Comparing Best Practices: Managing Your Audio Collection with Pro Tracks - DeckaDAskiz’s Dex 3 and PCDJs Unveiled

There are various useful methods for importing and accessing your music library in DEX 3 or DEX 3 RE DJ mixing software — but we’re not going to cover those. This is how PCDJ staffers do it…

If you’re new to our DJ mixing software or just want to know the preferred method for importing your existing song library and updating your library in DEX 3 or DEX 3 RE this blog’s for you!

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How-To Import Tracks And Update The DEX 3 or DEX 3 RE Database With New Music

First, a general explanation:

The very first time you open/access a folder in DEX 3 or DEX 3 RE under “Explorer” the software starts to read in all the tag data from all tracks located in the folder. The tracks tag data is added to the internal database and ‘search cache’ during this process. With this in mind, the very first time you click on a large folder DEX 3/DEX 3 RE may take some time to read in all the tag data (as it builds the internal database and search cache). This only has to be done the very first time — any time you click on a previously accessed/added folder thereafter it will load instantly.

This method for adding music works great, but if you’re the type of DJ that has many sub-folders of music opening each one once can be a very tedious and time-consuming task.

Tracks added to the database (list) and/or user lists (playlists) are also automatically added to the internal database and search cache. When selecting/adding a folder of tracks to the DB or a user list ALL sub-folders, no matter how many levels deep, are also added.

With an understanding of these two general DEX 3 and DEX 3 RE import methods, we’ll now provide our staff suggested method for both importing your library initially, and updating it moving forward.

Making sure your entire existing track library is in DEX 3’s or DEX 3 RE’s internal database and search cache:

Do a bulk import of all your tracks into the master database list. Expand the ‘Explorer‘ tab in the navigation pane (bottom left) by clicking on the name ‘Explorer’. Scroll down and you’ll find your internal hard drive listed and any external hard drives that are connected to the machine. Navigate to and right-click on the parent folder (or hard drive letter itself) where all your existing tracks reside and from the drop down menu select “add to database”’

Clicking “add to database” will start importing all your tracks to create a master list in the database list (no matter how many folders/levels deep), therefore also adding the tracks to the internal database and search cache. [IMPORTANT NOTE: When you add the folder, and DEX 3/DEX 3 RE displays the message “this folder has been added” – click OK. Now scroll up to and click on the database name (list) at the very top left side of the navigation pane in the file browser. Then, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM of the list as you will see songs rapidly pilling into the list from the bottom as the tag data is being read in and added. You will want to make sure this process is done (so you do not see any more songs pilling in from the bottom of the list) before adding any more music or continuing to the next suggested step.]

For browsing your track collection and updating DEX 3 or DEX 3’s database when new tracks are added to your system:

Now nest all your music (and/or music video or karaoke) folders as favorites. Under explorer tab in DEX 3/DEX 3 RE navigate to and access a parent (main) folder your tracks are in and right click on the folder – select “add to favorites“. This will nest the selected folder under “Favorites” (heart icon on the browser pane) for direct access and browsing — so it’s there and ready to view every time you launch DEX 3 or DEX 3 RE in the future. Repeat this process for all of your main music/music video and/or karaoke folders. Add your folders as favorites is ideal for when you just want to dig for music manually, and for updating the internal database and search cache when new tracks are added to your hard drive.

How-to update DEX 3/DEX 3 RE’s internal database and search cache with tracks you’ve added to your hard drive (or external). After nesting your main music folders under “Favorites”, you can more easily make sure our DJ mixing software sees new tracks when they are added to folders on your hard drive. After you add new tracks to one of the folders on your hard drive, just open up DEX 3/DEX 3 RE and click on the corresponding folder that new songs were added to. As soon as you ‘see’ the songs display in the middle section of the DEX 3/DEX 3 RE browser they are added to the internal database and search cache. You’re done — no need to also add them to the physical database list as this point, they are in and they are searchable.

Using this PCDJ Staffer method, by importing all songs into the DJ mixing software’s database list initially and then accessing folders under favorites for updating your library, you can swiftly make sure all your existing tracks are accessible and searchable — and update the database and search cache with freshly added songs easily.

Have questions about importing music into DEX 3, our DJ mixing software or how to update the database? Please leave them in the comments section below!

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