I learned how to DJ about 10 years ago by binge watching your tutorials. Today I am an international DJ. I've played across Europe, North & South America this year. Just wanted to say thanks :)

Mixing in key is definitely not more important than mixing in phrase or on beat for some genres and styles. I agree genres like house and trance need to match melodically but for techno? Breakbeat? I read an interview recently with Vladimir Ivkovic, one of the most highly regarded djs in underground electronic music, and he said he pays “about as much attention to key as the punks did” to the keys of the songs he is mixing. It’s important to understand musical theory but the only real way to decide if something sounds good together is by using your ears.

I hold my trust to laidback luke.. Mix in key is great for radio, for dancefloor its all about keeping the energy and recognizing the crowd reactions

Love how excited you get with each track as well! I be the same way!! Much love from the US

love all your vids ellaskins, keep up the great work. i've learned a lot from you and always had fun doing it.

Agree, just don't follow the key must thing, if you listen to lot of 90s tdk, yes audio tapes times of UK raves, be it dnb, jungle, hardcore, happy or UK Garage DJ sets, many are not in Key but they just work in the vibe, as vinyl n technics djs just knew when to mix or not and how to make it work, rawness!! If you want clean mixed in Key style mixing then your sound like robotic DJ in my opinion, your set will have no edge or Jump, just sound like mixed CD comp in your local Asda store, yes key is important but not all the time, if your skilled you can make any mix work aslong as its in beat or phrase, vinyl DJ with experience can normally make any mix work, example DJ EZ

'Out of phase, out of time and out of everything' - dance floor successfully cleared! nice video man!

Hi ellaskins. I like your tutorials. You showed me many valuable advices. I try to be self-taught. Continue your mission :) I try to pick up the sound in my sets. I stopped paying attention to the Harmonic Mixing Guide. It matches songs based on similar sounds, tempo, and coherent elements used.

good point, i am at this stage of my hobby DJ mixing...learn your songs and find the vibe (and order) that works in mix. cool videos, tnx dude

Hi, great video! What QSC speaker are you using? Model/size? Sounds great! Thank you in advance. Cheers

hello, jungle/DnB(wannabe lol) dj from Canada here..just discovered your channel-wish i hadda found it two years ago!! LOL loooking forward to learning from ya..peace. p.s. maybe you could start a series critiquing mixes (of viewers/new dj's) or something in the future?...just a thought.

Hey, the Last tracks in video are so neat as classic discohouse. With great melody and vocal.

Slyly look like Hugh Laurie, which kind of makes this House playing House in a house..

10:42 Is Carl Carlton - She's A Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) old school classic check It out on the Tube. Great Vid again Johnathan. I am with CD-Pool I was with them when they were Promo Only Who I stayed with for the Video DVD's. And when Promo Only were The White Disc still have all the disc's In a Big Box. I am a Video DJ nowadays and Love It.

Yes Jonathan more of the old skool please mate😊😊🎧🎵🎶🎵🎶

Hey DJ elskins I’ve been watching your videos for a couple of years now, & way impressed with your knowledge, I love audio I’ve got a 80s-mixer which has a deep old school sound, I’m thinking of getting a echorder-echo delay which is the same make as my mixer, which has 2x inputs & one input at the front of the unit, I would love to hear your view or ideas on connection, cheers mate

Awesome and good helpful tips and showing us. Like Teaching. All of your vids.

mixing in beat and in phrase is like first thing any dj should learn and stick to. these are the carved in stone rules to make transitions correct and audible. Mixing in key is situational. If you use longer transitions and tracks are melodical mixing in key is a thing, it'll sound awful otherwise. If you mix really fast and melodies either don't clash or play together just for a few bars, it doesn't really matter. just keep the energy and vibe.

I REALLY ENJOY LEARNING QTHE WAY YOU TEACH!

Hey @ellaskins...I wanna see your take on the Roland DJ 808, as well as the "new" features on Serato finally getting some attention. I've been using Flip and Pitch n Time on Serato for a while now but just recently dumped my SX2 and instead of going up to the SX3 or any other Pioneer, I moved to the Roland DJ 808, In turn I also dumped my Pioneer PLX 1000's, Prior to going to a controller for portability I was running the Rane 62 and 2 Pioneer Turntables, but the small size of the trigger pads had me looking at the SL9 from Pioneer and instead I opted to go full transportable and jumped on the SX2 when it debuted. I had loved it for quite some time, but my truck was broken into after a gig at an art gallery whilst sleeping at the hotel after and my SX2 jacked....I had long thought about the Roland DJ 808 and pulled the trigger the next morning after filing police reports and waiting for the glass company to replace my window. Now I'm running the Roland Dj 808 in DVS with the Reloop 8000mk2 on the left side because i'm better at crabbing on that side, as well as pairing both with Flip and using the TRS functions of the 808 and killing my shows I do every friday. I've no sold both of my PLX's and my Rane 62 and have made the Roland 808 the center of not just my DJ set up but my production set up as well. I'm curious how you view the Roland DJ 808. Game changer? and would you ever leave your technics for the Reloop 8000?

Oh shit this is me sometimes, glad of reminder lol

Hey sir ellaskins am your biggest fan all the way from Kenya...I wanna be a dj... do you have any old controllers your not using that i can buy from you?

how they mix at school disco or weddings

trainwreck sounds, hard to believe anyone can be this bad

Hey Jonathan, How are you? Can you tell me the name of Track #8? You played it at time stamp 5:55 on the video How A DJ Should Not Mix podcast. If anyone else knows the name of that track please reply to my comment. Thanks!

10:43 Yes, I also heard the Carl Carlton "Bad Mama Jama" in that song right away. Then you said it.

Man!!! I hope i never hear someone mix like that ever

Mixing in key can be good for some genres,however it can sound boring as hell!!

Hmmmm, I need to put out a video to keep my channel alive but I have no ideas right now. I know, ill just do a shit mix and explain why its shit. I like a lot of your videos mate but don't feel pressured to upload something every week or whatever. 1 video good a month is better than 4 shitty ones.

how do u even know the correct key of the track? just because your software makes an estimation doesnt mean it's correct. and what if u play vinyl? dont tell me you can tell key by ear...

Hey ellaskins , IKE. B. hear... I know you have been making videos for many years, How long have you been Dj'ing ???

wish i could get CD Pool but unfortunately im not a working DJ so i cant get the music.

The harmonic aspect is something of an individual experience. I sing and play instruments and DJ as well. My point is not all people get this really sickening feeling when harmonics clash more than a few notes length. I can understand that. But bare this in mind. If a DJ is able to control the harmonics by skillfully combining keys notes etc. just as with any instrument, he or she is likely to give the aucience ear candy if done well and a headache if not. It is that simple.

5th to like this good job keep up the good work

Lol I know right their is a few DJs in my area that do this lmao.

Some people might think that this is a stupid video, but I am not one of those people. So many so called djs play like this. Horrible. This video is for them. What not to do. How not to mix. This video is so real. Yes that is definitely Bad Mama Jamma.

thank you yes i believe to be a dj rules

What’s the name of your gear ?

I disagree, it depends on your mix type; a non-sync'd drop mix, sure key & phrase are the only things keeping continuity; a long mix with melodic/minimal, again a key clash sounds terrible. But given you can loop mix in/out sections (non tonal), beat and phrase are more important, then there's eq band saturation vocals over vocals works hardly ever. 2 bass lines, again.

actually a whole set mixed in key straight can be some kind of boring. there is a way creating an great energy boost by mixing the right tracks which are out of key.

Nobody mixes like this lol. Maybe absolute beginners just getting into DJ'ing, but definitely no one that you'll hear in a club/festival setting.

In time, in key, in phrase that is very important ... but what about the energy of a song?

over here in the states we call that style of mixing '''tennis shoes in the dryer'' when the beats are stumbling over each other..lol

I want to know where you saw these mistakes? Because if someone making these god awful mistakes are getting gigs I give up lol

Some people got more musical intelligence who just subconsciously know if it's in the right key etc. and some got less.

Mixing in key is a bit of a con.. 2 yrs ago I got into it... UNTIL I realised that some tracks that are way off key mix beautiful I.e Sidney youngblood if only I could Raze break for love... way out on key but cracking tracks for a mash up. So personally when I found out that when we were told mixing in key is king was not the case... I binned it and went back to bpm on breaks and phrase... You have to remember when gigging live your great escape is one very simple thing.... ALCOHOL!!!!!! P.s if you do have a train wreck (AS WE ALL DO.) just get out of it asap. Providing the next tune is a banger, the crowd will forgive anything.

THIS ONE GOES OUT TO PAUL P LMAOO

IMHO 1) beat, quick too is ok but out of beat is awful 2) key, if we want to follow a path..otherwise we could drop and change the vibe 3) phrase, if we do that it's great..but no essential, we can drop out by 1000's different ways

This is the most rediculous instructional video i've ever watched. Its like going out in a car and saying "this is how not to drive", and proceeding to cross lanes, crunch the clutch, select the wrong gears, etc.

Makes my ears hurt beat mixing is key wedding djs can get away with it I suppose like the video though keep it up fellow Welsh man

The singing performance saved the mix!

Yer I know what u mean

So fn funny 😂😂

It’s so hard NOT to love you:)))

This dude even have a session .

There is an American dj ripping your style ellaskins. He even says practice and enjoy at the end lol. I mean come on. Copy your style. OkH, but your sign off catch phrase too? His name is Brian

yea.. duh .. ?

In key over in time? You having a laugh mate, in key is a rather new concept.. Who knows the key of vinyl? And then what does a pitch shift do that key on vinyl? Good djs we're churning out wicked mixes before key was ever a consideration.. Whippersnappers out there as long as its in time and the energy is there and the tunes are good.. That is what's the most important elements of being a good dj!

Mixing in key? Overrated. People dancing don’t care about that. They just want a smooth beat transition. Don’t mix two songs at 2 different tempos and you’ll be good to go.

Running out of ideas for for videos is what this should be called. There are no working DJ's that do this. All you your other videos are good. Bit of a miss here.

No mix rhythms you don’t need keys that’s a trick

In key... very over rated.. plenty of tracks OUT of key mix perfectly.. jeez how did we ever manage before this.

Who mixes like this though 🤨

aaarrrrggggg......man stop talking !!!!!!!!!!!!

hurting my ears

This proves nothing, I started 25 years ago on turntables by beat matching and knowing my tunes ,I didn't know about mixing in key for the first ten years and I could mix till the cows came home = another pointless video 😎

Its terrible

Your videos are so hard to view because your voice and the music are in constant competition with each other🤷‍♂️ far to painful to listen for me I’m afraid. Tried a number of times to view your content, and give up every time.