The best DJ playlist – PART 2 How to orginize files

The best DJ playlist also depends on how you organize your archives. As music is an art in evolution, and the more you are in, the more you going to collect and use. As a DJ, you have to adapt to new styles and market demands, but also at the same time, you have to be able to dig into your performance history. The art of making the best DJ playlist is to have the ability to evaluate the quality of the sound, organize archives accessibility and secure your work (storage).

Evaluate Quality

Evaluating the quality of the database files is one of the most challenging jobs. It is hours and hours of listening and assessing new tracks on the market. Those who pass the evaluation of your taste and style, need to get a place in your collection, or we may lose records in the vastness of archives. If you don’t find the set of similar sound, it is going to contaminate your playlist with music you like, but you’ll never perform to fans. After a while, it becomes a respectable mess. As I said in part one of this subject, it is better to create separate collections. Collection of tracks you like, and stack you are using professionally.

For the tracks that passed this step, you need to arrange a place in your crates. There are few levels and stages till the files get a place in your professional playlist.

Select the right genre

If you’re trying to mix multi styles like me, the first step is to choose the right genre. The best DJ playlists are based on the respect of the music genres. You don’t set Deep House with EDM. Or you don’t mix Rave and Techno. Though, you are going to find this work much havier that it seems. The reason for this is market orientations. There is just a handful of artists around the world who can compose DJ sets with different styles. You have to recognize and separate these segments. It doesn’t mean that you can’t experiment with different styles, but what I’m saying is that you have to be able to divide them accordingly and respect the difference.

This rule has nothing to do with your live performance. When you’re on the stage, you can always give your signature in the choice of the tracks and tunes, but make sure you know where exactly are those tracks stored 3 months after the gig.

Select the subgenre

Sometimes the subgenres define genres. How many times did you hear about tech-house? This is the most famous example. Techno and Tech-house are two totally different styles that fit in the same genre. The market is the same, but the sound is noticeably different. The genre is Techno, and the subgenre is House. It’s not the only subgenre in Techno. There are much more techno subgenres like electro-techno, industrial Techno, Progressive Techno, etc.

Make sure you know how to recognize the primary genre. Then in the primary folder, sort the tracks according to the subgenres in the primary one. Trust me, this is a hell job at the beginning, but the outcome is fabulous for your future performance. After the first 1000 track, you will be able to mix and combine primary styles with great ease.

Sort the BPM

BPM is essential in arranging the crates. Usually, I never assemble crate with more than 4 BPM difference, and I always set the highest BPM as a benchmark. Two particular reasons for this. First is if I make track faster than 4 BPM’s the track is going to be significantly deformed from the original sound which producer has chosen for it.

And the second reason is my personal opinion that making the track slower deform the sound in the wrong way. Instead of harvesting quality of music production, we make the track depressive and without original natural energy. If you play the tune faster, you are still taking the part of the natural energy, but at least you’re not making the sound depressive.

So, my advise is don’t, if you have to change the pitch, it is better to push it faster. Of course, there is a feature called master tempo, well known to all digital DJs. Still, for me, even if the master tempo keeps the colour of the sound the same, the tune is not the same anymore.

Watch out for the KEY

To assemble the set, you need to know the melody key of the track to get the most harmonic playlist. If you are gifted with fantastic hearing abilities, you probably don’t need to do this. You’ll recognize the key of tracks in crates with your incredible music sense. But if you don’t have this gift, you can use all technology benefits to make you DJ skills more perfected.

With all the crates you are going to create, try to assemble them as promo sets. You can check in the blog post how to compose promo DJ set. So, make sure that every crate doesn’t have more than 10 tracks. The first reason is because of recording an influential DJ sets, and the second is to make data accessible and memorizable. Don’t throw everything inside a crate like a stew pot, just because it sounds similar. It will make your archives slow, unsearchable and messy.

Always record the crate you created

Now, with this rule, I have a problem, too. Nevertheless, the more I process through recording the promo sets, the more I will be aware of my collection and archives. Sometimes I find a corrupted file. And it is much better to find it when you are playing at home, practising, than when you discover this in the middle of the gig. Making the half-hour sets makes it easier for you to listen to your own music. The more you are going to listen, the more you are going to explore creativity. In the end, it is your track of a choice, if it is not appealing to your own ears, how can it be interesting to your fans?