And that’s where the solution we’ve got for you today comes in. The trouble is, one of the trade-offs of the new notation systems that allow mere mortals to instantly spot potential compatible key mixes (the dominant system being the Camelot Wheel Traktor has its own variant on the Camelot Wheel called Open Key, but it follows the same principle) is that once you start “moving” the musical key up an down a semitone or two like this, it’s not clear any more where you’ve moved the tune to on the notation system, and thus what tunes it will now mix with. As it is possible to alter the musical key of a tune up or down one or two notes (technically, one or two “semitones”), without the sound quality getting affected too much (any more and artefacts tend to get introduced into the sound making the results undesirable), you can instantly multiply the number of potential mixing options with other tunes in your collection just by turning a knob on your software screen. There is a light at the end of the tunnel as far as opening up more music in your collection to potential key mixes, though, and that is the key change knob on certain DJ software, such as Traktor and Virtual DJ. There are 24 musical keys in Western music and only four are wholly compatible with any tune you may happen to be playing, hence only one-sixth of your collection is in contention for a potential key mix at any one time. While it’s possible to harmonic mix on all DJ gear (it’s about finding music that matches harmonically, it’s actually nothing to do with digital per se), digital has made it easier – so much so, in fact, that anyone with an ear for what sounds good can now produce great harmonic DJ mixes without any musical theory knowledge whatsoever.īut despite the fact that digital music can now be harmonically analysed by software to work out the underlying musical key, and that digital DJ systems can “lock” the key of a track so the pitch doesn’t change when the tempo does, one of the limitations when you’re looking to play a DJ set that’s harmonically matched is that only a small number of tunes in your collection are going to match with the tune you’re currently playing. Harmonic mixing – mixing in key – is one of the greatest things about digital DJing. Using this ingenious wheel devised by a Digital DJ Masterclass student, you can quadruple your options when key mixing in Virtual DJ or Traktor (download a PDF using the link in the text).
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