Harmonic Mixing

[djalexlaine]

perfect 4ths and 5ths are great...
in order to really understand harmonic mixing, you need to learn key structures, what they are and how the work. otherwise youll never be able to really utilize it.
it is also helpful to essentially disregard the camelot system and memorize the harmonics. especially since in traktor you can actually play with the pitch. if you need, you can take an abm and pitch it up to am and so forth.

[djstaffo]

With software such as Mixed in Key harmonic mixing is now pretty easy to do, but my question to the forum is once your tracks have been analysed and you are building a set, or just messing around seeing what tracks work do you only mix tracks that will mix harmonically? Or do you only mix certain tracks harmonically? your views would be much appreciated on this subject, Thanks.

[DJPhaidon]

Learn chord structures out of any music theory books and sites. Once you know the basic musical rules, you can creatively break them and understand why the sounds combine like they do.

any 2 notes mixed together is technically "Harmonically mixed", so the term is kind of a misnomer. I think it should be called "chorded mixing", since the camelot system encourages perfect 4ths and 5ths. Perfect 4ths are power chordsl, think the begining riffs in Nirvana's "Smells like teen spirit" or Deep Purple's "Smoke on the water".

[Jester]

Most of our tracks are "keyed" now it sure makes it easy to select workable tracks on the fly. Using the +1, +2, +7 rule, or just using lots of 8A's (which a lot of our tracks are). Also handy for structuring a mix, You could just movr clockwise round the wheel or do a few change ups as you go. For example jumping from an 8A to a 3A or B (or a 1) is called a Power Boost and this is a goood way to snap some energy into a mix. Sometimes tracks will sound good together whether they are "compatible" or not though, so trust your ears more than what MiK says

[MisterMoleyMole]

How acurate are your rapid evolution key detections ? none of mine tend to be much over 50%, is that right?

As someone with not much music knowledge but just loves to twat it out on the decks, does all music have a solid key or is it just vocal or stuff with harmonies.

I play a lot of techno, minimal and the harder stuff is it beneficial trying to detect keys in this style of music.

[DJPhaidon]

does all music have a solid key or is it just vocal or stuff with harmonies.

All music can be boiled down to a key, whether it's vocal or just the beat of a drum. "Most" songs follow a single or starting/ending key, however it doesn't mean that they are tuned to the same 440hz. So if you have two 7a songs, it doesn't mean that they will be in tune, just in the same key.

On RE's site they have the percentage accuracies of RE, Mixed in Key, and the other key finding software. RE claims to be the most accurate.

[Jester]

Back in the day, keying a track meant sitting down with your vinyls and plink plonkin on an old piano... technology eh

[Str8upDrew]

Back in the day, keying a track meant sitting down with your vinyls and plink plonkin on an old piano... technology eh

I still like to work it out with a keyboard, and take notes about the chords/notes used in the tracks. This makes it easier for me to work out a mix with 2 tracks that have a similar chord progression.
Also, regarding the camelton system, one of the main reasons controllerism appealed to me so much is that it gave me the feel of musicianship that i felt turntables were lacking. Sure people like z-trip and q-bert can scratch out complex melodies, but i wanted more than that. With cue point sampling and other aspects of controllerism, it gave me a chance to build on the melody, and even add little jazz scales that are rarely ever heard in electronic music, all in key with the original tune. Even sometimes, with simpler songs that never even have a chord change, it gives me a chance to build a whole new melody adding 4ths 7ths and 9ths to give the track a new structure. With the Camelot system, there isn't even a need for the dj's to know basic music theory.
Personally, i think that all the dj tutorials out there should have a beginners guide to music theory. I mean, do you think of yourselves as a human jukebox, or as a 21st century digital musician.......

....
I'm a 21st century digital boy,
I don't know how to live but Ive got a lot of toys!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the rant. God i love Bad Religion.

[rcolbourne]

I don't trust the software solutions any more. I used to key everything with Mixed In Key, and while helpful to get this information at a glance, I often found that my ear didn't quite agree. Sure the greatest part of the track would sound great, but there may be one random noise in there that just didn't gel for me. Now I just use my ears.

That being said, I also found that when I keyed everything, I would rely too much on what it said and not let my set flow as much as I wanted. Sometimes a bit of out of key mixing sounds better than the in key stuff; sometimes I want that contrast.

In the end, I've been finding that the more I prep my collection with keying, cue-points, loop-points etc. the more I tend to just ignore it anyway.

[lsmith]

I would like to ask everybody to not buy any products from Mixed In Key LLC. this includes MixedInKey as well as Platinum Notes.

I just noticed that this company is a patent troll as they filed for a patent on the camelot notation:
http://www.harmonic-mixing.com/CommercialLicensing.aspx

Obviously the camelot notation is nothing but a pretty obvious mapping of the circle of fifths to the ascii character set that given the requirement of making an easily computer and human sortable order any programmer can come up within a few hours of pondering.

Please do not support companies that behave like this. They should compete on their key detection implementation, their UI and customer service not by trying to shut out competitors from an obvious "repainting" of an age old invention that is freely available and documented since centuries.