Solco listens to every track on your computer and measures what you need to play it: the beatgrid and downbeats, the key, the loudness, the waveform, a fingerprint of the sound, and its style and character. Nothing is uploaded. You can keep working while it runs.
Follow the progress
The Analysis step in the sidebar counts the tracks still waiting. Click it to open the Analysis page, which has two tabs: To analyse lists every track with work still to come, including one that has its waveform and key and waits for its beats, and Failed the ones that couldn't be analysed, each with its count. While analysis runs, the page says Analysing… beside its tabs, with the time left once Solco knows it. While a track is analysed, its cover turns into a turning ring, on the deck and in its row; a track without a cover shows the ring at the end of its title.
Activity, at the bottom of the sidebar, shows what Solco is doing and how far it has got. Click it for every task, with what is left and about how long it takes. Analysis shows a time once it has analysed a whole track, so the first track has none. A track you open on the deck goes first.
Queued, waiting and paused tasks are listed separately from running tasks. If everything is waiting, the sidebar says Nothing running with the number of pending tasks. A tag write can wait while the player has its file open.
When that track leaves To analyse, it stays on the deck while its analysis finishes. The list updating does not choose another track for you.
Analysis uses your graphics card when it can, and the processor otherwise. While you listen to a track, it works in smaller steps so the sound never breaks up.
Pause, or finish it all now
- Pause analysis: the pause button beside the analysis in Activity, at the bottom of the sidebar. It stops after the step in progress; finished results are kept. Click it again to resume.
- Analyse new tracks automatically, in Settings › Library under Automation, analyses tracks as they come in. Turn it off to analyse only when you ask.
- Analyse all, beside Finish analysis now on the same page, analyses everything that isn't finished. Results already done are reused.
Closing the window doesn't stop analysis: Solco keeps running in the Dock on a Mac, or in the tray on Windows and Linux, and carries on. If you quit while analysis runs, it stops after the track in progress and carries on the next time you open Solco. See "Solco's settings at a glance" for closing and quitting.
When analysis fails
A track whose file is damaged or can't be read is marked with a red sign on its cover, or at the end of its title, and Solco doesn't try it again by itself. Open Analysis in the sidebar and choose the Failed tab to see every one. Once you have repaired or replaced the files, click Analyse all again at the right of the tabs to analyse all of them again. Analyse all, on the To analyse tab, analyses every track that waits now.
Damaged files
Some files fail because the file itself is broken: a download that never finished, a file cut short, or a damaged spot the player can't read. Solco doesn't analyse round a damaged spot, because skipping it would be heard and would put every beat and cue after it out of place. Analysing such a file again fails the same way; a new copy of the track fixes it.
When some failures are damaged files, the Failed tab shows a Damaged files row above the list, with how many there are. The deck says Damaged file where it shows a track's status; hold the pointer over it to see where the damage is, for example "around 2:13", when Solco can tell.
- Export list… saves a spreadsheet (CSV) of every damaged file: artist, title, album, label, length, where the file is, its format, where in the track the damage is, and the reason. Take it to the store where you bought the music to download the tracks again, or buy them again.
- Move to trash… shows exactly which files would go before anything changes, and moves them to the trash on their own drive, where you can restore them. Nothing is deleted for good.
Solco recognises a new copy of a track whose sound it already knows, for example because it was analysed before the file was damaged. For those, the review offers to keep the track's cues and playlist entries: the track waits in Missing files, and a new copy you add to your music folders takes its place, with its cues and playlist entries. The new copy needs to be the same recording and about the same length. The review says how many tracks Solco can't recognise a new copy of: those leave the library with their cues and playlist entries, and a new copy you add later is a new track.
Other failures stay as they are: repair or replace the files, then click Analyse all again.
Analyse a track again
Right-click tracks and choose Analyse again. Your cues, tags and corrections stay.
For the track on the deck, right-click its waveform and choose Analyse again, then Beatgrid only or Sound profile only (the style and character readings). See "Checking and fixing beatgrids".
What Solco has installed
Settings › Analysis lists each kind of analysis and whether it is ready: Beatgrid and downbeats, Key, Loudness, Recording fingerprint and Style and character. Everything Solco needs comes with the download.
What each result means:
- Beatgrid: see "Checking and fixing beatgrids".
- Key: see "Tags and keys in your files".
- Loudness and gain: the Levels columns show each track's loudness and the gain that brings it to a common level. Solco never changes your audio. See "Why do my waveforms look smaller on the CDJ?".
- Fingerprint: how Solco finds duplicates and matches tracks in the catalogues. See "Finding and removing duplicates".
- Style and character: see "What the characteristics mean".
New waveforms for tracks you already have
Solco's waveform was redrawn, so tracks analysed before the change get a new waveform in the background, a few at a time. Each one keeps its earlier waveform until its new one is ready, and nothing else about the track is analysed again. Your cues, grid corrections, tags and playlists are not touched.
If you prefer how the waveforms looked before, choose Solco in Settings › Appearance › Deck waveform. Solco draws it from the new waveform, close to the earlier look but not identical, and the top and bottom halves are always the same.
Solco also lines up each steady beatgrid with the hits in the track, in the background, without listening to the track again. Beats can move by a few thousandths of a second. A grid you have corrected or marked as checked stays exactly where it is.
As new results arrive, Solco deletes the analysis they replace, so the library stops growing. Once a lot of space can be given back, Solco compacts the library file the next time it opens, with a progress bar. It checks there is enough free disk space first and tries again on a later launch if there isn't. This happens once.