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Mixing in Key
For years, top DJs have been creating wild roller coaster rides in their live sets and DJ mixes, not only with amazing music and top notch mixing but with a special way of programming their sets called mixing in key. DJs like Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Paul Van Dyk, and many others have used this technique to create flawless sets. Mixing in key is a special way of mixing records together that have compatible musical signature. This avoids the dreaded key clash and generally makes mixing easier. For the purpose of this article, I will talk about the latest key analyzing software, which allows you to quickly catalog a large collection of files with key information so that you can really utilize your entire collection properly. You can find more info about mixed in key here. I will also talk about possible pitfalls of the software and how to use it properly.
First of all lets back up a bit and explain a bit about music theory and DJ Culture. Prior to today’s advanced DJ CD players and even turntables that include key lock functionality, DJ’s really only had one tool to blend things together. This was of course the pitch control on a standard DJ style turntable such as the famed SL1200 MKII from Technics. This only allowed DJs to manipulate the tempo and thus the pitch (coincidently the key) via this control. Since beatmixing was the foremost goal, for the most part key mixing was much more difficult since the two are controlled by the same physical pitch control. Once in a while you get lucky and the tempo and key match up. Then those two records work very well together as you can pitch them up or down and the other will always line up. Everyone with me so far? Secondly, I should point out there are a lot of top DJ’s who don’t follow the key mixing rules exactly. You can analyze DJ mixes from anyone of your favorites, and I am willing to bet that many don’t line up completely according to the “rules” of mixing in key.
Zoom forward to today, and thank your lucky vinyl that Key lock has been introduced on CD players, turntables and software like Serato and Traktor have arrived. You can now keep the original key and mix at whatever tempo you like, with very little artifacts. It is pretty amazing. I must admit that I am very impressed with the key lock functionality of Serato, which as I understand uses some similar technology to their full blown pitch maniupulation software Pitch ‘n Time Pro. Serato’s Pitch and Time Pro is well known as being one of the best pitch manipulation pieces of software out there. The pitch algorithm in Serato Scratch is just as good, just much much simpler.
Although I have yet to test out the quality of the NI Traktor engine, I have faith that it will be pretty good. As soon as I get my hands on one, I will report back with more info.
Lets move on to the actual practice of mixing in key and how it works. Camelot notation is a simplified way of determining which key is compatible. Shown below is the Camelot notation wheel, which also shows the actual key as well as the Camelot notation.
The rules are as follows: On this wheel, musical keys can be seen as "hours" on a clock. For example, 4 o'clock corresponds to 4B or 4A. The "B" letters on the outside circle represent Major keys. The inside circle represents Minor keys.
To use harmonic mixing in your DJ sets, you can transition between songs by subtracting one hour (-1), adding one hour (+1), or staying in the same hour as your last song. The MIXED IN KEY software analyzes your songs and determines the Key of each song, and stores the key via the ID3 Tag in the title of the song for quick and easy searching of compatible songs. Using software like Serato you can search by key, and if you organize by genre you can Search for a specific key in a specific genre. This allows you to quickly find several songs that will fit the key you are currently in. These are the basics of Mixing in Key. Following these rules will allow you to always stay in key, enjoy smooth transitions, avoid key clashes, and keep you from having to stay in the same key all night long. In light of these guidelines, I should mention that many songs are not produced following the standards of Western music theory. Many songs do not follow these rules whatsoever, and in cases such as these you may end up with a bassline that is not in the same key as the melody or lead, and possibly even the vocal. This being said, it is possible that a song will not have compatible key signature with any other song. Not to worry, in cases such as these, some creative filtering of the bassline, melody, and or any other offending part will help. Trust your ears! If it sounds strange, it probably is, but who says that is bad?
These are not hard and fast rules, but they serve as great guidelines to help you transition smoothly and effectively, as well as allowing you to move between key’s easily. Many DJs get locked into playing on key all night long as they don’t understand how to transition properly from different key’s. Make sure to experiment and remember that these are just guidelines. Good luck and see you on the dance floor.
If you have DJ-related questions for Dave
he can be reached by his private hotline at david@audiomidi.com.
Or call him at (818) 993-0772, or toll-free at (866) 283-4601.
As always, stay tuned to the audioMIDI.com eNews for the latest reviews and new product info.
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