How Do You Get To Know Your Music?

[ponyboy]

To get to know my tunes I put them on my genberic mp3 machine and listen to them to and from work, I buy my choons while travelling to and from work too.

[djfrogstar]

I have to be honest.. as far as getting to know a tune... atleast for me this works. I draw and sketch alot. Some songs lock you in, others dont have that effect. When I doodle around I am able access parts of my brain in a subconcious way and dump it to paper. During this process I make notes or landmarks for parts of the song that are memorable. Not literal notes but just elements in the drawing. If a song is bland or souless I will make a mental note or put a tag on it stating its just filler instead of epic. My art collection from this process has given me a huge body of work over the years..Im around the 1500 mark now.. and able to sell them at 200$ a pop.

also a little ganja never hurt anybody

[mr.magma]

Hahah yeah definitely the whole process of is a lot of fun but definitely very time consuming, I can't imagine how it must be for those who produce as well, that must be a totally different realm as well along with keeping up with tracks, gigs, etc. while getting studio time for their own creativity too. I guess it's how much time you're willing to commit to and devote, and that's something I need to focus more on.

Regarding the getting the music there are periods of time when I can't check up Beatport, Juno, charts, blogs or whatever and then by the time I do even if it's been like a week, there's just a huge sets of tracks, albums, or mixes that have been released it takes a long time going through all those and seeing what I like, so I guess I have to do that more frequently and in smaller steps.

Getting to know the music for me too then would involve me spending a few hours listening to all the tracks, I like spending my time just doing that and find it difficult to do while I'm working on something else or studying as I like to completely focus on the tracks, even if it has no vocals like usual, it still distracts me. Also with the large amount of tracks being released and so many producers new and old, since I'm very bad with names, just the track names are difficult to remember too, I like having the cover art for that, it's quite helpful. That can be a problem at times though because since my friends know I'm into my music and have a lot of good tracks or whatever, if I'm ever out with them they always ask what I'm listening to or what's a good track and I find it difficult to quickly pick out something, unless it's something I've been listening to a lot then I can easily remembers the track/artist, while if I had my laptop on me I'd be easily be able to showcase some sick tracks. That might sound weird since knowing tracks, artists, labels is what someone who DJ's/aspires to DJ should know like the back of their hand but with so many that can be difficult to keep up with as well, well for me personally...

[tito]

That is why is better to listen to albums, if possible had the physical copy. while you listen to it, you see the art, the lyrics and that make a footprint in your head, after that is easy to remember all the stuff related to that album/artist

[haze324]

I listen my new tracks at gym on my ipod

Then I go back to itunes and tag them having listen to them once or twice already and I can make some smart playlist so I know where I'll have these tracks available. I only mark them if I'm making a set play list or when practicing and playing tracks for the first time in a set.

but mainly..I listen to all my new music when working out and then remember which ones I liked most and where they would be played best.

[Maxted]

they always ask what I'm listening to or what's a good track and I find it difficult to quickly pick out something

I feel you here, when i talk about Djing with people who don't know me well they ask what artists i'm in to and i'm like "Uhhhhhhh.......", i want to say "Everything" which would be broadly accurate, but it doesn't seem to appease them.

But put my collection in front of me and i can play almost any genre for a week straight.

[Djtom420]

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, recently set up an account so will start posting more. Just wanted some information on getting to know your music...

How do you get to know your music? There are so many tracks being released every day, just going through them and keeping up with all that, different genres/styles/etc. is a mission in itself, but then the listening for DJ-ing purposes, especially since whole tracks themselves can be very long, it's a time consuming process. Then for the digital DJ's there's the whole beat gridding/warping process. So I just wanted to know, if this hasn't been discussed before, how you guys go about doing this? Do you have any procedures, tips, advice, etc.

Thanks a lot!

Hey Mr. Magma and welcome to DJTT

Heres what i do to get to know my music. First off back in the day when i spun records, i usally just used the album art to remember track by. this was the easy way for me.

Now that im all digital however i had to do something different then just remember album art. sooooo this may sound weird to eveyone here but this is how i do it now. I have a folder on my PC (ext Hardrive really) that has all my music (that I DJ with not my green day or my NOFX stuff, yeah i grew up in the punk scene) in it and i have it categorized via genre, i.e. Deep house, Prog house, eletcro, Deadmua5 rip offs, etc. with in each folder i have it broken down even further, Slow/mellow tracks, middle of the road track, and the fast/banger type tracks. with in each of these folder i have it broekn down even more, either via the kick drum or the way the HI hats hit, ie some tracks have low and dull hi hats others have4 loud and aggressive hi hats. Not saying this is the right way just the way it works FOR ME. I organize my tracks when i get them from beatport right before i warp them

Also another think, if your into this, I bought that mixed in key software and what i did was keyed a bunch of tracks up in my deep house stuf for testing, and its relly nice the way it renames your files with the KEY in the filename, this also can help narrow down the next track to play. again not saying this THE WAY, just some options to help u out and get used to ur music.



Hope this helps.

[Djtom420]

That is why is better to listen to albums, if possible had the physical copy. while you listen to it, you see the art, the lyrics and that make a footprint in your head, after that is easy to remember all the stuff related to that album/artist

i dont believe they release many EDM tracks in album form, unless the artist is relasing an ALBUM. so i think it would be hard for OP to do that. Just my 2 cents.

[mr.magma]

tito: yeah definitely with digital downloads cover art is the best option but if there's a chance to get an album or something I see in the store I do do that with the physical copy, and it is very helpful.

haze324: definitely, when possible since I don't have a lot of space in my MP3 player I just upload the weeks tracks I've got and give them a thorough listen whiel at the gym, communting, etc.

Maxted: exactly man there's just so much out there and for me personally it gets hard to recall. I've played for a bunch of a friends a few times and a lot of the times it the mixes were tracks I was listening to at that time but give me like a week or two and I get asked what a specific track was in that set I sometimes find it very hard to recall the exact info unless I've got the track list on me, which sucks but is something I have to improve on.

Djtom420: Thanks for the detailed reply, yeah I will definitely have a look into the software. I don't have a strong musical background personally, self-taught myself how to play the drums and that's about it, so I don't know the intricate musical terms etc. and that is something I need to focus on too. There's quite a bit and it can get overwhelming but I understand building a solid foundation in these things is crucial.

Regarding the music, same here I have a very eclectic taste, like I'll listen to anything, just DJ-ing wise I'll focus on House, Tech House, Deep House and so on, and that's what I like to hear live too, though I'm open to anything. Categorizing music like that would be ideal but again very time consuming, just the music I have like even the way the files are named or organized when downloaded, annoys me a lot like I have to rename all of them, add the label information if it's not there, release date and any other information. All that is still an ongoing process with all the music I've accumulated and then there's the keeping up with the newer music too, so again it all ties up to my many time constraints and commitments I need to work on.

Thanks for all the input from everyone so far!

[maxonemillionone]

Nvm just realized it's not on the app store :S lol...

It's a STEAM game.