A&H Xone Allows DJ's to mix in key  Add your News

Play compatible songs
There is a successful method that will help you pick compatible songs throughout your performance. It is called the Camelot notation. you can see this chart in the picture on the right.

Look at this chart like a clock. Do you see 12 O'clock? This corresponds to a real key used in music theory. Outside edge has "B" letters representing Major keys. Inside edge has "A" letters representing Minor keys.

Here's the secret: You are mixing harmonically when you subtract one hour (-1), add one hour (+1), or stay in the same hour.
If you're in key of 12A, you can mix into 11A, stay in 12A or mix into 1A. It's just like subtracting and adding one hour.


Software to help you select
Allen & Heath, manufacturer of the leading Xone mixer range, has teamed up with US software designer, Mixed In Key, to offer new software which enables digital DJ’s to analyse and harmonise tracks.

'Xone Mixed in Key’ is Windows and MAC OS X compatible software, which analyses MP3 and .WAV files, identifies the key of a track, and highlights which other tracks are harmonically compatible. This eliminates the possibility of key clashes whilst performing live, and allows the DJ to analyse their entire music collection, discovering compatible songs.

“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.

Xone Mixed In Key is available as a digital download at a RRP of $58 USD. Both Mac OS X and Windows versions are available.


Features

• Analyze your .MP3 files and .WAV files. All bitrates are supported (320kbit, 256kbit, 192kbit, 128kbit, etc)
• Create browsable collections, drag-and-drop supported
• Display harmonically compatible keys
• Drag-and-drop support for Ableton Live!, Traktor, Virtual DJ and most CD burning applications
• Read our tutorial on harmonic mixing
• Save identified keys into MP3 ID3 tags automatically
• Show the tempo (beats per minute) of every song
• Search for specific song name or key
• Sort songs by key