So many posts on this matter and after 2 years and after numerous updates, let's face it's never going to work 100% properly or be fixed :)
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SeguiOkay I'm getting increasingly frustrated !!!
I play my tracks at around 125BPM and I try to mix in key using the camelot wheel but it is soooo difficult when more and more decent records are being produced with such a wide tempo - 112-130bpm.
How can I mix in key when one track is 114 and and the other is 126bpm, master tempo I here you type ...... give over !
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you shouldn't be trying to mix at such extreme bpm ranges really - its never going to sound good, whatever decks you use.
try using bpm range playlists. 115-120, 120-125, 125-130 etc and try and pitch your bpm somewhere in the middle - this way your worst case mix scenario is only +/- 2.5 bpm which is totally fine.
also, think about not always using the camelot wheel, harmonic mixing can be great but it can also lead you down a certain 'path' when selecting the next track. there's loads of ways to additionally tag your tracks to help aid where to go next...
I try to build when doing an eclectic mix and go from soul to Funk to Edits at 112 BPM to House at 120-125. The only way of achieving a decent (extreme) shift in tempo is doing a decent cut between tracks. I do use Master Tempo but only +/- 10% total otherwise the warble and beat skipping gets too noticeable.
You can also adjust the key tag according to the BPM. Find out your BPM "sweet spot" and tag all tracks that are 3% over down one key and all tracks 3% under up one key (minus or plus 7 on the Camelot wheel). It doesn't work 100% but surprisingly often! Then you don't need to use master tempo that always will distort the sound on whatever hardware or software you use.
114 to 126 is roughly 10.5% change for that 114BPM track, even if MT were perfect a 10% change is quite a stretch.
I know Pulse I agree, can i repitch a track any other way, this must be how the big jocks are doing it ?
If I had a way of doing that then the MT wouldn't be so much of an issue
I'm pretty sure no one is regularly pitching up such slow tracks to 125+ on a regular basis just using the cdj. A 10% shift with no MT isn't going to sound that good in most cases and certainly not good with MT on.
That's not to say this is true in every case, there are 33 vinyls that sound great at 45 for example.
Most Djs will keep within bpm ranges and gradually speed things up during the night, I think a 5% pitch change is about the limit for me.
You could look at rendering out a few tracks that you want to play faster in ableton, it's a bit of a pain but will give you a better result than just MT alone.
If you need a track stretched that much on a regular basis, consider using a pro audio editing app (like Ableton) to use the greater horsepower of your computer to pitch-stretch it for you.
If i was reguarly changing between such big bpm gaps I'd be looking at using ableton so i could do tricks when jumping bpm. But i'd most likely start at the lowest bpm, and build up song intensity, then jump to a faster bpm, then repeat the method until i am at the final bpm.. mixing songs that are more melodic at more than, sometimes even as low as 2-3%, can completely ruin the song for somebody who knows it well. I hear it far too much on house tracks with people mix in a trance track or an older house track (typically much slower)
I agree all the way with first post of Phil 909.
For me, you should't move the pitch of a track more than 2% up or down.
As Phil 909 said... a 10% shift even if MT is off it would ruin the track. The track will sound like crap. Same thing if MT is on.
Sorry I'm struggling with some of the responses above, what's this new rule about keeping pitch no more varied than a coupe of percent ? I have many times over past twenty years had a 1210 deck playing a track stretched +8, why in the digital world is this different ? I appreciate that stretching hugely should be avoided as those familiar with the track will raise an eyebrow problem i have is a good deal of deeper house stuff I like to play is very slow compared to the techier side of my other tracks.
None of this applies to just digital it just sounds cack in general.I personally think a song stretched more than 3-4 % makes the track sound awful. Obviously this isn't a set in stone rule as if it sounds good, then it is good.
An increase of 8% on a track that's 120bpm makes it 129 bpm roughly, and that's not to mention the changes in pitch and key for every note played/sung. Increasing it by this much is ridiculous.
If a track is in the key of A major, and has a Middle A note in it which is 440hz in frequency, that same 8% increase makes it 475.2hz which is the frequency between A# or B. this changes the whole key of the song and 9 times out of ten it ruins the song for me. Unless its being used in a creative way, other than mixing then I never do it.
Changing from deep house to tech house should be a much longer transition. Playing different genres with each other that are that different in speed just ends up sounding like a DJ you'd hear in oceana.