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Harmonic Mixing How-To (Sasha, Armin Van Buuren mixing technique)
Dear Friends,
I have great news! My pet project, "Mixed In Key", has finally gone live! This project is unlike anything else available in the World today. What is it, you ask? Mixed In Key is a Windows� application that finds the musical key of songs for musicians and professional DJs. Mixed In Key helps users mix songs harmonically, with no clashing vocals and harmonic elements. With Mixed In Key, various songs and genres blend together seamlessly. The only way to use this technique before was to sit down with a piano, and manually key your entire music collection. Now, "Mixed In Key" is available for instant download, and can key hundreds of songs automatically.
This technique is currently used by DJ Sasha, Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk and many more!
Here are some real-world examples of what Mixed In Key can come up with:
1. Mylo "Drop The Pressure" vs. The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" vs. Kelly Clarkson "Since U Been Gone"
2. Junior Jack "E-Samba" vs. Eric Prydz "Call On Me"
3. Kevin Lyttle "Turn Me On" vs. Madonna "La Isla Bonita"
4. Sasha "Xpander" vs. Madonna "Hung Up" vs. The Similou "All This Love"
Harmonic mixing doesn't work by itself, it still requires the DJ to beat match and read the crowd. However, it does allow the DJ to come up with some really creative and unique song combinations. This has been my pride and joy for 5 years. I heard about this technique when I went to see DJ Sasha and he illustrated that this is SIMPLY THE BEST WAY to sound amazing in a club. I hope to pass on this knowledge onto a new generation of DJs and improve club nights everywhere. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard Madonna and Kylie Minogue getting completely destroyed by mixing the two of them together without paying any attention to the harmonic elements. I hope that this program can eliminate some of that. Every DJ and musician could benefit from using this technique. Trance and House Music both have a lot of melody, so mixing in key is a perfect fit.
Here is a screenshot:
Mixed In Key Website Link:
http://www.MixedInKey.com
Also, check out the Mixed In Key Blog: http://MixedInKey.Typepad.com
Thank you for your interest!
DJ Yakov
(Founder of Mixed In Key)
TranceAddict since April 2001
TAs arent going to be happy about the fact that your promoting something for your/your companyies self gain. You could have atleast given TAs or the general public free trails or something. No way would i even spend $20 unless i knew how well it worked. Then again, i dont know if i would use it even if it did work.
Dear DJ 00 Tommy,
I would like to address your concerns with a free trial version early next week. I believe that this application will benefit many DJs simply because it works as expected. The algorithm was created by a wonderful German engineer named Alexander Lerch. His work is currently used in Ableton Live!, Steinberg and Native Instruments. I personally stand behind this product since it has helped me a great deal. I have tried it in various mixing scenarios, and the results sound great. I have DJ'ed for the Ministry of Sound and held dozens of night club residences over my 5-year DJ career. I've always been a 100% in-key DJ.
Take care,
Yakov
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJ 00 Tommy TAs arent going to be happy about the fact that your promoting something for your/your companyies self gain. You could have atleast given TAs or the general public free trails or something. No way would i even spend $20 unless i knew how well it worked. Then again, i dont know if i would use it even if it did work. |
Mixmeister can ID all the keys and it has been around for quite along time.
And then there is this program that can ID the key of song for FREE
http://www.mixshare.com/
| quote: |
| Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN oh, you have to pay? lol. only lazy (or really clueless) DJs need a program to help them work out keys. and its way more fun to do it yourself and find out how your fave tunes work |
I may be abit clueless and abit lazy but i still dont think this is worth it, exspecially if free programs are around.
Im still learning all this harmonic mixing. So these programs are kind of a cross refrence, i would never buy it though. But Maybe thats because im a cheap bastard 
.
Ya don't need a program, that's the point. Just figure out the key when you buy new music, and label your records using the Camelot system. It's really easy and works great.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJ 00 Tommy I may be abit clueless and abit lazy but i still dont think this is worth it, exspecially if free programs are around. Im still learning all this harmonic mixing. So these programs are kind of a cross refrence, i would never buy it though. But Maybe thats because im a cheap bastard . |
how does that screen shot demonstrate how it works?
sounds like a scam.
I don't fully understand what is being ment here!
by playing songs in the same key we are talking about ... ?
If the sticky at the top of the dj booth doesnt help you do a search for harmonic mixing.
True about the screen shot.
Thinking about this is great, I can get this to make a playlist then ableton can do the beatmatching and i can get all teh hot chix. I hope it finds a way to get dj sammy to sound good with my latest tunes.
I need to work on my ear for notes, i suck at keying stuff.
Or you could buy a DMJ-800 that includes harmonic tuners 
Nonetheless, good luck with your application!
Um, no.
The DJM doesn't take each song you have and key them for you.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Rebel Brown Um, no. The DJM doesn't take each song you have and key them for you. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Munchy I meant that it's the only mixer where you can actually change the key of the song... No? |
will you have a version for Mac OSX?
Dear Simms327,
I am actually an official Microsoft Partner in my day job, so I'm afraid I don't have the technical knowledge on how to program for the Mac OSX. For now, the program is Windows only (it works with both Windows XP and Windows 2000).
Also, here are some Frequently Asked Questions from the forums:
1. What does Mixed In Key do if, say a track ends up halfway between a and b flat, does it "snap" it to the nearest key?
Mixed In Key works by finding the most common key in a song. For example, if 80% of the song is A-minor and 20% is C-major (relative major key), Mixed In Key will report the overall key as A-minor.
However, if you were asking about what happens when the song is out-of-key, I have a different answer for you. For example, if the song is between A and B-Flat, Mixed In Key will say that the song is out-of-key. The algorithm does this now, but we're going through some growing pains and this information not yet shown in the results panel. However, you can see that this feature exists by looking at the XML file. This file can be viewed with Internet Explorer or Notepad. We've had several requests for this feature and it will be added in a future update. Mixed In Key can automatically detect when a new version is available and update the software (while keeping your existing Key Collection intact). In fact, if you ever choose to uninstall this software, you will not lose your Key Collection.
2. Could you just queue loads of files and analyze them all at once?
Yes, this was the main purpose of the application. You can add as many WAV and MP3 files as you like. You can also queue entire Folders with one click. For example, I selected my C:\Music\ folder at lunchtime and came back two hours later. Mixed In Key processed 600 songs in various subfolders (I usually organize my collection by time of purchase and key)
3. What if a tune changes key halfway through the song? Does Mixed In Key give you the keys throughout the duration of the tune?
Mixed In Key can detect the best key for different parts of the song. For example, my personal favorite is 3 parts -- Beginning, Middle and End of the song. This really helps me with scenarios where the key changes after the break. However, the default installation is configured to analyze the entire song and display one key. We can easily change this in a free update, we're currently working on the best way to display N-number of keys for every song. Our application design is very clean, and we like to keep it that way. There is no need for clutter -- Mixed In Key does one job, and it does it very well.
Don't suppose the algorithm is open?
How bout this ( and this is my trademarked copyrighted and patented idea ).
What I'd like is a program that generates track sheets for you. say I want 8 tracks on a cd, i'd dump the 8 files I want in the program, and it generates a tracklist with bpm key and duration ready for printing.
Shouldn't be too hard to implement. the bpm doesnt have to be accurate to more than a single decimal since it would be just for reference.
Now that I might be persuaded to pay $50 for.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by s3nate Mixmeister can ID all the keys and it has been around for quite along time. And then there is this program that can ID the key of song for FREE [[ LINK REMOVED ]] |
58 bucks!! are you crazy! 
For 58$ I'll come over to your house and use my ears to tell you what key the tunes are in
who frequently asked those questions??
can you ask them to send it to me through soulseek so that i dont need to give your fucking scamming ass $58?
I took these screenshots of Mixed In Key today. You can click on thumbnails to enlarge them and see more detail.
Analyze Panel
Browse Collection Panel
Pop-up Menu
This is the basic interface of Mixed In Key.
i don't really understand how a computer is able to pick out what key a track is in (assuming the artist actually intended to record in key) when there are many different elements to the track such as high hats and kick drum, which if they are samples, will not be tuned to be in any particular key.
Software can not be 100% accurate imo.
Too late for me anyway as I've just finished all my tunes tonight. It didn't take too long to work out how to do it, and now I find it quite easy.
I would say tho that if the software is fool proof, it would be useful fo someone who can't be bothered learning. Personally I'd rather by more tunes. And I use a mac...
looks like quite a simple application, for the price.
Yes, exactly. All the DJM-800 will do for you is if a track is in between keys (due to you pitching the record up or down), it will bump the key to the nearest note. Which means you still have to know the key of the track before you played it, and have to figure out what the key will be after the DJM-800 has adjusted it.
If you have CDJ's, just enable master tempo and you don't need to use this.
Also, you have to pitch a record up or down quite a bit to REALLY throw of the key.
World class DJ's have been pulling off flawless harmonic mixes for years without it.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Rebel Brown Um, no. The DJM doesn't take each song you have and key them for you. |
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