I currently have open; Mixed In Key, Key Finder, and Beatport open. KF and MIK 100% accurate, but people are saying they are accurate enough to be viable. And Beatport as just another opinion.
I’m analyzing tracks and all three sources, almost half the time are ALL giving me completely different feedback.
According to Beatport “The Underground” is played in G Major, KF tells me it is actually G Flat Minor, while MIK goes on to inform me that they are all wrong and it is actually F Sharp Major.
Nick Thayer’s “Like Boom” remix according to beaport is C Major, KF begs to differ with A Flat Minor, and MIK says A Minor.
I understand that these programs aren’t touted as 100% accurate, but this is awful.
I get that a trained ear is the best way to pick up key, but mine isn’t and i wouldn’t know how to train it anyways.
I only use the free Rapid Evolution program. I know that the keys might not be correct all the time, but as I only use this program I know that two songs being declared as “A flat minor” will fit together. Because when the program will misinterpret some harmonics it will always do it in every song of a kind/key.
If you really want to be sure about the right key (because of for example wanting to play piano together with it) this won’t work for you though.
Best tip should always be: Compare it with the sounds of your keyboard (hardware on in a DAW) and take your ears and LISTEN!
I just don’t understand the concept of keys entirely, how can a song be played in a key, if it’s played by using many different keys like any song? God that will probably win the most ignorant/naive statement of the year haha.
and then i find it even more discouraging when of 50 songs analyzed, keyfinder decides that roughly half of them are G minor, f minor or a minor. somehow that doesn’t feel like coincidence.
Judging by my results it doesn’t work that way haha
I’ve been out of touch with my piano music theory for quite a few years but just make sure you understand that one note’s sharp is the next note’s flat.
Examples: F sharp = G flat; D sharp = E flat; B flat = A sharp, etc. Sorry if you already knew this!
^I Do for the most part, and the camelot notation kinda makes it obsolete anyways.
I guess it seems to be in my best interest to learn to use a keyboard to find it, i have a keyboard, but i wouldn’t understand how to find a songs key with it.
I was just using it as an example that this software is useless if all three sources are more often than not conflicting in more than one way.
but really, any tips on learning to find this with a piano?
I have a keyboard next to me hooked up to my computer, so many sites are saying “play along with the song” how on earth do they expect me to just “play along” with the song?!
I’ve tried finding the key of a song that i’m sure of (all three programs agree), and then matching it with the keyboard, but can’t tell if i’m just psyching myself out or not. What, should I just tap the key as the song plays and see if it sounds similar? Cause I just tried this and it made me feel like a moron hahahaha.
I thought they were using a licensed version of MIK ?
Key finding software is a tool, just like beat detection, and is supposed to be used as something else in your arsenal.
I’m sure VDJ, Itch and a Pioneer CDJ would all have minor discrepancies in BPM as well - although for the most part accurate.
YES!
In regards to finding the key on a piano, what you want to do is find the root key, this is the note thats predominant thoughout the track and the one which when played with any other part of the song (generally) still sounds like it is not clashing.
Certainly wouldn’t expect you to play “along” with the whole song, just tap one note at a time on the keyboard up and down the scale one at a time in beat till you hit a key that sounds in tune throughout most of the track - that’ll be your tracks root key.
Once you have the correct key on a keyboard, you can then play another key at the same time alongside the root and start figuring out what keys will work together without needing a chart beside you.
After a while you’ll be able to visualize it in your head .. and in essence key match by ear
First of all, 50 songs is a small sample size. It’s quite possible that half of those are one of those three keys. I’d be more concerned if you were talking about 500 tracks. Also, as a tip - most modern dance music is written in minor keys.
The key of a song, without getting too much into music theory, determines which notes a producer should use. If a song is in the key of “A Minor” then the notes of the song (for the most part) should fall within the 7 notes of the A Minor scale for each octave. Think of it as a framework or recipe of notes to use. It does not mean that “A” is the only note in the song - that would make for some seriously boring music!
I really want to make an ID3 tag website. The website would have all the ID3 information about a track, including the bpm and key of each song. It would be user generated and the most common/voted on option wins.
There would then be a downloadable program that would analyze your tracks and fill in the tags. Or if you had an album, you could just select that album from the website and the program would fill in the information.
I used to use a program called Tag&Rename that did this without the bpm’s and keys. Mp3 tag editor Tag&Rename - edit tag in mp3, wma, mp4 files, automatic discogs and freedb import Basically, it would use the tags already in the file and associate the files with the album on Amazon or Discogs or wherever and update the names, artwork and album information from one of those sites. You could also set up folder naming guidlines, so I could rename all my album folders to Artist [2012] Album if I wanted to, or however you wanted to name the folder. You could do this all in the press of one button.
This seems like something that would really be helpful. You would no longer be relying on one thing to tell you the bpm and key of a track, you would have a whole community of people adding to the site and correcting mistakes. It could also be free. I think having to pay for MIK is a joke, especially for software that isn’t correct 50% of the time. I use Rapid Evolution 3, which is free and works just as well, although a bit longer to do. I think mixing in key helped when I was starting out - it offered advice on what tracks might go together.
However, I hardly mix in key these days, at least I don’t follow a chart to do so. Slimming down my music collection and knowing my tracks seem to have helped my mixing skills. I know the songs better, whats coming up in a track, and what sounds go with other sounds. I think mixing in key helped train my ear a bit, but after awhile, you just start picking up things that work. I still key all my tracks, but I never pay attention. I guess its more for peace of mind.
Just adding to the discussion on how to use your keyboard:
As somebody above said, just keep on tapping the root key (1st note in it’s scale) that you think the song is in. It might also be helpful to have the scales out for each key. Then what you can do is play the Root, 3rd, and 5th notes as well. You could play them all at the same time (=CHORD) or just cycle through them (1, 3, 5, 3, 5, 5, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, 5, 135, etc) randomly. If these three notes sounds good to your ear, you’re in the right key. If you hear clashes, then you’re not! Try your next “root” key! Look up the 7 notes in the scale of this new key and repeat the process!
This should give you more direction on what to actually do with your keyboard. In the right key, random chords and random notes of that scale in any order should sound fine (you’re essentially ad-libbing like a jazz soloist!) The name of the song’s key will be that scale’s “root” or 1st note. Hope this helped man!
One last thing though, major and minor, I can google what they mean all I want but that doesn’t explain where they are on the keyboard, as far as i know I have A through G, sharps and flats, what does minor and major mean in regards to finding the note on the keyboard? where are they?
this if u don’t spend time learning your tunes inside and out and what goes best with what etc then what’s the point anyway key detection tools are just that… “tools”. not something to totally rely on.
if u can’t hear if a tune sounds right with another then dj’ing is probably the last thing u should be trying to do…
Key finding software is inconsistent because even trained musicians can’t always agree what key a song is in. Best thing is just pick one software and stick to it - its results may not match other opinions but it’s likely to be internally consistent, so if it thinks something is 1A on the camelot wheel, another song it identifies as 1A will mix well with it.
key detection tools are just that… “tools”. not something to totally rely on.