Multilingual support？

hiroaki_ohhasi · January 26, 2026, 10:28am

I recently started using Live 4.

I’m trying to load a Traktor playlist into Engine DJ 4.3, but I’m having trouble.

It can read Japanese tags, but if the file name is in Japanese, it won’t load the waveform and won’t play. The tag information is readable.

The character encoding is UTF-8. I’ve renamed everything by referencing the artist-title from the tag.

However, the file name only needs to be changed to contain only alphabetic characters before it will play.

Is there any way to get around this?

Engine DJ is the only platform that has trouble with characters…

hiroaki_ohhasi · January 27, 2026, 2:36pm

I recently started using EngineDJ.

MP3 files with Japanese file names written in UTF-8 won’t load.

Japanese tag information is recognized correctly.

I haven’t had this experience with Traktor, Serato, or Djay.

The files load if I write the file names in alphabetic characters (1-byte text), but I don’t want to go through the trouble just for EngineDJ.

Is there a better way?

djsimonse · February 8, 2026, 9:06pm

I am also Japanese and Swedish. Unfortunately, I’ve only got EngineDJ OS to support foreign characters if the playlists are imported from Rekordbox or Apple Music. Other third-party apps like Serato & djay exported to an external drive doesn’t seem to be supported.

So the workaround for me has been to export the playlists to Apple Music or Rekordbox, and import them that way. Unfortunately with Apple Music, you need to set the Hot Cues & Loops again.

PS. If you use the Rekordbox route, the album art will be distorted and Soundswitch files will not be supported. So I use Apple Music for all my Japanese, Swedish + Tiësto & Beyoncé files.

This workflow isn’t ideal, so I really hope a fix or support for One Library comes.

djsimonse · February 8, 2026, 10:05pm

Yes, with DJ-software there is no problem. You can also use Engine DJ Desktop or Streaming services without any problem.

hiroaki_ohhasi · February 9, 2026, 8:32am

Thank you for the suggestion! So, to confirm, the workaround for local files involves using rekordbox as a “bridge” to bypass the Japanese filename issue, right?

The workflow would be:

Create and manage playlists in iTunes (Music app).

Import those playlists into rekordbox using the “iTunes integration” or “XML import” feature.

Use the “Library Import” tab in Engine DJ Desktop to import the rekordbox library.

It seems that while Engine DJ has trouble handling multi-language characters when reading files directly from the folder (file system), importing them via the rekordbox database format allows the character encoding to be processed correctly.

Does this sound like the right approach?

djsimonse · February 9, 2026, 12:23pm

Yes, I think so. I don’t use Rekordbox any more, but it’s great if you’d like to create a flash drive that works on all environments without duplicate tracks. I’m a Serato DJ, so here is my workflow for Engine.

I add all songs to iTunes first.
I tag all my files in Serato and create a smart list in iTunes using those tags.
Then I refresh iTunes by adding a Disc nr (that I don’t use) so I get all my updated Serato Tags.
Import the iTunes playlist in Engine and start setting Hot Cues & Loops again.

Hope this helps. If you do the Rekordbox route, let me know how it goes.

Pasha · February 9, 2026, 1:02pm

Have either of you considered asking Christian, who wrote and regularly updates the Lexicon DJ library manager software about this?

If lexicon doesn’t already offer a character exchange option or some other sort of work around, he might be able to add a clean-up/translate re-omnicoding function to the already excellent range of database tools offered.

djsimonse · February 22, 2026, 10:48am

Hi, Hiroaki-san.

I found a much better way to combine my Serato+Engine workflow with all my non-ASCII characters tracks until they fix this bug. Since Engine can read ID-3 tags, we can change the filename and still keep the Japanese letters on display.

(If the track has ID-3 tag) In Finder (Mac) Mark a track with non-ASCII characters and change the file name to only ASCII characters.
In iTunes/Music: Unblock “Keep Media folder organized” in preferences, so it doesn’t change the filename.
Import all songs to iTunes/Music.
In Serato/Traktor/VDJ etc: Analyze all songs, create playlists, set cue points and loops etc.
Open Engine DJ and Import the New playlist.

Now they all work without doing the preparation several times on all platforms.

hiroaki_ohhasi · March 5, 2026, 1:38am

Thank you for letting me know. Organizing the Music Library is really difficult, so I’ve stopped using it altogether in my Engine DJ environment. I’m using it in combination with Djay Pro on my iPad. I’m starting to think there’s no point in using SC Live 4 if I leave it like this, but… I’m actually finding it surprisingly comfortable to use.