Avoid USB issues when you DJ in Clubs!

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The last thing you want is for your USB not to work when you turn up to DJ in clubs! In this video learn how to avoid the pitfalls many DJs fall into that could ruin your show!

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Black Friday Sale now live: www.clubreadydjschool.com/club-ready-dj-course/ I added so much new content and bonus material - I have been devoting so much love and energy to it these past few months, hopefully you like :)

[@GvanDorst]

Just bring 4 different sticks with the same prepared files on it. :-D. And keep them in different locations, one or two with he headphone, another one in your pants, and the last one in your wallet. Or just have a spare too in your car. Hey you can never be too prepared.

[@maxcoletto8225]

This ^^^^

[@alreadydropdead]

Thank you Andrew. Had to figure this one out myself a few weeks ago. Turned up to play wi the my transcend 32gb usb and cdjs couldn’t read them at all. Thank God a dj before me had an extra usb and a conputer. So I had to download my music from usb to his conputer and prepare in rekordbox and then export again to his usb. Needless to say all cue points and everything was gone. Bought a sandisk 3.0 16gb usb and it has been working like clock ever since.

[@rizednb]

I had a gig Saturday and my flash drive wouldn't work! so glad I brought my backup! If I didn't bring that I would have been screwed!

[@Ben_Has_Socks]

As someone who has had his heart broken by USB sticks and bought a few 3.1 USBs to fix the problem, this video may have saved my life

[@VeteranTreeGroup]

Lol, awesome vid Andrew incredibly I have my first proper gig in September (I know some way off yet!!) so this advice and guidance is gold mate hugely appreciate all you do to help those of us just beginning the journey.

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Good luck!!

[@T1LTOLOGIST]

you're a real cool dude. I like your advice. all true stuff!! I wish I had a teacher like you when I was growing up learning how to DJ. your students are lucky

[@jonob3695]

Don’t think I didn’t notice Dustpig by Fabrication playing in the background from your techno set Andrew! Absolutely killer track that many of my mates have requested the title of!

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Haha :) Love that track, I use it often

[@Mrcooljoe567]

Got my first event next week this was perfect timing

[@5oultronic]

very helpful - thanks for sharing the knowledge - Blessings

[@stevewebertampainvestments2097]

this is a great video, keep it coming please

[@tobberknudsen1]

Legendary mate. Greetings from Denmark

[@djwickey5516]

Love your videos. Learned a lot. Your smile is fantastic.

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Thank you so much!

[@juleskoch]

I use the same dedicated USB sticks. And I have a link cable in my DJ-bag.

[@monokulture8745]

From my personal experience, i was able to play, perfectly, with two SAMSUNG 2.0 USB`s in some party`s, with Pioneer gear (CDJ`s). Of course both were only used for DJ live performances. But eather way this was just me sharing a bit of my experience, since USB`s 2.0 were not mentioned in the vid. Cheers!

[@nodowt]

Just recently fallen into running the music (and sometimes lighting and/or LED screens) for an adult entertainment group. Wouldn’t call myself a DJ just yet, but working towards it. Most of the time the venues have the standard CDJ/DJM club setup (though a couple haven’t, in which case I was running off a DDJ-SB but have now got myself a DDJ-SR2). For the CDJ’s I’ve got myself 3 (to be safe) 32GB Samsung Fit Plus USB sticks & they have been great. Really fast & small so they are less likely to get bumped/broken; but not small enough that they are hard to remove (like the SanDisk Ultra Fit I used originally). Definitely recommend them myself (tho as said, I’m new to this so take with a grain of salt).

[@lucyab25]

Thanks for this! An issue I’ve had with my USB... I have a MacBook that doesn’t have a USB port so I have to use an adapter. I had a cheap adapter with my USB plugged into it whilst recordbox was using it. I accidentally knocked my MacBook and it knocked the cheap adapter with my USB in whilst recordbox was reading it. Ever since then my USB randomly crashes whilst I’m using it, displaying an error and completely stopping my music. I’ve since got a new one, and my dodgy one (which is 90% of the time fine, is now my backup 😊). Very glad this started happening before I started getting gigs so I knew to get a second!

[@seanscam]

Hey, nice advice, but you really need to tell people about how to format the USBs. Master boot record and fat32 is the best option for the most compatibility. Also, reading music from the USB to the media player will be fast with most decent USB drives. But the most time consuming part is waiting for Rekordbox to copy the files from your computer. I have made the switch to using Solid state flash drives, and OMG, it has literally saved me hours. I used to have to leave my USB copying overnight, it would take hours! Now it only takes about 20 mins from format to a full copy. Get some SanDisk Extreme Pro 3.1 flash drives and you will see what I mean. I’ve never had a problem with them on any pioneer players, even shitty old ones.

[@craigparry282]

Great to see this comment. I had decided to go for the SanDisk Extreme Pro 3.1 but seeing this video and planted a seed of doubt. Glad to be reassured that my original decision still might be a good one 🙂👍

[@Firestarter55]

These are great videos, thanks for sharing :-)

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

My pleasure!

[@micksumo]

Good video.... Great tips. I only ever use sandisk I've tried other reputable brands like corsair and Samsung and had problems. Sandisk works flawlessly.

[@ToniRawGazer]

Thanks Andrew for the information I know now what to do Incase I do dj at a club and not have to worry about human errors

[@spaceTedofficial]

luckyly I have the same sticks as you. Theres nothing that could go wrong then😉😂

[@moxjade]

I appreciate you!

[@pauliveson8335]

Nice Video (as always) Who would of thought something that seems so Minor, and something you take for granted, could become such a serious Nightmare. I wouldn't of even thought of it becoming a problem. Luckily i have used the Sandisk Ultra 3.0, & have never had a problem, & they are pretty fast, but i wouldn't of even considered the USB not being compatible with the Cdj's Etc. I will defo take advice from this Andrew. Good job m8. Keep smiling. ;) Paul.....

[@soccerking710]

I love how he softens the blow of bad situations with that Aussie accent!

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Haha, thanks mate ;)

[@SoftWarewolf]

Completely missing the most obvious here, 1. The drive format, pretty much every usb stick will be in exFat out of the box, and afaik that doesn’t work with most pioneer gear. 2. The song format, my collection used to be mostly .flac, and that just doesn’t work at all either. Also even with fat32 and all .wav, I’ve had issues loading some songs for no apparent reason, plausibly because it was formatted larger than 32gb.

[@ARISPmusic]

Why doesn’t FLAC work? Or on what equipment did it not work? Thanks

[@jksdfhuw4yh58uw8rweu]

It was my first gig, so I decided to go prepared. 2 USB with the same playlist and laptop under the console. I was doing an opening in a club and the people were dancing and smiling and enjoying the atmosphere and my music, so the dj that was playing after me decided to give me an extra half an hour. Luckily I brought extra music in addition to the one I prepared for the opening set so I could start playing a bit harder and it's been amazing. I immediately received an offer for a b2b with a more experienced dj the month after. This to say that if you come prepared opportunities will come. I also remember one of the djs with a very cheap white plastic USB, well I immediately saw his as a non serious guy. That's not fair, but it's how our brain works, unfortunately appearance really counts these days.

[@catsarentviolent6039]

I bought the ultra flair as my first stick dedicated to DJing a couple months ago. Seems like i made the right decision

[@supbrotv]

I threw a rave for around 150 people a couple of weeks ago, I hired 5 DJs for the lineup and I was going to be the 6th one (my first gig). So I transferred my playlist to my usb with rekordbox couple of days in advance. But the night before the event I realized I might be too busy managing everything, so I gave my slot to another DJ. But while setting up the CDJs I inserted my USB to test it out and it says USB not found! Basically avoided a lifetime of nightmares by giving up my set to another DJ at my own event.

[@craigparry282]

Thanks Andrew, I have been doing a lot of investigative work into the best USB's for dj's and up until this video I had almost certainly decided to get a SanDisk Extreme Pro 3.1 SSD. Now I'm just a bit confused why you are not recommending the 3.1's and wondered can you explain more? Others have warned me not to go for 3.2. Some have also recommended the Corsair Survivor Stealth. I just find it very hard to make a decision. I may get a bigger size but only so I can have multi purpose options. When being used on CDJ's I wouldn't be filling them over 100gb of files but even with more files as long as they've been formatted correctly ie if over 32gbthen use an App to format to FAT32 on Windows.

[@ZacharySound]

Andrew maybe can do a piece that addresses this dilemma I had... I went to play at bar in Spain with another DJ. We had to bring our own gear. I had 2 CDJ's and a Xone:92 he had a Native Instruments S4. I think older model. We connected the PA XLR outs to the Xone:92 then ran his S4 maser out into one of my mixers channels and we basically kept that level maxed and all the EQ's at 12 o'clock. We did not have a pre-amp or additional method for connecting up to the PA any differently so we worked with what we had. The issue we had is that his rigs sound output was significantly lower than mine. The level on the mixer for his channel was maxed of course kept all the way up - but his output was just a bit too low still. We tried turning up the gain to compensate but with little effect. What is needed to have two rigs like this connected to PA system properly? I can think of maybe using splitter/preamp of some kind but wanted to get any more suggestions.

[@michaelcoaker3020]

This last weekend had my old reliable USB just die on me just as I was coming on for my set.... always keep a spare USB that you know works on the gear and has the music. Solid advice overall... absolute legend ❤️

[@vMx771]

Use Carbon copy cloner to make clones/backups of your media player’s USB devices. I use Mercury Pro SSD USB devices from OWC(otherworldly Mac sales) Even mechanical USB drives work fine just as long as you have a few available back up USB drives/CCC software to make clones.👍

[@beckhamseven10]

Hi, do you mean you can make clones of your usb, without having to export again via rekordbox?

[@Djneyon79]

Thank you for making this it just happen to me two weeks ago most embarrassing thing ever to me. I was freaking out….thank God I have great mc skills I said out loud I’ll sing you a song and I sang you are my sunshine my only sunshine. They loved it true story DjPabloRichie79 sang a song and made people laugh and sing best and most craziest set I ever had. LEGEND🔥

[@tyleradrenaline1396]

This happened to me on Friday. Everything worked on my xz but not the 1000mk2s that were provided. I was kicking myself for not bringing old faithful that would of worked

[@guido69x]

USB pen-drives are exactly like SD cards,same tech! The same way pro photographers and cameramen need fast class 10 or V90 SD cards,we as DJ´s need also top USB pen-drives that can keep up our job with data transfer speeds without freezing or heatting up like crazy!

[@fallthesky]

I always have min. 3 usb with me just to be sure it will work haha 💯

[@tobydulanski3000]

I use SanDisk and LaCie as a religion, Flash and SSD & HD. Out of the dozens purchased only one had problems. These USB flash drives have been sent through the washer, dryer, dropped in water soluble metal cutting oil, and left in 150 degrees F in our trucks in the summer, not to mention -20 Degrees F in the winter. They stand up well. Recently I purchased a 1 TB SanDisk SSD portable drive for the music Library Backup. In addition to that backup a Lacie 2 TB mechanical portable drive. Remember that Record Pools don't keep tracks forever and a lot of edited tracks you can't get anymore. 👍😱

[@LePerrit]

Hey buddy, any recommendations on 3.0 128 gb under $30 for dj? I been looking on amazon but the negative reviews on most of the sandisk or kingston I look under $30 doesn't give me any confidence to buy

[@theaverageguy3884]

Thanks mate. Im new to Djing and learn alot from you. Keep up the good work. Do Djs like your self use programs like Serato ? I got it for free when buying my XDJ X-Z

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

I grew up using Serato and loved it but only switched to Rekordbox when club gear started reading USBs and being a club DJ, taking in a USB, as opposed to a computer was an attractive and convenient option.

[@theaverageguy3884]

@@ClubReadyDJSchool Thanks for taking your time m8. Only use Rekordbox my self. I wish the XDJ X-Z come with Rekordbox pro and not Serato 🤣

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

@@theaverageguy3884 I'm almost certain you can use USBS with the XZ, so ditch connecting your computer to the gear (means less visuals, more feeling) and prepare your music for USB using RB - easy!

[@theaverageguy3884]

@@ClubReadyDJSchool yes i only use a usb. Fuck the lap top 😎 1 2 3 4 (1) im in to the mix....

[@djtori9130]

Is there a video on Venue Politics? itd be great to know how to work with promoters etc to get the best possible outcome. Much love

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

I have a whole section - called the Club Pack in my course check it out: www.clubreadydjschool.com/courses/club-pack/

[@TheLuxario]

Well I only had 1 faulty usb-stick at a friends party. Some songs just loaded the main parts which was kinda funny. My personal nightmare is the cue point export thing with recordbox. It never works the way i want. Sometimes the software pretends to copy the files, sometimes it only copys like 50% of the playlists. This "feature" drives me wild. Maybe i do something wrong but after like 30 text and videotutorials I should know how it works

[@junnagels]

Great vid Andrew! Just fyi, you might want to double check that thumbnai! Keep it up mate!

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Sorry, perhaps I am too close to it, what's wrong with the thumb?

[@BradRichardsonWithATee]

@@ClubReadyDJSchool just a minor typo, wont instead of aren’t. Solid stuff as usual! 👍🏻

[@mangadolo]

Would you recommend memory cards instead or is usb stick better?

[@sonowolf]

for cdj's and xdj make sure the usb is formatted to fat32. exfat causes issues and won't even load on lower end gear

[@JAY-dn9qi]

Regarding the fat32 format: About a year ago I got a pair of sandisk extreme pro 64gb sticks and as soon as I plugged them into my pc and opened up rekordbox I got a notification saying that rekordbox is compatible with fat32 and it is recommends to format them. So it kind of gives you a warning so you dont run into a problem at your gig!

[@Vibeurator]

I also found cdj once didnt read my rekordbox exported .flac files.

[@djekimorris1175]

Hey dude it would be awesome to see a video on using the Xone92 or 96! They're becoming increasing popular among techno DJs and clubs, and we want to see it in action. There aren't many videos on youtube about it so it'd be sick to see you cover it! cheers

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Great suggestion!

[@beatsundreime]

I just got a CDJ 850 to realize that the new SanDisk Extreme Pro 256GB I bought for it is not working. I have all my music in aiff and want to buy a stick with lots of storage if possible. I heard that its not only the USB model but also the size of the stick. Do you have any experience with a 64GB or bigger SanDisk Ultra or Ultra Flairs working on a CDJ 850? thanks four your help

[@funkytomtom]

How timely!!! I have an occasional issue maybe you could shed some light on: I'll be playing sometimes when a track will just turn to static...really loud...static. It's absolutely awful, though it resolves if I pause and reload the track. Could this be a USB issue? Thanks for another great video!!!

[@dj-peterofficial2753]

If it happens on different gear, it's probably the USB, but it sounds more like a hardware problem. Use a couple of different USB sticks and it should soon be obvious where the problem is. The normal response from the player when it can't read the USB is too enter the emergency loop and give you a failure message on the screen. It can happen with any USB if accidentally touched during read. If it happens without touching, use a really big hammer on that USB stick to avoid future problems and get a new one.

[@DJ-Daz]

If it's the same track on different gear, then the track is corrupt. Time to refresh that track on a new USB stick.

[@funkytomtom]

@@dj-peterofficial2753 thanks, I will troubleshoot.

[@funkytomtom]

@@DJ-Daz different tracks, but I am trying a new USB first, will do a science on it.

[@glynwatkins7140]

Take a bag of vinyl with you just in case

[@djattaboy1848]

What if I use Beatport ? Can I connect to my Beatport inside of a club? That’s what I do now but have an online locker.

[@Kai-wu6gu]

does the usb storage size matter much? like I want to get the 64GB for future usage and not just 32gb, will it gives me issue?

[@OmidSaeedi1]

Thanks mate, very useful info here, quick question, I have SanDisk Ultra 64GB formatted in FAT32, can CDJ reads 64GB or even 128GB formatted with FAT32? or only 32GB USBs?

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

You can use USBS with more storage, but I found sometimes (even the 32GB USBS's sometimes ran slow and the gear took a while to process the info), so I personally use 16GB 3.0 sandisk ultra

[@MOBOWORLD]

This happened with zedd at ultra yesterday

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Aggghhhhhh - such a nightmare

[@user-et3fu1kq3l]

Why would it be that the pioneer folder is not showing when I export? But the contents folder is

[@DJSTOEK]

💘

[@filippotheodoli1635]

some tracks that i upload into my playlists on rekordbox dont form wavelengths on the gear when its time to plug in.. no visual aid but plays the music.. really weird.. please help love the videos :)

[@klassykeekee]

Did you analyze the tracks? That's the only reason why you won't find the wave form.

[@Night4Wolf4]

Man, i have two 128gb sticks, with 2000 tracks, my gear (CDJs 350) crashes trying to load the songs... is it because of the size of the pen drives, the quantity of songs or because my equipment is old?

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

I'd say it's the 350's, the DDJ1000 is a good choice if you want an upgrade without spending thousands on thousands haha

[@ndwigaroothaert7345]

I use a Sandisk ultra 3.0 but what I encounter sometimes is that my waveforms don't load on all the cdj's I have plugged them into. Has this happened to anyone else and if so, are there any solutions ?

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

This sounds like you are not running your music through Rekordbox first

[@Miligonas]

can i ude 256 gb on xdj 700?

[@DJ-Dorian]

🤟🏻😎

[@ZacharySound]

Andrew I have another video idea. I did see your 'Where to mix' tutorial video but do you have a video on this subject matter...? (This one is a big one for me) -- how do you or other DJ's go through their music collection on RB or otherwise and choose tracks that transition well together?.. Do they spend hours (like me) just listening to two tracks transition, starting the mix-out at specific points see how it sounds? Then do they keep those 2 tracks aside to use for later? Because one cannot just buy 1000 tracks from Beatport and then start making sets. Without using the related tracks feature in RB of course to find tracks that 'might' go well with others. I haven't seen any videos about this on KZbin myself.

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Haha you'll only ever get so much on YT, i save the best stuff for my course :)

[@ZacharySound]

@@ClubReadyDJSchool I'm not tryna hear that see! :)

[@luxchannelx6039]

U guys think a 64G is too much ?

[@Noa15Lv]

To my mind, its should be the minimum IF you're one of the people who just loves to carry your whole library with you, instead picking songs out.

[@Dreustechno]

Can we actually use SDD portable hard drives for cdjs?

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

I wouldn't personally as i found the more info on the hard drive, the longer it takes to read, but then again I've never tried a SSD.

[@Dreustechno]

@@ClubReadyDJSchool Should try ssds thought just to know :) Thank you for doing these videos you helped me a lot to improve my skills

[@merryprankster1980]

Had this problem at one of my shows. My USB didn't work. Luckily I took my computer & my mate had a spare one. Another show my mate's USB didn't work so I had to play for 2 hours not one. Great advice to over prepare you never know what will happen.

[@brendanfox4114]

Thumbnail typo******

[@ClubReadyDJSchool]

Thank you, all fixed now :)

[@djmichaelswartz1921]

I don't like USB A PC has speed

[@stebarker1641]

#clubreadytribe

[@zeenuf00]

Oh God, what a nightmare all this stuff is: I get #2 before every Soundcloud track. One or more files were not exported. Track(s) were not exported due to the following possible reasons. [1] - The file doesn't exist. [2] - The file is in the format that CDJ/XDJ/mobile device doesn't support. [3] - The file could not be copied. [4] - Track analysis data is corrupted or doesn't exist. [5] - Error occurred in the USB/SD/mobile device. Oh and Pioneer should deal with this issue. They're products sure cost enough.