TIPS FOR SETTING UP USB BACKUP PROFESSIONAL
You don’t need to be a professional visual artist to do this right – just think about what might be easy to tell apart in a dark club.įor one of my USBs ( pictured above), I’ve added my own stickers and a metal whistle – making it really easy to tell apart. The easy fix is to get a bit creative and decorate your USB drives. If you’ve really screwed this up before, the words “EMERGENCY LOOP” probably elicit flashbacks. Decorate With Stickers / Flair To Avoid Confusion Make your USB drive easily distinguishable – especially when it is plugged in.Ī common issue is remembering whose USB drive is plugged in which slot. The next time someone plugs it into their computer, they’ll find this pretty easily: An easy way to tell people whose USB drive they have 4. Consider adding a simple text file to the home directory of your USB. Usually, it’s a guessing game of USBs and group texts. It can be a lot of fun to have a bunch of DJs in the same room playing B2B2B2B. The day after a DJ house party, it’s common to see this next to the DJ setup: Who left their DJ USBs at my house? I regularly have other DJs over to my house, and they often plug in their USBs to mix a few tracks in a social setting. Instead of explaining why this is useful (it’s obvious, right?) here’s a real world example: Include A Text File With Your Contact Information
TIPS FOR SETTING UP USB BACKUP UPDATE
A quick firmware update could do the trick. One example: the original XDJ-RX had a few early firmware versions where the beatgrids and sync functionalities could behave unpredictably. You’ll want to customize this for your own community depending on what gear is popular. I recommend starting with firmware for Pioneer DJ gear – specifically the CDJ-2000NXS, CDJ-2000NXS2, XDJ-RX and XDJ-RX2 – all of which I regularly see out and about locally. A really clever thing to keep on your USB drive is a folder with recently updated firmware versions on it for DJ gear you might encounter in the wild.
Just because a DJ setup looks familiar doesn’t mean it will behave as you expect. Collect New Firmware For Common DJ Setups Want to make folders on your USB drive en masse from your iTunes playlists? We’ve written a quick tutorial for that here. Virtual DJ, Serato Pro, any CDJ with a USB slot, Traktor Pro, an XDJ-RX – it won’t matter. This enables you to plug into almost any digital DJ setup and quickly find proper music from your drive just by opening the corresponding folder.
I keep a handful of choice playlists sorted as folders on my USB drives Exporting out a Rekordbox library will cover a lot of common situations – but to be ready for anything, push a bunch of playlists as folders onto your USB drive. There’s no way to tell exactly what type of DJ setup you might have to step up to and play on next.
Add Folders With Music / Playlists (Not Just Exports)
Keep reading to hear our ideas and suggest your own in the comments.ġ. But beyond just exporting out a collection of tracks or playlists, there are a few things every DJ with a USB drive should add to make sure gigs go smoothly. If prepared correctly, it enables you to play a set at a moment’s notice. If you’re like many DJs, you carry a USB drive (or two) around with you wherever you go.