Tips on Using BallroomDJ 4 : Songs with Multiple Dances
Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2024 10:54 am
Songs with Multiple Dances
Have a song that can be danced to with more than one dance?
In the past, I have had requests to be able to support assigning more than one dance to a song. This would allow the marquee to display, for example, West Coast Swing for the song, and perhaps on another day, display Foxtrot. I could change the program to do this, but it would make the user interface much more complicated, and the internal code to select songs would be even worse. It just isn't worth the effort.
Here are a couple of different methods to handle songs that can danced to with more than one dance.
Method #1: Using the Marquee Display
The Marquee Display is used to set an alternate display for the marquee for a song. Let's use It's a Beautiful Life by DJ Maksy as an example. This song is sold as a Tango. But it can also be danced as a Hustle. In the database, it is assigned as a Tango.
Manage / Song Editor
Change the Marquee Display field to Tango / Hustle, and save the changes.
Now the marquee displays Tango / Hustle instead of the assigned dance (Tango).
There are some small disadvantages to this method. If announcements are turned on, the song will still be announced as a Tango. The BDJ4 program always sees this song as a Tango, and never as a Hustle. Automatic playlists will use the song only as a Tango.
The advantage is that this method is very easy, and there are few complications.
Method #2: Making a Copy of the Song
Another way to handle a song with multiple dances is to create a copy of the audio file. In this case, use the file browser on your computer, locate the song that you want to have multiple dances. Using the same song from the above example, let's say you have a Tango/Its-a-Beautiful-Life.mp3 audio file. Copy this file to Hustle/Its-a-Beautiful-Life.mp3.
Now BDJ4 needs to know about the new audio file. Select Manage and Update Database. The default action is Check for New. Select the Start button.
Switch to the Music Manager, select the filter button, and search for Beautiful Life. There will be two copies of this song. Note that in this example, the dance for the second copy of song is still set to Tango. In this example, you can also see that the original entry has its Marquee Display still set to Tango / Hustle from the method #1 example.
Select both songs by selecting the first song, then Control-Click on the second song. Both songs will be selected. Now select Mark as Same Song in the Actions menu.
Note that both selections now have a colored mark, and they are the same color. This indicates that these two songs are marked as the same song.
Click on the first entry so that only one song is selected. Now select the Song Editor tab. Check the filename path displayed at the top. If it displays Tango/Its-a-Beautiful-Life.mp3 (the filename path used for this example), select the Next button to switch to the next song. The filename path displayed at the top should display Hustle/Its-a-Beautiful-Life.mp3.
Change the dance to Hustle if it is not already set. Make any other changes that you want and select the Save button.
Now there are two separate copies of the song, and the BDJ4 database has two separate entries. One is a Tango, and one is a Hustle. Automatic playlists can now select this song when searching for Tango or Hustle. Since the songs are marked as the same song, automatic playlists will not play both during the same session, only as a Tango, or as a Hustle, never both.
Note that the Marquee Display can also be changed for both the Tango and the Hustle, if wanted.
References:
wiki: How To : Line Dances (Marquee Display)
wiki: Management : Song Editor
wiki: Subjects : Adding Songs to the Database
wiki: Management : Music Manager
wiki: Subjects : Filter Dialog
wiki: Subjects : Same Song Marks
Have a song that can be danced to with more than one dance?
In the past, I have had requests to be able to support assigning more than one dance to a song. This would allow the marquee to display, for example, West Coast Swing for the song, and perhaps on another day, display Foxtrot. I could change the program to do this, but it would make the user interface much more complicated, and the internal code to select songs would be even worse. It just isn't worth the effort.
Here are a couple of different methods to handle songs that can danced to with more than one dance.
Method #1: Using the Marquee Display
The Marquee Display is used to set an alternate display for the marquee for a song. Let's use It's a Beautiful Life by DJ Maksy as an example. This song is sold as a Tango. But it can also be danced as a Hustle. In the database, it is assigned as a Tango.
- tip-ms-a.png (30.96 KiB) Viewed 14438 times
Change the Marquee Display field to Tango / Hustle, and save the changes.
- tip-ms-b.png (10.98 KiB) Viewed 14438 times
Now the marquee displays Tango / Hustle instead of the assigned dance (Tango).
- tip-ms-c2.png (31.74 KiB) Viewed 14438 times
There are some small disadvantages to this method. If announcements are turned on, the song will still be announced as a Tango. The BDJ4 program always sees this song as a Tango, and never as a Hustle. Automatic playlists will use the song only as a Tango.
The advantage is that this method is very easy, and there are few complications.
Method #2: Making a Copy of the Song
Another way to handle a song with multiple dances is to create a copy of the audio file. In this case, use the file browser on your computer, locate the song that you want to have multiple dances. Using the same song from the above example, let's say you have a Tango/Its-a-Beautiful-Life.mp3 audio file. Copy this file to Hustle/Its-a-Beautiful-Life.mp3.
Now BDJ4 needs to know about the new audio file. Select Manage and Update Database. The default action is Check for New. Select the Start button.
- tip-ms-d.png (56.57 KiB) Viewed 14438 times
Switch to the Music Manager, select the filter button, and search for Beautiful Life. There will be two copies of this song. Note that in this example, the dance for the second copy of song is still set to Tango. In this example, you can also see that the original entry has its Marquee Display still set to Tango / Hustle from the method #1 example.
- tip-ms-e.png (38.16 KiB) Viewed 14438 times
Select both songs by selecting the first song, then Control-Click on the second song. Both songs will be selected. Now select Mark as Same Song in the Actions menu.
- tip-ms-g.png (14.31 KiB) Viewed 14438 times
Note that both selections now have a colored mark, and they are the same color. This indicates that these two songs are marked as the same song.
- tip-ms-h.png (36.6 KiB) Viewed 14438 times
Click on the first entry so that only one song is selected. Now select the Song Editor tab. Check the filename path displayed at the top. If it displays Tango/Its-a-Beautiful-Life.mp3 (the filename path used for this example), select the Next button to switch to the next song. The filename path displayed at the top should display Hustle/Its-a-Beautiful-Life.mp3.
Change the dance to Hustle if it is not already set. Make any other changes that you want and select the Save button.
- tip-ms-f.png (32.22 KiB) Viewed 14438 times
Now there are two separate copies of the song, and the BDJ4 database has two separate entries. One is a Tango, and one is a Hustle. Automatic playlists can now select this song when searching for Tango or Hustle. Since the songs are marked as the same song, automatic playlists will not play both during the same session, only as a Tango, or as a Hustle, never both.
Note that the Marquee Display can also be changed for both the Tango and the Hustle, if wanted.
References:
wiki: How To : Line Dances (Marquee Display)
wiki: Management : Song Editor
wiki: Subjects : Adding Songs to the Database
wiki: Management : Music Manager
wiki: Subjects : Filter Dialog
wiki: Subjects : Same Song Marks