Pathetic workaround (but more or less its working)....
I'd rather see the library to be enhanced so these common functions are natively implemented for example like some context search...
Having cratesfor every simple search and usethemlike search preset is quiteout dated approach these days...
Pls enhance the library!

This is great. Was going to set up my new smart crates just like this later today.

Big thank for work

I agree we would love to enhance the library feature set. It's something we are aware of and wanting to develop further at some point in the near future.

This is just a handy tip :)

+1k

Great tip for sure I'm pretty much only using smart crates.
But is there a way to always keep the smart crates in order and at the top?
For example when I build the crates via off line player there fine with only my internal drives, but as soon as I hook up my external there get all moved around in the crates section. Then I have to drag them back to the top and reorder them.

This is good!
But, it will be awesome if Serato can auto-detect the keys without using third party software like MIK.

You can also try adding +7 or -5 (which ends up being the same key) to your smart crates.

This will move up or down 1 semitone, which has been working nicely for me so far.

Would love to see a button in SL or DJ that when clicked, only shows tracks in the current playlist that will successfully mix in key into the last played track.

Would be cool if you could modify that button to show say only +1 / -1 or if you wanted to add your own custom key changes like the +7 / -5 etc..

:\_Serato_\Subcrates
no Smart Crates folder
and can't move smart crates

i have 2 disks, do i need to copy them into the C: disk or in both _serato_ folders (both disks)

Hi Hrdnx,

create a smart crate yourself and the folder will be there
Or simply create the folder in your explorer/finder

Hi marcA
Putting them into your main drives library should be enough

yep already showing up :)

This has got to be on their roadmap. It's a feature every other software has. Just a matter of time... hopefully not too much!

This is a neat tip, but it's essentially a workaround for a suggestion engine. Even just adding more options to the "Browse" pane would solve this: columns for compatible keys with current playing track, as well as a BPM range.

my suggestion
fine tune searches (using keys and what not)
then an option to save searches as smart crates

The best Key software is not MIK its KeyFinder
www.ibrahimshaath.co.uk
Thank me later

please.. Smart Crate put into other Crate, would be useful... at least if we can put into a 'regular' crate

think about!

Cool Thanks for the Tip I've just started using MIK

www.poll-maker.com



Vote for it here

is there a way to put all these smart crates into 1 crate?
so they become sub crates?

Nope. Not currently. It's been a feature request for a while though. Hopefully it gets addressed when they upgrade the library features.

that's not smart... :)
thx NDKelly

Awesome thank you huge time saver!

I wish Serato would just implement some form of filter for the Serato Library.
A filter by BPM range button & a filter by Key button.

Using smart crates/playlists as a workaround is too long/cumbersome to use.

I've made a feature request for some filter buttons above the library in Serato:
serato.com

+1

I've got a feature request for this:
serato.com

Some great suggestions here about SDJ being able to filter the range of Bpm and key range of a give track. I find Rekordbox does a great job of key analysis and it's free but the issue now is that I have a mixture of music that has been key detected by MIK and Rekordbox . They use different codes for key detection . Is there an easy way to consolidate them to one standard?

.. use Key text in RKBOX or leave the Key in comments.Put a -0 - before the MIK Key (to filter in the right order ) and RKBOX should be able to filter the tracks with the MIK Key ...

Follow the instructions but no smart crates appear

Yea I use this and it's great. But I have not used MIK so I cannot say which is better.

One thing that annoys me:
you would think that reliable music source websites who embed a tracks key into the file when downloaded, why doesn't it match key finders key?

Without geting my grand keyboard out, how do you know which one to trust? I'd like to get MIK so I could compare them all. Or has anyone done this already?

Just found this. Good article and pretty much answers what I wrote earlier.

www.djtechtools.com

So interesting that VirtualDJ gets step-childed in the industry when it has had these harmonic features since 3 or 4 versions ago which = a few years.

Camelot Key detection, Smart Folders with rules to give you harmonically compatible tracks which = suggestions etc. All of this has been in vDJ.

Serato does a good job copying innovations .... May wonder why I use Serato... I use it for "fun" and its scratching accuracy when I want to "play around".

Lol

Amazing, reading the thread took me back to the times when I labeled my vynil covers with song key, bpm, and measure/phrase intro. The date: 1987.
Back when the only harmonic mixing was being done back east and in the more progressive Clubs in L.A.
New tech rocks, have played with vDJ and like the key defenitions.
I do miss the gigs
Baxter's/Cocos in SoCal
Baxters, Bentley, Carlos n Panchos in NorCal

Tito

Great idea.

But how do I get this to work with playlists as opposed to my entire collection? Is it possible to create a rule that allows these crates to select from then apply this rule to a particular playlist of music?

Schade das man die "Smart Crates" nicht wie nach Baum Struktur ordnen kann.
Das würde das sortieren noch mal verbessern.

nice thanks for doing the work of making these smart crates for us

how come only the "A" crates are made, and there is just a big general "B" is that by design?

Hi DJ Barticus,

I made only a single B crate because when looking at a few libraries, they all had only a few songs in B anyway. For example my own B crate is smaller than every of my A crates.

Do you have lots of songs in B ?

Anyone?

You have to wait for Serato to copy more vDJ functionality :)

or... put the playlist name in a tag in each of your tracks that is in the playlist, then you can write the Serato rule to choose songs that have the tag.

it's a pretty big number, are all "B" songs supposed to harmonically go together?

Simple answer: serato is one of the most stable programs around, even as far back as 2008-2009 it was very stable for me, even though I was running on a used Dell Laptop running XP, with mediocre stats for the time. I've seen laptops lock up, fall off tall objects, and otherwise fail on stage, and Serato is the only platform which the music seems to keep pumping through the mixer flawlessly despite the comp obviously needing a reboot. 20 seconds or a minute of lead time before the music suddenly cuts out is pricessless. Ableton, and traktor on the other hand... When the system fails, so do they.


No, Being in B just means that they are major scales instead of minor ones, what that means is this: C and Am (8b and 8a) are different keys with different chords in them, but they have all the same notes, but the scales start at different places on the staff, the notes you start and end on are at different places on the staff, and the way scales are played makes them have different "emotional" characteristics minor scales / keys are said to be "darker" or have more sad / eerie vibes, while the major keys are said to have brighter, more light hearted tones.. For more info check out wikipedia: i/Major_and_minor

en.wikipedia.org

And what is the point of this "simple answer"? Don't want to get into a debate about Serato vs. vDJ. The original point was that vDJ gets step-childed even though it had features Serato users desired way before Serato implemented them. Serato may have been stable since late 2Ks, but vDJ has been around since early 2Ks.

If the USB cable falls out for any platform >> music stops. No doubt Serato is stable and in the cable example, you can plug it right back in and keep going. vDJ on the other hand has features that spawn a new instance of the program that keeps the music playing or in most cases will at least allow the current deck to keep playing. But again, thats not the point of this discussion. Its about "harmonic mixing features".

Every software platform has its advantages and disadvantages. I chose Serato because it has arguably the cleanest, most intuitive interface out there. In terms of features, VDJ (and Mixvibes) have more for sure, but the interfaces just seem a bit less refined to me. Not saying SDJ is perfect - it is still missing key features - but I ultimately just like using it more than the others.

vDJ is user skinable and even has Serato Skin if you like that look so much. (example Watchwww.youtube.com)

In terms of intuitive, Serato still doesn't allow users to map their own keyboard controls. What could be more intuitive than customizing controls to what you prefer.

So here's a question; "would you rather have great harmonic mix features like the ones being asked for in this thread, or a clean 'simple' interface?" My answer is; its a mute point in vDJ given you have control of the interface. :)

I suppose there is some benefit to making things only work one way and keep all the sDJ users in a box. ...its kinda like what Apple does to keep absolute control of its operating environment in order to assure a single type of experience.

But don't worry. sDJ is copying features as fast as they can so just be patient :)

Don't want to get into a big thing here, but to my eyes that skin is ugly.

how do you re edit the rules of a smasrt crate?

literally click on edit for that crate

Thanks. Actually stumped for a month subscription to VDJ to give it a go. Got the demo a while. I see why you speak highly of it.

thanks i never knew a edit button exisied i have been deleting and re making the bloddy things all this time SMH!!

Just want to say loving it.
thanks for this

Are these instructions for a MAC?

I've just started using Dj Intro (with Numark MP2), and I basically accomplished this in iTunes. You can use smart playlists (in a folder) for each key, which I write to the comments tag using KeyFinder.

I've also got a playlist for genres as well. This means I can either sort a genre playlist by the comments column to find neighbouring key tracks, or I can switch to a key playlist, if I want to get a wider range of choices.

Working pretty well so far...

I'm a bit confused about the explanation in the 2nd paragraph.
So when adding '6' to 6A, my math skills bring me to 12A and not 1A as described. Maybe one can correct the formula.

+1(000)

I'm forced to use external drives for a short while now. My crates tree often gets jumbled, too (simple and smart crates as well). Is there meanwhile a solution or known workaround for that issue?

Great idea but I'm not gonna do until I can create parent folders for smart crates.
1A-12A
+
1B-12B
=
24 crates only for harmonic mixing.

Now add date, genre, rating, etc.

I need the possibility to have a "key" folder.
Separated into two sub-folders "major"and "minor".

So I imported these files into the folder, but the Smart Crates dont show up any songs of mine.

my crates are empty... i tried to create smartcrates myself and found, that when i added a rule "key is 1A" it returned empty crate, but when i added a rule "key is G#m", it started to show all "1A" tracks... does anybody know how to fix this to work with 1A,2A.. etc as well, please?

@majster kat: As a workaround, if this is an option for you: Set options to show camelot keys. Then create a SC "key not contains A" and "key not contains B". Sort by key and do a mass tag change explicitly setting/overwriting shown camelot keys (1A, 2A ... and so on...). Should be fast, straight-forward and unifies key tags in your library ;)

One quick queston about the smart crates?! what to do if you have two disks of music and on both this disks you have the _serato_ folder? where do you place the smart cratesdescribed in this article above then?
ty for your quick response.

You'll have to choose which disc they go on! I would use the larger disc, they tend to fill up fast!

Don't you mean to add 7 not 6?.

Both of your examples below make it seem adding 7 not 6 is correct no?.

"For 6A, you can also play any track with the same key, a neighbouring key (6B, 7A, 5A) or one semitone above which would be 1A (add 6 to your Camelot number)".

"Crate 1A contains all songs with Keys

1A (the same key)
2A, 12A, 1B (neighbours)
8A (one semitone up, creates an energy boost according to the MIK guide, and usually sounds good too)"