Traktor custom tags: Beets Integration

This project is an integration between Beets and Traktor that helps manage Traktor libraries.

Warning: this was developped and used only on MacOs, I doubt this project is compatible with Windows. This project comes with no guarantees: I recommend backing-up your files.

Core features (detailed in Features):

• enable usage of custom tags in Traktor through auto-generated playlists
• auto-generate comments on Traktor tracks to help you visualize custom tags
• sync tags between Traktor and Beets
• utils to easily import your Traktor library into Beets' library
• utils to prompt pre-configured custom tags to easily tag your tracks
• auto-import "m3u" playlists folders in Traktor (useful when using the smartPlaylists Beets plugin)

Planned features:

• multi-value metadata support
• create an issue if you have a feature request ;)

Feel free to contribute with PRs/issues !

See it in action !

Created a quick Youtube video in addition to this doc to show the workflow: here's the link.

Install

This projects was developed pipenv + python 3.8.

git clone https://github.com/16pierre/traktorPlaylistExport
cd traktorPlaylistExport
pipenv install

Configuration

cp locations.json.template locations.json
cp scanner_tags.json.template scanner_tags.json

1. Edit locations.json to specify where your Traktor collection.nml file is etc.
2. Edit scanner_tags.json to specify the different custom tags you want to use & playlists you want to generate
3. For import utils: edit Beets config: set import.link: yes (see below)

Usage

Sync Traktor<->Beets

pipenv run sync

Utils: tag scanner

Helps you scan your tracks with tags specified in scanner_tags.json. You can also use beet modify, but most of the time I find it more convenient to use the scanner to avoid typos.

pipenv run scan
pipenv run scan artist:Daft Punk
etc.

Utils: import helper

Helps you import your Traktor library inside Beets. See below for more explanation, this is not trivial.

pipenv run import

Features

Sync Beets<->Traktor

In this section, let's assume that tracks are imported in both Beets and Traktor, and that they both use the same file paths.

The core idea here is the link between Traktor's playlists and Beets metadata. Let's take a few examples.

Say I configured scanner_tags.json with:

{
    "_playlists": [
        ["mood"],
        ["energy"],
        ["mood", "energy"]
    ],
    "mood": ["dark", "joyful"],
    "energy": ["1", "2", "3", "4", "5"]
} 

This will create 3 kinds of playlists in Traktor:

• one for each mood: mood: dark...
• one for each energy: energy: 1...
• one for each (mood, energy) couple: mood: dark, energy: 1

With this system, we can unambiguously link Beets metadata to Traktor playlists; this link is the core mechanism behind the sync:

1. Editing a tag in Beets will update the matching Traktor playlists
2. Adding a track to a Traktor playlist will update the corresponding tags in Beets

Extra mechanisms:

• you can use the star rating system in Traktor, it's synced with the rating tag in Beets.
• to help you visualize the metadata in Traktor, the sync writes comments on the Track to list the custom tags (warning: this will override existing comments, will be fixed, issue: https://github.com/16pierre/traktorPlaylistExport/issues/1)

Help import Traktor library into Beets

Configuration required

Note: this util requires using beet import with symlinks. You therefore need to configure Beets like this:

import:
    link: yes

For more details, see Beets docs.

Why add utils for imports

In order for the sync to work properly, you need to have imported the tracks in both Traktor and Beets.

Importing Beets' library in Traktor is easy: you can simply setup the Traktor default music directories to include Beets' folder.

The issue is rather importing Traktor's library in Beets:

• if you copy the files to Beets, you'd end up with useless duplicates
• if you move the files to Beets, you'd need to relocate all the tracks
• running beet import is not easy if the files in your Traktor library are not centralized

That's why I implemented some utils for this use case.

How these utils work

Let's see what happens step by step when running pipenv run import (this also happens when running pipenv run sync):

1. Import whatever you want in Traktor, you can also sort your tracks in playlists like explained above: this will be tagged later even if your tracks are not imported in beets yet
2. Automatic: find all tracks imported in Traktor but not in Beets
3. Automatic: symlink these files to a temporary directory organized by album
4. Manual action required: beet import in the temporary directory. Warning: you need to configure import.link = yes in Beets config
5. Manual action required: close Traktor if opened.
6. At this point, we have a double symlink: beet_library -> temporary folder -> original track
7. Automatic: detects that tracks have been imported in Beets thanks to the symlinks.
8. Automatic: delete symlinks, move the original files to beet_library, and update Traktor library to point to beet_library instead of the original files.
9. You can reopen Traktor now :)