I have been using DJ Pro for about a year. I love the interface because it’s elegantly designed, it makes sense and it’s easy to use. And, I will happily state that DJ Pro meets about 90% of my needs.
What’s missing? An accessible playlist or set log. I don’t know if that’s the right name, but what would really make this a powerful creative tool is the ability to capture what was played in a set and any substitutions made while creating a set. When I’m creating a music set, I am thinking abstractly. I add songs under the influence of the current song playing. Radical departures from genre are common in my method.
For example: if I originally intended to segue from Tool’s Jambi to Fraternity of Man’s Don’t Bogart that Joint, and while listening to Tool, I decide to change from Don’t Bogart to Astrud Gilberto’s Call Me, because it feels like a stronger contrast in tone, it would be nice to have this change recorded in the log.
The last thing I want to do when my brain is in creative mode, is to think about left brain activities such as remembering the order of songs or writing down this information. Having a log that accurately records a set is of paramount importance to me. Adding a well thought out log to DJ Pro would make it an immensely powerful creative tool.
I envision a button, somewhere on the interface. The button is green and the text of the button says “Start Set.” As soon as I press this button, it immediately toggles to red and the text changes to “End Set.” The end set button needs a failsafe, just in case it’s accidentally pressed. “Are you sure you want to end the set? Click OK to proceed.” Something like that.
When I click the “End Set” button and clear the failsafe, DJ Pro exports a comma-delimited, raw-text file to my documents folder, inside a separate folder called, “DJ Pro Logs, or Playlists,” whichever is more appropriate.
In my mind’s eye, the log, or playlist, would contain the following information:
- Set ID Number: This is a serialized number formatted something like this: S000000001. It is formatted this way so that it will sort properly. Without the zeros, and you probably don’t need nine of them, this is just an example, it will not sort correctly. Although, if you use nine, it is doubtful that anyone will ever run out of Set numbers.
- Track ID: Sort sets and tracks so the tracks are unique to a specific set, i.e., S000000001, T001-18, etc.
- Song or track name:
- Artist name:
- Track length (time).
- Year released (if available).
- Year recorded (if available).
- Music key: A, G, B-flat, etc.
I know that currently there is a DJ Set log available. You need a science degree to find it. Go to the Go menu in the Finder, hold down the option key, select library, tunnel down about eight layers of folders until you finally find the playlist logs.
Here is what your logs look like. This means I have to decipher the data, because it is very difficult to understand and this KILLS MY CREATIVE BRAIN. I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to do with this, and you know what, I don’t want to know. This is not what I need.
I’m not trying to be critical, rather, I’m trying to emphasize the importance of having an easy to find and use playlist. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is to the creative process. exporting to comma-delimited, raw-text files means that I can easily import to Excel or FileMaker for further analysis.
Please do this. It will make DJ Pro even more powerful than it already is.
Thank you,
Paul Bullock
Austin, Texas
DJ Set file: (example)
ttp://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd" rel=“nofollow”>http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyLis…">
endDate
2017-04-01T23:05:02Z
startDate
2017-04-01T22:46:32Z
tracks
Artist
Blair
Duration
222.666
Name
Have Fun, Go Mad
Persistent ID
com.apple.iTunes:4619288729975796061
Playback Deck Number
1
Playback Start Time
2017-04-01T22:46:32Z
Artist
Earth, Wind & Fire
Duration
170.10599999999999
Name
Shining Star
Persistent ID
com.apple.iTunes:325076501055106668
Playback Deck Number
2
Playback Start Time
2017-04-01T22:49:59Z
Artist
Earth, Wind & Fire
Duration
214.86600000000001
Name
September
Persistent ID
com.apple.iTunes:14824636558259135902
Playback Deck Number
1
Playback Start Time
2017-04-01T22:52:49Z
Artist
The Beatles
Duration
467.173
Name
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Persistent ID
com.apple.iTunes:11236395434279042096
Playback Deck Number
2
Playback Start Time
2017-04-01T22:56:19Z
Artist
The Beatles
Duration
150.26599999999999
Name
Drive My Car
Persistent ID
com.apple.iTunes:15691120031189802386
Playback Deck Number
1
Playback Start Time
2017-04-01T23:04:03Z
