Scratch Live, forming Serato DJ. I used all three of these and am now happy with Serato DJ =)

Serato DJ, and really any professional DJ Software I used is pretty limited in regard to metadata-based automation. And this is where JRiver excels. So what I do is the following: If I get a new song, I tag and archive it with JRiver.

All songs are tagged with a DJ-Rating tag (5-Star), which I automatically transfer to the Grouping tag (Only one which Serato can read, misuse, I know ). Also, all songs get the Release Date, Date Archived (a time stamp I add upon saving the song to my library) and the mentioned Genre/Style combination. Plus some additional less important stuff. Then I use "Rename, Copy, ...." to save them to my music library on my NAS, automatically putting them either into an Artist\Album or Genre\Style Filepath-pattern (depending on whether I bought an album or just the newest pop song). Syncing software keeps that library synced to my DJ Notebook. In JRiver, I have prepared a DJ-View, which only includes songs with a DJ-Rating >= 3. This view is grouped by Genre and then Style, and alternatively by Date Archived.
When preparing for a gig, I open both Serato and JRiver, and just ClickDrag the categories form JRiver into Serato folders that are structured according to JRiver. In the same manner, I export a chronology, so I can see my recently bought tracks. Then I do Serato-specific post processing (Analysis, Cue Points, Loops, etc.). Playback happens exclusively in Serato DJ.

In this regard, JRiver easily saves me around 40 hours each year in comparison to my previous work flows, making the master license an absolute no-brainer. I would go so far as to say that JRiver gives me a competitive edge, because I can organize a far larger collection than many of my colleagues.

[DrKNo]

@blgentry: I didn't consider your post since you posted while I was typing, sorry =) You are spot on with the serato name changes. Previously Serato Scratch Live (for Digital Vinyl Systems) and Itch (For controllers) were developed separately. Mostly, I think, because oldschoolers had a very strong opinion about controllers. In the meanwhile, Controllers became far more capable, and Serato decided to fuse both lines into a single product: Serato DJ. Searto Intro is really just a demo version of Serato DJ.

Personally, I love the quality of life new controllers give. There are tons of parties where turntableism (scratching, juggling, etc) is not relevant at all. Weddings and social dancing events (e.g. Salsa Parties) for example. I am so happy that I can just carry one highly capable device around fot those and be set. For someone just getting into DJing its a mixed blessing. Today, it's far easier to get into DJing. You can spend 500-700 Dollars to get a basic but capable setup. But that also means a LOT of competition. When I started, I had to put down around 3000 dollars for equipment. It was much easier to make a name. It was much easier to earn that money back. Half a year ago I spent 1200€ on the newest Denon Controller. Its a 4 channel, stand-alone or Serato DJ enabled controller with Digital Vinyl Support, an amazing system. The components I would have had to buy to cover that functionality when I started would have exceeded 10.000€. At the same time, a new DJ has to work really hard to see a few dollars of pay. I'm happy I started out earlier...

Regarding automatisms like beat sync: This is always a hot topic. You can beatmatch automatically if you prepare your songs well enough. I don't use it, simply because it confuses me and I suddenly sync songs that were not meant to be synced. But I couldn't care less if a DJ uses it. It's very much like driving a manual vs an automatic. Being a good driver depends on a lot of other factors.

By the way: Software is not yet as far as to completely mix by itself. It can adjust tempo and key for you, but you will have to do timing and fades. Im sure it's only a matter of time until software mixes well consitently, but it's not quite there.

It's fun to talk about these things. I can yap about my neurotic tagging habits AND about jamming.

[blgentry]

Thanks for typing that up.  It's always interested to hear about these kind of things from an insider.

I thought I had seen "auto mix" on either Serato Itch, or maybe even Virtual DJ.  I'm pretty sure my friend who DJs a lot sometimes uses auto mix to just "let it play" at gigs where a lot of creativity isn't really needed or wanted.  Maybe I'm remembering wrong.

I think most of the artistry of being a good DJ is a combination of song selection and "on the fly remixes".  That and mashing up two (or more) songs has always impressed me.

Brian.

[DrKNo]

There is an autoplay feature in serato, but that really just plays one song after another. Traktor has an option to fade in/out at defined cue points, but you still have to manually arrange and cue tracks. It's not quite automatic still. Serato is currently developing Serato Pyro, which is supposed to be a smartphone app that does proper automixing. I don't know how far along they are tho.

And I totally agree with you on what makes a good DJ. Song selection is where you really have to shine and remixes are what makes the night fun =) If you are really interested in Mashups: it's not as complicated to get into as you might think. I would recommend grabbing a copy of Ableton live and a few acapellas and instrumentals and go at it. Ableton gives you a lot of time to prepare and automate as much as you want, which is very friendly for beginners (and it is a VERY capable tool for pros to boot)

Here's video that's although basic, a good starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbRauP-xyLM