Mixing in Key: Golden Rule(s)

[mostapha]

Right! This [relying solely on visual aids] is exactly what happens to most people nowadays and they even have the guts to call themselves "DJ". Sucks!

I actually don't have a problem with it. But…I remember spinning for like half an hour without headphones on vinyl because I forgot to pack them while someone else ran to my apartment. I was structuring things based on the grooves in the record and beat matching based on the channel meters on the mixer.

Visual tools are like everything else…tools. I did an impromptu thing last night with a couple friends after goofing off with Maschine for a few hours. It started out just wanting to show them how well Maschine worked when sync'd to Traktor. It was supposed to be a 5-minute thing, so I didn't bother plugging in my audio interface or headphones and just used the headphone jack on my laptop into some little Bose thing made for iPods.

I ended up spinning for like 2 and a half hours in my buddy's kitchen, just having fun and drinking…adding Maschine here and there, making simple beats on the spot to play over breakdowns and to accent certain tracks. All purely visually. Yay sync. And yay detailed waveform views.

I'm a tremendous fan of the technology that actually works and makes my life simpler, easier, or more fun. That doesn't mean that I regret learning on vinyl or that I don't think there's any value in traditional DJing, but there is something absolutely wonderful going on with technology. I don't think it's right to completely discount it.

My beef with Mixed in Key isn't that it's new or automated or taking away the skill of harmonic mixing by ear. That's all crap. My beef with MiK is that it sucks at what it does and the company bills it as the end-all, be-all of music theory when the system they propose is both more limited and more convoluted than just taking a month's worth of piano, guitar, or voice lessons.

I don't hate it because they make it easier for new DJs…I'm mad because they make new DJs suck.

Hehe, my #1 tool is definitely NOT my ears. Sorry couldnt resist.

Oh…I see what you did there.

Theres some great writeups on harmonic mixing (not mixed in key in particular). Read those and ull get the idea. Basically combining certain keys will produce certain sound 'effects'. U really just need to read up a bit and then start applying what u read and start experimenting.

Read up on Cadences. It's kinda cool.

It's also a bit overblow and has more to do with the chord progressions used than just the keys of the track…which makes it a lot more complicated. And unless you're actually going to take the time to learn to play all of the pads/melodies from the tracks you're using…it just flat-out works better to rehearse the transition in your headphones right before you do it life…if you have time.