There is a thing in DJing that beginners don't always get their minds to. This is harmonic mixing.
What is it for?
This is necessary to make the mix better. I think it's better to hear once than read a hundred times. To start with an example:Like? I doubt :) Another example:
Now it is clear? :)
How to achieve this?
To achieve the effect and create a truly beautiful and harmonious transition between tracks, you need to know the key of this track (that is, its key), and how these keys should be alternated.Generally speaking, everything has already been thought of and done for us, you just need to go and take it.
Mixed In Key & Co.
On the Mixed In Key website, you can buy (and find it somewhere on Google for free - a matter of religion) a program of the same name that scans your music collection and brings up a list of songs that can be mixed beautifully.By the way, MixMeister Studio and MixMeister Fusion (mixmeister.com) provide the same function, saving the resulting value directly in the library (which is much more convenient, I think).
Traktor DJ Studio, starting from the second branch, can also remember (but not determine!) the key in its Track Collection. Can this Ableton Live! - I don't remember exactly, I hope for your hint :)
Harmonic circle and Camelot notation
A certain Mark Davis (to whom we all should say a big thank you) came up with and wrote down the Camelot notation, grouping the most common keys in European culture into a kind of “clock”:For starters, it would be nice to just try to mix tracks whose keys are completely the same.
Then you can try to make transitions to the "hour" forward or backward. That is, if the original track is D-flat Minor (12A), then the next track can be A-Flat Minor (1A) or F-Sharp Minor (11A).
Another experiment is the transitions from the inner circle to the outer one within the same “hour”, that is, from minor to major and vice versa. Here you need to be careful with the mood of the track: in the middle of a merry club house, it's not always possible to slap some kind of dark electro :)
You can explain in words for a long time, but the shortest way is directly practice. If the bear did not step on the ear, then it will immediately become clear what is good and what is bad.
Things to Remember
On one foreign forum, I came across a post where it was said that MixMeister products recognize tonality with an accuracy of up to 70%, in particular, they very rarely make a distinction between major and minor. At this point, blame yourself - no one canceled the ears, if it “does not sound”, you need to take matters into your own hands. On the website of the same Mixed In Key, many DJs and producers admitted that they had previously used a piano keyboard or a synthesizer (which, by the way, is much more accurate, although it requires hearing and time).Another subtlety is the "tempo-key" dependency. You need to know that if we accelerate or slow down the track, then every 6% of the speed the tone will change according to the direction. If the track was originally 140BPM and in the key of 12A, then by slowing it down by 6% we get already 11A.
There is a simple rule: if the difference in speeds is less than three percent, then the key of the second track can be taken the same. If more than three - one more / less.
And remember harmonic mixing is not a panacea for creating a quality mix, it is just one of the components. The creative component, as well as good taste when choosing music for a set, should not be forgotten in any case.
Keys: the basics of the basics
If you look at the keyboard of a synthesizer or a grand piano, you will see that it consists of repeating groups of seven white keys plus five black keys. Each such group is called an octave (see below). The white keys within the octave correspond to the notes do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and si, or C, D, E, F, G, A, and B in lettering. After si again goes to - the next octave.What is tonality? To put it very simply, key is the set of notes on which a melody is built. Each such set is built according to certain rules from the tonic (the main note of the key) and can be major or minor. Major keys sound cheerful and life-affirming, while minor ones sound sad and melancholy.
Because there are 12 notes in an octave, then there are 24 keys - a minor and a major for each possible tonic. The tonality is indicated by the name of the main note and the mode built from it - major or minor. For example: D major (D, D major), D minor (Dm, D minor), B-flat major (B♭, B♭ major, B-flat major).
It is not for nothing that the tonic is called the main note of the key. In whatever key the melody sounds, it always gravitates towards its tonic. The main note always sounds out of place and harmonizes with any melody that is in the key of its name. As you will see later, this root property is very useful in determining the key of a track.
Determination of tonality by ear
In order to build a set in accordance with the rules of harmonic mixing, you need to know the keys of your tracks in advance. There are three ways to determine the key of a composition: by ear, with the help of special programs and finally, using the Internet sentiment databases. I'll start by identifying the key by ear, and not by chance.
Modern accountants have been using computers for a long time, but, you must admit, they still need to know the multiplication table. So it is with the ability to determine the tone by ear for a DJ. Of course there are computer programs that do this automatically, and the key of the desired track can often be found on special sites. At the same time, the accuracy of the software definition is not one hundred percent, and not all compositions are present in the Internet databases. Therefore, you need to at least have an idea of how to determine the tone yourself.
To determine the key by ear, you will need a piano, a synthesizer, or a computer emulator of a piano keyboard. Looking ahead a little, I recommend installing Rapid Evolution: the virtual keyboard of this program has a chord building function, which makes it very easy for a beginner to determine the key. (Rapid Evolution requires you to have virtual machine Java).
Having found a possible tonic, try its dominant (7 semitones higher) and subdominant (5 semitones higher). (A semitone is the distance between the two nearest keys, black and white, or two white keys like E and F). If you guessed the tonic correctly, then its dominant and subdominant should also fit the melody well.
After you are convinced that you are dealing with the main note of the key, it remains to determine its mode - major or minor. In the drop-down list already familiar to you, instead of single note, select major and press the tonic key. Listen to see if the resulting major chord is in harmony with the melody. Then try a minor - select minor and hit the main note key again. You can infer a key scale based on which of these two chords fits the track's melody the best.
Clue. Most modern dance compositions are written in minor keys. Some say that this is due to the wider range of emotional shades that the minor conveys. Others say that it's all about the music of America's black slaves, where sad melodies predominated and in which electronic music has its roots. Either way, this observation is worth taking note of!
Example 1 Let's try to determine the tone of the composition Todd Terry All Stars - Get Down (Kenny Dope Original Mix), notorious to you from the article "Track Structure":
We start the track, rewind to the place where the melody begins, and start playing notes - C, then C#, D, D# and so on. From the very beginning we are lucky: C goes very well with the melody. We go further and find that G sounds good in the context of the track. If C is the tonic, then its dominant and subdominant, G and F, respectively, should go well with the track. G we have already "opened"; let's try F, at first it seems to be missed. So it is, F against the background of the composition also sounds good. We must be more careful!
So, the tonic is, most likely, C. Let's define the mode of tonality. The major chord, starting from C, sounds clearly “not at the box office”, but the minor one seems to be “soldered” into the composition, it sounds like a native one in it. So the key of Get Down is Cm, which is C minor.
Example 2 Next subject: Martin Solveig – Rejection (Ian Carey Remix):
For a change, let's start playing notes, starting with F. Moving up, we notice that A♭ and B♭ harmonize well with the track; this is interesting because they can be subdominant and dominant respectively (since the distance between them is exactly two semitones). If so, then the tonic should be a note 7 semitones below B♭, namely E♭. And indeed, E♭ is ideally "woven" into the composition, sounding out of place at any point in it.
We determine the mode in the usual way. The major chord against the background of the track is again out of tune, but the minor one is just what the doctor ordered. We conclude that the key of the track is E♭m, or E-flat minor. By the way, since E♭ and D# are the same note, then (I'm simplifying a little here) E♭m can also be denoted as D#m, or D-sharp minor. Do not forget about it.
Well, haven't you lost the desire to learn harmonic mixing yet? Don't worry, it will get easier. In the next part of the cycle, I will talk about programs that determine the tone automatically, as well as ready-made databases on the Internet. A little patience, we are moving on!
Definition of key for the lazy
On the this moment I know of two specialized software product, problem solving definitions of tone. The first of them is Mixed In Key, which, thanks to thoughtful marketing, made a lot of noise in the DJ community. A copy of this program, which has received favorable reviews from stars such as Pete Tong, costs $58 at the time of writing.
The second product, which is in the shadow of Mixed In Key, but no less interesting for that, is the same Rapid Evolution that we are already familiar with. In terms of its functionality, it is not inferior, if not superior, to MIK, and at the same time it is completely free.
specialized programs fortone definitions. At the same time, the growing popularity of harmonic mixing leads to the fact that this function appears in computer emulators of the DJ set. First of all, what has been said concerns the well-known Virtual DJ and MixMeister.
To automatically detect the key of a track in Virtual DJ, you need to do two things. First, right-click on the title of the track table at the bottom of the screen and in the menu that appears, check the box next to Key. The Key column will appear in the table, which will later display the keys of the tracks.
A few words about accuracy. I have not tried Mixed In Key in action, but I can say about Rapid Evolution that it is quite reliable, but not always. The creators of RE claim that the program correctly determines the key in 67-71% of cases, which, in general, is not so bad. However, RE defined the key of Martin Solveig – Rejection (Ian Carey Remix) from the previous article as D# instead of D#m.
Web Sentiment Databases
mixshare. The MixShare website, where Rapid Evolution comes from, has its own database of track information. It is located in the Music section and, apparently, was compiled using the results of the analysis of compositions by the above program.
To enter this section, you will have to register, but it's free and fast. Regarding the database itself, the page slows down a lot, and in it I could not find any of the dance tracks I was interested in. Moreover, after a couple of searches, my account was blocked for "exceeding the traffic limit." Well, maybe you'll have better luck.
Harmonic Mixing Database. The creator of this site went an interesting way. He builds a database of track information by analyzing their Beatport (online dance music store) passages in Mixed In Key. At the time of writing this article, there were about 400 thousand tracks in the site database, and finding the composition you were interested in seemed like a very real undertaking.
I note that the track data on the Harmonic Mixing Database generally seems to be more accurate than the results of the Rapid Evolution analysis. This may indicate a slight superiority on the part of Mixed In Key.
I suspect that the definition of the keys of the tracks is already a dream for you at night. It remains to learn about the most interesting: how to translate quantity into quality, or information about the keys of compositions - into the ability to create truly smooth mixes. I will talk about this in the last article of the series on harmonic mixing.
How to harmonize
After you have determined the keys of the tracks in your music collection, the fun begins. In order for your set to be built according to the rules of harmonic mixing, it is necessary that the key of each next composition be compatible with the key of the previous one. There are certain rules about which keys are compatible, but luckily you don't have to go to a conservatory to use them.
Now your task is easier than a damn turnip: choose the next track after Get Down so that it is in the key of Fm, Gm, E♭ or the same Cm. This almost guarantees that when mixed, the compositions will blend well with each other.In practice, it is better to use Camelot numbering instead of keys to mark tracks on CDs or record covers: 1A, 2A, and so on. This will allow you to determine compatible keys without the wheel itself in front of your eyes. The rule is easiest to demonstrate with an example: for 11B, compatible will be 10B, 12B (number one more or less, same letter), 11A (same number, different letter), or 11B itself.
After you have tried to mix tracks several times, taking into account keys, you will have a completely legitimate question. As you know, in the process of beatmatching, you select the pitch of the new track so that its tempo matches the tempo of the previous one. But changing the pitch naturally distorts the tonality of the composition, making the sound higher when the pitch is increased and lower when it is lowered. It turns out that if the tempos of the tracks are different, then information about their keys is useless?
Not really. First, to raise or lower the key of a track by one semitone, you need to change the pitch by as much as 6%. This means that if the pitch positions of the mixed tracks are not far apart, by 1-2%, then compositions in compatible keys will still harmonize well.
Secondly, many modern CD and even vinyl players have a Master Tempo function, which, using digital sound processing, preserves the original tonality of the track regardless of the pitch position. This function completely solves the problem of the influence of pitch on tonality. I even suspect that its spread directly contributed to the growing popularity of the harmonic mixing method itself.
And for dessert: the method of "pumping energy"
When the keys of the mixed tracks are compatible with each other, you can afford to make very long transitions without worrying about the melodies of the songs clashing. There is another trick in the arsenal of harmonic mixing, which is called "energy pumping".
In this mixing method, you select the next track not according to the principle of compatibility of keys, but so that its key is one or two semitones higher than the key of the current track, in the same mode. For example, if Martin Solveig - Rejection (Ian Carey Remix) is playing on the dance floor in the key of E♭m, then the next track should be in the key of Em or Fm. The effect of this method is an ever-increasing energy on the dance floor; the set seems to be gaining and gaining momentum.
If you use Camelot numbering, then to “pump up energy” you need to add 7 or 2 to the key number of the current track. For the example above: the number E♭m (i.e. E-flat minor) is 2A, so the next track should be in the key of 9A or 4A, and this is just E minor or F minor.
Unlike classical harmonic mixing, “energy pumping” does not lead to protracted transitions, because the keys of the mixed tracks are incompatible. Therefore, make sure that your transitions are short when using this method, or use an equalizer to cut out conflicting elements of compositions.
In conclusion of the story about harmonic mixing, I want to say that everything is good in moderation. Picking your next track based on its key alone can severely limit your options. Rules are made to be broken; don't let them get in the way of planting that "bomb" that the dance floor is waiting for here and now. Let harmonic mixing be just another weapon in your DJing arsenal, not a handcuff to your freedom.
If you want to make your tracks more musical, but do not have sufficient knowledge about keys, scales and harmonies, then our article is exactly for you. This set of tools and tricks will help you learn how to add melodies and write bass to any of your songs using the right notes and with little effort.
Step 1: Determine the key of your audio
If you already know what key your sample is playing in, or if you are building a melody from scratches, you can skip this step. Often, when using sound libraries, the key of the sample is indicated in its name (something like "C" or "Am") or if, for example, you buy a track from a service like a beatport, then the key data can be written in meta data track.
But if you don’t know what key your track is in and still want to add a couple of musical parts to it, you should find out so as not to spoil both the music and the nerves. There are quite a few programs that help determine the key of a song, including Keyfinder, which we will use in this article. It's free 🙂
Just open the program, drop your audio into it with the mouse and click "Run Analysis". The key of the track will be determined and displayed on the right. By the way, you can throw many files into the program at once and determine the tone of all of them at once. It is convenient if you want to mold something from a bunch of samples or just sign them for the convenience of subsequent work. By the way, here's what I'll do as soon as I finish...
So let's say we end up with a guitar sample in G-flat minor (Gbm). That's all you need to move on to the next step.
Step 2: Picking the Right Notes
Now it's time to choose the notes that we will use for the above purposes. Don't panic, no special knowledge of musical literacy is required, as long as we have the good old Wikipedia! All you need is to download two pictures for yourself. Seriously?! Well, the author will not be offended if instead you add this article to your favorites and open it if necessary.
The first picture is for major scales, the second for minor ones. If your audio matches a key from a minor scale, then a small "m" is added next to its name (as in the case of Gbm)
If there is only one capital letter in the name (for example, A or D) and there may be symbols # - sharp major and b - flat major, then this, respectively, applies to major scales.
Of course, there are many more of them, but basically the keys we are considering are used in electronic music.
Usually each key consists of 7 notes that you can play and will sound in tune. What you see in the left column are the names of the keys themselves, and the vertical columns show (in keyboard style) appropriate notes for each. Above, respectively, the names of the notes. So in fact, the table shows which notes will work in a certain key. The numbers on the notes show their number in a given key and which of them we want to use first of all 🙂
If you start with scratches, then in principle you can take any of these keys and play the necessary melodies on it from the provided notes. Or you can first just play something, and then determine the key and work. If not midi keyboards, then you can do it on a regular mouse, or even with a mouse in piano roll.
If we return to our sample from the first step and try to find its key (Gbm) in the table, nothing will come of it. But don't panic, let's take a closer look! Looking at the Gb note, we can see that it is the same note as F#. It turns out that Gbm = F#m, though no mathematics! Pay attention to this feature so as not to get confused in the future with both this and other keys.
Now is the time to put what you have learned into practice. Take your sample, define the key and create some amazing melodies. You are completely safe as long as you use sheet music!
And if you decide to record the bass part, then you will not be equal now!
But that's all for now 🙁
In the next article, we'll talk about chords...
At the moment, I know of two specialized software products that solve the problem of determining the tone. The first one is Mixed In Key, which, thanks to thoughtful marketing, made a lot of noise in the DJ community. A copy of this program, which has received favorable reviews from stars such as Pete Tong, costs $58 at the time of writing.
At the moment it is the most popular program, but this is a very controversial issue in fact.
The second product, which is in the shadow of Mixed In Key, but no less interesting for this, is the very Rapid evolution with which we are already familiar. In terms of its functionality, it is not inferior, if not superior, to MIK, and at the same time it is completely free.
Automatic detection of keys in Rapid Evolution is very simple. First you need to add the songs you are interested in to the program library. To do this, in the main window, click on the add songs button. In the dialog box that appears, click browse and select a track or folder on the disk. Finally, click add all to add all the tracks in the folder to the library.
Then, in the search table, select the tracks whose keys you want to determine. Click the right mouse button and in the context menu that appears select detect and then key to start the key detection process. Be patient, because this will take some time. In the end, in the key column next to the names of the tracks, their keys will appear, determined by Rapid Evolution.
By the way, RE is able to determine the key not only of music files on your computer, but also of a “live” signal coming from line input sound card! This is extremely useful, for example, for determining the keys of tracks in your vinyl collection.
As I said, Rapid Evolution and Mixed In Key are specialized programs for determining keys. At the same time, the growing popularity of harmonic mixing leads to the fact that this function appears in computer emulators of the DJ set. First of all, what has been said concerns the well-known Virtual DJ and MixMeister.
To automatically detect the key of a track in Virtual DJ, you need to do two things. First, right-click on the title of the track table at the bottom of the screen and in the menu that appears, check the box next to Key. The Key column will appear in the table, which will later display the keys of the tracks.
Finally, almost like in Rapid Evolution, select the desired tracks in the table, right-click and select Scan for BPMs. After a short analysis of the tracks, Virtual DJ will display their keys in the corresponding column.
A few words about accuracy. I have not tried Mixed In Key in action, but I can say about Rapid Evolution that it is quite reliable, but not always. The creators of RE claim that the program correctly determines the key in 67-71% of cases, which, in general, is not so bad. However, RE defined the key of Martin Solveig – Rejection (Ian Carey Remix) as D# instead of D#m, which is higher.
I can't vouch for the quality of the Virtual DJ definition, but overall I found it satisfactory. By the way, it is better to use the same program to determine the keys of the compositions in your collection. Experience shows that even if a product “lies” from time to time, the tones that it defines as compatible often turn out to be so in reality.
1) We understand the notation.
Notes in addition to the usual do re mi fa .... are indicated in music in Latin letters.
Do-C Re-D Mi-E Fa-F Sol-G La-A Si-B
On the keys it looks like this:
It is better to learn these correspondences by heart so as not to constantly look at my blog :)
Sounds, as you understand, differ from each other in height. The minimum difference on the keyboard is a half tone. From each white key to the black key adjacent to it to the right or left is exactly half a tone. In 2 cases, there is no black key, and the next key will be white - these are B-C (si-do) and E-F (mi-fa). The distances between them are also half a tone. From the black key to the adjacent white one is also a half-tone. Thus, the distance between the white keys is 1 tone (2 times half a tone, moving through the black key).
Except cases B-C and E-F. Here, as we have already mentioned, the distances are half a tone.
Also in music there are 2 icons - # (sharp) and b (flat). A sharp raises a note by a semitone. A flat, on the other hand, lowers the note by a semitone. All black keys are sharps or flats. Each black key can be called in 2 ways: using a sharp or using a flat. To call a black key with a flat, we take the one next to it white key on the right, we determine its name, add a flat - and oh-pa, we got the name of the black key. To call her with a sharp, we do the same, only we take the key on the left. So F# and Gb are the same black key.
Tonality is also indicated by Latin letters. If the key is major, then just a letter is written. For example C major
denoted as C. If the key is minor, then m is added to the letter of the key. Those. C minor is Cm.
2) Determine the tone.
To begin with, we need to determine the tonic - this is the sound that most closely matches (harmonizes) the entire track. We turn on the track and start playing notes one at a time. By ear, we determine which note merges most strongly with the melody of the track. Often (but not always) this note corresponds to the lower bass.
After we have determined the tonic, we need to build a major or minor triad from it. To do this, we determine by ear whether the track has a cheerful (major) or sad (minor) melody. It sounds simple, but in practice it is much more difficult. Also keep in mind that about 90% of dance music is in minor key.
If the melody is cheerful, then we add + 4 semitones to our tonic - we find the 2nd note. Then +3 more semitones to the second note - we find the 3rd note of the triad. If the melody is sad, then vice versa, first add +3 semitones to the tonic - the second note, then +4 semitones - the third note. We play all the triad and listen to how it harmonizes with the melody of the track. If it doesn’t harmonize, we start from the beginning, with the search for tonic :).
Example: we poked at the keys for a long time, and finally determined that the note C (C) fits the track best. The melody is sad in nature, which means it is most likely a minor. Building a minor triad: add to +3 semitones. This is Mib (Eb). Add another +4 semitones. Receive SALT (G). We play all the triads, check. If it harmonizes, the key of our track is C-minor (Сm).
3) In conclusion.
The above is just the simplest example definitions of tone. Cases are sooo complicated, to the extent that the track does not have a certain tonality. So practice, practice and more practice.
