How to organize selection of CDs.

[theckman]

I currently have two CDJs, a mixer, monitor speakers, and a set of headphones. A simple setup. Starting out I really want to just learn the basics on hardware, keeping software out of the picture (although, Traktor is sexy). In the future, it will be easy to possibly integrate software as I'll have more music available and I won't need to worry as much about organizing stuff.

Most of my music is in MP3 format, and I have a few classic trance CDs I picked up off Discogs just to say I have them. I picked up one of those CD cases than can hold ~100. How do you organize the tracks on your CDs? Do you do it by releases, or by tracks that you don't think you would ever want to mix together?

If I am going to spend an afternoon burning a bunch of CDs I want to make sure I do it in a way that I won't be overwhelmed with and want to go back to burn it again. Plus, if I don't have to get all bugged out about the CDs being organized weird I think it'll help me spend more time playing than going organize crazy.

Thanks for the tips in advanced, guys. I really appreciate it!

-heckman

[Friction]

When I played wih CDs I actually burned 2 copies of each CD. I labelled them "a" and "b" of whatever the cd was named and kept them side by side in the cd wallet. I burned them by genre groupings like "deep house 1" and kept a track list in the wallet.

When I worked top 40 gigs and with a wedding company I also kept a spreadsheet of all the music and what cd it was on. Now I just that same general concept but in iTunes and traktor.

[moyo wilde]

i burn my songs to cd by bpm. i play anything from 60 to 160. fortunately i have a dvs so i play around with them there till i get enough for a cd. if a party comes up and there is a song i just have to have i burn it onto a cd with whatever is in that range or whatever is new.

it does mean i am burning again and again. although sometimes it helps me prune my music cause if i have a new song that i really want to play and nothing else then i might look at the songs in that cd. so say the new song is 126 then i go to the CDs that have 126s on them and i take whatever song that i haven't played in a while/not feeling and reburn the cd with the new song in its place.

[Abe Linkon]

I got this habit from when I was still learning. I didn't have the money at the time to put every track I wanted to mix on a CD, so I would plan out a set then burn them to a CD in the order that they would be heard. 1a>1b>2a>2b etc...

Now I put 7 songs on each CD that could be used by itself to make a 30-40 min mix. I'll setup an intro/calm song then progress to the headliner songs at track 7. That way if I'm ever in a pinch, I need to play now and I have 0 time to even think about what to play, I can put in 2 CDs of the same genre, mix down the track list and it will sound alright. Or if an opener is needed because one didn't show I can stick to songs 1-3 on all the CDs and be a good little opener.

[Atomisk]

1 song (or multiple remixes/edits of the same song) per disc. Then alphabetically.

[fueledbymusic]

Well. I just put all the house tracks on one set. I may go "90s house" or "90's house 12" collection", "00's house" or I may go "80's music 1980 thru 1983" "80's music 1984 thru 1987" or "90's Techno" etc etc

Or sometimes I just personallize the names of the burned CD like this: "Music for the night" or "Music for the summer" etc. It doesnt matter what kind of music I put on those CDs titled. Just the music that reminds of summer (or other thing it "reminds you of") etc etc, just your personal thing. Cause sometimes its easier to "spot" the song I want to play this way

Works for me.

[Dharmaboy]

Hey guys,
I just went through my new purchases this way. I used Mixed in Key to Add the Key and BPM of each track at the end of the track ( you can have it at the beginning) I also went through all the ID3 tags on my new stuff as well. So no matter what I opened the CD's in as an MP3 it would show the text properly. I just CDJ 800 Mk2s.

I also burn by genre and mark the bpm and key on the cd. but having 1 track per CD and multiple mixes of it is good too. I wish they mk2 would do DVD's but oh well better than my 100s where it was straight CD and CDR with no mp3s .

Just a thought.