How to use the "Prepare list"?

Can you advise me how to best use the prepare list? How do you use it?

I tried to insert some songs, then I listened to them, but after listening they are removed from the list. I tried to do the opposite: that is, I only put the songs on the list AFTER listening to them and I composed a kind of “Pre-playlist”. Unfortunately there is no way to turn the list of songs in the prepare list into a playlist.

So I ask myself: what am I wrong with using the prepare list? Maybe it was meant for another purpose?

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You’re probably not doing anything wrong at all.

The way that the primes work out whether a song is just being cued up, or has actually been played is a simple timer. If you play a track for more than 30 seconds … it’s considered “played” and as soon as it’s considered “played” it falls out of your prepare list.

30 seconds will be right for some people, wrong for others. The “played timer” should be user adjustable in my opinion. You should be able to set it to anything from 15 secs to 60 secs, or similar.

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Okay, well let’s suppose we have the adjustable timer. But then what do I do with the songs in the prepare list, if they can’t be carried in a playlist?

I only really use this if im looking for a song and I see something else and think ooooh I will play that later or if a song pops in my head I want to find and play later or a request from someone etc etc. I use it as a temp space.

For anything else there are playlists IMO

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Good idea! I hadn’t thought about this use. Thanks.

Are there any other suggestions?

It is ment to be like J141 is saying… Adding tracks that you will play later on in your set. And when played x amount of seconds, they disappear from that list.

You can access them again by going to the History folder, or else you can create playlists and add tracks to the playlists instead on-the-fly.

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So I did a wrong use. :confused:

So instead of “Prepare List” it would be better to call it “Play later list”. :grin: :grinning:

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Or think of it as tracks Prepared for later use :rofl:

You should think of it as pre-selecting tracks you MAY want to play later on. In the old - vinyl - days, we would not put these records apart, but rather lift them up, turn them 45 degrees and have them sitting in our record crate with a corner sticking up as a reminder that at some point while going through the collection we were triggered by a track that wasn’t the right NEXT track, but a great track to PERHAPS play later.

In the digital world we have the prepare list. You are going through your track list, see a track you weren’t necessarily looking for, but that you had “forgotten” or think you would like to play later. You just swipe it to the prepare list. At any given time you can open this list to recall these tracks.

It’s a handy tool but not supposed to be uses as a crate or playlist, more like a mental reminder of tracks you are interested in perhaps playing during your gig.

Hope that helps some. My 3 cents as usual.

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Thank you, yes I am now starting to have a clearer use of this “preparation list”. Your every suggestion is useful for understanding how each of you uses it.

The prepare list seems to be stored too, when the unit is powered down.

I was just wondering whether it was temporary, so I tried it. The list was still there when I restarted.

In theory then you could do some prep at home before you get to a gig.

Yes, it’s true. I had also noticed this fact.

Yes, too. But I would feel more confident with a playlist. Also I’m not sure if the Prepare list can be sorted numerically as it happens in the playlist.

I actually believe it can not.

There really is not much use comparing the two or actually three if you include crates. They are all different and all have their use.

I am no big fan of playlists for an entire gig, it kills creativity and prohibits reacting to the crowd. The general rule of thumb is to take about twice the music you will need for a particular gig. I’d put that in a crate. Like the bag, case, crate of vinyl you would have taken with you back in the day.

The best use of playlist imho is to make lots of small playlists of 3-5 tracks that go well together (preferably in any kind of order). And then select from these playlists to pack your crate for a gig. This gives you a lot of leeway in moving (with) the crowd in a particular direction, while preventing the DJ equivalent of “writer’s block”. Anybody who’s been out there knows the moment I am talking about. You tried a track, the crowd reacts better to it than you thought and you were actually planning to take things in a different direction. If you have those mini playlists, you can just pick one of the other tracks in that playlist while you figure out your next move. Lot’s less of stress, even on a night that creativity might be lacking some (btw, no worries, I promise it has happened to all of us at some time or another).

Finally, while on a gig, you can use the prepare list to just toss all those tracks from your crate in you think you might wanna play at some point in your gig. I do make a habit of clearing my prepare list after a gig. The reason for putting a track in the prepare list for me is based on the vibe of the night. So what may feel good with friday night’s crowd, may not feel like that on saturday night.

Preparing at home for a gig to me is “packing” the crate for that gig with the 2x the amount of tracks I think I’ll need. I don’t use the prepare list for that.

Just my three cents as usual

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Thanks, you’ve written some great advice. :+1:

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Hear hear :clap:

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