How do you have your CD wallet arranged?

[Briggsy]

I'm just curious how you guys have your tunes arranged in your wallet because I've spent hours burning new CD's so that i've got a good variety ready for my gigs, so I thought i'd be nosey

Back in the vinyl days, I used to just have them stored A-Z, but now i'm being fussier.

At the moment, i've got my wallet arranged in order of 'hardness' - for example, i've got the calmer/proggier stuff towards the front, with the harder stuff at the back, with my Techno right at the very back.

Then within that list, i've got my tunes arranged in key, so I can quickly find tunes that compliment each other, for example all the tunes in E-flat minor, then B-flat minor, F minor, etc)

Then within each key range, i've got them in alphabetical order.

Sounds confusing, but seems to work well so far

[JasonB]

Don't have a wallet me, (as I don't play out I don't need one!) I've got a big ole case storing all my cdr's.

Since I've been downloading I've kept is simple, anything thats housey gets labelled up as house then cd number (not by month) then by year eg House 01/08, anything trancey I do the same.

[Max Kane]

I keep the newer discs at the front & have them in chronological order through to the back where I have a couple of 'classics' discs.

If the wallet fills up I just take the older ones out the back & move the discs backwards to fit in newer ones

[Robin]

lol - Serato CD 1 and Serato CD 2 makes up my wallet!

[Aza]

Nice thread, Briggsy

I've stuck with my traditional vinyl days and have 'what's in my box' pretty much and keep two copies of each cd (for mixing tunes from the same cd pending on how full it is).

I have a wallet for that and then store the rest of my stuff in eras and in genres i.e. 2007 trance, 2007 hard trance.

[kml]

I don't DJ as you will be able to tell from my reply as I usually arrange by bpm

[Hardaway]

:smirk: I just fill up the CD walet, Once full I buy a new one each walet is labelled from say the[Year,Month] then its easy for me to trace tunes back!! We'll works for me

[MikeW]

:smirk: I just fill up the CD walet, Once full I buy a new one each walet is labelled from say the[Year,Month] then its easy for me to trace tunes back!! We'll works for me

Sounds exactly like me mate!

I have a main CD wallet that I fill up with CDs as I get them, then work my way to the back in no particular order genre wise. Very disorganised I know, but the main thing is I know where to look for the tunes I want to play!

[Moonman]

:smirk: I just fill up the CD walet, Once full I buy a new one each walet is labelled from say the[Year,Month] then its easy for me to trace tunes back!! We'll works for me

Yep, same here. Thats what i do. I also print off labels for my CD's aswell. It's a pain in the ass but it looks so much neater than bits of paper everywhere and marker pens on the CD - my writing isnt legible at the best of times, club/bar darkness makes it completely unreadable.

I've never been one for mixing in key etc. I just play whatever tune after whatever. Sorta whats right for the moment. I'm not saying all, but my for me, i hate filler. I sometimes thinking DJ's simply play tunes because they harmonically flow. For me, thats losing the point because the point then focuses on how well the tunes mix, rather than how good they are. Oh, i've strayed again...! No order, a big Case Logic wallet that hold 280 CDs does the trick.

[Max Kane]

Though it is verging into another debate altogether I do think you need to clarify what you mean by 'filler' mate? I don't think any DJ neccessarily goes out to play a boring track simply because it may mix well together with another track.

Different genres dictate different needs as well, if I play an opening progressive set & start whacking out big tune after big tune then it basically f***s up the flow of the rest of the night & thus lessens the impact my set would have, whereas I would never claim to be playing 'filler' material I would definately seek to consciously avoid playing really big tunes one after another.

Getting a set to flow properly does dictate that you need to play some tracks which maybe don't contain big riffs or big breakdowns & simply keep a nice rhythm going & keep people moving.

If I've misunderstood the term 'filler' then by all means discard what I've just said

[Judge Mental]

Really wish my tunes were a lot more organised, but then I've never been the most organised at anything!

Had a proper chance to get sorted when I bought Serato, and have started somewhat now with my crates, but I have a maaaassive back catalogue of all sorts of tunes in random places, and everytime I think I'm getting somewhere I get bored and just go for a mix!

Was so much easier flicking through record covers lol. Think I'll just give up my job, the internet, mixing, the internet and my life in general for a couple of weeks to get it sorted

[Briggsy]

I've never been one for mixing in key etc.

I'm not one for making sure that every single tune throughout the set fits perfectly in key - however, over the last 12 months, I have paid a bit more attention to the key of tunes so that I can get my sets sounding that little bit tighter. Some DJ's insist on mixing a key of C with another key of C, and do that continually throughout their set - and that sound tedious.

What I do is find keys that compliment each other, and work around them - that means I can move around quite freely to change the sound of my sets, but still ensuring nothing clashes. Eddie Halliwell is the perfect example of finding keys that work well together, but varied enough to change his sound tune after tune.

Its hard to explain - there's various ways of mixing complimenting keys - and its the ones that mix continualt in the same key which sound boring.

Most of the DJ's which have dodgy mixing these days don't have dodgy mixing because of their beatmatching - most of the time its fairly accurate. Most of the time, their mixing sounds poor because they're mixing tunes together that have clashing keys and they're fighting against each other. This tends to be the case with Jules's bad mixing. His beatmatching is rarely the problem.

[Moonman]

Some valid points. I use the word filler as sometimes i get the feeling (and you can "feel" it on the dancefloor) when dj's play tunes for the sake of it. I've played with DJ's that have freely admitted to playing a generic track simply because it mixes well into another.

An example; was many years ago (god about 2001ish i think one of my first gigs) i played a small bar in Peterborough, the DJ on before me played a tune which ended with no beats, just chords, i think he wanted to play something like Roger Sanchez "Another Chance" (when that tune was big, so instead of just going from one to another he played a boring tribally type track that ended in the usual beats simply so he could overlay one with the other. Not only did he lose the impact of the tune, he lost the flow and he lost the floor. He was putting mixing first. For me, filler is "ohh they dont mix too good so i'll just bung this on so i can get into the track i really want to". Some DJ's are scared to just cut from one tune to another so they use a filler to beatmix the traditional way.

From reading you're comment Tom, you are talking about building and flowing, which for me is different. I fully concur, big tune after big tune gets tiresome after about 3 tracks, it's just to much. I do try to build and build. Though that said, i have been to dodgier bars/clubs where big tunes are the norm and these DJ's know how to work the big tunes and do a good job; your bog standard clubber in these type of places lap it up. I think it boils down to the venue. So, a filler track for me is when a DJ wants to play certain tunes together, but can't get them to mix so the put another tune on (at the risk of losing flow, impact etc) just so they can mix tunes in a more seamless fashion.

Key mixing does sound good i agree. I work to the rule of not having bassline clashes, that sounds terrible when they clash.

Does anyone use a CD Lens cleaner on their CDJ's?

[Hardaway]

Does anyone use a CD Lens cleaner on their CDJ's?

Nope never, Not 100% sure you can cos of the mec's inside

[Simcut]

What brand of CDR's do you guys use or find reliable?

[Robin]

HHB are by far the best and most universally accepted discs.

[kml]

I'm not one for making sure that every single tune throughout the set fits perfectly in key - however, over the last 12 months, I have paid a bit more attention to the key of tunes so that I can get my sets sounding that little bit tighter. Some DJ's insist on mixing a key of C with another key of C, and do that continually throughout their set - and that sound tedious.

What I do is find keys that compliment each other, and work around them - that means I can move around quite freely to change the sound of my sets, but still ensuring nothing clashes. Eddie Halliwell is the perfect example of finding keys that work well together, but varied enough to change his sound tune after tune.

Its hard to explain - there's various ways of mixing complimenting keys - and its the ones that mix continualt in the same key which sound boring.

Most of the DJ's which have dodgy mixing these days don't have dodgy mixing because of their beatmatching - most of the time its fairly accurate. Most of the time, their mixing sounds poor because they're mixing tunes together that have clashing keys and they're fighting against each other. This tends to be the case with Jules's bad mixing. His beatmatching is rarely the problem.

How Can I be certain of the key of the tune?

[Moonman]

What brand of CDR's do you guys use or find reliable?

I've never had a problem with the gold Kodak ones myself.

[Gregg]

No order to mine really, although I've got a knack of remembering stuff like this so have got a pretty good idea of where a tune is likely to be on my cds.

I always fill CD with tracks as well, rather than just burning 2-3 tunes on them. Seems like a waste otherwise.

Never really looked into harmonic mixing, usually just prefer to pick tunes I think will sound well. Don't get too many complaints (except for the odd s*** mix lol)