spencerl
I am running Virtual DJ 5.7 on laptop from "C" drive with MP3 folder on the "D" drive.
1) What is the best procedure to backup my MP3 folder from the "D" drive to the "E" drive on an external drive ? (copy and paste ?)
2) How can I use either MP3 folder from laptop or external drive ?
3) What is the best way to add MP3s individually to either folder on "D" or external "E" folder ? I currently run the TECHNO for getting BPM after adding - should I be doing anything else at this point ? What file does info on the MP3 get updated and when ?
4) Best way to delete an MP3 file ?
Sorry for so many questions but they are all related
Spencer
1) What is the best procedure to backup my MP3 folder from the "D" drive to the "E" drive on an external drive ? (copy and paste ?)
2) How can I use either MP3 folder from laptop or external drive ?
3) What is the best way to add MP3s individually to either folder on "D" or external "E" folder ? I currently run the TECHNO for getting BPM after adding - should I be doing anything else at this point ? What file does info on the MP3 get updated and when ?
4) Best way to delete an MP3 file ?
Sorry for so many questions but they are all related
Spencer
Inviato Sun 13 Apr 08 @ 2:43 pm
Pionara
Hi spencerl. No problem for the questions...that's what we're here for!!!
OK, i use an older version of VDJ than you, so I'll answer based on my knowledge of the program. If there are any other VDJ'ers who use more updated verions than i, please feel free to correct any mistakes.
1/ I copy music from machine to machine using a simple network and copy/paste. From your laptop, open My Computer and in there, open up your music drive (D) and then open my computer again and open your E drive. Copy and paste from screen to screen. It's easy, and depending on how many files you have, can be quite quick. I copied 12,000 mp3's in about 2 1/2 - 3 hours this way from computer to computer.
One thing about this though, i'm not sure if this does anything to the database.xml file, which is the file that stores all your music data, you know, comments, bpm's, song lengths, etc. If you have scanned everything onto D drive, the info on the .xml shows that everything is in your D drive. If you have it in your E drive, you may need another .xml file to show the E drive, which might mean rescanning all your material. I'm sure somebody will confirm if i am right with this. Like i say, i use an older version, so i'm not sure.
2/ You can set either the D or E drive as a favourite folder. From the display tree, find the drive that you want to set as a favourite and right click. A menu drops down and select 'Set as Favourite' from there. That way, when you go into VDJ, you simply have a branch from the display tree on the left hand side (on default skin) that says 'D' or 'E'. Click the wee plus sign and it will drop down to display the contents. You can then work from there.
3/ I rip all my cd's to mp3 on my home machine and then transfer the mp3 from my home machine to my gig machines. That way, i've got a back up copy on my home machine (as well as the original cd) and good quality mp3's on my gig machines. I do this using the networking method described above.
After adding new songs i always analyze them using VDJ and the Techno analysis too. When you have finished analysing, close VDJ and the wee 'VirtualDJ is saving the database' message comes up. Let it do that and then when it's fully closed, go into your VDJ program file wherever it may be - I use XP Pro so it's in my program files/virtualdj/ - folder. Copy this file and save it somewhere else. I keep a copy in my documents/shared docs or something like that for transferring across my network. Makes it easily accessible from another machine and i can always find it. You can save it wherever you want, but like i say, just make sure you remember where it is!!! If anything ever happens to the 'real' file, you can simply replace it with a copy of the one you have saved elsewhere. This stops you having to re scan all your songs again. There is also a plugin that some kind soul here at vdj has created. Can't remember who but you can get it from the downloads section and it can fix most if not all database errors. Handy that :o)
4/ When deleting a song, i'd just delete as normal from both drives. Maybe there's a better way of doing this, but i'm not sure. Certainly if i'm deleting a song i just delete it straight and thats me sorted, but again, I'm using slightly older software so perhaps there's been some adjustments made or there may be database issues with this, i'm not sure. Someone will confirm.
Any more problems or anything, just ask.
Good luck...and keep spinnin'...(",)
P
OK, i use an older version of VDJ than you, so I'll answer based on my knowledge of the program. If there are any other VDJ'ers who use more updated verions than i, please feel free to correct any mistakes.
1/ I copy music from machine to machine using a simple network and copy/paste. From your laptop, open My Computer and in there, open up your music drive (D) and then open my computer again and open your E drive. Copy and paste from screen to screen. It's easy, and depending on how many files you have, can be quite quick. I copied 12,000 mp3's in about 2 1/2 - 3 hours this way from computer to computer.
One thing about this though, i'm not sure if this does anything to the database.xml file, which is the file that stores all your music data, you know, comments, bpm's, song lengths, etc. If you have scanned everything onto D drive, the info on the .xml shows that everything is in your D drive. If you have it in your E drive, you may need another .xml file to show the E drive, which might mean rescanning all your material. I'm sure somebody will confirm if i am right with this. Like i say, i use an older version, so i'm not sure.
2/ You can set either the D or E drive as a favourite folder. From the display tree, find the drive that you want to set as a favourite and right click. A menu drops down and select 'Set as Favourite' from there. That way, when you go into VDJ, you simply have a branch from the display tree on the left hand side (on default skin) that says 'D' or 'E'. Click the wee plus sign and it will drop down to display the contents. You can then work from there.
3/ I rip all my cd's to mp3 on my home machine and then transfer the mp3 from my home machine to my gig machines. That way, i've got a back up copy on my home machine (as well as the original cd) and good quality mp3's on my gig machines. I do this using the networking method described above.
After adding new songs i always analyze them using VDJ and the Techno analysis too. When you have finished analysing, close VDJ and the wee 'VirtualDJ is saving the database' message comes up. Let it do that and then when it's fully closed, go into your VDJ program file wherever it may be - I use XP Pro so it's in my program files/virtualdj/ - folder. Copy this file and save it somewhere else. I keep a copy in my documents/shared docs or something like that for transferring across my network. Makes it easily accessible from another machine and i can always find it. You can save it wherever you want, but like i say, just make sure you remember where it is!!! If anything ever happens to the 'real' file, you can simply replace it with a copy of the one you have saved elsewhere. This stops you having to re scan all your songs again. There is also a plugin that some kind soul here at vdj has created. Can't remember who but you can get it from the downloads section and it can fix most if not all database errors. Handy that :o)
4/ When deleting a song, i'd just delete as normal from both drives. Maybe there's a better way of doing this, but i'm not sure. Certainly if i'm deleting a song i just delete it straight and thats me sorted, but again, I'm using slightly older software so perhaps there's been some adjustments made or there may be database issues with this, i'm not sure. Someone will confirm.
Any more problems or anything, just ask.
Good luck...and keep spinnin'...(",)
P
Inviato Mon 14 Apr 08 @ 7:13 am