Key detection is completely wrong?

[dolcem]

I use Serato and even though I have it set so that the key is supposed to be displayed as the classical key, some of them show up as '6d' or '12m,'for example, which apparently is just the camel Anyway, I have this song called Black Dust by Dmitry Molosh. I had written down that it was in B flat minor, but upon looking at it, it appeared to have been in E flat minor (I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't see). When I loaded the song it changed to '2d' I think, which annoyed me. Anyway, somehow I accidentally changed the key to '3d' when I clicked on it (I'm not 100% sure but I think that's what happened...my laptop has a really crappy touch mouse pad). I deleted the song from the library, then moved the file out of the folder, renamed it, and moved it back in. Generally this fools the computer into reanalyzing the song and giving it its proper key and everything, but this time, it didn't. It even remembered the old name that it had. So I have no idea what key it's in.

I downloaded another version of the song and Serato thought it was in E flat minor. I have perfect pitch and I can tell that it's the same version in the same key. At around 4:44 there's this part where you hear a synthy sound and the notes are A Bflat A D. That sounds like D minor to me but of course it's the only part of the song that sounds minorish. The rest could be major. I can't hear any other notes distinctly.

I looked it up on Beatport and it says that it was in D Major. And then I loaded up the song in Virtual DJ and it said it was in 4B, which is A flat major.

Then I looked it up in Traktor and it said that the original song was in D major. And it said that the second version I downloaded was in E flat minor.

So I'd like to know how many other songs are detected in the wrong key and what I can do about it. Sorry if this is a noob question.

[Jester]

Hey mate, check out this article on the blog, very interesting http://djtechtools.com/2015/11/16/ke...-2015-edition/

[keithace]

Trust your ears over any piece of software. I am not a big fan of newer DJs using MIK or even worrying about what key the track is in. But to each their own.

[Chris Lange]

You can almost always count on modern dance music being in minor key, almost all of the time.

That's a lot of almosts and alwayses, but I find that whenever Traktor tries to tell me a key is in a given major key, when I key it out musically, it is, without fail, in either the enharmonic minor, or parallel minor.

For what it's worth, I've keyed every single track in my 1300+ track "Good to Go" list by ear, and I think I have maybe...8 tracks that are legitimately in Major key?

EDIT: I will add as well that much of my aesthetic is towards melancholic, more emotive techno and tech-house with some deep progressive house and techno mixed in, along with some atonal minimal and dub techno so it is of little surprise to me that majors are almost non-existent in my library.

[dolcem]

You can almost always count on modern dance music being in minor key, almost all of the time.

That's a lot of almosts and alwayses, but I find that whenever Traktor tries to tell me a key is in a given major key, when I key it out musically, it is, without fail, in either the enharmonic minor, or parallel minor.

For what it's worth, I've keyed every single track in my 1300+ track "Good to Go" list by ear, and I think I have maybe...8 tracks that are legitimately in Major key?

EDIT: I will add as well that much of my aesthetic is towards melancholic, more emotive techno and tech-house with some deep progressive house and techno mixed in, along with some atonal minimal and dub techno so it is of little surprise to me that majors are almost non-existent in my library.

Would you mind checking out the song in the OP (Black Dust by Dmitry Molosh) for me? I'm leaning towards it being in D major because both Traktor (well, once) and Beatport both said it was in D. I don't think it's in B minor (the relative minor) because the part that sounds minor goes: A B-flat A D, which doesn't sound like B minor, or E flat minor, which is what Traktor and Serato also detected it as. And I just realized that if it actually was in 2d in Serato, like I thought it was before I changed it, that's the same as D Major, right?

And how do I get Serato to stop displaying things as 2d and 12m? I already have the setting on display as classical key, but sometimes it displays it as whatever system that is.

EDIT: quick update, I went and shifting the pitch down one semi-tone (through a free website), and Traktor, VirtualDJ, and Serato all read it is D flat minor! So maybe it was in D minor to begin with? That would make sense considering the one phrase I mentioned above (which is definitely in D minor).

I tried mixing the original with a song I have in B minor (which would be the relative minor according to Beatport and one of Traktor's). It's the only one I have in that key actually but it seemed to work. I tried mixing it with a song in E flat minor (which is what Serato thinks it is, as well as one of Traktor's interpretations) and it didn't sound good. Next I tried mixing it with a song in D minor and it sounded good too. I'm still new to this (I do have musical training but not in this type of music, so my ear is still a bit unsure as to how much dissonance there should or shouldn't be) so I don't know what to think...can anyone give it a shot?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLlxL-PQmEY

[Chris Lange]

Definitely sounds like D minor to me.

Beatport is also hideously inaccurate with the key detection they use...seems to me that it's only right about 50% of the time.