I haz Jumped on the Harmonic Mixing train

The story is quite allright actually. It went like this.

I had gig this friday in really small club in Prague (http://www2.o2bar.cz/index.php). My mates are sick of some shitty after-festival intestinal flu so they can't come and join me playin. So i am alone for the whole shift (5hours +). No big deal, in small place like this it is actualy good time to reorganize some playlists on the fly and all around lurk in the deep midst of your library. But then this guy turned out. He asked me if he can join me to jam around with his clarinet. I play regularly with trumpet guy on big parties and that goes really well, so naturaly i agreed. He was good, but the clarinet is so subtle and he couldn't keep up when i was mixing, and long continuous mixes were absolutely no no. I thought i normaly do not need harmonic mixing as i can work around it with mixing percussion or with dramatic buildups and effects or clever EQ. Clarinet guy gave me a reason to try out harmonic.. So 2 am after the club closed, instead of going home i went to my studio. Slept there, in the day i wikipedied harmonic mixing, convinced my friend to come over to the studio with couple of joints and Rapid Evolution on flashdrive. Couple of Hours later i managed to get 2 new fresh dj crates analyzed and tried couple of mixes. They were good... just out of the box... with tracks i didn't even played before. I packed my stuff and went straight on to the next gig (http://wakata.eu/). This place is slightly bigger, but still it is just a lounge club...

So i had like 300 liquid, soulful, deep and atmospheric songs i didn't know much around (except a few), 6hours, lounge bar and loads of experimenting to do.

well i got vibe up reeeally quickly. by the 11pm first ppl started to move suspiciously with the rhytm. by 12pm crowd of ppl gathered around dj booth, as that's only place where music is bit louder (it's really quiet around the rest of the club, so ppl can actually talk). by 2am i had dancing crowd, a thing i have never ever seen in this club before. ppl were also total randomers, just like only one of them was drunk chic or totally high guy who would dance alone either way. Closing time is 3am, but i managed to pull it over 4am and would do even more unless some dimwitted drunk chic spilled one of her beers onto the right turntable. Crisis with bar manager and no sound costed me the crowd, so i finished the night with couple of laidback tunes on one deck (copying the other obv, god i love Traktor).

all in all i was really surprised how the whole harmonic stuff works. it's totaly great for improvising, gives me loads space to experiment with new never played before tracks... and you know.. let me ask you a question: why haven't you tried it yet?


also, there is one question from me. I had very limited time to properly delve into the theory or into the various selection of software. i used Rapid Evolution, but it didn't write the tags in key codes (1A etc) but in Cm (C minor). Personally it doesn't change a thing for me, but i'd like to make it easier for my gf, who would like it simpler. Is there a setting in Rapid Evolution that can change that? also not going to buy mixed in key or platinum keys soon, cuz i'm low on cash.

Yeah, you can go into the settings, and with a bit of playing around its in there somewhere.

Although with RE. I was never able to save the keys so they could be seen in traktor under the KEY metadata? Is there a way to see it there?

Ncce and it sounds like you have a good enough base to not just blindly trust the software, but to go with your ears.

@photo. yeah, that was the point also. During that set i found how did i made harmonic mixing before (trial&error method), so i am able to quickly work around any problems with swift EQ work :cool:

sparkbro: I'll look around more carefully, it has to be the.. though i'm not 100% sure, but it won't let you do that in key section of the ID3. I think you need to go comments way.

If you would like FREE trial access to our work-in-progress harmonic mixing database (www.camelotsound.com), please email camelotATgte.net. Over 60,000 tracks are keyed, from 2011 going back to the fifties.

thank you very much, but i think i shall pass :)

When I managed keys with RE:2 I'm pretty sure I did get it to write tags to both flacs and mp3s in a way that Traktor liked. I'll have to see whether I can get it to do it again (haven't reinstalled in yet)

I've been using RE3 and so far its writing the key tags in the key field and the comment field.

When I open Traktor it shows the keys in the key field, but when I refresh the keys disappear. It does store the key in the comments which works.

I use itunes though, and from my understanding itunes doesn't store the key info in the ID3 tag.

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Originally Posted by Dustin V

I've been using RE3 and so far its writing the key tags in the key field and the comment field.

When I open Traktor it shows the keys in the key field, but when I refresh the keys disappear. It does store the key in the comments which works.

I use itunes though, and from my understanding itunes doesn't store the key info in the ID3 tag.

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Yeah i find that RE3 is very temperamental. I have just got it to write them to the comments field (because i can then create my playlists in itunes sorting by comments) and then bring them into traktor.

I guess it works.. But its a little painful. But hey! Its free :D

Not sure about key analysis software these days, but a couple of years ago I bought MIK for around $50 USD (a trivial amount if you're on the Euro) and it writes tags in the key field. I don't have to correct the results with this program very often, and it is for the most part accurate in its estimations.

One thing I love that Kaputje brings up is that key analysis software prompts one to play tracks way deep in your library. Line your collection up by key and have tons of fun digging into forgotten crates from years and years ago while enjoying that feeling of seamless blends on an improvised basis. I frequently enjoy doing that.