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Originally posted by MessiahProject By key??? Firstly - how do you go about finding the key they are in? Secondly - How many records are sorted into key at the moment? You cant have that many that are in the same key? And thirdly - Thats all very well in the bedroom, but what if you were doing a club and in the middle of your 'perfect' set (all in perfect key) someone asks you to put on a tune. Please dont tell me you would say no because it wouldnt go with your set. Would you only take the tunes that make up your set? That is the measure of a great DJ - Knowing your tunes inside out, knowing where the breaks are and being able to mix any tune (as long its the same genre) Mixing by key sounds all too 'perfect' IMHO MP

1. easy. sit down with a keyboard and play along with the song. its really not that hard. all you need is an ear for what sounds good and what doesnt. trial and error works nicely for me, and you get better the more you practice it (funny that).

2. you dont need to mix everything in the same key- just harmonic keys. i find it very difficult to believe you have memorised over 5000 vinyls. keying records just allows you to take guesswork out with tracks you may not have played in a while. and really, out of key mixing in styles like melodic trance sounds AWFUL.

3. no, i wouldnt say no to the request, but i would wait until i could mix it in harmonically. makes everything sound so much sweeter. i always wondered why some of my early mix atttemts sounded shit, even tho the beatmatching was spot on. mixing in key is a must as far as im concerned. theres nothing wrong with saying no to a request. youre not a juke box. theres a whole room of people to play for, not just the people that make the request. i wouldnt drop a 145 BPM hard trance number in the middle of a build up melodic set just coz someone asked me to. youd look like an amateur.

you might be able to mix any tune as you say, but some tunes are gonna sound awful if their keys arent compatible. its not much of an ask to key records really, and i actually find it quite enjoyable. i like knowing how my records work. so my collection is organised nicely by key.

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i have most of my slow records up front... progy shit... then move into deeper and then trance and epic... into harder trance... but they get out of sort all the time... I know what they sound like and look like and i can sort out what id like to play next... if i find a track is just sick as hell with another then i pair them and put them just about anywhere... so i have sets of 2-3 records that i tend to keep together and ill mix around these sets with eachother untill i get tired of the mix. then try to find other tracks that go great with them... and i just work new tracks in with my current 80-100 play-out tracks. the more i play the more i know where they are but i dont have any science to it thats for sure.

Used to have a terribly complex system featuring crates for genre, with new tunes in my record boxes. I’ve now moved to an alphabetical system took absolutely ages to do but was well worth it.