The tools

What each tool is for, how to use it, and what it can't do. Every tool explains what it found as you go, so you won't need this page often.

Playlist doctor

For: playlists that lost their tracks. A playlist remembers exactly where each track was. Move your music to a new drive or rename a folder, and the playlist can't find them any more.

How: show Playproof your music folder and open the playlist. It finds each track where it is now and saves the playlist with the new locations. Nothing else in the playlist changes.

Can't: find a track you renamed completely. It shows the closest names instead, and you pick the right one.

Works with: playlists saved as .m3u or .m3u8 files. VirtualDJ keeps its playlists like this, and rekordbox can export them.

Quality check

For: finding “lossless” files that were MP3s first, so you can replace them before a club system shows them up.

How: choose a folder or some files. Playproof listens to each one and tells you which are real, which are fake, and which are fine for what they are.

Can't: hear like you do. A very dark recording can look suspicious, so listen before you replace anything.

Set builder

For: turning a list of tracks you want to play into an order that flows.

How: open a playlist and choose a shape, like a steady build or a story arc, or start from a ready-made warm-up, peak-time or closing set. Playproof works out each track's tempo, key, energy and sound, puts them in order, and adds a tip for each mix, like “ride the pitch +4 %”. Tracks that don't fit are left out, with the reason.

Your say: set a length (“1:30” or “25 tracks”), a tempo range, how much the tempo may jump, whether keys must match, and which tracks to keep when some must go. Lock tracks in, pick the first and last, move tracks by hand, take some out, or fix a tempo the analysis got wrong; it's remembered for that file. Save your favourite settings as presets of your own.

Hear the mix: pick a track and press P to hear it blend into the next one, beatmatched, the way you'd mix it.

Hot cues: Playproof can find each track's beats and phrases, then put hot cues on the phrases, the drops and breakdowns, or where to mix in and out. You get a file for rekordbox to import, with the set as a playlist. Your DJ software's library and your music files are never changed.

Can't: read the room. It gives you a strong plan; you're still the DJ.

Pro: the set builder sorts up to 25 tracks at a time in the free version and with Playproof. Playproof Pro sorts whole playlists.

Library map

For: seeing which tracks you really play together, and finding new ones that would fit.

How: give it your VirtualDJ database, or a rekordbox library exported as XML. Click a track to see what you usually play next to it, and suggestions you haven't tried.

USB formatter

For: setting up a USB stick so every player at the gig can read it.

How: choose the players you'll meet. Playproof tells you which format to use. On Windows and Mac, download Stick Maker and it does the rest. On Linux, you get the exact commands. More about USB sticks

USB export

For: putting your music on the stick in a way the player at the venue can play.

How: choose the playlists or folders and the stick. Playproof copies tracks the player can play exactly as they are, and converts the rest. Lossless tracks stay lossless, unless you choose MP3 to save space. Next time, it only writes what changed. When it's done, it can copy the stick onto a backup stick.

Can't: fix a track that's already low quality. Converting never makes a file sound better.

Stick check

For: finding problems on a stick before the player does.

How: choose the stick. Playproof looks at every file the way the player will, checks the playlists and library, and tells you in plain words what would go wrong. It can also remove the hidden files a Mac leaves behind.

Tracklist

For: a tracklist with times for your set recording, ready for Mixcloud, SoundCloud or your own notes.

How: give it the recording and the history your DJ software or player saved during the set. Playproof listens for each track in the recording and writes down when it starts. It works even if you played a track faster or slower, and it leaves out tracks you loaded but didn't play.

Can't: name a track that isn't in your history. When a track came in over a long blend, the start time is marked as approximate, so you can listen and adjust it.