Tips & Tricks: NUMARK LIBRARIAN

Got an iDJ2, HDMIX, DDS80 or D2 Director? Here’s a clear, concise guide to getting the most from the Numark Librarian software. We’re also throwing in some tips on uses you may not have thought about for your iDJ2’s USB ports. Numark’s in-house experts share their knowledge.

Getting the most of your iDJ2, D2 Director, DDS80, or HDMIX.

The Numark family of media players, which includes iDJ2, D2 Director, DDS80, and HDMIX, enables you to perform with audio files from your iPod, USB Hard Disk or USB Thumb drive. Using any of these devices as the centerpiece of your rig, you’ll find that getting to the gig, setting up, and cueing up the right music is suddenly easier than ever. Rather than carting cases of CDs to the gig, you’ll be carrying your music collection in your pocket!

While you could just open the box, connect a drive or iPod and go, here are a few tips that will help you maximize the performance of your media player, so you can sail through your gigs like never before.

Get to know Librarian.

While trips to the actual library are becoming a rare thing these days, replaced for many by the Internet, imagine for a moment that you just stepped into a three-story library with countless shelves of books. How do you find what you want quickly?

You could use the card catalog, you could look it up using a search engine on a computer, or you could ask the nice lady behind the counter. Whichever you choose, you’re tapping into a search index: a tool that knows where all the titles are and how to find them fast. That’s what

Numark Librarian software does for your music collection.

Librarian is a free software program that is included with iDJ2, D2 Director, DDS80, and HDMIX. With a few clicks, Librarian analyzes your music collection and creates a library file that is stored on the drive or iPod along with your music. Having a library file has many advantages.

Search, sort, and load faster.

iDJ2, D2 Director, DDS80, and HDMIX all work with or without a Library file. But just like real libraries, they become much more powerful when your collection has an index to speed up searching and browsing. Searching, sorting, and loading files in your library become much faster when you have a library file created on your drive or iPod.

Using the Librarian software on your computer is the best way to create and update your library file, but your iDJ2, D2 Director, DDS80, or HDMIX can also create and update basic library files on your drive or iPod.

If you connect a drive or iPod that does not have a library file on it, you’ll be presented the option to create one or simply browse the files on the device.

If you need to update your library before a gig and you are away from your computer, this can be convenient, but building library files on your computer is much faster. As powerful as the iDJ2, D2 Director, DDS80, and HDMIX are, a Mac or PC has larger amounts of processing power to quickly create a library file.

If your drive or iPod already has a library file on it when you connect it, you’ll be asked whether you want to load or update the library. If you use your computer to update your library file, or if you haven’t added any new songs to your collection since your last update, just choose load.

Get bigger, stronger, faster storage with USB hard drives.

You love your iPod… we all do!  We bring them everywhere we go and so do your clients and audience members. If you are using an iDJ2, consider bringing your main music collection to your gigs on a USB hard drive.  This leaves the iPod dock free for your clients to approach you with requests.

This way, when your big client with the not-so-common taste in music comes up and says, “can you play my favorite song? I have it right here on my iPod,” you can say, “sure!”

Using a USB hard disk has other advantages. For the price, USB hard drives have a lot more capacity and can hold many more songs. Huge, high-quality drives can be found for less and less money every day!

USB hard drives are much easier to back up. Compared to a regular hard disk, which can be backed up as easily as drag and drop, it can be tricky to back up the music and files on your iPod. (You do have your music collection backed up, don’t you?)

USB hard drives are faster. Most full-size USB hard disks spin at 7,200 RPM. This means that compared to the 4,200 or 3,600 RPM drives found in most iPods, a USB hard drive can access and load files faster. This means shorter search and load times.

It’s a great time to be a DJ. The ability to bring tens of thousands of songs to a gig is a relatively new development, but what a space and time saving achievement this is! To maximize the capabilities of your system, we suggest spending a little time with Numark Librarian software and considering a small investment in an external USB hard drive.

We hope you find these tips helpful for supercharging your gigs.