It’s been a while since we checked in with the powerful project that is the DJ Conversion Utility. This is a homebrew project run by one enterprising developer and DJ, Mix Master G. The goal is simple: he wants to make it possible for DJs to be able to move their libraries around between DJ platforms without a ton of headache, and that’s exactly what the DJ Conversion Utility can do.
Rekordbox XML to Traktor Library
In this new update, version 3.2 of the DJ Conversion Utility (DJCU) (Mac-only) adds the ability to convert from Rekordbox XML files to a Traktor library. This process results in a folder/playlist Traktor library structure that mirrors the exact playlist and folder structure in Rekordbox.
For tracks that have never been loaded into Traktor before, DJCU makes a playlist called “Analyze these first” to let you know there are new songs that need analysis in Traktor. There’s no getting around this process, because waveforms are all very proprietary for each DJ software. But if the Rekordbox collection contained tracks that were already analyzed in Traktor previously, they won’t be in this playlist. Handy!
Loops and cues all are also moved from Rekordbox – so if you’ve set those, they’ll appear in Traktor. An important limitation, however, is in the total number allowed:
“Rekordbox has a total of 18 cue/loop positions (8 hot and 10 memory). Traktor only has 8. When the total of unique cues and loops in Rekordbox exceeds 8 some will be lost. DJCU first converts the hot positions and if there is room left it will add the memory positions until the total of 8 is reached. Duplicate cues and loops are automatically filtered out.”
Watch the conversion process here:
What About A Master USB Drive?
Mix Master G also shared a second powerful application for his conversion utility with this update: making a USB drive that works for a bunch of DJ softwares, not just Rekordbox-compatible hardware. With this update, it’s very possible to build a drive that can work with Serato, Rekordbox, CDJs, Traktor, and Denon Prime/Engine (with the Denon Conversion Utility) – all without duplicating the data on a drive.
The key to doing it is making a new user account on your Mac and then running the DJCU in this fresh new environment – this is pretty important to get clean iTunes data that is used as the backbone of a number of these conversions. Mix Master G goes into more depth in this complete walkthrough. You can quickly see how this could be incredibly valuable for any DJ who goes over to a friend’s house with a different setup or just wants an amazingly redundant USB drive:
As DJs, we really hope that library conversions get to be a more manufacturer-blessed process in the future – one that’s not incredibly dependent on third party utilities. But in the current ecosystem, Mix Master G’s utilities are a blessing for many DJs who want to maintain a single library that works across different hardware and software.
