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Top Tip - Smart Crates for Mixing in Key
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Top Tip - Smart Crates for Mixing in Key

beezwax 1:37 PM - 10 May, 2011
I recently assigned keys to all of my tracks using Rapid Evolution and I'm too lazy to manually look up tracks that fit so I decided to use Smart Crates instead.

I'm not that bothered about mixing in key anyway, but it can't hurt to have another way to find tracks, especially when playing house or techno ;-)

So this is basically what I've done - feel free to tell me if I'm doing something wrong or if I've missed something......

1. Assign key codes to tracks (using Rapid Evolution or Mixed in Key etc.)
2. Make 24 Smart Crates; one for every key code (1A-12A & 1B-12B)
3. Select the Smart Crate that matches the track currently playing
4. The crate will only show tracks that match, so select from these for your next mix

www.mixshare.com (free download of Rapid Evolution)

Setting the crates up:-

Most people seem to suggest that to mix harmonically you can move within one hour of the key code on the Camelot wheel; or move from the inner to the outer wheel and vice versa.

www.camelotsound.com

So the crate for 1A should have the following rules:
(any of these rules, so do NOT tick 'match all of these rules')

1. Key is 12A
2. Key is 1A
3. Key is 2A
4. Key is 1B

There is also the option of energy boost mixing, where you move up in key one or two semitones from the currently playing track. When using key codes, to move up by one semitone, you simply add 7 to the number (so 2A becomes 9A for example) and to move up by two semitones, you simply add 2 to the number (so 2A becomes 4A)

I've decided to add this into my Smart Crates so my 1A crate also has these rules:

5. Key is 3A
6. Key is 8A

Obviously, to make the Smart Crate for 2A you would just add 1 to all of the numbers in your Smart Crate rules; and so on for 3A and the rest.

Anyway, hope I've got it right and some of you find it useful......

b.
feniks 12:58 PM - 11 May, 2011
Sweet.
DJ GaFFle 1:19 PM - 11 May, 2011
I'll read this again this evening when I get to my computer and try it out. Thx
DJ Grenade 7:02 PM - 11 May, 2011
you will need to rename your mixed in key comments to read 01a 01b 02a 02b because itunes will pick up 11a and 12 a in your 1a smart playlist. 0's are a must to truly keep the playlists to be defined by only 1a 2a etc..
Dj-M.Bezzle 7:08 PM - 11 May, 2011
Quote:
you will need to rename your mixed in key comments to read 01a 01b 02a 02b because itunes will pick up 11a and 12 a in your 1a smart playlist. 0's are a must to truly keep the playlists to be defined by only 1a 2a etc..



what about in SL smart playlists?
beezwax 7:25 PM - 11 May, 2011
Quote:
you will need to rename your mixed in key comments to read 01a 01b 02a 02b


i thought that would only be if the rule was 'contains' 1A - i've set it to 'is' 1A and so on

will have a look now.....
beezwax 7:56 PM - 11 May, 2011
seems fine, didn't plug my hard drive in though so i didn't see my whole library.

will double check next time i have a mix.....
DJ Pullout 9:41 PM - 11 May, 2011
my rapid evolution 2 program crashes anytime I have it scan any folder.... size doesnt matter. I tried to have it scan a folder with thousands of songs.... then tried a folder with only 10 songs in it.

Froze.
beezwax 11:15 PM - 11 May, 2011
Really? I've not had any problems, apart from it not writing AIFF tags and messing up some of my ID3 info.

I was using it by dragging a folder into it (often 1000 or more tracks), then clicking add all, selecting 200 or so tracks to analyse (key only), tagging those tracks and then repeating until each folder was finished.

I did find it fairly hard to understand in the first place - it's not the most intuitive software to use, but it is free after all....
DJ Pullout 12:33 PM - 12 May, 2011
Im gonna try again....
Corex 4:00 PM - 12 May, 2011
Quote:
my rapid evolution 2 program crashes anytime I have it scan any folder.... size doesnt matter. I tried to have it scan a folder with thousands of songs.... then tried a folder with only 10 songs in it.

Froze.

same here. always freezes for me. this is a great trick though thanks bud.
DJdaveZ 4:16 PM - 12 May, 2011
you can always sort the library by key column.. no?
DJ BIS 9:48 AM - 28 March, 2012
Great post B!
WarpNote 2:16 PM - 28 March, 2012
Quote:
my rapid evolution 2 program crashes anytime I have it scan any folder.... size doesnt matter. I tried to have it scan a folder with thousands of songs.... then tried a folder with only 10 songs in it.

Froze.

Keyfinder > serato.com
Dj John Bekk 5:56 PM - 7 February, 2013
Quote:
I recently assigned keys to all of my tracks using Rapid Evolution and I'm too lazy to manually look up tracks that fit so I decided to use Smart Crates instead.

I'm not that bothered about mixing in key anyway, but it can't hurt to have another way to find tracks, especially when playing house or techno ;-)

So this is basically what I've done - feel free to tell me if I'm doing something wrong or if I've missed something......

1. Assign key codes to tracks (using Rapid Evolution or Mixed in Key etc.)
2. Make 24 Smart Crates; one for every key code (1A-12A & 1B-12B)
3. Select the Smart Crate that matches the track currently playing
4. The crate will only show tracks that match, so select from these for your next mix

www.mixshare.com (free download of Rapid Evolution)

Setting the crates up:-

Most people seem to suggest that to mix harmonically you can move within one hour of the key code on the Camelot wheel; or move from the inner to the outer wheel and vice versa.

www.camelotsound.com

So the crate for 1A should have the following rules:
(any of these rules, so do NOT tick 'match all of these rules')

1. Key is 12A
2. Key is 1A
3. Key is 2A
4. Key is 1B

There is also the option of energy boost mixing, where you move up in key one or two semitones from the currently playing track. When using key codes, to move up by one semitone, you simply add 7 to the number (so 2A becomes 9A for example) and to move up by two semitones, you simply add 2 to the number (so 2A becomes 4A)

I've decided to add this into my Smart Crates so my 1A crate also has these rules:

5. Key is 3A
6. Key is 8A

Obviously, to make the Smart Crate for 2A you would just add 1 to all of the numbers in your Smart Crate rules; and so on for 3A and the rest.

Anyway, hope I've got it right and some of you find it useful......

b.


hi there, i have my tracks arranged as you have described.

I also have a genre marked as "old", this is where i put tracks that i don't really play anymore but don't want to delete out of Serato.

Is it possible to set up a rule in the above smart crates to not include my "old" genre?

I've been trying for the last week and can't seem to do it!!!

Thanks
beezwax 1:18 PM - 19 September, 2013
Quote:
I'm not that bothered about mixing in key anyway, but it can't hurt to have another way to find tracks, especially when playing house or techno ;-)


I was so not bothered that I pretty much never ever used this!! Maybe I'll start this winter.....
Michael Rempel 6:24 AM - 17 December, 2013
I use a slightly different approach that lets me mix in key with several filters, and all of them have to be met for the smart filter to work. I just wish that smart crates had children so that one smart list could be the source for sub-crates.

Anyway, I use a list of keys. They key list is always based on the end key of the previous song. This is a detail some people miss. My condition only looks for the key in the tag. I search for the key my song is ending with and I get a list of valid next songs.

As for which keys are valid steps, the major minor step is obvious. one step either direction is valid, but so are 7 steps and 3 steps. So it depends on your preferences.

Listing keys in the comments such as if I have a 1A key in a song my list for that song would be /1A/1B/12A/2A/ for the conventional approach. for my alternative approach you could add /10A/4A/6A/7A/ but I am always feeling better about upshifting keys myself, for the sake of energy so my additional tags are /4A/7A/ only. In addition I add another tag for dance since I also mix for background music I tag that up as well, and some of it crosses over so it gets both tags. Genre I dont filter on, but I will sort a crate by it so I can find something quick. The other category I do is tempo groups along side the key groups. all in all I have about 100 groups. My comments field is way to busy doing useful stuff for actual comments. And I have a script written in Perl that uses a bunch of command line tools to analyze and normalize audio, set up and maintain the tags and fix stuff that is broken. If you dont have a good silence trimmer and volume normalizer Goldwave does a great job and you can use it as a regular Windows program to batch update your audio files. It isnt so good for tags however.

Batch processing is a lot easier and better for me. I dump an artist/album/audio file in my processor (any file format, doesnt matter) and out the other end I get a clean tagged audio file normalized to -12db rms, silence trimmed, key matched, tempo matched and ready for Serato to analyze and put in the right crates before I even bother to listen to it.

Works great for iTunes downloading too. I have an autocrate that I update with 'today' to get those once they show up. That is my request download showing up in the show. Shared hard drive on a network with a few computers is how my setup goes. One for DJ, one for video, and one just for internet and stuff like the analysis I am describing. My scripts are ugly code written in perl, which is about the most awful thing in the world to read. But it works.

If you guessed that my day job is IT related, you are right. I am a programmer when I dont have the shiny wiggly lights going to the throb of some nice subs.
DJ Dave Villa 4:36 AM - 9 April, 2014
^ Michael ^ i think you have this slightly wrong. in a 1A crate 8A would match not 7A
DJ Inubito 4:35 PM - 9 April, 2014
I just sort my tracks within crates by key. Pretty much puts any tracks you have that'll go together right next to each other already? Cool idea, but that method still works as well.
tobias.jungnickel 9:57 AM - 9 May, 2014
can you please upload your scrates files of the smart crates for all keys?
Rob Alahn 11:57 PM - 8 September, 2015
Good look! #vivaserato
MC Apollo 1:05 AM - 23 September, 2016
anyway guys. I don't know if oyu find my comment usefull but nevertheless.
I would really like if there is an option that i dont know in serato, how do you add multiple keys....
so for example: i would like to use a filter that tells me which songs are compatibel with key 1A! which means i need to set up a filter that has keys 1A . so key is 1A but i alos want the same filter to find keys 1B , 12A and 2A, asince they are compatible.
But the filter doesnt allow this.
Becouse once you set key is 1A you cannot set also key is 1B., or can i??
key is 1A, and key is 1B shows nothing. I there a way to add an OR option to the filters?? somehow??
s you can write.. show me key 1A or key 1B .. (WHICH MEANS SHOW ME BOTH) SO when i click on the filter it would display keys 1A and 1B .. and the rest that are compatible.
ty.
Robejz 1:41 PM - 23 September, 2016
I don't think there's a way to filter your music library like that but Serato created smart crates that contain compatible keys. Download them here:

serato.com
MC Apollo 5:46 PM - 27 September, 2016
there is an error within those FILTERS!!! bc thse are Filters not smart crates!!!
and one more thing!..
i think it was 11A.. (filter or smart crate as you call it) that must be fixed.. if i remember good.. it has 11A 10A 12A and 10B but it should be 11B... so fix it!!! please for other users also.. (i pretty sure it was 11A /crate that is wrong or maybe 10A).. anyway one of those.. if you know what i am talking about you will find it.. easily.. there is also an issue of crashing i wont to discuss.. 1.3.9.. is crashing all the time!!.. i cant anaylse my files.. bc even before it displays the filters it crashes.. the only thing that i changed was adding this smart crates.. and updateing to 1.3.9 .. before it didnt crash!!.. .. and yeah i didnt connect my ddj-sr.. while doing this tests.. since.. !!
please fix it!!

best wishes Jan AKA MC Apollo
MC Apollo 5:47 PM - 27 September, 2016
it displays the filters. but doesnt display the music (or when it does display the music .. it crashes).. after a few seconds..