Adding Songs

There are several different methods of adding song information into Rapid Evolution, each suitable for different situations. It is important to enter accurate information into the proper fields, not just for yourself, but because this information is shared with other DJs. You should try to verify and correct all song information you add.

Perhaps the quickest way to add songs is to import your information from an existing source. Currently Rapid Evolution can import from the following sources:

• Mixmeister Pro catalogs
• Mixmeister Bpm Analyzer files
• Excel spreadsheets
• iTunes Music Library XML files
• Traktor Collection NML files
• M3U playlists

To import song data, simply click the “import” button in the bottom left of the main screen. Be sure to select the type of file first, then select the file to import. If the songs being imported don't already exist they will be added, otherwise they will be updated.

Clicking the “add song(s)” button in the bottom left will bring up the following dialog. The best way to use this depends if you have digital files associated with the songs you are adding (such as mp3s, wavs, etc).

If you are adding digital songs, you should start by clicking “browse” and then selecting the files and/or directories of the songs you want to add. If you select directories, files in all subdirectories will be included. By default, song tag information will automatically be read and the mixshare server will be queried for available song information such as the bpm and key. If no tag information is found then the filename will be used as the song title (this can be disabled). If you select more than one song you will see the “add all” and “skip” buttons enabled. Clicking “add all” will automatically add the selected songs in the background. Otherwise, you can select “ok” or “more” to add the songs one at a time. When doing this, use the “skip” button if you don't want to add a particular song to the database.

Another way to add digital songs is to simply drag and drop the files or directories from the operating system onto the search panel. This will automatically bring up the “add song(s)” dialog, in which you can then select “add all” or go through each song individually, as discussed above.

If you don't have digital files for your songs (for example, you spin with vinyl), then you will have to add your songs one at a time and fill in the information manually. You can query the mixshare server to see if your songs have already been added, which can facilitate this process. When adding songs manually, the only difference between the “more” and “ok” buttons is that “more” will add the song and also leave the dialog open to add another song.

Please note that to assign a song to a style, you should have already created the style. See the Managing Styles section for more information on how to do this. Also, “field 1” through “field 4” are custom fields which you can use any way you please. You can change the labels for these fields in the options menu.

• If you add songs one album at a time, you can speed things up by enabling the option “optimize add song(s) process for album at a time”. This keeps the artist and album fields between each song you add, and increments the track field. You can control whether the custom fields are cleared or not in the options menu. This option reduces the amount of data entry required, and is also an efficient alternative if tag reading is slow on your machine (disable “automatic tag reading”).
• At any point after typing at least some information for the artist/album/track/title/remix fields, you can click “query server” to see what information exists on the mixshare server. You can control what information is retrieved and overwritten in the options menu under the “server” tab.
• You may choose to determine the bpm and key of each song as you add them. However, if you are automatically detecting this information, it is best to do this in batch processes which can be initiated from the right/option click menu in the search panel. For the most accurate results, you should use the bpm tapper and built-in piano/keyboard to manually determine or verify this information. The “end bpm” and “end key” fields were created in case a song changes or modulates, and are only needed if different from the starting bpm and keys.
• The “digital only” and “analog only” flags were designed so that you could filter your songs if one type wasn't available at the time of mixing. For instance, if you spin vinyl as well as digital files, but go to a club where you can only use your vinyl, you can plan and act accordingly. The “disabled” flag can be used to prevent a song from showing up in searches and generated mixes (for example, if the song was damaged or you just don't like it).