Re: track selection in your mix sets

HUH?!

mixed in key is just softwar that tells you what key a track is in.. it doesnt actually mix them for you.. so you would go thru your tracks and label them as to what key they are in.. but it is still up to you to understand how to put the tracks together in a certain key.. this is what i mean by if you jsut have an ear for music which most dj's should, you can tell if a track goes with another track or not.. and even still, like i said before some of the best transitions are between tracks that you would never think went together.. going from tech to deep to progressive.. dj-ing is and always has been and always will be about imagination..

you are a conductor, the decks are your ochestra.. make music! simple as.. well not really, but look at it this way.. you think laurent garnier uses mixed in key programmes when spanning every freaking genre of edm out there.. no, when you watch him play, the music is moving him and basically telling him where to go, and thats the beauty of all of this

/opinion

Re: track selection in your mix sets

^^Now I get it....I thought that it told you what track to play next..

Re: track selection in your mix sets

as i said, thats just my interpretation, never used it, never seen it.. if it does actually tell you what to play next.. jesus, why even bother with a human standing there, lol

Re: track selection in your mix sets

Yeah, I was wondering...What kind of mathematical algorythm was used to determine the key selection of the next track chosen..Meaning, how would it know what "sounds good together"....But, yeah, I've never seen it either. It would be pretty cheezy if it chose the next track for you... :/

Re: track selection in your mix sets

after reading up a bit, it just tells you what key a track is in (of course adjusting the pitch will change the key unless you use master tempo) [COLOR=white][B]Mixed In Key[/B] (also known as MIK) is Windows and Macintosh software that simplifies a DJ technique called harmonic mixing. The latest version of Mixed In Key analyzes MP3 and WAV files and determines the musical key of every file. Knowing the key, DJs can use music theory (such as the Circle of Fifths) to play songs in a harmonically-pleasing order. The software helps to eliminate dissonant tones while mixing songs together using a technique such as beatmatching.[/COLOR]

WikiPedia, lol

Re: track selection in your mix sets

mixed in key is shit .. it is not accurate

Re: track selection in your mix sets

[quote=Steve Graham;575874]after reading up a bit, it just tells you what key a track is in (of course adjusting the pitch will change the key unless you use master tempo) [COLOR=white][B]Mixed In Key[/B] (also known as MIK) is Windows and Macintosh software that simplifies a DJ technique called harmonic mixing. The latest version of Mixed In Key analyzes MP3 and WAV files and determines the musical key of every file. Knowing the key, DJs can use music theory (such as the Circle of Fifths) to play songs in a harmonically-pleasing order. The software helps to eliminate dissonant tones while mixing songs together using a technique such as beatmatching.[/COLOR]

WikiPedia, lol[/quote]

Ah, I see. Thanks man. :) Was just curious.

Re: track selection in your mix sets

[quote=Steve Graham;575693]

you are a conductor, the decks are your ochestra.. make music! simple as.. well not really, but look at it this way.. you think laurent garnier uses mixed in key programmes when spanning every freaking genre of edm out there.. no, when you watch him play, the music is moving him and basically telling him where to go, and thats the beauty of all of this

/opinion[/quote]

agree, so true

what I meant in a previous post was that this application (MIK) would make your mixes sound decent enough even without you having "an ear" for the music (assuming MIK actually does its thing accurately), I've never used it, but I've seen demos of it online, I'm well aware it doesn't actually mix for you or arrange your tracks for you, but an intelligent person can figure out how to do those things with a bit of reading on music theory and going through online DJing resources. To drive the point home, to me this is like a digital pair of "musician's ears" you buy, so that your mixes sound musically "right", especially if you're fan of the "mixing in key" technique, applied by many of today's popular house/progressive DJs out there.

I still agree that diversification is a lot sweeter when mixing music, regardless of genre. I, personally, do what most of you said - I rely on my ear when choosing the next track, listening for elements that sound alike, and going on from there ;)

Re: track selection in your mix sets

hmmm, i have been reading on this mixed in key function. To be honest i have knowledge of music theory, but i have never felt the need to arrange tracks based on analyzing the key. i guess it could help a set sound cleaner. i just trust my instinct with programming and i believe it usually works out well.

Re: track selection in your mix sets

my mistake

Re: track selection in your mix sets

[quote=Aleks_B;576189]hmmm, i have been reading on this mixed in key function. To be honest i have knowledge of music theory, but i have never felt the need to arrange tracks based on analyzing the key. i guess it could help a set sound cleaner. i just trust my instinct with programming and i believe it usually works out well.[/quote]

many DJ's do such (instinct, 'ear' for music, etc.) and it usually works out well. Usually how they've learned from Day 1. It's more of a passive thing though, as they do it without ever really realizing the technique or the why's.

Mixing In Key just allows a more cleaner progression at times and an active hands-on approach to things...and can make your job easier in the end. I could dig through a bag I've never seen before and have no knowledge of the tracks inside, but if I knew the keys, I could play it like I've owned that bag for years.

MIK program I'm still out on in its accuracy; I'm sure no program is 100% as is. But it does output major & minor keys. Mixmeister is the only other one I know of that also does this; MM does the tempo & key, but will only output (or show it) like it's a minor key.

Have it in the queue to do a pretty extensive test with a few hundred tracks on each one and see where it goes...

Ultimately it does come down to one thing...talent. And I've seen the results on both ends.

"Machines that make their job increasingly easier....will never replace the talent of those that use the machines..."

-John Terry, Vestax

Re: track selection in your mix sets

[quote=FM;577626] Mixing In Key just allows a more cleaner progression at times and an active hands-on approach to things...and can make your job easier in the end. I could dig through a bag I've never seen before and have no knowledge of the tracks inside, but if I knew the keys, I could play it like I've owned that bag for years.[/quote]

I did read something very close to that in an interview with, I think, Dubfire. He used MIK when putting together GU031 and explained that with all the traveling and stuff he doesn't have enough time to listen carefully through all the tracks he gets, so that's why he is a fan of it.

however, it was like a couple or months or so when I was listening to this guy's mixes, he had just started practicing mixing and was using software. his track selection was shit (mixing tunes that won't go together at all) and we had a talk about the mixing in key technique and all that, so a week later he tells me he found that his software - Mixmeister, supports the key functionality, and gives me his next mix to listen to. after skipping through it I knew that the key functionality on that program was doing it's job ... nothing like his previous attempts, and in just a week ... that's why I've been bashing that software tool here, but I'm not a fan of this kind of cheating.

Re: track selection in your mix sets

[quote=kalin;578042]I did read something very close to that in an interview with, I think, Dubfire. He used MIK when putting together GU031 and explained that with all the traveling and stuff he doesn't have enough time to listen carefully through all the tracks he gets, so that's why he is a fan of it.[/quote]

Piss poor excuse, imo...An artist doesn't have to listen to the entire track to tell if it will work with another...

Re: track selection in your mix sets

^^ agreed. Why doesn't he just say that he doesn't have time to DJ properly, so he would just really appreciate some equipment that does all the hard work for him :lol:

Re: track selection in your mix sets

[quote=johns;575886]mixed in key is shit .. it is not accurate[/quote]

I was on their board the other day looking at their NEW Self Mastering program. Which in essence is supposed to do the work that a high quality mastering space would do, but so far everyone talking about it on it's own board is saying how it doesn't do what they are saying it does. There are no one program that can do what a real mastering engineer does. Especially when every song is inherently different.