Forum: General Discussion - Topic: Help, advice needed. newbie with two computers. Can you "sync" VDJ info?

Yes, another stupid question from me :)

I have a rackmounted computer (Mobile DJ Computer) and my Desktop/Office computer.. (and a laptop which is now my backup computer loaded with PCDJ Red 5.2)

With PCDJ I got into the habit of doing all my ripping and tagging and setting cues using my Desktop and then copying those files to my 'DJ computer' before a show..
I would also backup the music files from the "DJ computer" onto an external harddrive..
Because PCDJ red stored all of its "tag" information in the MP3 itself, doing things this way made sense.

IE: I didnt have to bring in and startup the "DJ computer" if I just wanted to practice, or make some small adjustment in a tag or cue point (or rip and pre-edit a CD) I could do this from my office and then copy the changed files later..
Does that make sense??

My problem is I dont think this is possible anymore with VDJ!!!?????
From what little I have read, VDJ stores the TAG information (including cue points?) in an .XML database that is 'connected' to that drive? right?
Soooooo... I have the exact same song on 'Drive E: of my Desktop' and 'Drive C: of my Rackmount'
If I change a cue point or BPM on an MP3 on my desktop on Drive E:, CAN I COPY THESE CHANGES TO THE SAME SONG ON MY RACKMOUNT??

All of these things should work if you have an external hard drive. VDJ was designed to allow hot swapping of EXT HDs in v5.

If you use and External Drive for the file transfer VDJ makes a XML file with all your BPM/CUE POINTS/Lengths and so forth and places it on each drive.

So when it's time to transfer your files, plug your drive into your DJ computer and move the files while in VDJ, it'll move all your information from the database.

I don't use an external hardrive with either computer..
On my desktop I store all my music on a 500 gig internal drive (Drive E:)
On my Rackmount I store everthing on dual internal SATA drives in Raid 0 (Drive C:)

The External hard drive is ONLY used as an emergency backup..

You should still be able to use the EXT..copy all the info to it...and then from it too the other PC making sure you also transfer the .xml data.

OK.
VDJ seems to be smarter then I thought..
I added some cues to some test mp3's..
I then moved the files to another hard drive on my desktop and then started VDJ.
If though the files were in a completely different location my cues stilled showed up..

Next step is I will have to bring the Rackmount in and test moving some files back and forth (and see if any information is lost in moving them between the desktop & rackmount)..

One sad thing I noticed.. if you change the file name of an mp3, EVERYTHING is lost! (cues, edited bpm, etc etc)

Rename the file directly in VirtualDJ

I can't.. :( I'm using Tag&rename to clean up and rename my music.

If your using something like Tag&Rename it could have re- written your .XML data. You might need to re-analyze all of your music.

That is the drawback to doing library maintenance using external applications. I prefer using Helium Music Manager for my tagging needs and yes when you do import it all back into VDJ... You do lose all your cue points... but that's it. You can have it read BPM, Artist, Title, etc.. It takes two seconds to mark cue points again.

This BTW happens in almost ALL DJ software out there anyways.

You can't expect the software to know you renamed a file unless you renamed it in the software.