PCDJ RED

Ripping, Storing and Adding Tracks

First some basic things to remember.

· Never let PCDJ scan for media. (This puts everything in a default directory)

· Never auto detect, auto create, auto ID Tags or regenerate tags

· This walk thru is for 5.2 or 5.3 PCDJ Red make sure and upgrade.

· If you want to add new folders and groups on your computer do this first.

Organize and lay out your files and folders before you start ripping all your songs. (Planning really helps). If you move files or even edit file names after adding to PCDJ you will create a dead link to that song in PCDJ. It will still be on your computer but you will have to re add it to each location (subgroup) that it was listed in.

We have broken down the following into three (3) chapters which will cover the three steps of ripping, storing and adding songs.

RIPPING

1. Put the Audio CD in the CD Rom Drive and open PCDJ. Click on the ripp button on the bottom of the screen.

(If you are on-line you can click on the db button on the bottom of the screen to see if the CD you are adding is in the internet database. Most store bought CD’s are and this will help you get all the tracks titled. If the db button doesn’t work you are either not on line or it is configured wrong. If you are on-line and you want to use this feature click on the CFG button at the top of the screen and select Software on the left menu then on the top tabs select Automation and make sure the Internet CD info settings server line says “freedb.freedb.org”. The rest of the info should be correct.

2. Mouse click on the track you wish to add.

3. Hit the Ctrl Key and the Home Key. This brings up track information. (You can right click the track and select track information also)

4. If you have the BPM put this in now. Hit Shift/Tab to backup. Track info defaults to artist name so if you are not entering BPM just start typing the artist name then Hit Tab to advance to the next field which is track name etc…. When done entering track information hit the Enter (return) key.

5. Hit the space bar. This selects the track you just enter the info for and advances to the next track. Use the arrow down key to get to the next track you want to ripp. If it’s the next track then just use the Ctrl/Home key again. (#3)

6. Once you have entered info for all the tracks you want to add and they are all checked in the selected column click on the mp3 button on the bottom of the screen.

7. Select the path to store tracks. This walk thru recommends the 00New location. This is a temporary location for ripping. You will move them to the right location in the next chapter. (Songs on most CD’s not all belong in the same folders but it you want to rip the whole CD at once this is the best way.)

8. After selecting the 00New folder hit OK. All songs selected will be ripped as MP3 to you hard drive. If this step doesn’t work and you are running Win XP you need to download the XP Patch from PCDJ.com. (Before you do any of this you can go to the CFG, Software, Ripp/Encoder and select the Quality and Bit Rate you prefer. We recommend 128 Kbit and fast encode.)

STORING

1. Open windows explorer (my computer) Hit the Windows / E Keys

2. Select the 00New Folder. The tracks you just ripped will show on the file side of screen.

3. Drag and drop the files to the correct folders. Make sure that the destination Sub folder is visible before selecting. (You don’t want to drop the new files in the Pop folder. Click on the + sign next to Pop—Do not select Pop only click on the + sign. This explodes the folder to show the sub folders while still keeping the 00New files showing on the right of screen.) In this case we will select all the new Pop songs and add them to the 2003 folder. Remember there can be other sub folders called 2003 ie… Ctry – 2003 Jazz 2003 ect… Be sure and follow the right folder path. (Use the mouse to click the files you want to select and hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple files at the same time.)

4. Once all the files are selected Drag and Drop. (Left mouse click on any of the selected files and hold. If you don’t hold you will select that one and release all the other selected files. Now drag the files over to the sub folder called 2003 under the Pop Folder. When the 2003 folder is highlighted release button and the files will now be in the correct destination folder where they will be permanently stored.

5. In this example you would see the remaining 4 files left in the 00New folder. Since these happen to all be Ctry 2003 songs just select them all and drag and drop them to the sub folder 2003 under the Country Folder.

ADDING TO PCDJ

1. You can close everything else and open PCDJ Red.

2. You would now go to the Group and Subgroup that you want to add the new songs to.

3. Since we just added some new Pop and Ctry for 2003 start with the Pop 2003 Group and select the All subgroup.

4. Right click in the All subgroup area. (Do not right click in the Edit Recordcase area of the screen.)

5. Select add tracks to sub group.

6. Windows Explorer will pop up with the Load Files to Subgroup.

7. Use the drop down in the look in window and select the 2003 folder. This window will default to the last place you were in PCDJ. Double click folder to get to the correct location. In this case you would double click (c drive, MP3 Music, Pop, 2003.) Now all the mp3 files in the 2003 folder should be showing.

8. Change the view by clicking on the view menu icon and selecting details.

9. Click on the modified column usually twice to sort it by the most recent date first. (You may need to stretch out the screen for better viewing)

10. Select the files that you just added today. (Select the first one and then holding down the Shift select the last one. This will get all the new files that you just added.)

11. Hit Open

12. The tracks are now in the All Folder.

13. Go to the Ctry 2003 in Recordcase and repeat these same steps for the Ctry 2003.

14. If you want to add songs to other sub groups like best or slow use the same procedure, just select the group you want and add tracks. Doing it this way ensures that the tracks stay in the all group as well as in the other areas you want them to appear.

15. Remember you can have one song in 20 different locations or more in PCDJ but it is only on the harddrive once.

Footnotes

There are several other good ways to do these same steps. It’s a good idea to refresh the groups, remove dead links and remove duplicates. PCDJ Red has some really great features not addressed here. The intention of this Walk Thru is to at least get you to the point of being able to add new songs to your recordcase in some sort of organized fashion. Organization is a big key to this. If you just want to put every song in one default folder that will work but it will be slow and hard to manage.