Seeking advice for dealing with a large library (Engine OS + Virtual DJ)

djrhum · May 2, 2025, 12:58pm

Hi there, I’ve been using Denon DJ gear for 10ish years, but now a happy owner of Prime4+, I want to dig into its standalone usage. Yet, I’m a Virtual DJ user, and want to keep it at least for a part of my uses. I’m not pro, I essentially mix for private home gigs and hardly ever marriages.

So far, I created a rather large collection of music files (≈ 500 Gb) properly sorted and tagged. I’m very comfortable using it in VDJ, but as I’m just discovering Engine OS, I would like to start on proper bases. So here are a few questions I’m sharing, hoping for your experienced advice! NB: I tried to look in forums and else to look for these answer, I found some clues, but not enough to feel comfortable. Sorry if I missed key posts.

Is that OK to have one big external SSD fully imported in Engine OS (just like in VDJ)?
VDJ has automatic filters (genre, decades…) + quick filters very useful for digging in my library. Shall I need to prepare something to have an equivalent in Engine OS?
Is there such a thing as “instant filters” in Engine OS? I understood we can easily filter BPM+Key compatible songs, but what about if I want to filter by genre or energy/rating or filter out already played tracks?
I found the process to add files in Engine OS pretty inconvenient, I have to drag n drop from explorer the folders to import (I expected to have this directly visible in Engine OS software, in browser panel). Maybe I missed something. How can I do this quickly? Also, will Engine OS be directly updated when I add new tracks/albums in my library?
Is there a reliable way to sync lists between VDJ and Engine OS? (I heard about Lexicon, but it’s too expensive for a non-pro DJ like me). And cues?

Thanks in advance for your help

uklotzde · May 2, 2025, 4:45pm

My feature request probably covers what you call “instant filters”:

https://community.enginedj.com/t/overlay-filter-context-sensitive-search/60117

Would be very helpful to reduce the number of visible tracks to choose from depending on the situation and context.

djrhum · May 2, 2025, 5:35pm

Thanks for your insight. I add a look at your feature request and read about the “smart list”. I should take a look at them, maybe it’s part of the answers I’m looking for. Probably, smart lists miss dynamic parameters and can’t answer your expectations. I may consider voting for your suggestion but I need to take a step back and digest all this

djdragon · May 2, 2025, 7:27pm

Depends.

I run a 4TB external SSD with 3.5TB of music (mixed FLAC, 320 MP3 & ALAC) on it weekly with no issues. As long as you do a Library Optimization and backup after adding/removing music everytime, you should be good.

djrhum · May 6, 2025, 9:34am

Looks fine! Thanks for this feedback (and now I feel ridiculous with my so-called “large” library ) I guess I need to practice more with Engine DJ rather than flooding the forum with my beginner fears!

meLon_Cucumis · May 6, 2025, 3:03pm

I’m not sure what you mean by “quick filters”, but one thing I’ve set up is Smart Playlists which key off of different Genre tags. This means that as I add more and more tracks to the Collection, these Smart Playlists are automatically updated with any new, matching tracks. Unfortunately, since we no longer have Crates, this workflow is flawed for me.

The Search function is helpful in that you can search your currently loaded Playlist, or the entire Collection. You can also select which fields are searched, disabling and enabling different tags. If you set up Comments, you can search those to find tracks.

You also have the Match function, which can be toggled on/off easily, and you can customize what is matched. I think typically this is used to find tracks of the same/similar Key and BPM, but it also has the ability to match against Genre.

I’m pretty sure there is an option to hide already played tracks. I prefer to keep them up, as they will turn green when played and that’s enough of a indicator for me. This also helps me from playing a different remix of a track I already played >_<

I think a “quick filter” would need stuff like Rating, Play Count and Color to be super useful, but maybe I’m wrong on that. Either way, we are trying to encourage support for these features on-device, and you may be interested in voting for them:

Typically, you’d have your tracks on your PC, import them into Engine DJ Desktop, connect the Prime 4+ up to the PC, and then export from the PC to the Prime 4+ using Engine DJ Desktop.

If you have a USB (or internal SSD) with tracks on there, yes, you can find those tracks in Engine DJ OS using the Drive/Folders menu, but there will be no BPM, Key or Beatgrid, and the track will not be part of the Collection database. If you load the track onto the deck, Engine DJ OS will analyze the track, which will take a few moments, and is a lovely feature but not convenient as a main workflow.

So, if you want to play these tracks from the USB, but you don’t want to put them on your PC and bring them into your main Collection, you can load up Engine DJ Desktop and go to the Drive menu, and then select that drive. Just like your main PC, in this menu you should see “Collection”. If you drag and drop the tracks that are loaded on the USB into that USB’s collection, Engine DJ Desktop will analyze and add all of those tracks to the USB library. No export needed, just be sure to properly eject the drive using Engine DJ Desktop. When a label sends me a USB with all their tracks, this is what I do to prepare all those tracks to be played, without touching/polluting my main Collection.

If you add tracks to your main Collection on your PC, none of your connected drives (ie: your Prime 4+) will be updated until you specifically go to Sync Manager and Export to the drive. This is how you’d get tracks from your PC to your Prime 4+ typically.

djrhum · May 19, 2025, 10:31pm

Well… Thanks… I’m still not understanding the “logic” of Engine DJ for managing the library. Let’s say, for simplifying, I just use one main external SSD for my music.

I configured Windows to have it always assigned to drive E: So, all my tracks are in E:\Musique\ (and subfolders, of course). I’ve been able to have these tracks loaded in Engine DJ, and have them analyzed, so when I plug my SSD directly to my Prime4+, they show up, analyzed, with bpm, waveforms, etc.

Yet, when I add new tracks in my drive, I don’t see them added when I launch Engine DJ. What did I miss?! (Sorry, I guess it’s a beginner question, but I really don’t understand how the Library / Files / Drives panels work together…

meLon_Cucumis · May 20, 2025, 4:12pm

Once you load up your tracks into Engine DJ Desktop, on the bottom left there is a “Sync” button. When you click that, a new window will pop up and it will have two sides. The left side is your Engine DJ Desktop Playlists. On the right is the currently selected drive which can be changed from the dropdown at the top of the right side.

You click on each Playlist you want to have it and the related tracks copied over, so that a check mark appears. Once you’ve selected all the Playlists, you click “Export” at the bottom and wait for it to complete.

Once the export is complete, use Engine DJ Desktop to Eject the drive, by clicking the “Drive” button, just above “Sync”, and ejecting the drive in the new menu that appears.

Once you’ve selected the Playlists to Sync, you won’t have to select them the next time, making it easier to sync updated Playlists to the appropriate drives.