Software for programmed, harmonic mixing (key, bpm display)

Audio Plugin Hosts and other audio software applications discussion
Post Reply New Topic
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

I like to use Reaper for making my mixtapes. It's worked fine, but I also try to practice harmonic mixing, where tracks are in the same key, or in complimentary keys. However, I also like to pitch up tracks when the rate changes, rather than just time stretch them. This, of course, changes the key.

Is there a tool out there that will show you, at a glance, what key your tracks are in? Can it show you the adjusted key once the track is in your mix, set to a BPM?

It would also be useful to be able to see the BPM for my tracks before I try to fit them into the mix.

This doesn't need to be a live mixing tool, as I don't do any live mixing.

Post

Pioneer Rekordbox does exactly that, though I questioned the accuracy of key detection many times. There are also many more similiar tools for DJs and key analysis.

I also believe that pitching track up or dawn is counter-productive hen it comes to harmonic mixing, as it simply changes the key and make them go out of tune :shrug:
Blog ------------- YouTube channel
Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)

Post

Thanks for the reply, Warmonger. I am going to start being more selective about pitching. Some records sound better pitched up, but if the rate change is slight, then pitching it slightly out-of-key is not worth it.

Anyway, there is a free program called Mixxx that will analyze your whole collection and show you what key everything is in. I don't know how accurate it is, and it doesn't account for the fact that a lot of songs either change key, or the whole song may be have non-diatonic chord progressions so you couldn't say it's really in a set key.

But anyway, Mixxx looks pretty amazing. The only drawback I see to Mixxx is that, so far, I don't see a way to lay out/program a mix. It looks like it's strictly for live mixing. You can record you mix, but I want to be able to lay it out without playing every cut all the way through.

Post Reply

Return to “Hosts & Applications (Sequencers, DAWs, Audio Editors, etc.)”