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Sujet: Do you mix in key?

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After a bit of feedback/research from the forums about playlists, song selection, and structuring a mix... some users said they sort their playlists by GENRE-BPM-KEY and go from there. So my question to some of the more experienced users is: Do you look to mix in key whenever possible? I mean, I've only been messing around with VDJ and the only thing I was ever concerned with was BPM and smooth transitions. Is mixing by key in addition to BPM important?

How do you tell the key of song?
 
Posté Sun 29 Jul 12 @ 1:50 pm
I like you, didn't make or pay much attention to the key section. But let me tell you, once I learned about the Camelot Wheel, I could not believe I had been mixing for an entire year without KEY. It will always (if you know where to sample) make everything sounds smooth and harmonically perfect.
 
Yes makes the songs transition from one to next a bit more smooth....I think most guys just put a check in the option box for "show Numerical Key" next to the song title. You are aware that is an option in VDJ right?.....Next, to have songs "match" or "flow" just pick a song the same or one above or below the number key you are in i.e. in key 4A could use 4A, 5A or 3A......Some guys like to use though, as a tempo/ feel transition, to go from 2 levels above or below the current key rather than just one, as to increase or decrease the feel on the floor........up or down...
 
Only after discovering the Camelot Wheel and started to mix in key did I realize why my trance sets sounded strange. I try to always mix in key, even when it's techno/tech-house. Sometimes I skip a level or two for build-up purposes, but that's as far as I go. Maybe this means you can't use some of the songs you wanted to use in the first place, but it makes for a much better set.
 
Thelema wrote :
Only after discovering the Camelot Wheel and started to mix in key did I realize why my trance sets sounded strange. I try to always mix in key, even when it's techno/tech-house. Sometimes I skip a level or two for build-up purposes, but that's as far as I go. Maybe this means you can't use some of the songs you wanted to use in the first place, but it makes for a much better set.


I say, use EXACTLY what you want to, in the correct order......You have to put YOUR creative stamp on it, unless you just want a paycheck.....I like drastic transitions. Make the crowd say "WTF" for a good 2 bars, then drop something insane on em....I'll do "Mamas and Poppas, California Dreams" then throw to Tupac's verse in California Love...It's old sh#t, but people pop for it...... and use that as a segue into a house track....I just covered 50 years of music and three genres and ppl. loved it...I've seen other djs do the exact same thing......Mix it up, have fun and make it your own......Listen to "Girl Talk" sometime, he might give you some ideas of some really drastic transition and key changes that work...for his style of course....Make ur own style is my point... =D......
 
But those are styles I never even touch. I never mix hip-hop, rap, and so forth. There are different creative solutions for different styles of music, some giving you more room to improvise, others less. I see what you're saying, but it's a different scenario.
 
I have my folders organized by Genre and in each genre, I have many sessions. When i add music into my sessions, Those songs are based on what would be great to play to keep the flow going. All those songs are similar in bpm range but specialy picked songs that are reall good to play as a follow up. I also try to mix in key because it sounds great when two songs mix in perfectly. I have many sessions to allow me to play for hours without skipping a beat. I try to keep the vibe high most of the night and the crowd loves it because they know when the Dj is getting busy.
 

If you're going to do a live mash up then of course you'll want to be in key, mixing from song A to song B doesn't always require a compatible key as there are ways of mixing that avoid overlapping melodies or any harmonic elements of the two songs, I do this all the time otherwise you'll spend the night running around a wheel and not always playing the best follow on song.

Being technical is great but not if its at the expense of reading the crowd and keeping the flow going.
 
Agreed with bagpuss! For mashups either live or recording for later sets yes Key matching is really the only way to go (unless you want that effect of mismatching). For live performances I rarely worry about key matching/mixing. I just like to listen to how the songs will mix on the fly, try different things and as long as it sounds good to me, let it fly.

As stated before reading the crowd to me is more important than the exact key matching as long as the tempo and beats are matched.
 
Many Dj's don't do harmonic mixing, but then again, not all Dj's spin the same music. I have been around many Dj's that spin hip-hop, and not a single one of them follows a harmonic pattern. More so, I've seen many hip-hop dj's that go from 80bpm to 120bpm in their transitions, but it's more lke a drop in a cut rather than mixing.

I do house and trance, and since I started mixing in key, it makes a whole world of difference. Many can claim that they don't care about harmonic mixing, and that's fine, it's their style, and that's how they feel comfortable when mixing. I was one of those that didn't care, but as soon as I realized how important it is, and how it makes transition from one song to the other a lot smoother and how it sounds much-much better, I mix in key 90% of the time, the other 10%, well I'm off the other 10% of the time.
 
When I am out spinning I don't follow harmonic mixing. I pretty much go with the ebb and flow of the crowd. Also throwing in request every so often makes that difficult. I pretty much play at open format clubs and bars so I mix up a number of genres. I try to listen for the keys, specially when switching genre's, its smoother that way. However, the crowd and my mood really dictates my mixing when playing out.

However, if I am making a mix tape, I do try to mix in key.
 
Great to know so many guys paying attention to harmonized mixes. While I am sure most of you know what effect the transition of songs in major/ minor keys have over the crowd, I do know of a handful djs who have taken this to a whole new level with their mixes sounding like stories...almost like a composition on its own. Could somebody throw some light on this.....clicking on the key on the deck cycles through Camelot values, key, highlighted key and key in deck color blue/ red. Does anybody know whats it means when the key values are highlighted and when they are either red or blue.?
 
<<<----------- That's me harmonic mixing in Ibiza at The Orange Corner Beach Bar :-)

In my weekly residency I don't use harmonic mixing. That's because it's mainly commercial chart music and is very much request driven.

However, I have DJed in Ibiza for the last 6 years with House music. I have used harmonic mixing for all 6 years even before VDJ had it built in (I used MixedInKey). I generally beatmix for 5-6 hours without a break and all done harmonically. I sort my browser by the Camelot Number making it easy to move up and down the wheel values.

Before VDJ had it built in I had a picture of the Camelot Wheel as my desktop wallpaper. It was easy to minimize the program to check the wheel to see where I was going next (I used Tracktor back then and switched to VirtualDJ 5 years ago).
 
I pretty much always mix in key unless I am switching up styles, energy or tempo very quickly.
But the key detection isn't always right, so just do what sounds right
 


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