I've been working on mixing harmonically the past couple months and its been a godsend.

I'm still rusty when it comes to determining major and minor, but I think I'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Thanks to everyone contributing to this. It means a lot.

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Originally posted by Dirk W. People in Dallas aren't *ssholes. Just look at me, I live in Dallas.

Meat is Murder...tasty, tasty murder.

Can someone help me clarify something.

Am I correct in assuming that to "mix harmonically", you need something that can change tempo only and not key? Otherwise, if the BPM's aren't the same, don't you end up changing the key of the song when you change it's speed?

deam,

having a feature such as key/pitch lock, which allows you to change the bpm and not the key, is definitely helpful in harmonic mixing, but certainly not necessary. you just need to be aware that a +/- 6% shift in speed is roughly a half step above/below the original key. anything in between might sound a little sour, but the most important thing is the relative the pitch to the song you're mixing in.

this is why software such as rapid evolution ([[ LINK REMOVED ]]
) is so useful. once you enter your songs with bpm and key information, it can tell you for any given song which songs can be made in key, how to make them in key, and just how much they are in key (which depends on a lot of variables). with certain songs you will want key lock enabled obviously, but with some songs its actually necessary to shift the pitch up or down to get them in key. some songs can only be made in key by key locking one and playing it a certain speed...

in short, to determine if 2 songs can be made in key you need to know the key AND bpms of each song, and their relative differences. a key lock feature is nice because you will always be dead on key, and will never have sour sounding mixes that are in between or slightly off key. its also nice with key lock on because when you change the speed suddenly you don't hear an audible change in pitch. however, always leaving key lock on will prevent you from making many songs in key...

hope this helps :-)

Last edited by qualia on Aug-14-2005 at 20:01

Hey davemolina,
99.9% of trance is in minor keys. so if you know that its say G, then its very likely to be G minor. Listen for the chords round about it, consult the chat with which keys go with which, as its the same for chords. For example, the difference between G major and minor is the Bb or B note, look for it.

Key lock is great, but can sometimes sound wonky. I have stanton st150 (I think!!)and the key lock is not great, I hardly use it. I'm told that its better than that on the Numark tho! The tunes can sound time stretched, and thebeats sem to phase or jump around, which is annoying and can sound like your mix is off.
The CDJ's tho have excellent key lock and i use it all the time

quote:

135 / Am (8A) Paul van Dyk - Another Way (Club Mix)

Can someone explain to me what this means?
The '135' is the bpm, and the 'Am' means 'A minor chord' but what does 8A mean?

Also, in a midi I have, of Another Way the bassline goes like
D4, A#3, A3...

I'm so confused

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the 8a is the key in the camelot keying system if you want more explanation then just reply

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An explination would be cool.

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quote:

Originally posted by BshidoHEAT An explination would be cool.

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Thanks that makes sense

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Harmonic Mixing

A song will be harmonically compatible if it is in:
the same key (tonic)
a relative major/minor key
a subdominant key (perfect 4th)
a dominant key (perfect 5th)
For example, a song in Cm is compatible other songs in Cm, its relative major D#/Eb, its subdominant Fm and its dominant Gm. Subdominant and dominant keys are easy to find because they are the 4th and 5th scale notes from the tonic note. Relative majors are 3 half-steps above the tonic note of the minor key (in this case, C to D#/Eb). Conversely, relative minors are 3 half-steps below the major's tonic note.

A system of key codes was developed by Camelot Sound which makes this easier to remember. It assigns a code to each major and minor key based on the circle of fifths. From the chart below, you will see Cm is 5A. When working with key codes, compatible keys will always be +/- 1 number, or with the same number and a different letter. For example, 5A is compatible with 4A/6A and 5B, which corresponds to Fm/Gm and D#/Eb.





When matching songs harmonically, you must be aware that changing the speed of a song also changes its key, unless a key or pitch lock feature is used. To be exact, a 5.94631% shift in speed will shift the key by a half-step. So if you're mixing a song in Cm at +6%, it's going to be in C#m/Ebm. Similarly, a change in RPM on your turntable from 33 to 45 will shift the key up 5 half-steps, from Cm to Fm.


Taken from mixshare.com on september 17th

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dat pretty much sums up the very foundations of this thread.

for the sake of people with deteriorating eyesight, i think that every once in a while a summary has to be made of the 40+ pages of this thread. sometimes i'm trying to look for something i know i've seen somewhere but i just can't remember what page it is on.

btw, is harmonics.defined.org still operational? i tried submitting stuff 2 weeks back but i got a 404.


cheerS..

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