1 Getting Started 3. 2 Syncing 10

Transcription

1 Manual

2 2 CONTENTS 1 Getting Started What is Rekord Buddy 2? What are the minimum requirements Supported music file formats Warning: always keep full backups Installing Rekord Buddy First time launching, entering license key Troubleshooting license problems Resetting Rekord Buddy Choosing which DJ software to initialize from How to initialize sync The user interface Artists list Keys list Tags list Audio playback 9 2 Syncing What does syncing do? What gets synced? How to sync Interpreting syncing results Syncing changes made in external DJ software Syncing changes between rekordbox and Rekord Buddy Managing your music Editing Track Info Creating a new Playlist Creating folders Smart playlists Playlist and folder clones Adding Tags to your individual tracks Tagging Tracks via drag and drop Reordering your playlists Organizing your playlists 19 4 Preferences General Preferences rekordbox preferences Serato Preferences Traktor Preferences 23

3 5 Updating Rekord Buddy Uninstalling Rekord Buddy Software metadata syncing chart 25 8 Frequently Asked Questions Roadmap 28 3

4 4 1 GETTING STARTED 1.1 What is Rekord Buddy 2? As a follow-up to the original Rekord Buddy, version 2 is now more than just a way to transfer your music collection between Pioneer DJ s rekordbox and Native Instruments Traktor. Rekord Buddy 2 introduces more DJ software to sync with, more library management features, more user friendliness, and lets you protect your primary music collection for piece of mind. If you want a one-stop-shop to keep all your music ship shape and up-to-date, Rekord Buddy 2 has everything you need: Sync with Traktor Pro 2 Sync with rekordbox New: Sync with Serato DJ New: Smart crates and playlists New: Automatic playlist organizing and filtering based on any criteria. 1.2 What are the minimum requirements As long as you have at least a Mac computer with Intel processor running OS X 10.9, you should be able to run Rekord Buddy 2. As for DJ software, Rekord Buddy 2 officially supports the latest versions of Traktor Pro, rekordbox, and Serato DJ at the time a given build of Rekord Buddy 2 is released to be able to successfully sync your collections. Though unsupported officially by Next Audio Labs, older (or newer) versions may still work. For the most current information on what is supported, please visit this page on the Next Audio Labs website. 1.3 Supported music file formats These are the file formats you will be able to add, edit and sync in Rekord Buddy 2: MP3 OGG AAC AIFF WAV FLAC ALAC 1.4 Warning: always keep full backups You should be doing this already, but always make a current backup of your contents before running Rekord Buddy 2. Rekord Buddy might modify or cause other programs to modify music files or collection files on your behalf. To prevent data loss, back up ALL your files regularly. Next Audio Labs cannot be held responsible for damages, loss of data, or any other damages directly or indirectly linked to Rekord Buddy. To ensure the integrity of all your music collections, please ensure you do not have any other music software running before launching Rekord Buddy 2. Upon starting a sync, Rekord Buddy 2 checks that no other compatible software is active and will ask you to quit if any are detected.

5 1.5 Installing Rekord Buddy 2 You can download Rekord Buddy 2 from the website once you ve logged in to your account via the My Account page. 1. First, run the downloaded.dmg installer. 2. In the install window, drag the Rekord Buddy 2 icon to the Applications folder via the shortcut, and wait for it to be installed. 3. You may be asked for an Administrator password in order for your Applications folder to be modified. 4. Run Rekord Buddy First time launching, entering license key Upon launching Rekord Buddy 2 for the first time, you ll be prompted to add your license key. You ll find this on your My Account page on the site. The Rekord Buddy 2 license allows for up to two activations per user. While you need to have an internet connection to authorize, you can use Rekord Buddy 2 offline for up to 15 days between authorizations; after which, that you will need to connect to the internet and launch the app to update your authorization Troubleshooting license problems The first thing you ll see when you launch Rekord Buddy 2 NOTE: Next Audio Labs will never ask you for your license key. Never share your key with anyone and only ever use it on your own computer. If the license authorization fails and you get a message saying Can t authorize Rekord Buddy 2,the potential reasons are: Can t reach the authorization server. Your local authorization is missing, expired or invalid. Your local authorization is missing or has expired and a new one cannot be downloaded. Either your internet connection or our server is down. Your license key is invalid. You may have mistyped your license key or it got revoked. Reset the license (see section 1.8 Resetting Rekord Buddy 2) and try again. Your app version is invalid. You are using an app that does not match the version you bought the license for. Could not find your license key. Your license key is not found on your computer. Reset the license (see section 1.8 Resetting Rekord Buddy 2) and try again. You have authorized this app on too many computers. You only get two authorizations with each license purchase. If you need Rekord Buddy 2 on more than two computers, you will need to contact support@next.audio to transfer one of your authorizations to another computer.

6 Internal error, contact Something went wrong. Please contact to report this. The server couldn t generate your app receipt. Please try again later. The authorization server for internal reasons could not return a valid receipt. Contact support@next.audio to report this. 1.8 Resetting Rekord Buddy 2 If you ever need to reset your serial number, for whatever reason, launch the application while holding down CTRL Key. You ll be asked for your information again. Note that registering Rekord Buddy 2 for the first time or resetting the license code will require an internet connection in order to authorize your copy of the app. Should you launch Rekord Buddy 2 holding down the Option, the software will ask you if you d like to reset your track database. 1.9 Choosing which DJ software to initialize from NOTE: Resetting the license does not affect your authorization count since it happens on a computer already authorized. Before you start, you should decide which of your music collections will be the original, from which Rekord Buddy 2 will create its database. Once Rekord Buddy 2 is initialized, all other music collections will be overwritten with the information from this collection How to initialize sync The first time you run Rekord Buddy 2, the database will be empty, with a popup notification asking you to click the sync button. Once actioned, you ll be asked to pick which DJ software you d like your music collection to come from. You can choose from Pioneer DJ rekordbox, Serato DJ, or Native Instruments Traktor Pro 2 as long as they are installed and configured. You can also protect the initial database from future changes by ensuring the box is checked on the popup. This can be changed in the preferences at a later date (see the section General Preferences, below). 6 The initial sync message, which you ll see near the bottom left. The initial sync dialog, which pops up when you first click the sync button. From rekordbox: First, ensure you have the exported rekordbox XML file saved to the correct location (see section 2.6 Syncing changes between rekordbox and Rekord Buddy 2 for details on how to do this). Without this, Rekord Buddy 2 will not give you the option to sync from rekordbox. Rekord Buddy 2 should automatically detect the file and ask if you want to use it. Choose the rekordbox option from the Initialize Rekord Buddy 2 using collection from: dropdown and click OK. If you don t want the music collection within rekordbox to ever be modified by other collections, make sure to tick the Protect this database check box before continuing. Once sync is successful, the XML will be deleted. From Serato DJ: Choose the Serato option from the Initialize Rekord Buddy 2 using collection from: dropdown and click OK. If you don t want the music collection within Serato to ever be modified by other collections, make sure to tick the Protect this database check box before continuing.

7 From Traktor Pro 2: Choose the Traktor option from the Initialize Rekord Buddy 2 using collection from: dropdown and click OK. If you don t want the music collection within Traktor to ever be modified by other collections, make sure to tick the Protect this database check box before continuing The user interface The Rekord Buddy user interface is broken down into two main parts: the browse tree and the track list The Rekord Buddy 2 main window 1. Browse tree The browse tree shows all your crates, playlists, folders, tags, and artists lists. 2. Track list The track list shows all the tracks in the currently selected section of the browse tree. 3. Track list view At the top right of the track list there are two different list views (numbered 3 ) you can switch between to suit your needs. Icons for the track list and cover view, respectively 4. Media playback controls Next to the list views, the media keys (numbered 4 ) let you play, stop, skip and scrub tracks in your selected playlist.

8 List view shows all metadata information you choose to display for each track. Right clicking the column sorting at the top allows you to disable or enable any of the fields. You can resize metadata columns by dragging the separators to your desired width. In this view, you can also reorganize your columns by dragging the relevant header left or right to the desired location. To use these columns for reordering your music, see section 3.10 Reordering your playlists. 8 A playlist shown using the track list view

9 Cover view increases the size of the track image in the list, but gives more general information at a glance: track name, artist, musical key and release label. You can still edit all metadata by right clicking the track Artists list A playlist shown using the cover view The Artists list in the browse tree displays your tracks, grouped by the track Artists metadata, in the track list. To expand the list, click SHOW next to ARTISTS in the browse tree Keys list The Keys list in the browse tree displays your tracks, grouped by the track Key metadata, in the track list. To expand the list, click SHOW next to KEYS in the browse tree Tags list The Tags list in the browse tree displays your tracks, grouped by the track Tags metadata, in the track list. To expand the list, click SHOW next to TAGS in the browse tree. TIP: You can batch-remove tags from all your tracks by selecting them from the TAGS list and hitting DELETE or BACKSPACE or by right-clicking on the tag and selecting Delete <tag name>.

10 1.15 Audio playback The media playback section of Rekord Buddy 2 lets you listen to, scrub through and skip the audio in your playlists The media player section lets you control audio playback From left to right, the features of the media player are: 1. Current track information: Scrolling marquee with the name and artists of the track displayed. 2. Time played: Tells you how far into the track you are. 3. Track seek slider: Use this to identify where in the track you are currently hearing. You can also use the progress marker to scrub back and forwards through the track to a specific spot. 4. Total track time: Tells you how long the track is. 5. Previous track button: Skips back to the previous track in the playlist. 6. PLAY/STOP button: Starts and stops the currently selected track. 7. Next track button: Skips forwards to the next track in the playlist. Along with the controls within the app, you can also use the Apple media keys to control your music. The BACK, PLAY/PAUSE, and FORWARDS keys will control their respective actions.

11 11 2 SYNCING 2.1 What does syncing do? In Rekord Buddy 2, syncing is the act of make all your music collections, metadata and playlists, stay up to date across all the different DJ software you have installed. This means you can use Rekord Buddy 2 to maintain your music database, as well as transfer all your track information between all the supported DJ software. 2.2 What gets synced? In short, Rekord Buddy 2 pulls all the available information from your chosen primary collection as a starting point and adds it to the Rekord Buddy 2 database. This includes all your metadata like comments, musical key, and track/artist names. Everything down to your track beat grids and cue points will be saved and copied over. The Rekord Buddy 2 database can then be kept in sync with any changes you make in Rekord Buddy 2 or any another program, and then itself update all the programs installed with this latest information. 2.3 How to sync Once you ve performed your initialization, your music collections across all your software will be up to date until any new changes are made, i.e. new tracks added or metadata updated. Edits to your metadata or playlists will only be synced to your DJ software when you resync your collection. To do this, simply click the SYNC icon, found in the bottom right of the browser tree. The sync button, found at the bottom right of the browser tree

12 2.4 Interpreting syncing results After each sync of your Rekord Buddy 2 music collection, you ll get an alert pop up notifying you of any issues that might have occurred (if any). Below is a list of the different sync messages and what they mean. 12 The sync alert box, which will pop up after any sync The following warnings are non-critical and usually indicate something that can either be fixed by the user or ignored. <num> tracks in your collection with invalid keys in their track files. The key tag in the file itself contains an invalid value (something that cannot be converted to a valid musical key). The invalid value will be displayed underneath this message for all tracks that have this issue. <num> tracks in your Serato collection with very high BPM attribute in its/their grid marker(s). When this happens, the track grid markers are still parsed but its values seems to indicate they might be corrupted or unsupported. <num> tracks in your <app name> collection with invalid marker(s). Some tracks seem to have bad data in their markers. The collections could be corrupted on unsupported. The invalid markers are ignored. rekordbox XML File <file> was written by <program> version <version> from <company>. Supported version is rekordbox <version> from <company>. Proceed with caution as Rekord Buddy might incorrectly save your rekordbox collection file. Rekord Buddy 2 may have problems parsing/ updating XML files generated by other programs/versions than the officially supported ones. You can proceed ahead but it may not work and this is considered unsupported. <num> tracks in your Traktor collection with an invalid modification date. Rekord Buddy 2 cannot read the date the track was modified. This could be a corrupted or unsupported NML file. <num> tracks in your <app name> collection with invalid file locations. The database for this collection contains tracks that Rekord Buddy 2 cannot read the file location from. These are skipped. rekordbox XML file is unsupported. Your rekordbox file is too old. Update to the latest supported version of rekordbox and re-export a new XML file. <num> tracks in your collection with errors. These files could not be loaded. The reason for this will be displayed separately for each file. While parsing/ syncing will continue when this happens, things like ID3 tags or Serato markers will not be parsed or updated.

13 Found a track in your <app name> collection has an invalid file location. Rekord Buddy 2 could not read the location of the file used by a track. The track was skipped. Track with file <path> in your <app name> collection has an unsupported file type. Rekord Buddy 2 does not support this file type. <num> tracks with <problem> and unsupported by <app name>. Those have not been written to <app name>. Because of the problem listed, those properties have not been exported to that app s collection. File <path> in your <app name> collection is referenced by multiple tracks. This collection has multiple entries for the same file which is unsupported. Only the first one was parsed. Folder <name> in your <app name> collection seems to have multiple entries named <name>. Only the first one was parsed. This folder has two or more subfolders with the same name which is unsupported. Syncing added tracks to <app name> s collection that were not part of it before. This might create issues with reading/updating artwork and other metadata. Because this collection did not contains these tracks before they were added during the sync. The app for this collection might not support this very elegantly and may require extra steps to display or update the metadata for those tracks. <num> tracks in your <app name> collection with track entries that could not be written to their playlists. This playlist has tracks in them that could not be added to the playlist during export. They were skipped and will be missing from the synced collection. <num> tracks in your <app name> collection with multiple track entries for the same track in one playlist. This playlist has multiple entries in them with the same track which is not supported by this app. Only the first one was parsed. rekordbox XML file is unsupported. Your rekordbox file is too old. Update to the latest supported version of rekordbox and re-export a new XML file. The following warnings are critical and will cause syncing to fail. Error writing to <app name> collection file <path>. Rekord Buddy 2 would not write to the XML collection file. The file may be corrupted or you don t have the permission to write to it. Something wonderful has happened. You found a critical bug. You ve encountered a problem that Rekord Buddy 2 cannot recover from. Make sure to report the issue via a crash log using the built-in system. Click on Send Crash Log On Next Launch then relaunch the app and send us the crash report with your name and attached so we can contact you if more information is needed. To read more, visit the FAQ entry on our website. Error reading your <app name> collection. Rekord Buddy 2 couldn t read this collection. It could be corrupted or unsupported. Your Traktor collection file version is unsupported. Rekord Buddy 2 doesn t support the version of Traktor Pro that produced this collection file. You will need an updated version of Rekord Buddy 2 to proceed. 2.5 Syncing changes made in external DJ software You can also edit your music collection in your preferred DJ software and have those changes added to Rekord Buddy 2 and your other DJ software. Simply re-sync your music using the sync button at the bottom of the Rekord Buddy 2 browser tree. Once the sync has finished, check your changes have been done. If not, make sure they were saved properly in the original DJ software you used. Remember, for example, that rekordbox requires an extra step in order to export changes made in it. See section 2.6 Syncing changes between rekordbox and Rekord Buddy 2. 13

14 2.6 Syncing changes between rekordbox and Rekord Buddy 2 To allow Rekord Buddy 2 to sync with rekordbox, you ll need to go through a few steps to add a link to an XML collection within your rekordbox preferences. You also have to follow these steps in Exporting changes from rekordbox before running an initial sync as explained in section 1.10 How to initialize sync. Exporting changes from rekordbox Any changes made within rekordbox will need to be exported as a new XML file into Rekord Buddy 2 via a new XML file. You only need to export changes if you have made changes in rekordbox. 1. You must make sure you re running the most recent supported build of rekordbox. 2. In rekordbox, go to Preferences, Advanced and in the rekordbox XML section make sure Export BeatGrid Information is set to BPM change points. 14 BPM change points tells rekordbox to export the track s beatgrid. 3. In the rekordbox menu, go to File -> Export collection in XML format, and save the file to its default location, which should be the user Documents folder. You can name the file however you wish, as long as it is in the XML format. 4. Upon initial or subsequent syncs Rekord Buddy 2 will detect the file and ask if you want to sync the changes from rekordbox. You ll get this warning if Rekord Buddy 2 detects an XML collection

15 Importing changes into rekordbox Rekord Buddy 2 cannot export any information directly into rekordbox. Changes are only reflected in the rekordbox XML browser folder, which you will need to import to the main rekordbox library. To add your synced XML tracks to the rekordbox collection, you need to ensure the XML tree is visible. NOTE: When importing changes to rekordbox, make sure you import everything (all playlists and tracks) otherwise when you export any changes the collections will not match and could overwrite other collections. NOTE: Make sure you wait for rekordbox to finish analyzing the waveforms for the imported track before closing the app otherwise it will loose the BPM value for those tracks when you reopen it Ensure you re running the most recent supported build of rekordbox. 2. In rekordbox, go to Preferences, View and in the Layout section, make sure rekordbox XML is ticked. Tick the rekordbox XML option in the Layout section.

16 3. Now, go to the Advanced tab. Ensure that the Imported Library file path is set as default (delete the current path to be sure) and you re all set. The XML collection will appear in rekordbox as rekordbox XML. 16 Make sure the Imported library XML path is default. 4. Close the Preferences and expand the rekordbox XML section of the browser tree. 5. To add single tracks to your main rekordbox collection, select All Tracks from the XML tree, right click the desired track and select Import to collection. 6. To add a whole playlist, repeat step 4 on a playlist. 7. Alternatively, you can drag and drop files or playlists into the main collection. If you try to add one or more tracks that already exist in the collection, you will get the message below. Click Don t ask me again and then Yes to make sure the most up-to-date track information is synced. TIP: You can import all the playlists by right clicking on Playlist in the XML browser tree and selecting Import Playlist. You ll get this warning if rekordbox detects that a track is already in your collection

17 3 MANAGING YOUR MUSIC Along with syncing your collection across your DJ software, Rekord Buddy 2 is designed to be your base for maintaining and categorizing your collection. All your track metadata is editable and will be reflected in your DJ software upon next sync. 3.1 Editing Track Info To update a track s metadata information, simply right click on the desired track to see a box appear with all the editable text. Along with the track metadata, file information is also displayed, but not editable Creating a new Playlist Right click a track to edit the metadata NOTE: Changes done to track info will only be reflected in other music collections when you sync Rekord Buddy 2 again. To create a brand new and empty playlist, select the folder you would like to create the playlist in, click the plus sign (+) at the bottom of the browser tree and choose New Playlist in..., or right click on the folder itself and select New Playlist in... If you want to create a playlist at the root of the tree you can select and right-click on PLAYLISTS in the browser tree. Right click the plus (+) symbol to create new playlists

18 3.3 Creating folders To create a brand new and empty folder, select the folder you would like to create the folder in, click the plus sign (+) at the bottom of the browser tree and choose New Folder in..., or right click on the folder itself and select New Folder in... If you want to create a folder at the root of the tree you can select and right-click on PLAYLISTS in the browser tree.. Rekord Buddy 2 also allows you to drag and drop a playlist on an empty playlist to turn it into a folder. Click on an existing folder name to make it an editable field. Selecting a folder will display the tracks from all that folder s playlists in the track list view. 18 A close up of a playlist folder 3.4 Playlist filters You can further drill down into your existing playlists by using Playlist Filters. These give you the option to either view your filtered or unfiltered playlist music (via the root of the playlist). The Other tracks playlist filter is automatically created when other filters are present and shows all remaining tracks excluded from playlist filters. If no Other tracks filter is present, there are no tracks excluded from filters. 1. Highlight your desired playlist and right click it in the browse tree and select New Filter in <playlist name>, or click the plus (+) button at the bottom left of the browse tree and select New Filter in <playlist name>. 2. The playlist filter popup will appear, where you can select how the new Smart Playlist will filter your library. You can choose if <All/Any> of the following are true to change how your filters display. The format for playlist filters is <Metadata section> <contains / begins with / ends with / is / is not> <user inputted text> 3. Click the plus (+) symbol to the right of your filter to add it to your queue. 4. You can reorder your filters by dragging each one to the desired row in the list. 5. Once you click OK, your playlist will now behave like a folder, with two sub-playlists showing: one with your filter, the other unfiltered. TIP: you can organize playlist filters just like a normal playlist. The organizing criteria will be applied to all playlist filters, including Other tracks. Playlist filters can be removed by any of the following methods: Selecting the filter and pressing either DELETE or BACKSPACE on the keyboard, or right-clicking the filter and choosing Delete <filter name>. You can also edit your playlist filter by right-clicking and selecting Edit filter.

19 3.5 Smart playlists Similar to playlist filters, smart playlists are a simple and powerful way to filter your entire music collection into playlists quickly. Rekord Buddy 2 gives you the option to set up these playlists using a variety of variables based on metadata and logic. 1. Right click PLAYLISTS or a folder in the browse tree and choose New Smart Playlist in Root Folder. 2. The Smart Playlist filter popup will appear, letting you select how the new Smart Playlist will filter your library. You can choose if <All/Any> of the following are true to change how your filters display. The format for playlist filters is <Metadata section< <contains / begins with / ends with / is / is not> <user inputted text> Click the plus (+) symbol to the right of your filter to add it to your queue. 4. You can reorder your filters by dragging each one to the desired row in the list. 5. Once you click OK, your playlist will now behave like a folder, with two sub-playlists showing: one with your filter, the other unfiltered. Smart playlists can be removed by any of the following methods: Selecting the smart playlist and pressing either DELETE or BACKSPACE on the keyboard, or right-clicking it and choosing Delete <smart playlist name>. You can also edit your smart playlist by right-clicking and selecting Edit smart playlist. 3.6 Playlist and folder clones The filter pop up where you can customize your playlist filters Cloned playlists/folders are a way of duplicating parts of your Rekord Buddy 2 collection to help you drill down and organize the same music in multiple ways. Although the clone contains the same tracks, you can apply multiple, different filters or organization to each. Any tracks or playlist/folders added or removed from a clone will be added/removed from other sibling clones, as they are all kept in sync. To clone a playlist, right click on it and choose Clone <playlist name>. The new clone will appear below, with a different icon showing a small chain link. This helps identify cloned playlists in your browser. TIP: Cloning All Tracks can help you organize your entire collection

20 3.7 Adding Tags to your individual tracks Rekord Buddy 2 has the facility to add extra metadata tags to your tracks to help further categorize and organize your music. To add a tag to individual tracks, right click the desired track to bring up the track info editor and add your text separated by a space to the tag field. Once you have created your tags, they ll show up under the TAGS category within the browser tree on the left. If none show up, click Show while hovering over the TAGS marker to reveal them. There are two different types of tags you can add to your music: 1. BINARY tags, where one word will become a tag descriptor. These tags will only organize your music by on/off values. E.g. Binary tag funky : is a track funky, or not? 2. NAME:VALUE tags, which allow for more complex results, and can organize your music by user created categories and sub categories. E.g. SetTime:Early or Energy:High TIP: Use tags to group together similar tracks by describing what they are and whether they go well with other tracks. NOTE: Tags cannot contain spaces or punctuation. Tags can be removed by any of the following methods: Selecting the tag and pressing either DELETE or BACKSPACE on the keyboard, or right-clicking it and choosing Delete <tag name>. 3.8 Tagging Tracks via drag and drop If you have a large number of tracks to tag together, you can do this by bulk selecting the tracks in the track list window and simply dragging them over to your desired tag under TAGS in the browser tree or directly on a tag value in a organized playlist. 3.9 Reordering your playlists Reordering your tracks means changing the order in which they are listed within a tracklist. In the track list view, click on a metadata column title to reorder your current playlist in ascending or descending order. To reset your current playlist s organization to default, use the Order column Organizing your playlists Playlists can be organized based on various metadata to make it easier to find your music. Right click on the playlist in the browse tree and choose which metadata you wish to organize your music by. You can further drill down by adding a new organizing criteria to one of the current listed results. Below are all the organizing criteria. Organizing playlists can be removed by any of the following methods: Selecting the organizing playlist and pressing either DELETE or BACKSPACE on the keyboard, or rightclicking it and choosing Delete <organizing playlist name>. 20

21 21 Album Artist BPM Beat Grid Locked Bit Depth Bit Rate Comments Date Added Date Modified Date Released File Type Genre Key Length Play Count Rating Record Label Sample Rate Size Title Track Number Organizing will automatically create sub-playlists names after all the different values of that criteria found in the playlist. Those are continuously updated as the content of the playlist being organized and will appear like regular playlists in any other collections. Note that changes to these generated playlists, like renaming or changing their content, in another program will be ignored and overwritten by Rekord Buddy during syncing.

22 22 4 PREFERENCES 4.1 General Preferences 1. Key notation Choose which way musical keys are displayed and exported. - Musical: i.e. Db - Camelot: i.e. 3B - Open Key: i.e. 8d - All Sharps: i.e. C# 2. Artists are separated by: Choose how multiple artists are displayed, parsed during import and exported. - Artist1,Artist2 - Artist1, Artist2 - Artist1/Artist2 - Artist1 / Artist2 3. Genres are separated by: Choose how multiple genres are displayed, parsed during import and exported. - Genre1,Genre2 - Genre1, Genre2 - Genre1/Genre2 - Genre1 / Genre2 4. Keys are separated by: Choose how multiple keys are displayed, parsed during import and exported. - Key1,Key2 - Key1, Key2 - Key1/Key2 - Key1 / Key2 5. License key Displays the license key currently associated with the installed version of Rekord Buddy 2. Rekord Buddy general preferences

23 4.2 rekordbox preferences 1. Protect this database Prevents Rekord Buddy 2 from modifying the rekordbox database during future collection syncs. 2. Number of Hot-Cues to output Sets whether to save three, four or eight cue points for your tracks. This is helpful for hardware-specific limitations. Extra hotcues will be output as memory cues. 3. Ignore grid markers for tracks with more than <number of> grid markers rekordbox can generate a lot of grid markers in dynamic mode. This can help limit the number of markers imported so that the tracks do not display with thousands of markers in apps like Traktor Serato Preferences rekordbox preferences 1. Protect this database Prevents Rekord Buddy 2 from modifying the Serato DJ database during future collection syncs. 2. Duplicate hotcues as memory cues If selected, while importing cue points, hotcues will be duplicated as memory cues and exported as both hotcues and memory cues in other programs. This can help replicate Serato s behavior where hotcues can be triggered without starting the track playing. 3. Output defaults colors for hotcues without them Serato uses cue marker colors to display the position triangles in the UI. If the cue marker does not have any color, these triangles will not be displayed. This option tells Rekord Buddy 2 to output default colors if the cue marker does not already have one. Serato DJ preferences

24 4.4 Traktor Preferences 1. Protect this database Prevents Rekord Buddy 2 from modifying the Traktor Pro 2 database during future collection syncs. 2. Use Traktor key and keep it synced with key text Rekord Buddy 2 can read key information from either Traktor s key value, as calculated by Traktor, or the Key Text column which is usually one calculated by other software such as Mixed in Key. In return, Rekord Buddy 2 only ever updates the Key Text property but can make sure that it always matches the Traktor key if this option is selected. 3. Set custom library location By default, Rekord Buddy 2 looks for the latest Traktor directory and will update this location automatically every time you update Traktor. Using this can force Rekord Buddy 2 to use another location. Note that this can only be done before Rekord Buddy 2 is initialized and cannot be modified after that. In order to set another location you will have to reset Rekord Buddy 2. NOTE: Make sure the Traktor collection is not set to protected for this to work correctly. 24 Traktor Pro 2 preferences

25 5 UPDATING REKORD BUDDY 2 Rekord Buddy 2 automatically checks for updates when you launch the application. If you wish to manually check for updates, go to the Rekord Buddy 2 menu item and choose Check for Updates This box will pop up when you launch the app if there s an update available 6 UNINSTALLING REKORD BUDDY 2 WARNING: To try and resolve any issues you might be having, make sure you ve followed the steps in section 1.8 Resetting Rekord Buddy 2 to reset the license and database before reinstalling Rekord Buddy Delete Rekord Buddy 2 from the Applications folder. 2. Delete the Rekord Buddy 2 preferences folder from the user library. In Finder, click the Go menu item, hold down Alt/Option key and click the Library shortcut that appears. The Rekord Buddy 2 folder can be found at: Users/<User folder>/library/application Support/audio.next. RekordBuddy2 With a file to delete at: Users/<User folder>/library/preferences/audio.next.rekordbuddy2.plist 3. Empty your Trash.

26 7 SOFTWARE METADATA SYNCING CHART 26 Property Type rekordbox Serato Traktor ID3 Tags Notes Playlists YES YES YES NO Folders YES (26) YES (24) YES (13) NO Track Title YES YES YES YES Track Artists YES YES YES YES (21) Track Remixers YES YES YES YES (19) (21) Track Producers YES YES YES YES (21) Track Genres YES YES YES YES (21) Track Comments YES YES YES YES Track Record Label YES YES YES YES (19) Track Grouping NO YES NO YES Track Album YES YES YES YES Track Number YES YES YES YES Track Tags NO NO NO YES Track Musical Key YES YES YES (15) YES (19) (14, 21) Track Mix Name YES NO YES NO Track Rating YES NO (28) YES YES (19) Track BPM YES YES YES YES Track Analysis Lock NO YES YES NO (20) Track Color YES/NO (1,7, 29) YES NO NO Track Play Count YES NO YES NO Track Date Released NO (2) YES/NO (8) YES YES (23) Track Date Added YES YES YES NO Track Artwork YES YES YES (16) YES Grid Markers YES (3) YES (9) YES (17, 18) NO Cue Markers YES (4,25) YES (10,11) YES NO Cue Markers Name YES YES YES NO Cue Markers Color YES (7) YES/NO (12) NO NO Loop Markers YES (4) YES (10,11) YES NO (1) rekordbox exports this property but does not import it back. (2) rekordbox does read dates released from MP3 and AIFF files if it is missing from its database. (3) If rekordbox is set to dynamic mode for analysis this can potentially create to many grid markers for other apps to handle. Use the preference settings to ignore tracks with more than a certain number of grid markers. (4) rekordbox can support 3, 4 or 8 hotcues for loops and cues depending on the hardware you use to playback. Use the preference setting to make sure only the number of hotcues you need get exported to rekordbox. Other hotcues will be converted to memory cues on export. (5) Serato can allow invalid characters to be used in naming playlists and folder, these will be filtered out on import into Rekord Buddy.

27 (6) Serato supports crates that contain both tracks and other crates. Rekord Buddy 2 will treat those like folders and ignore the tracks. (7) This property is translated during import/export and may not be exactly matching in all programs. (8) Serato stores a single year as release date. This is exported by Rekord Buddy 2 but not imported to favor getting more complete values from other apps or ID3 tags. (9) Serato only supports grid markers placed on the first downbeat of each bar. Any tracks with grid markers incorrectly placed will result in a warning and no beat grid exported to Serato. (10) Serato supports more cues and loops than any other programs. They are imported in order, cues first and loops second. If, for example, the track in Serato as two cues in slots 0 and 2 and 6 loops in slots this will be imported as cues in slots 0 and 2 and loops in slots 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Because of this, not every loops will make it to other programs based on how many hot cues they support. (11) Serato does not support memory cues. These will not be exported to Serato. (12) Serato uses cue marker colors to display the position triangles in the UI. If the cue marker does not have any color, these triangles will not be displayed. As a workaround you can tell Rekord Buddy in the Preferences to output default colors if the cue marker does not already have one. Serato does not support colors for loop markers. (13) Traktor always keeps its folders ordered alphabetically. Changing folder content in Traktor will causer Traktor s order to be used on import and overwrite the order used in Rekord Buddy. (14) Keys are always exported back according to the musical notation set in the preferences. (15) Rekord Buddy 2 does not modify Traktor s key value (calculated by Traktor itself) but can be set in the preferences to use it for importing instead of the key text value. In that case, the key text value is always synced to the Traktor key according to the musical notation also set in the preferences. Additionally, if you want the Key Text to be synced correctly, make sure to set Written File Tag to Key Text in Traktor s Analyze Options->Musical Key. (16) If the track was never added to Traktor before then the artwork will not display correctly upon first opening Traktor after syncing. To update (17) Traktor only supports a single BPM value for all grid markers. If a track is using multiple BPM values this will result in a warning and no beat grid will be exported to Traktor. (18) If the track was never added to Traktor before then the track will not be analysed and its waveform and markers will not display correctly. To fix this just select the track and analyze it in Traktor using only Gain as the analyzing setting so no other properties get overwritten. (19) Not every file type supports this property. (19) MP4 files only support a single year value. (20) This only prevents other software from analysing the track. Rekord Buddy 2 can still modify the BPM and beat grid during syncing. (21) Rekord Buddy 2 treats this property as multiple values but import/exports it as one value using separators selected in the Preferences. (22) Serato does not support duplicate tracks in playlists. Those will be ignored on export. (23) MP4 files only support a single year value. (24) Serato supports crates that have both tracks AND subcrates inside them. These are not supported by Rekord Buddy 2 and will be imported as folders, ignoring any tracks in them. 27

28 (25) rekordbox only supports a maximum of 10 memory cues, so all extra cue points transferred from other software will be not be exported to rekordbox. (26) rekordbox allows folders to contain multiple playlists or folders with the same name but different case. This is not supported in Rekord Buddy and only the first one will be parsed. (27) Serato does not support track ratings. If you ve been using itunes to rate your tracks, that information will not be imported as itunes support is not yet available. (28) Track ratings imported from itunes into Serato will not be synced with Rekord Buddy 2. (29) If rekordbox color names are changed from the default then rekordbox does not export the color values anymore for those that were renamed. NOTE: To ensure no metadata is lost, edit in the software that has the most information. 28

29 8 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS My track doesn t contain any beatgrid after syncing. The beatgrid for the track is not supported by the software that you are using to view it. Look in the supported metadata table to see which software supports which type of beatgrid. My tracks don t show any waveforms in Traktor Pro 2. Your tracks are missing their stripes. Analyse the tracks, gain only (leave the option checked) to fix this. My cover artwork doesn t show in Traktor. To fix this, go to edit the track within the Traktor Pro 2 browser by right clicking on it. Open up the edit box and close it. Traktor Pro 2 thinks the artwork should be cached after sync but it isn t yet. My changes don t show up in Traktor. Try to edit the track, load the track on a deck or to check the collection s consistency to force Traktor to reload the data. If you have further questions, they may be answered in our FAQ, which is updated regularly. Alternatively, contact Next Audio Labs with a support ticket for any issues you are unable to resolve yourself. 8.1 Roadmap If you wish to get involved with the future of Rekord Buddy 2 or would like to know what s planned for future updates, check out the software roadmap. 29