RE2 – the biggest, and pretty much the only, plus of this program is that its completely free. which is also its biggest minus, being free its not as polished as some of the paid programs. expect extremely slow performance while scanning and frequent crashes.

MIK – much “cleaner” and lighter then RE2. but instead of being the premium solution this programs’ “anti-piracy” protection really hurts the legitimate users. Mixed in Key WILL NOT detect keys unless youre connect to the internet. so dont even consider detecting key during a set, unless youve got a separate laptop to do it on.

MMF – expensive as hell!! also in my opinion 99% useless for a DJ who plays live sets, to me this software is geared more towards the bedroom DJs who set up their set to burn on cd to be enjoyed later, regarding the key detection, its nothing special.

my recommendation to anybody trying to get into harmonic mixing, try RE2 first simply because its free… if that doesnt work out i hope youre using Virtual DJ as your DJing tool, since VDJ can also scan for keys, and it will display either the classic or the camelot notation. im very VERY surprised that VDJ was not mentioned as part of this article.

It is obvious that detection software, without having all the individual elements of a mixed track, will never be perfect. The new version of Melodyne has the same problem with its new Direct Note Access feature for editing polyphonic notes. Some songs will always detect better than others. Melodyne is a $300 program.

Mixed in key is a $58 program. Rapid Evolution is a 0$ program.

They both do the same thing with the same results.

Eh?

Having said that, I’m a Mixed in Key user since version 1. I have been very satisfied especially since I am entitled to lifetime updates. I’m very glad I spent the money and even if I didn’t receive the free updates I would pay to upgrade each version.

I think those that have their own system of accurately keying their tracks are lucky and don’t need this product. But for those of us that are not musically trained and were good DJs before they found this product, this will only take your mixing to the next level.

I found that mixing two House tracks out of key does not always sound bad. I will occasionally jump around the Camelot wheel just because I think a certain track will be a real crowd pleaser at that time. But having a program like this will immediately increase the possibilities of longer blends and some really amazing mixes. I still on occasion will change my mind on a track because when cueing in my headphones it does not sound good. But this happens a whole lot less than before I was using Mixed in Key.