Harmonic Mixing – Am I missing something?

[DJMM]

well technically you should mix in key to have your mixes sounds good together. Mixed in Key is just a software to analyze your songs key. Still you shouldn't limit yourself with the keys all over.

[keithace]

Still you shouldn't limit yourself with the keys all over.

whaaa?

[DJMM]

yeah bad sentence, I mean you shouldn't worry if the next song is 5A on camelot wheel and the playing song is 4A.

If it sounds good from 2A to 6A, just mix it.

[crumarbit]

Great, thanks for the feedback on this. I was just thinking i was missing something but surely, if it sounds good to the ear then it probably is (unless stone deaf!)

Going back to enjoying the tunes and forgeting the silly little numbered alphabet

[Alex Wild]

here's my system. Pick a track that might work, listen in the headphones? Does it work? No? Pick another. Yes? Mixing time. :d

this

[photojojo]

This all boils down to a sign of the times. When it was records we would write keys on them so harmonic mixing definitely isn't new. Back then though we only had 100 records to go through at a gig because we did the prep work before hand. Now that we can have 1000's of tracks at our disposal it's much harder to pick a track, especially if you don't really know your music which is a nasty result of having 1000's of tracks. So software like MIK has come about that culls the songs down for you so you're only picking from 200 tracks to play next instead of blankly staring at your track collection.

Some people don't realize the amount of behind the scenes work that goes into just playing music. They want software to do all of that work for them and it just doesn't work like that, or at least it doesn't work well imo. All that said I use MIK to tag all of my tracks, but it just serves as a guide.

[sarasin]

Well, I can honestly say that this has taken my mixing one step further down the quality line.

I mean, due to knowing how to do it now manually (Used to catch it in the past purely by accident) and at will, you can hear when someone does not do it instantly.

So I know that when I do use it and use it when its needed, my mix WILL sound damn good.

It also allows you to get more creative.

If you are jamming 2 tracks that fit harmonically, it allows you to mashup instantly and you can go to town.



Its nice to use if you have not setup a playlist before hand.

[mostapha]

"Harmonic Mixing" isn't limiting. Only mixing by the circle of fifths is. And the people who tend to write about harmonic mixing using Camelot Notation don't know that there's any more to the story.

Ditch camelot notation.
Use real keys.
And actually start learning about music theory.

Also, I know it was probably a random example, but 2A to 6A would probably be safe-ish…it certainly isn't a sure thing…but it'd be more likely to work than some other random choices, depending on what chords and scales were used in both songs. Then again, that's true for 1A to 2A as well.

Basically, MiK's marketing is made to sell overpriced software, not teach you how to mix harmonically. And everyone listens to their advice as though it's gospel. Which is bullshit.

[MrPopinjay]

Ok, probably should have said "Mixed in key and the wheelyjig is limiting" :P

[Camelot]

"Harmonic Mixing" isn't limiting. Only mixing by the circle of fifths is. And the people who tend to write about harmonic mixing using Camelot Notation don't know that there's any more to the story.

Ditch camelot notation.
Use real keys.
And actually start learning about music theory.

Also, I know it was probably a random example, but 2A to 6A would probably be safe-ish…it certainly isn't a sure thing…but it'd be more likely to work than some other random choices, depending on what chords and scales were used in both songs. Then again, that's true for 1A to 2A as well.

Basically, MiK's marketing is made to sell overpriced software, not teach you how to mix harmonically. And everyone listens to their advice as though it's gospel. Which is bullshit.

Virtually all modern music uses the diatonic scale (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do), which is represented by the Circle of Fifths (see [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths"]Circle of fifths - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] Also see [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatonic_scale"]Diatonic scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Using "real keys," rather than Camelot notation (based on the Circle of Fifths), is MUCH more difficult. Memorizing compatible keys based on diatonic key signature rather than keycodes GREATLY lengthens the learning curve.

"Harmonic Keys," which introduced harmonic mixing to the DJ community in the 1980's, advocated memorization of an overlay chart to select compatible mixes. Camelot streamlined the process in 1991 with our Easymix System, which makes selecting compatible keys as easy as telling time.

Learning music theory and keying your own music may be more effective, but may require THOUSANDS of hours to attain the skills necessary to key music with greater accuracy than key detection software like MixedInKey.

Further, you can mix 2A to 6A or any other combination as long as you mix atonal segments. Whenever both track segments contain tonal music, however, any such mixes will be dissonant unless they are harmonically compatible.