iPod DJing

How to create a BPM smartlist in iTunes

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One of the great things about the iPod,  is that when you create a smart playlist in iTunes, it gets transferred to the iPod, this helps greatly with planning sets, categorizing music using formats other than album, artist and genre, and in the case of iPod DJing, categorizing music by BPM.

Creating and iPod smartlist in iTunes is really simple. And allows you to catagorize music based on a variety of criteria. for the purposes of arranging music on the iPod for DJing, you first need to find out the BPM for each track in your iPod music library.  Once your iPod music has got the BPM you need to open up iTunes.

In iTunes, go to file >> new smart playlist

a window opens where you can “match the following rule”, here you have a series of drop downs that correspond  with the various info columns that are related to your iPod music collection.

In the drop downs select BPM as the criteria to categorize your music with. In the next field you can choose various parameters, here you want to select ‘contains’ or ‘is’ as the qualifier, in the last field, enter in the BPM number. If you want further customization, you can click the + button and add other perameters, this can help if you want to get really specific in your Playlists. The window will close and you’ll see a new playlist in iTunes, labeling the play list is also very important, the best way to label is to order it as follows *BPM 123 by adding ‘*’ all the BPM playlists will appear together on your iPod, ‘BPM’ obliviously sets that the tracks are arranged by BPM and the numbers show the BPM.

If you have a  large collection of music this can be tough, but once its sorted, everything is very organized and any new music will automatically be sorted into these smart playlists…pucker.

When it comes to getting these smart playlists onto your iPod, its just a case of plugging in your iPod and syncing your iPod with iTunes.

iPod DJ set planning

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More than conventional DJing, iPod DJing is about programming, the art of DJing by selecting the right kind of music for the right kind of audience, in its essence this is what DJing is all about, and regardles of if you use turntables or an iPod, this is the core skill that forms the foundation of good DJing.

In order to plan a decent set you need to know your audience, understand what music they like and how they like it played. you want to build the set so it has a narrative and a beginning, middle and end, you want there to be peaks, mellows and surprises to keep the crowd guessing and excited about what comes next you don’t want to just rely on old classics, but also on new and cutting edge music.

The set needs to be tight enough that it has shape, but loose enough so that when you are DJing, you can edit the set to suit the crowds reaction, without having to rethink your set altogether.

DJing with an iPod is no different, however, the one benefit an iPod has in this case is that with an iPod you can create playlists, so you can pre-plan out the bulk of a set using the iPod playlist feature, or even create several inter-related sets using the iPod playlist.

Regardless, you need to ensure that technology doesn’t surpass good DJing (i.e. set planning)