Layering Key, Vocals, and Energy
Work through harmonic mixing, vocal clashes, and overlapping energy with concrete examples.
So far, you've learned about
and more.
With this, you can overlap two tracks technically.
However,
being able to overlap them cleanly and having them sound pleasing as music are different things.
Even when the BPM, beats, and phrases all match,
"something sounds off"
can still happen.
The things to check at that point are
Those are the three.
What is key?
Each track has its own combination of pitches.
What tells you which notes a track is built around is called its key.
For example, when you play the melodies of two tracks at the same time,
depending on the combination of notes it may sound natural, but sometimes
or it can happen that the notes clash and sound unstable.
That can happen too.
In DJing, when you overlap two tracks for a long time, key is one of the things you use to decide.
When the keys match, tracks can be easier to overlap
Two tracks with close keys share many of the notes they use, so their melodies can often sound natural even when overlapped.
Mixing tracks using this idea is called
That is the name for it.
In DJ software, the key is displayed when you analyze a track.
Depending on the software, it may be displayed in notation such as
Am, C, F#m
or in Camelot notation such as
8A, 8B
That is how it can appear.
You don't need to memorize the notation now.
For now, it's enough to understand that
tracks have keys, and keys are one thing you can use to judge how well the melodies of two tracks go together.
That's all.
Even if the keys match, they won't necessarily blend naturally
This is important.
Just because the keys match,
it doesn't mean the two tracks will always work together.
For example, even if both tracks are in the same key,
if a vocalist is singing in one,
and a different vocalist is singing in the other,
it becomes a state of two people singing different things at the same time.
Even if there is no big problem with the pitch,
you lose track of where to listen, or the sound gets cluttered
That can happen.
Key is
not a pass/fail test that says "these two tracks can be mixed"
It is not a verdict.
It is, after all, just one thing to go on.
Overlapping vocals
When you play the vocals of two tracks at the same time, the singing and words of each can clash.
In particular,
with an overlap where track B's vocal starts while track A's vocal is still going
both try to be the lead.
As a result,
- the lyrics are hard to make out
- the melodies clash
- it's hard to tell which one to listen to
can happen.
For that reason, at first,
it's easier not to overlap parts where the vocals are strong for long
That is easier to follow.
For example,
make track B's vocal start just as track A's vocal ends.
Or,
overlap a drum-focused part of track B with track A's vocal.
There are methods like these.
However, overlapping vocals is not wrong in itself.
Sometimes two vocals are combined on purpose.
For now,
when two leads come out at the same time, they tend to clash.
Please remember this.
What is energy?
In DJing,
how strong and lifted a track feels
is sometimes called "energy."
This is not something decided by a single number the way BPM is.
For example,
- the kick and bass are strong
- there are many sounds playing
- it goes into a drop
- the vocal or melody opens up wide
and energy can feel like it has gone up.
Conversely,
- the kick drops out
- the sounds decrease
- only a quiet melody is left
and it can feel like it has settled down.
In other words, energy is
something like the "strength" or "lift" you feel when listening to a track
That is energy.
Look at the energy of the two tracks
When mixing two tracks, you look at
what track A is about to do
and
what track B is about to do
.
For example,
track A is building up
↓
track A settles down a little
at that point,
if you overlap
track B starting quietly
↓
track B building up
it becomes easier to hand over the lead naturally from A to B.
On the other hand,
if you overlap a part where track B suddenly goes quiet with a place where track A is about to build up all at once,
it can feel unnatural, unless that is what you're aiming for.
The idea you learned earlier,
"match the moment A pulls back with the moment B comes forward,"
is also one way of looking at energy.
Check even when the BPM, beats, and phrases match
To sum up so far,
just because two tracks have
the same BPM
and
matching beats
and
matching phrases
it doesn't mean the mix is finished by that alone.
On top of that,
Are the keys clashing?
Are the vocals getting in each other's way?
Do the ways the two tracks build up mesh?
you check these by ear.
In other words,
looking right on screen and sounding good to the ear are different things.
In the end, you judge by actually listening.
Opinion (the author's view)
Don't choose tracks by key alone
I think key is a useful thing to go on, but you shouldn't choose tracks by key alone.
DJ software shows the key, so you could pick mechanically, thinking
"After this key, this key."
and nothing more.
But if you do that, bigger decisions get left out, such as
- whether you really want to play that track now
- whether it fits the flow before and after
- whether the vocals will clash
- whether the ways they build up fit together
and so on.
On the other hand, some hold that
"matching keys as much as possible reduces mix failures."
That view exists too.
Especially when you overlap melody-heavy tracks for a long time, key is quite helpful.
I think a usable approach is to
first choose the tracks and the flow, and check the key within that.
That's about right.
Summary
- Even when the BPM, beats, and phrases match, it won't necessarily sound natural as music
- Key is one thing to go on in judging whether two tracks' melodies overlap easily
- Vocals can clash when both try to be the lead
- Energy is a way of looking at the strength and lift of a track
- In the end, judge by actually listening, not only by numbers or the screen