Free Lesson: Key Shifting Across 4 Decks For A James Brown & Techno Mashup

This trick is in Serato DJ on the Denon DJ MC7000, but you can do it in all DJ software. Indeed in your particular DJ software, you may even be able to do it without using three copies of the same track, as I have to do here; the only reason I use three copies of the track is that I have no buttons on this controller to let me jump several notes at once. (This behaviour is, however, mappable in all major DJ software if you wanted to go to the trouble.)

This mix works well because the source material (Joey Beltram’s “Energy Flash”) is driven by a single note bassline/synth lead, which lends itself to the key changes I execute throughout the mix, turning that single note into 12-bar blues!

The James Brown “I Feel Good” acapella was a nice little find, and needed lowering by two semitones to work with the Energy Flash track, the three copies of which were set to true pitch, +5 semitones, and +7 semitones (the classic “I-IV-V” chord progression beloved of all beginner guitarists). James Brown has been slowed down quite a bit, but you can’t really tell.

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What do you use key shift or similar functions for? How do you like to mash up genres in your DJ sets? Share your thoughts below…