Lexicon: The idea & vision
Hi everyone! Today I'm going to give you some background information about Lexicon. I'll explain what the idea behind it is and the vision for the future. At the end, I'll briefly explain the Lexicon workflow.
Previous Lexicon posts:
The idea
The current Rekordcloud is a set of great tools for DJs but it lacks in usability and it can be quite confusing for new users. The combination of website and companion app is a strange but historical choice.
Lexicon aims to fix this by moving all tools into one cross-platform application. The layout is much more familiar to anyone that has used a DJ app before.
The primary idea of Lexicon is to become the ultimate library manager for DJs. All library management can be done in Lexicon and when a DJ wants to mix, they can export to their favorite DJ app.
That means less importing, less exporting and less messing around with converters altogether.
You will be able to do everything your favorite DJ app can do minus the mixing. Lexicon is all about preparation!
Lexicon is power-user friendly as well. Important actions have hotkeys so you can fly through your preparation tasks. Most features have settings that can be changed to suit your workflow. Lexicon is not a tool that is dumbed down but rather has sensible defaults that can be tweaked.
The vision
Lexicon is being built with the future in mind. Lexicon is the foundation to build great ideas on and lots of work has already been done to ensure that new cool ideas will be easy to add.
Lexicon aims to stay as up-to-date as possible. If new technology or trends emerge and it has a place in Lexicon, let's brainstorm about it! I love to involve the community and most of the time, the best ideas come from the community.
Third parties
Third party integrations are a big part of Lexicon. Things like charts, record pools, album art finding, just to name a few. Combining multiple services like these into one easy place to manage gives so much power and simplicity to DJs, we can't just ignore that. If there is something new that gives DJs more power, then I am always open to adding it to Lexicon!
Community
The community will always be involved in the direction of Lexicon. Ideas come straight from the DJs, feedback will be asked before even building new features.
There is a dedicated Lexicon forum to discuss ideas and even a Discord server so we can chat.
Workflow
Rekordcloud was an addition to the DJ apps. You upload a library, edit it and download it. That was the basic workflow.
Lexicon is different. Here you can manage your entire library without the hassle of the back and forth between tools and your DJ app. You can do all your preparation work in Lexicon and Sync it to your favorite DJ app when you are done. Whenever you want to make changes, it's easiest to do it in Lexicon so you only need to sync once so your DJ app is up to date.
You can still make changes in your DJ app if you want, but you'll have to import again. Lexicon makes it easy though. You can just select the playlist you changed and Merge with your Lexicon library. Your playlists and tracks will be updated, the rest of your library will remain the same.
Here is what the standard Lexicon workflow looks like:
- Import your existing library into Lexicon (or start fresh)
- Add tracks, edit playlists, use all of Lexicon
- Sync to your DJ app (e.g. Rekordbox, Serato or more)
- In your DJ app: Mix tracks, play a gig
- Repeat from step 2
If you prefer the "hit and run" approach that Rekordcloud offered, you can still do that in Lexicon. Instead of step 5, you just keep using your DJ app for everything and when you want to use one of the awesome Lexicon features, just start at step 1 again. Super easy!
Weekly updates
More Lexicon details next week!