How to · VirtualDJ

Create filter folders in VirtualDJ.

Filter folders are VirtualDJ's smart playlists: rule-based folders that fill themselves from your database and stay current as it changes. Here is how to create one and write rules that are actually useful.

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A rule-based playlist organizing a library

Crates that maintain themselves from your own rules.

Create filter folders in VirtualDJ, step by step.

A filter folder evaluates a rule against every track VirtualDJ has in its database and shows the matches. You define the rule once and the folder keeps itself up to date, which makes filter folders the right tool for anything you would otherwise rebuild by hand every month.

Open the create dialog

Right-click My Lists in the browser's folder list and choose Add Filter. A dialog asks for a name first, and once you confirm it the filter criteria window opens, with dropdowns for fields and operators so you do not have to type the syntax by hand.

Start from a built-in example

Recent VirtualDJ versions ship ready-made filter folders in the folder list's Ideas section, things like recently added, most played, and duplicates. Open one that is close to what you want and study its syntax before writing your own. It is the fastest way to learn the query language. It is the fastest way to learn the query language.

Write your own rule

Rules combine fields, comparisons, and logic, for example "bpm>=120 and bpm<=126" for a tempo band, or a rule matching a genre plus a minimum play count. You can also use ordering expressions such as a top-N by play count to build charts. VirtualDJ validates the rule and previews matches as you type in recent versions.

Refine until the folder earns its place

Open the folder, check the results, and tighten the rule until the matches are tracks you would genuinely play. A filter folder that returns 800 tracks is a search result, not a crate. Combining two or three conditions, such as tempo plus genre plus rating, is usually what makes one useful.

The catch

Filter folders are only as good as the metadata behind them. If BPM, key, genre, or ratings are missing or wrong in your database, the rules quietly return wrong results, so the metadata cleanup has to come first.

3 selected

Where Vibes fits

Rules need clean data underneath

Vibes does not export to VirtualDJ, so it cannot create filter folders there; its export targets are Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor, and Engine DJ. What Vibes gives a VirtualDJ user is the layer filter folders depend on: analyzed BPM and key on every track, ratings, and mood tags applied at speed across the same files VirtualDJ reads. And in Vibes itself, Combinations surfaces overlapping tag groups automatically, no rule syntax required.

See how it works

Local analysis fills in BPM and key for every imported track, the two fields most filter rules depend on

Rate tracks from the keyboard in bulk so rating-based rules have real data behind them

Combinations automatically surfaces tracks that share multiple vibes, like a smart crate you never had to define

If you also run Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor, or Engine DJ, every vibe exports there as a ready-made playlist or crate

Organize in Vibes, export to VirtualDJ.

Your playlists, tags, ratings, and cue points travel back to the gear you play on, so nothing you do in Vibes is locked away.

Track 001

Artist A

128

Afterhours

Mysterious

Introspective

Track 002

Artist B

124

Cozy Floor

Peaceful

Home

Track 003

Artist C

132

Rave

Aggressive

Festival

Build & Release

Playlists

Vibes

Mood

Aggressive

Euphoric

Melancholic

Mysterious

Peaceful

Playful

Tense

Function

Arrangement

Sets

Club Night 12/28

NYE Closing Set

Rooftop 01/04

Frequently asked questions

The honest answers, including the trade-offs.

No. Vibes has no VirtualDJ integration, so filter folders must be created inside VirtualDJ itself. Vibes helps indirectly by making sure the metadata your rules filter on, BPM, key, and your own tags and ratings, is complete and consistent across the collection before you write the rules.

Yes, that is their whole point. A filter folder re-evaluates its rule against the database, so new tracks that match appear and tracks that stop matching drop out without you touching anything. Unlike a virtual folder, you never drag tracks into a filter folder manually.

Start with maintenance and prep folders: recently added tracks, tracks you have never played, and a tempo band you play most, such as 122 to 126 BPM. Those three cover new-music review, digging for forgotten tracks, and quick pulls during a set, and each teaches you a different part of the rule syntax.

Methodology