I’ve been djing on and off for about… 12 years now, since I was about 15 or 16 and, from my time learning on Kam belt drive decks and a shite two channel mixer, i’ve seen some real crap come on the market that is meant to appeal to djs. I actually gave up djing a few years ago because it had gone slightly overboard and I lost faith in the gorges of total shite that came on the scene to ‘help’ djs, but this one really takes the mick. Mixedinkey.com apparently allows you to ‘mix in key’, which is allegedly ‘innovative and fresh’.
For those not in the know, the musical definition of ‘key’ can be confusing at times, but essentially the ‘key’ of a song is (and scale of – major and minor etc) essentially the key on which a particular piece of music is focussed and usually begins. Example: If you search for piano lessons on the interweb, they’ll usually point you to ‘middle C’ which is mostly defined starting point for mapping your hands on a keyboard. Lets say you start to play any tune you can think of, starting from ‘C’… if you start the same tune from ‘E’ or ‘E sharp’, and play the song, it’ll sound different, as you’re playing it in a different key.
Anyhoo, djing isn’t that difficult really – people have been beatmatching since the late seventies or early eighties without any problems. Grandmaster Flash, Larry Levan, and various other fellas used to use tape decks and turntables to mix records to create a seamless nightclub experience. Easy to do really once you get the hang of it (lets not lie here), and an experience we’re now all familiar with following the advent of mix albums and such. As time went on some dj’s started to mix ‘in key’, which probably started accidentally but in any case was most likely caused by the individual djs’ musical ear which they either gained from learning an instrument, or just naturally had anyway. However, this new musical ‘innovation’ – Mixedinkey – is a product created by morons, for morons.
What it does is – if you are a digital dj – it tells you they key of the song you’re about to mix into the previous one. WHO THE FUCK CARES! IF YOU AREN’T MUSICALLY INCLINED TO KNOW WHAT SOUNDS GOOD AND WHAT DOESN’T, THEN GIVE UP. Crikey.
They even give you a handy reference chart to show you what key matches what other key… or whatever… blah. Heres the link.
What a ball of shite.