Checking your library

Your library keeps changing: new downloads, a new drive, a tidy-up. A quick check before each gig keeps the surprises out of the booth.

Before each gig

Fix the playlists you'll play. Open them in the playlist doctor. It finds tracks that moved, and suggests the closest names for tracks that were renamed. It only changes where the playlist looks for each track.
Check your new tracks. Run the quality check on what you've added since last time. Record pools are usually fine. Files ripped from video sites, or “FLAC” from somewhere you don't know, are where the problems are.
Plan, export, check. Put the set in order, put it on a stick for the player at the venue, and run the stick check. Do the same with your backup stick.

Now and then

Keep all your music in one folder (with as many folders inside it as you like), not spread over Downloads, the desktop and old drives. Every tool finds things more easily.
Fill in the artist and title of your tracks. That's what the player shows, what tracklists are made from, and what Mixcloud asks for.
Look at your history. The library map shows which tracks you really play together, and which ones you've stopped playing.
Back up your library somewhere other than the computer you DJ from. A USB stick is for the night, not a backup.

What “fake lossless” means

Making an MP3 throws away some of the sound, mostly the highest notes. Turning that MP3 into a FLAC or WAV doesn't bring them back: you get a big file with MP3 sound inside. On laptop speakers you can't tell. On a club system, the top end can sound thin.

Playproof's quality check looks for the sharp cut an MP3 leaves. It compares each track with the rest of your collection, so music that's simply recorded a bit darker isn't flagged. Treat what it finds as “worth a listen”, not as a final verdict.