Ableton Forum

Dear Friends,

Allen & Heath has announced new DJ software called "Xone Mixed In Key". Xone Mixed In Key scans your music files and shows you which songs are harmonically compatible. The benefit to the DJ is extremely smooth mixing. Xone Mixed In Key helps you eliminate key clashes, muddy mixes and out-of-key elements from your DJ sets.


Mixed In Key is currently used by thousands of DJs including Pete Tong, Deep Dish, Dean Coleman, Kuffdam & Plant and many more. Mixed In Key also hosts an active harmonic mixing community where DJs can improve their DJ mixing. Now that Xone Mixed In Key is part of Allen & Heath's software line-up, we can combine world-famous DJ equipment with our fastest growing DJ software for harmonic mixing.



Here is the link to learn more:

http://xone.mixedinkey.com




Press release from Allen & Heath:


XONE ENABLES DJ’S TO MIX IN KEY

Allen & Heath, manufacturer of the leading Xone mixer range, has teamed up with Mixed In Key to offer new software which enables DJ’s to analyse and harmonise tracks. This partnership is the first seamless integration of top-class mixing equipment with the fastest growing DJ application on the market.

Xone Mixed In Key is Windows / Mac OS X software that allows DJs mix in total harmony. It analyses MP3 and .WAV files, identifies the key of a track, and highlights which other tracks are harmonically compatible. Xone Mixed In Key allows the DJ to discover harmonically-compatible songs in their music collection. The benefit is extremely smooth mixing with no key clashes.


“Xone Mixed in Key is a fantastic innovation for DJ’s, and eliminates the time-consuming and laborious task of manually detecting the root note of every track. Allen & Heath has a golden reputation in the DJ community, and we're excited to offer Xone Mixed In Key software to a wider audience,” writes Mixed In Key president, Yakov Vorobyev.

“The explosion of digital DJ’ing over the past couple of years has introduced a wealth of technical advantages to the art of DJ’ing. Xone Mixed In Key is a case in point. DJ’s have instant access to thousands upon thousands of new music files and this software can quickly and easily enable them to put tracks into musical context,” concludes Xone designer, Andy Rigby-Jones.



Cheers,
Yakov

For the sake of sharing free information, here's a thread about "Energy Boost Mixing", one of the most powerful harmonic mixing techniques. It works really well with Ableton Live and both Shane 54 and Sasha have used it a lot. It's all over "Involver" CDs and Shane's live mixes.


http://community.mixedinkey.com/Topic.aspx?ID=1621

Xone and Mixed In Key have teamed up?

Kewl.

that's fuckin' bullshit. if you got ears u don't have the need for such a lousy harmonic-tool. but maybe i don't understand the whole case.......

Patch wrote:Xone and Mixed In Key have teamed up?

Kewl.

it seems like you DID take the time to read eh?

Is this ableton forum?

BASSbüro wrote:that's fuckin' bullshit. if you got ears u don't have the need for such a lousy harmonic-tool. but maybe i don't understand the whole case.......

It would seem that you DON'T understand the whole case. Harmonic mixing is next level. Loads of great DJs have been doing it for years - and now you can do it with no musical training.

That's good for DJing as a whole.

patch: i know loads of great dj's have been doing that for years. you can do it without musical training, that's exactly the problem. what can u do today without musical training? everything! even a fuckin' embryo can stand behind a turntable.......so whut's the benefit? more lousy dj's? more dullards with no felling for proper mixes? i don't want to be aible to mix barbara tucker on a hawtin-tune.....a bad mix is a bad mix, even with perfect harmony.

BUT: i think i'll order this peace of software, too.......he, he!

BASSbüro wrote:BUT: i think i'll order this peace of software, too.......he, he!

Why not try RAPID EVOLUTION first? It's free and does exactly the same as Mixed In Key...

I use harmonic mixing all the time, I'm actually at the point now where I can't stand listening to out of key mixes.
Obviously some tunes will sound ok together without being in key, and in a club environment it's less important - but on a mix cd or something it makes all the difference.
For me that's the bit I enjoy most about djing - taking two tracks and combining them together so they work musically and create something new, not just a transition from one track to the next. Thats just me though!

The Mixed in Key software is not bad, apparently the only difference between the XONE version and the original is the name. Another alternative is Mixmeister, it's meant for making mixes, but it functions very well as a key/bpm calculator and is good for managing your tunes as well.
The accuracy of the key calculation is these pieces of software is only something like 70% as well, so they need to be used in conjunction with your ear. I have friends who've supposedly done harmonic mix cd's, but have relied entirely on what the software has told them, so it's not actually in key after all. I find myself just using the keyboard to work out the key a lot of the time, my ears are more reliable than the software.

Not too sure about A&H's claim of hours of laborious work keying tracks. I've never spent a second keying anything. It either compliments or it doesn't. This product really seems like a stretch and is definitely nothing new. There was another site I used to post on that someone was pitching this same type of product over a year ago. My feelings haven't changed on it and there's better ways to spend your money, unless of course you're tone deaf.

hmmmm, bit concerned about this. I'm not an old skooler who wants to see djing to stay the same way forever, but this is just silly. With enough practice most can beat match competently, but this is the true test of a naturally musical ear - training or no training! You either can or you can't, lol.

Such a dj will pick his next record, listen to it in his phones alongside what's playing..and KNOW. If they're gonna sound sh1t together, it goes back in the bag.

The ability to do this well sorts the men from the boys, and is still relavent in ableton sets - surgeons sets are full of intersting layering which make his performances very unique. He's proven for years he can do it with records and decks and now his just does the same with ableton.

IMHO getting s/w to do it for you is a shame. Hopefully it's design is flawed, like most bpm counters. Fingers crossed

Who cares? It's just another aid, seemingly hated by the superstars with all the talent. Actually, IMO, if they had real talent, creativity, and originality, (like I wish I had!) they'd be musicians and not DJs...

REAL men beatmatch and harmonic mix by turning Edison wax cylinder cranks at different speeds, anyway!

I use harmonic mixing a lot. You still get some sour sounding mixes, possibly due to the software not detecting the correct key.

It's just nice to know that you can eliminate a lot of the tracks that will clash with the currently playing track by searching a dtabase for complimentary keyed songs.

yeah, i just see it as more of a time saver.
It's a bit like the fact that you don't have to beatmatch with live. I just see beatmatching and working out the key of tracks as a laborious task that anyone can learn, the skilled bit is what you do with them after that. So if there's something that gives me more time to work on the important things, then it's all good!

@patch: thanx.........i'll try this rapid evolution for testing. but i don't think harmonic-softwares will revolutionize the dj-world. a bad mix stayed a bad-mix, even with key-mapping.

i've listen to this shane 54 demo-mix. yes, it's 100% harmonic. but the mix is still crap........