When I first joined Denon I found the sync manager confusing after only having all of my music on my laptop for Traktor and now having to copy music around and sync playlists (I since realise thats how most DJ ecosystems work…), so with my SC Live 4, I work off the USB drive stick directly, and use backup software to back that drive to other drives / USBs after doing some work/adding tracks.
I know I’m not using Engine DJ as intended but it works for me, and keeps my actual files in proper genre folders which I prefer.
My workflow is:
Add new audio files to categorised genre folders on my USB leading up to gigs, as I buy/make tracks.
In Engine DJ, expand the DRIVES section (don’t use the ‘Engine Library’ section) to view my playlists - I then select-all and drag the files from each of those USB folders into the matching playlists I have within a ‘NEW’ parent playlist folder. Any tracks that were already in there get ignored, the new ones get added.
The new stuff is at the top/bottom (sort by ‘Date Added’). I then run through them, fix the cue point always being half a beat wrong, add loops, cues, drag favourites into upcoming gig playlists etc.
Basically, it appears that if you’re in ‘DRIVES’ making new playlists, it’s making playlists on the Engine Library thats on your Drive not the computer running Engine DJ, and if you’re dragging audio files you’ve already copied to your USB into these playlists, it’s directly referencing those files on your drive, not copying them into an Engine Library folder or anything. So no syncing is required.
Pros:
Don’t have to use Sync Manager at all after any Engine DJ work, I’m working straight off the drive.
All my music is always with me not just an upcoming gig playlist I synced, never know what unexpected gigs might appear.
Any changes made on the SC Live 4 while DJing (adding cues etc) are saving to the drive, i don’t have to sync changes back to each computer I have Engine DJ on after.
My audio files stay in the folder system I want them in on my drive.
Not tied to one Master-computer with all my music or downloads on, sometimes i use my Studio PC, sometimes i use a rubbish little Netbook i travel with, sometimes plug into my Mac at work.
The backup drives come out with me too so always have everything with me multiple times.
Cons:
No backup of my music on a central computer (but i do on other drives anyway).
Had some issues before with right-click delete/remove options not showing when in ‘DRIVES’, but they do in the usual ‘Engine Library’ side, and you can remove there as expected.
Have accidentally quickly added something to a playlist on the Engine Library (not DRIVES) side before, left for the gig and it wasn’t in the playlist - I would have had to sync to get that onto the USB. Luckily i could just find the file easily from my genre folder structure on the USB anyway.
Like I say, I know I’m not using Engine DJ as intended but it works for me. Hopefully this way of working wont get broken in a future Engine DJ software update though.
I have considered moving to Rekordbox for everything recently though as I get more Pioneer gigs, as I love that ability to have 4 mini crates up, its brilliant for sorting music, Engine DJ can be painful when you drag something and the folder changes, then you go back and its not the position you were in before etc etc
I bought an SC Live 4 a few months ago as my first controller and have been learning and experimenting with library management since then. When I first started, I put all the music in the USB drive and tried to manage it on the controller. That’s what intuitively made sense to me but I very quickly ran into the limitation this feature request is trying to fix (https://community.enginedj.com/t/batch-analyze-entire-drive-or-a-selection-of-files-at-once-engine-dj-os/36901). Then I started learning about the desktop software, Sync Manager, and the more traditional workflow.
Ultimately, after testing both of them, I think I prefer the approach of having the music directly in the USB drive because of the Pros that you mentioned. If the feature request I linked above is implemented, I probably wouldn’t use the desktop software very often. In the meantime, I may use your approach.
As you said, I understand that this may not be the way of managing music for many people but, with the controller being close to completely independent from the desktop software, I hope this type of workflow continues being supported and improved in the future.
No, using the sync manager will not keep the folder structure. I personally do things the 1st way you explained. Put all your music on the drive, then add that music to your Engine collection. Do all your preparing (grids & cue points etc…) before you close Engine / eject the drive. Don’t use sync manager at all. Only real downfall to this is when your drive is not connected to the pc, you wont have any engine database. However it works a treat for keeping your folder structure. Also not worrying about whether or not sync manager actually copied the music to your drive.
This is the way I do it: I have everything on an external SSD, which is mirrored 1:1 on another SSD drive. This is my archive, everything is organized in folders the way I like, I have only FLAC files, I check and edit the meta data …
In Engine DJ I analyse the tracks and create playlists that reflect the folder structure, there is a 1:1 mapping between folders and files and playlists and playlist entries … then I use Sync manager to transfer the playlists and their files to the internal drives of my players - yes, it changes the folder structure, but since I select my tracks on the players from the playlists, it does not really matter to me … as long as the library keeps track of where it puts the actual files, it is fine for me.
Together I have four SSD drives at the moment:
One 2 TB SSD in each of my two players, each a mirror of the other
Two 4 TB external SSD drives with the same content: archive and library
The work to analyse and sort the music files is a lot, I put much time and effort in it, so I do not want to do it again if I can help it.
Oh cool, i’ll have another look - i’m sure i had a problem where i right clicked something in History and selected Import Into Library, but it only ever shown up on the computer i did that on, not anywhere else i plugged that usb stick in - so assumed it was on the Desktop PC’s version of Engine Library only, due to me not using sync.
This was when i was first starting out though, so might have just missed something else - i’ve always used working in ‘Drives’ since just in case
