Whats your process for organizating your gig tracks

[Carloscda]

So before a gig do you make Playlists?


Or do you just go off the vibe of the event and play what might work well?

[KLH]

When I started I made a list for every event. After a while, I noticed banger and frequently requested tracks - so they went into a Popular-tracks playlist. It's now been so long that I can - do - and have done - events just from the Popular tracks playlist. Crowd reading tells me if it's going to be that type of night.

I prefer to have a dedicated playlist with the latest tracks and then jump back to the Popular-tracks playlist though. It serves as a time-capsule for what recent tracks were good then years down the road.

[Carloscda]

When I started I made a list for every event. After a while, I noticed banger and frequently requested tracks - so they went into a Popular-tracks playlist. It's now been so long that I can - do - and have done - events just from the Popular tracks playlist. Crowd reading tells me if it's going to be that type of night.

I prefer to have a dedicated playlist with the latest tracks and then jump back to the Popular-tracks playlist though. It serves as a time-capsule for what recent tracks were good then years down the road.

Thanks for the reply.

Gotcha, was just wondering if sets are pre-planned because just like using sync it get a bad rap.

[Ace Beats]

You can pre-plan to an extent...I've spent most of this COVID period getting my library nice and tidy with Intelligent Playlists, full use of My Tags and so on. So whilst you can have 'standard' sets that will likely be great for Weddings, Anniversary, Kid's Parties, Birthday Parties and so (and under that, I always ask the client what the average age of the guests will be, and what genres NOT to play). This way you can always go into a gig knowing you have the basics of a set already lined up with all your latest, beautifully tagged tracks in the correct playlists ready and waiting.

Then, if people are really getting in to the vibe of Hardcore German Cheddar at 1:30am, then you obviously go off set and ride the vibe!

Always about reading the crowd!

[DJ Vibes]

I’ve spent the last few months going over 50k+ songs I’ve gathered over the years. I quickly noticed I only played less than 7% of that over the course 12 years. I started using Lexicon to manage library (ie: tag songs (genre, sub genre, year, etc), populate Energy, Danceability, Popularity, Mood of each song. Then I rated each song stater, warmup, banger. Then I created crates for each genre and subdivided each genre by decades. I’ve found this method has allowed me to better prepare for upcoming gigs because I can easily find the best hits in a timely manner. Plus it keeps everything well organized.

Now when I prepare for a gig, I have my clients share their favorite music via Spotify or Apple Music and I copy that link to Lexicon (there are other softwares that do the similar work) and the program will create a crate with my clients music. I then sync it up to Serato and boom! I’m ready to go. So now when I’m at a gig I play the clients requests plus I can easily find tracks to from my library that will work with the set. And of course reading the crowd is always essentially.

Hope you find this helpful.