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Tips and Tricks - DDS and DDS80




We call DDS80 the future-proof CD player because with it, you can play CDs, DVDs, CD-Rs, MP3 CDs, and all kinds of files from internal and USB hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, iPods, and other USB mass storage players. Since the DJ world is somewhat divided with jocks playing on CD, MP3 CD, using their computers, and a variety of other formats, DDS and DDS80 are designed with the future in mind with their flexibility and multiple USB ports. No matter what “standard” tomorrow holds, you’ll be covered with DDS or DDS80.

In this article we will provide tips on how to best use these types of media with your DDS or DDS80. We will cover which kinds of USB hard drives to use, proper ways to build a library to maximize performance, speed and flexibility, optional hard drive installation via the internal hard drive caddy, and helpful tips to optimize USB devices and CD playback.

Library Basics

Numark offers several different players that include a library system, a digital reference system for your music collection. These include iDJ2, HDMIX, DDS, and DDS80. Each of these utilizes a library that is created on the medium that holds your music – iPod, hard drive, or something else. Each of these systems is based around Numark’s exclusive Crate system for easy organization and performance with your digital tracks. Building a library is an important step because once it’s done, you can search your music by Artist, Album, Genre, and Song Title to name a few. Think of it as a card catalog for your music. This library also stores all playlists you’ve created, remembers what you last loaded in the Crate from each hard drive you used, and empowers you with advanced features such as waveform view during playback for precise cueing. On your DDS/DDS80, the library can be built directly inside, but it we recommend that you build it on a computer using the included Numark Librarian software for maximum efficiency and minimal time spent. Here’s how.

Building a Library


Here is an article on how to build a library using the included Librarian software on your Mac or PC. Before you build your library, read on to discover how to organize the folders on the hard drive.

DDS and DDS80 can play MP3, WAV, and AAC music formats stored on hard drives with FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and HFS+ file systems. That translates to just about anything you plug into it. That said, a common oversight is file and folder structure and organization. You may need to spend some time organizing the folder structure of the hard drive you plan to use with DDS/DDS80. Improper folder structure and sizes can cause show-stopping audio dropouts and other problems, so spend the time to organize!

Here are the basic rules for setting up a hard drive and library with your player:

We strongly recommend that you use the included hard drive or a secondary hard drive with DDS80. In other words, the hard drive you use at your DJ sets should NOT be the drive you use as a storage drive or boot drive for your computer.

  • Start with a freshly formatted hard drive.
  • Format in FAT32. Do NOT use NTFS. If you are formatting a drive for use with a DDS or DDS80, the default Windows XP and Vista file system for hard drives is NTFS and it is not recommended. Crates, playlists, and libraries cannot be locally created or edited on DDS80 with NTFS. This means search functionality and other important features will be crippled. Stick with FAT32.
  • Most external hard drives ship in FAT32 format. Mac OS X natively supports FAT32 as an optional format type in the Disk Utilities menu.  Windows will only allow a 32GB maximum per partition of the drive. 
  • There are third-party solutions for overcoming this limitation. Swiss Army Knife is a great solution.
  • If you are reformatting an older hard drive, run a full format rather than a quick format.
  • iPods and Mac OS X drives use a formatting called HFS+ which can be written to by DDS or DDS80 and will pose no compatibility issues.
  • Limit your files and folders to 300 MAXIMUM! A safer number is 100 or below. A logical way to accomplish this is to isolate artists by alphabetic letter before filing their albums. This is illustrated more clearly below in the image under the "Get Organized" section.
  • Keep the root directory (when you open the drive in your computer, the root is the first window you see) of the hard drive clear. Folders only in the root directory.
  • Large folders will cause DDS80 to slow down or even stop playing because the entire contents of the folder you open or view are being processed.


Get Organized

If you have already started with less than optimal file organization, don’t worry. There are a number of approaches that take a very small amount of time and effort to get things in order. The basic guideline is to keep as few individual files in a folder as possible. If your files are organized into Artist --> Album already, you will most likely be ready to build a library without any further organization.

If you are the type of DJ who relies on having a wide assortment of music and not necessarily full albums, chances are your folders span across thousands of songs, this can be addressed easily. One quick trick to reorganizing your files is to organize the folder alphabetically and then create new numbered folders. Move groups of 50 songs or so into a folder number. You are done once the primary folder is empty and all your songs are housed in the numeric folders. For example: Music\Soul\A\1\{{“a” songs 1-50}} + Music\Soul\A\2\{{“a” songs 51-100}} etc.

Here’s a visual example of a few potential ways you might organize your folders:



As you build and organize your drive, avoid placing large numbers of songs into the root level of the drive or into any folder at any time. If this does happen, the folder or directory that contained the songs needs to be deleted to fix the issue. If the directory that contained the songs was the root level of the hard disk, the disk will need to be reformatted to resolve the structure issue. This is one reason why the iPod always copies tracks into many small directories.

ID3 Tags

If you have never used a hard drive or computer to DJ, you may have some more prep work to do: tagging your files. All MP3s, AACs, WMAs, and other formats have the ability to be tagged using a system called an ID3 Tag that hold descriptive information about the track. Most commonly, ID3 Tags include Artist, Album, and Song title. They can also include Year, Genre, Track Number (referencing where the track number of the song appears on the album), BPM, comments, and more. If you use a program such as iTunes to manage your files, you most likely have everything tagged already. If you can view the artist or album information of all of your music in iTunes, Windows Media Player, or another player, then your music is tagged. 

If your files only show as file names and not separate artist and album titles, you may want to use a tagger application to speed the process of tagging. There are many Windows apps such as MP3TagIt, TagandRename, and MP3TagPro, which can automatically assist in locating and tagging your music files. iTunes is another great program for editing tags. If you have an entire album, you can select all tracks in the album and choose “Get CD Track Names” from the Advanced menu and iTunes will search online and try to fill all track information for you. This works well for complete albums, but it does not work as well with individual files. If your music library has a lot of single files you will probably have to manually type in the artist name, album, etc.

Note: Many iTunes-purchased songs are by default protected with DRM (Digital Rights Management). Any software other than iTunes and native iPod controls cannot access these files. You will need to use non-protected songs for your library with DDS or DDS80.

Other Precautions

USB Power

  • When using external USB hard drives, try to avoid bus-powered hard drives that are powered from the USB connection. If you must use this type, use a powered USB hub or the dual-cable USB method described in the DDS80 manual. For the most reliability, use a wall-powered hard drive.
  • If you are using any light-up USB cables or USB lights, make sure you fully stress-test the setup before you perform because you may run into power distribution issues with certain combinations of devices and drives.

DDS80 CD/DVD Drive



Make sure you review the notice in your DDS80 box that explains why it is only recommended to play one song at a time from a CD or DVD. Click here to view or download the notice.

Swapping Hard Drives

DDS80 ships with an 80GB hard drive installed in the internal hard drive caddy. This caddy is removable, as is the hard drive inside. This means you can upgrade the hard drive to any size you wish. Here’s how:
  1. Power off your DDS80
  2. Remove the hard drive from the caddy
  3. Remove the four screws from the side of the caddy that secures the hard drive.
  4. Discharge any static from your body by touching an unpainted metal chassis of any object in the room before proceeding.
  5. Carefully remove the drive by pulling upwards and out from the caddy. The IDE cable and power are still attached to the back of the drive. Do not pull too hard!
  6. Remove the IDE and power cables. The cables may need to be slightly rocked left to right, but be careful no to use excessive force on them.
  7. Set your new hard drive to Master position. Refer to the included documentation or printed diagram found on your new hard drive.
  8. Attach the IDE and power cables to the back of the new hard drive.  These cables only fit one way.
  9. Place the hard drive back in the caddy. Take care not to pinch the IDE cable.
  10. Replace all four screws as found on the original hard drive.
  11. Slide the caddy in and lock it.
  12. Attach the USB cable from computer to DDS80 and follow suggested format procedures indicated earlier in this article.
  13. Move your music over to the drive in an organizational standard as suggested earlier in this article.
  14. Build a library as instructed in the library tutorial earlier in this article.

We hope these tips and tricks will help you get maximum performance from your DDS or DDS80. Whether you’re looking for the next thing in playing CDs, transitioning from CD to MP3, or if you’re using a variety of different media, these two pieces of gear are a perfect choice for today’s DJ. Learn more about DDS here, and DDS80 at the DDS80 web page.

 

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