iTunes Library and Traktor Collection
iTunes Library and Traktor Collection Posted on: 20.05.2013 by Brunilda Kora I'm really struggling to understand the relationship between Traktor's Collection, and an iTunes Library.I understand that Traktor will read the iTunes Library, and build a collection based on that. But what happens when I add new tracks to my iTunes library? How does Traktor know to add ONLY the newly added tracks to the collection? I currently have all my tracks on an external HD, and they are separated into 18 different Genre folders. I'm beginning to believe this is NOT a good idea... AND - if a Traktor Collection is built on an iTunes Library, where will the Traktor info (cue points, BPM, etc...) be stored? I've read the Collection section in the Traktor manual a couple of times, and must admit, I'm bloody puzzled by it. I don't like the idea of building a Traktor Collection based on my iTunes Library (>7k tunes) more than once. That's gonna take TIME. I've set up some iTunes Smart Playlists that are pretty damn cool - will I be able to play from those Smart Playlists within Traktor AND be able to save stuff like loops/remix sets and cuepoints to the collection? I'm starting to wish I got into Traktor a LONG time ago... | |
| Pierre Aliseo 03.07.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
No problem man glad I could help! |
| Albertina Fay 02.07.2013 |
Originally Posted by Tobes
but to answer your question, here we go... first, how is your folder structure? where are your music files located? do you have itunes organize them automatically? if you are trying to update your itunes on the server to keep up-to-date with the new tracks you have backed up from your MBP, just go to itunes and click file and select "add folder to library". this will go through your folder and all it's sub-folders and add any new tracks that have not been added to itunes. it will not import all the tracks over again, which would painfully add many duplicates. (itunes is smart enough not to do that.) i hope this helps. if not, create your own thread and i will be happy to help. |
| Albertina Fay 30.06.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
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| Albertina Fay 20.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by antifmradio
do you use smart playlists in iTunes for Traktor? |
| Albertina Fay 20.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
Originally Posted by Patch
It is convoluted, mainly because Traktor's has piss-poor iTunes integration. I have a feeling Traktor Pro 3, whenever announced/released, will have lots better iTunes integration. At least, I HOPE so.. (This is simply my thoughts. No sources here. ) |
| Brunilda Kora 20.05.2013 | I'm really struggling to understand the relationship between Traktor's Collection, and an iTunes Library. I understand that Traktor will read the iTunes Library, and build a collection based on that. But what happens when I add new tracks to my iTunes library? How does Traktor know to add ONLY the newly added tracks to the collection? I currently have all my tracks on an external HD, and they are separated into 18 different Genre folders. I'm beginning to believe this is NOT a good idea... AND - if a Traktor Collection is built on an iTunes Library, where will the Traktor info (cue points, BPM, etc...) be stored? I've read the Collection section in the Traktor manual a couple of times, and must admit, I'm bloody puzzled by it. I don't like the idea of building a Traktor Collection based on my iTunes Library (>7k tunes) more than once. That's gonna take TIME. I've set up some iTunes Smart Playlists that are pretty damn cool - will I be able to play from those Smart Playlists within Traktor AND be able to save stuff like loops/remix sets and cuepoints to the collection? I'm starting to wish I got into Traktor a LONG time ago... |
| Pierre Aliseo 03.07.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
No problem man glad I could help! |
| Albertina Fay 02.07.2013 |
Originally Posted by Tobes
but to answer your question, here we go... first, how is your folder structure? where are your music files located? do you have itunes organize them automatically? if you are trying to update your itunes on the server to keep up-to-date with the new tracks you have backed up from your MBP, just go to itunes and click file and select "add folder to library". this will go through your folder and all it's sub-folders and add any new tracks that have not been added to itunes. it will not import all the tracks over again, which would painfully add many duplicates. (itunes is smart enough not to do that.) i hope this helps. if not, create your own thread and i will be happy to help. |
| Brunilda Kora 02.07.2013 | Cheers tricks - you just answered one of my questions. Playing a track from a Smart Playlist in the iTunes node DOES pick up cue points/tempo info, etc, IF the tune has previously been analyzed and stored in the Traktor Collection!!! I believe the key thing to take away from your post is: ADD TUNES TO THE TRAKTOR COLLECTION BEFORE ADDING THEM TO iTUNES!!! That way, your Smart Playlists are updated in iTunes AFTER Traktor has stored tempo/cue/loop information. This is good.. Thanks for posting, tricks! |
| Pierre Aliseo 02.07.2013 | I have smart playlists in Itunes (last month, last 3 months, last 6 months, last month House (around 128 bpm), last month hip hop/trap/other (around 65-115 bpm) last 3 months house (etc)) and my smartplaylists always change in Traktor and I never have to delete them or re-update anything. Here's my workflow: 1. Download new tracks. 2. Run folder of new songs (dated) through mixed in key 3. Import and analyze folder in Traktor 4. Set beat grids, cue points, etc. in traktor for each track. 5. Quit Traktor 6. Now add folder to iTunes library. 7. Quit itunes 8. Back into Traktor! Everything works fine like that. probably download batches of new songs 2-3 times a month and do this process. Hope this helps! trick |
| Milda Poucher 03.07.2013 | Reading this thread with interest as I'm going to make a workflow and start making use of playlists. I use a Macbook Pro for most of my music related activities and because of this I have a home server which stores all my media and music as well as take backups. I then sync the Music part of the server with my Macbook Pro so that any files altered with Traktor (tags) then get put back on the sever and new music on the server gets pushed to my Macbook. So I switched from Winamp to iTunes as I use it on my Macbook so might as well use it on my PC. One thing though... iTunes doesn't automatically update unless you store you music in a iTunes folder. So am I right in believeing the only way to update is to add the music folder again? |
| Brunilda Kora 02.07.2013 | I see. Thanks again, papo. You have been a great help! |
| Albertina Fay 30.06.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
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| Brunilda Kora 30.06.2013 | Here's a question - if I open a song in Traktor from the iTunes Playlist Node, but the track I play has already been analysed by Traktor (and is in The Collection), will Traktor pick up the track info from The Collection? (Tempo, stored Cue points, loops, etc...) |
| Brunilda Kora 21.05.2013 | Thanks for teh detailed response - it makes sense. All I want to be abel to do, is keep my iTunes Library and the Traktor Collection sync'd. So when I add new files to a folder on my HD, iTunes will see them, and Traktor will see them. I put new files on my HD every week, and I want to keep iTunes and Traktor current with all my new tunes. NOW - iTunes will automagically update all of my smart playlists, 'cos those playlists are dynamic. I'm still a little confusd between usingthe iTunes node in Traktor, and IMPORTING playlists into Traktor... |
| Libbie Orion 20.05.2013 | no i dont use smart playlists also of course you cant update a traktor playlist when you add new music to an itunes playlist they are two different lists which have nothing to do with eachother lol. The only thing that traktor can do is update its collection by automatically scanning the folders you tell it to which would be the folders where you commonly download new tracks into. Is that the problem you are having? You add new music to your computer and traktor is not seeing it to add it to the appropriate playlist you have altered in itunes? If thats it... keep searching....tell us when you find that golden goose. It doesnt work that way, and it wont work that way so far. Now i dont use Smart Playlists. but i do create plalylists in iTunes to use in traktor. The way i do it is i do get a TON of music from different folders all loaded into a single playlist (playlist May 15th) in this playlist, the songs from from several different folders. Once i remove all the songs i DONT want in this playlist, i have a finished one. I find a folder that Traktor is set to scan in my computer and i drag ALL the songs from that itunes playlist into it (itunes then copies all those songs into that new folder which traktor watches) then i go back to all those original folders i got the original files from, and i delete the folders. Thus doing two things A) removing any copies of the songs i dont need copies of any longer B) Reducing the amount of space used on my computer because now i am only keeping the songs i want to keep in use for Traktor Now when i open Traktor, it is already set to scan that folder (along with other folders) for any new music or changes to the music it knows. Traktor is also then set to ask me to ANALYZE the songs it just found. Now that traktor is done, iTunes is closed, and all those exta songs with their folders have been deleted, traktor is ready with a TON of new beats. At this point, i go to my TRACK COLLECTION (top of the traktor tree on the left) and i organize the list to show the most recent imported songs first, decending. Using the PREVIEW track area, i can then preview the songs, and drag them to the appropriate playlist i have setup in traktor. I know thats a bit much but it just seems like you are going a LONG way around a small hit guys |
| Albertina Fay 20.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by antifmradio
do you use smart playlists in iTunes for Traktor? |
| Brunilda Kora 20.05.2013 | Nice one! The more the merrier! ;-) |
| Libbie Orion 20.05.2013 | you guys sound like you are having evening
mares getting these two HULKS to live together?!?! I have to honestly say, im at a loss here and im going to go home toevening and check on a couple settings i have in my Traktor Pro 2.6 and post them because i am having absolutely NO problems with iTunes and Traktor living well together and understanding any changes in iTunes that Traktor needs to know about. Im at work for the next few hours so ill have to get back to this one. WOW **understanding cue points, loops, etc*** no idea why yours isnt seeing or keeping that info. Once i have the song imported to traktor playlist (doesnt matter if traktor scanned a folder or i dragged it into a custom playlist in traktor) all the settings to that specific track are saved and reload as such even if i go down to my iTunes folder inside the traktor "TREE" and load the song into the deck from there It still sees loop points, tags, info, comments, everything. Ill be back later on this one |
| Brunilda Kora 20.05.2013 | It sounds like I'll just need to get organised. Something I'm pretty good at anyway... I'll just have to set up Smart Playlists for each month (based on import date/sort date (thanks for helping me out on that, too!)), and update my iTunes Library, and re-import all playlists at the end of each month. Time to get organised! |
| Albertina Fay 20.05.2013 | There is an app called Trainspotter, that you look into to. I believe they have a PC version available. This app was created to help "SYNC" your Traktor library with your iTunes library. The developer is also a user on this community . I prefer to use the method explained above, but it is an alternative you can look into. |
| Albertina Fay 20.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
Originally Posted by Patch
It is convoluted, mainly because Traktor's has piss-poor iTunes integration. I have a feeling Traktor Pro 3, whenever announced/released, will have lots better iTunes integration. At least, I HOPE so.. (This is simply my thoughts. No sources here. ) |
| Brunilda Kora 20.05.2013 | Cheers papo. That makes some sense - Smart Playlists in iTunes are dynamic, they'll change as you add songs to your iTunes Library, but the Smart Playlist that is imported into Traktor is NOT dynamic (it is a snapshot of the Smart Playlist as it looks at the date of import). So whenever the iTunes Smart Playlist is updated (any time you add tunes to the iTunes library), you'll need to delete and re-import all the Smart Playlists into Traktor? Does Analysis Lock ensure that any saved loops/remix sets are stored too? Sounds a little convoluted, but hey, it is what it is.. But I'm still getting my head around keeping my iTunes library up-to-date! |
| Albertina Fay 20.05.2013 | What I usually do when I want to update an iTunes smart playlist imported into Traktor, is to delete the playlist from the Traktor playlist section and re-import the iTunes' smart playlist again. this will include all the new songs that have been added since the last time you had imported it. I always use the "Analysis Lock" in Traktor after prepping the tracks' beatgrid and cue points so it cannot be overwritten, unless you force it. When importing the smart playlist again, any track that you have prepped (cuepoints and beatgrid) will be "ready-to-go", meaning it will still contain your cuepoints and beatgrid, etc.. Traktor really needs to improve their iTunes integration on the next iterations. I hear Serato has a better integration (I can't vouch as I have never really dove deep into Serato) and Traktor needs to step up. |
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