Contents. Sat-Nav for DJs 3. Setting up Pioneer s rekordbox software 4. RekordKrate First Run 5. Active Playlists 5. Setting The Search Filter 6

Transcription

1 1

2 2 Contents Introduction Sat-Nav for DJs 3 Set Up Setting up Pioneer s rekordbox software 4 Using RekordKrate RekordKrate First Run 5 Active Playlists 5 Setting The Search Filter 6 Tracks Window 7 Sorting the order of tracks in a playlist 7 Mix Options Screen 8 Search Screen 9 Resetting/Updating The Application 10

3 3 Introduction Sat-Nav for DJs Welcome to RekordKrate, the best thing to happen to DJs since the record crate. The concept of original progressive house pioneer, DJ Ian Ossia, RekordKrate has been designed to fill the hole left by the disappearance of the boxes of vinyl that were so lovingly carried around the world by djs prior to the digital revolution. No longer can the dj turn to his beloved box and flick through it, waiting for something to pop out. RekordKrate will become your new best friend at a gig - a sidekick you can turn to for both inspiration and suggestion, not only giving you a slick touch-screen user interface to view your tracks and playlists with ease, but also presenting you instantly with harmonically perfect mix options for awesome mixes. Mix like a true master. Aimed squarely at pro and semi-pro DJs, RekordKrate will help you navigate around your music collection like never before, giving you an unprecedented ability to improvise during a live set, whilst staying in perfect key. RekordKrate puts perfect Harmonic Mixing at your fingertips, with no knowledge of musical theory required - you will wonder how you ever managed without it. It is the perfect companion to Pioneer CDJ900 s or CDJ2000 s but can be used alongside any platform from CDs to Serato, and can also be used for putting together a promotional mix or radio show in the studio. RekordKrate lets you cruise through your collection effortlessly - no more fiddling around with knobs, mice or trackpads in the dark. Sweet :) Professional harmonic mixing on the fly with no knowledge of music theory Perfect for live sets or promotional mixes Simple, elegant and clear user interface, no fumbling in the dark GPU acceleration for fast performance Designed for the real needs of pro DJS, no gimmicks Full retina support for crystal clear text Works with any genre of music Works in conjunction with Pioneer s rekordbox software on pc/mac

4 4 Set Up Setting up Pioneer s rekordbox software It is necessary to have Pioneer s rekordbox software installed on your pc or mac in order to initially set up RekordKrate (RekordKrate is then a stand-alone application), as RekordKrate gives a tactile and visual representation of your music collection and playlists as set up in rekordbox. Download it here: For instructions on how to use rekordbox, download the manual here: Traktor users may find the free Rekord Buddy application for OSX useful for syncing your collections and playlists between the two applications: Rekord Buddy RekordKrate needs to know the key of your music files in advance in order to generate harmonic matches. This can be stored in either a standard musical format, as generated by rekordbox (ie. a key entry in the key field, eg. C# or Bbm), or alternatively it can be a code as generated by mixed in key in the track name, artist and comments fields. If you choose to let rekordbox analyze the key of your tracks, you can set rekordbox to do this automatically when tracks are imported into the collection by going to the preferences panel/general, then by checking the checkbox next to Key Analysis Enable Key Analysis On Import. Alternatively, any individual track can be right clicked in playlist or collection view to bring up the option Analyze Key. Once you have set up your collection and playlists as desired in rekordbox, the last remaining step is to get this data into RekordKrate. Open rekordbox and go to File/Export Playlists Information. This will prompt you to create a file, which you need to name rekordkrate.xml. Save it wherever is convenient. To transfer this file across to RekordKrate, open itunes with the ipad/iphone connected. After selecting the device within itunes, go to the Apps tab., then scroll down to File Sharing. Select the RekordKrate icon from the list of apps underneath the words file sharing, and from there you can either click Add and navigate to the data file or drag and drop it onto the white panel, either of which will send the file across to the RekordKrate application - there is no need to sync the device afterwards as transfer happens immediately.

5 5 Using RekordKrate RekordKrate First Run Depending on the size of your rekordbox collection, the first time you open the app, processing could taken anything from a couple of seconds to a minute, so be patient. Opening the app on subsequent occasions will be much faster, generally within a couple of seconds even for a collection of many thousands, as once the data has been processed it is stored by the device in a cache file for faster loading. During initialization you will see a splash screen of a 3D box along with messages describing the status. As previously mentioned, in order for the Harmonic Track Mix Suggestion to work, the tracks in your collection must have already been assigned key data. It may be convenient to use rekordbox s Analyze Key feature to perform this task, although RekordKrate will intelligently examine each track to find key information, be it an actual musical key in the Key Field or a mixed in key code in either the artist, track or comments tags. Active Playlists RekordKrate lets you access both your whole collection and individual playlists. However, as collections can be very large, it is important to be able to just deal with just a specific part of your collection, as you may wish to play only tracks from a few playlists during your set. This is done by defining your Active Playlists. RekordKrate can then restrict the results of the key matching function to only tracks contained in those playlists (if desired, depending on the selection of the Search Filter). When the app starts, you will be presented with a screen showing all of your rekordbox playlists, ready for selection. To set your active playlists, press the Set Active Playlists button on the top right of the screen. You will then be taken to the screen shown below:

6 Use the top orange toggle switch to turn all playlists on/off, or individual toggle switches to turn on or off single playlists, enabling only the playlists you wish to use. The first playlist COLLECTION is special, in that it is automatically generated by RekordKrate and contains all of the tracks in your rekordbox collection. This can be very useful, however it is turned off by default for increased performance. Enable whichever playlists you wish to use for your gig or recording, and these will then become your Active Playlists which will be the basis of one of the search filter options - Search Active Playlists. When you have chosen your active playlists, return from this screen by pressing << Back To Playlists, and you will then be returned to the playlists screen, now showing only your active playlists. Setting The Search Filter Notice on the top right the button which initially reads Search Entire Collection. Pressing this will reveal a drop-down with 3 settings to choose which tracks are included in the harmonic matches: 6 1. Search Entire Collection When suggesting harmonic mixes, RekordKrate makes suggestions from your entire collection. 2. Search Active Playlists When suggesting harmonic mixes, RekordKrate makes suggestions only from tracks within your active playlists. This is the suggested setting for live situations. 3. Search Single Playlist When suggesting harmonic mixes, RekordKrate makes suggestions only from tracks within the playlist that you are currently viewing. The setting you choose will be remembered.

7 7 Tracks Window Selecting a playlist on the playlist screen will take you into the tracks window(above). This will show the tracks in the selected playlist, with the device s touch screen allowing you to scroll through the tracks quickly and effectively. Choose the track you want to play and get it playing on whatever medium you are using to play your music. Selecting the chosen track in the list (by clicking it) will then bring up the mix options screen, showing tracks that harmonically match the track from within the range set by the search filter. Sorting the order of tracks in a playlist To help browse the playlist, the sort order of the tracks can be changed using the button on the top right hand side, directly above the list of tracks ( which is initially set to Original playlist order ). The options are: 1. Original playlist order This will sort the list according to the original rekordbox sort order 2. Sort by Track Sorts the tracks by track name. 3. Sort by Artist Sorts the tracks by the Artist. 4. Sort by Genre Sorts the tracks by the Genre. 5. Special Sort Sorts the tracks by key and BPM. The sort order of each playlist will be remembered by RekordKrate.

8 8 Mix Options Screen Having selected your track in the playlist RekordKrate will then present to you a list of tracks that will mix in perfect key with the track you are playing. The scope of the results depends on the setting you made for the search filter setting. Scan through the list and decide on your next choice of track, then find it and drop it into your set. Finding the track on a cdj for example is a very quick process - looking by artist is usually a good way to do it. Traktor has a search function which could be used. Using in conjunction with CDs would be a little slower, depending on how organised your cd collection is to enable you to find any track quickly. When you have chosen a track, press the track to highlight it. An orange button will appear at the top right, directly above the track list, labelled Show Track in Playlist. Pressing this will show which of the active playlists the selected track appears in. If it is not is any active playlist, Single Track View will appear in the list instead. Select a playlist to navigate to your chosen playlist with the track highlighted, ready to repeat the process.

9 9 Search Screen At any time, the small grey box at the top centre of the screen can be clicked to bring up the search entry window(below). Type your chosen search request and press return. The search will examine artist, track and genre, and quickly bring up the results. You can then view mix options for these tracks as before by selecting any track in the list. You can change the sort order of the results here too, and the sort order for this search will be remembered.

10 10 Resetting/Updating The Application The data file rekordkrate.xml is only used once on first running RekordKrate, then on future uses the app s own stored data is used. However, when you have changed your rekordbox collection or playlists and wish to reflect your changes on the app, you will need to reset RekordKrate. Send your file over as described in Setting up Pioneer s rekordbox, then in RekordKrate hit the RekordKrate text/icon at the top left of the screen. This will bring up a yes or no selector where you can choose to re-initialize the app using the new data file. The playlists sort orders will be remembered for convenience, but all track and playlist data will be reset. RekordKrate is a registered trademark of Ian Ellis Pioneer and rekordbox are registered trademarks of Pioneer Corporation. ipad and iphone are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. SERATO is a registered trademark of Serato Audio Research Ltd. Mixed In Key is a registered trademark of Mixed In Key LLC.