Author Topic: Playlist Compatibility With Virtual DJ And Traktor  (Read 7161 times)

psybersurfer

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Hey

It would be really cool if you added the feature to make the playlists work with virtual DJ and traktor.
Most DJs use iTunes because their playlists sync really nicely with the DJ programs.
I think you'll convert a lot of DJs to start using Musicbee if you added this feature, I really do prefer Musicbee to iTunes because its a lot more customizable and it works with FLAC files which is really awesome  :D

psychoadept

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Hi, welcome to the forum!

What format do those programs use?  If it's M3U, you just need to change your default playlist type.  If it's another format, MusicBee can export these formats: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Preferences#exported_playlists
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alec.tron

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They use their own proprietary data formats. It's a clusterf*ck...
You can use m3us, but the import functionality doesn't go beyond to do 1 at a time, and each digital DJ program has their own shortcomings in that regard...
Then there is rekordbuddy, which already converts & maintains Serato, Traktor & rekordbox databases and keeps them in sync. But, that is for Mac only, and in early stages, dev wise. Windows vrsion is meant to come early 2017...

You can however use MusicBee to export/maintain an iTunes.xml files (with a few wrenches & gotchas thrown in for good measure...) which then can be read by Serato, Traktor & VDJ and all others that use the iTunes xml hook (with .flac files ;) - I have that working on my end, but it caused me a few grey hairs... mostly thanks to Serato/Traktor etc though).

MusicBee has 2 shortcomings in that regard (both I have posted wishlist/bug fix requests for - so please +1 them if this is important to you...):
- MusicBee writes UTF-8 with BOM itunes xml formatting, whereas TRaktor & Serato can only handle UTF - 8 (without BOM), so you will need to convert that before using it in your DVS/Digital DJ package.
- Secondly, MusicBee does not respect it's folder structure for Playlists on itunes xml export, so you will end up with all your playlist on the same level (not organized in folders/crates...). Which makes it difficult to navigate in Serato/Traktor.

Try exporting the iTunes xml from musicBee and use that in Traktor, and flag it with Traktor support how to fix it (most likely, if it doesn't work, and you have reformatted it to UTF-8 properly, then it's most likely corrupt files and, long paths or bad ascii naming of files that stop it from working, but these issues are incredibly annoying to iron out..)

Good luck!
c.
Last Edit: December 15, 2016, 04:00:41 AM by alec.tron

psybersurfer

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Thanks for the quick responses, its good to know it can work
I'll try use the iTunes xml files, hopefully i can get it to work  :)

Thanks!

alec.tron

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No worries.
As an example, I keep close to ~500 m3u playlists (i.e. ~10 years worth of gigs and radio shows archived as m3u files, holding mostly .flac files) which I now maintain through MusicBee mostly (plus a few python scripts for mass fixes...) and they transfer fine to Serato & Traktor - it's just a really long freaking list...
c.

psybersurfer

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so all you need to get the playlists to work with virtual dj is just change the playlist type to m3u, it actually works really well, Thanks psychoadept :)

Im still not sure how to get it working with traktor, i exported the library as an iTunes formatted XML file within musicbee, Do i then have to add the playlist into traktor?

All my music is in FLAC also, most of the music i download is always in FLAC format and there is no point converting it, it wastes to much time
I also organize all my music using musicbee, it works really well!


psybersurfer

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I've got everything working now,
I just needed to convert the m3u playlist files to  UTF - 8 (without BOM) on notepad ++ that sorted everything out :)
Thanks for all the help alec.tron, this issue has been bugging me for months! lol

alec.tron

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In case you'd want to chime in to show there's more people running into problems with this, here's the original threads btw:

Requesting (a possibility for) UTF-8 (without BOM), ideally as a user preference setting...:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=17948.msg107350

And a - "please respect playlist folders on itunes xml export" request:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=15165.msg106668

Neither of which anyone else seems to care about, unfortunately...
Cheers.
c.

kbssadnb

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They use their own proprietary data formats. It's a clusterf*ck...
You can use m3us, but the import functionality doesn't go beyond to do 1 at a time, and each digital DJ program has their own shortcomings in that regard...
Then there is rekordbuddy, which already converts & maintains Serato, Traktor & rekordbox databases and keeps them in sync. But, that is for Mac only, and in early stages, dev wise. Windows vrsion is meant to come early 2017...

You can however use MusicBee to export/maintain an iTunes.xml files (with a few wrenches & gotchas thrown in for good measure...) which then can be read by Serato, Traktor & VDJ and all others that use the iTunes xml hook (with .flac files ;) - I have that working on my end, but it caused me a few grey hairs... mostly thanks to Serato/Traktor etc though).

MusicBee has 2 shortcomings in that regard (both I have posted wishlist/bug fix requests for - so please +1 them if this is important to you...):
- MusicBee writes UTF-8 with BOM itunes xml formatting, whereas TRaktor & Serato can only handle UTF - 8 (without BOM), so you will need to convert that before using it in your DVS/Digital DJ package.
- Secondly, MusicBee does not respect it's folder structure for Playlists on itunes xml export, so you will end up with all your playlist on the same level (not organized in folders/crates...). Which makes it difficult to navigate in Serato/Traktor.

Try exporting the iTunes xml from musicBee and use that in Traktor, and flag it with Traktor support how to fix it (most likely, if it doesn't work, and you have reformatted it to UTF-8 properly, then it's most likely corrupt files and, long paths or bad ascii naming of files that stop it from working, but these issues are incredibly annoying to iron out..)

Good luck!
c.

I am trying to use the exported itunes xml in serato.

My library is mostly FLAC with some mp3s.

Serato shows my "itunes" folder with all the songs, but only the mp3s are playable, the flacs are flagged and don't play at all.

Do you have any solution for this?

Thanks friend!

alec.tron

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Nothing wrong with your syntax.
So had a look at Serato again, which I haven't used in years... and, after a bit of poking it came back...
Serato - since it's a bit shit when it comes to metadata, and general data handling - reacts a tad funny when you funnel flac files into an itunes xml (which is not natively possilbe, since Apple purposefully does not support flac...).

So - IF you just import the xml, all flac files will become unplayable.
The workaround is - that each flac track in your xml, will have to be added to Serato's library as a file before it ever appears in an xml [if it is the other way round, the file entry in serato will forever be corrupted and can never be loaded].
Long story short - what I used to do, when I needed to use serato, was to add all new files through an .m3u import first, then read in the new xml file that also has those files. Which in turn gives you a working itunes xml with flac files in serato.

I'll post this in the thread as well, so it might help other peoiple too.
Churs.
c.