Ever since people stopped listening to music, they have relied on technology to tell them how it sounds!! You think I’m joking, but using key software is like jamming on a guitar with a friend whilst your friend shouts out the chords as he plays them! Great for learning, but not something you want to rely on. Great technology exists that deciphers the key of a song. This tool is built in to Traktor with many people benefitting from it. Here’s a quick tip to search Traktor Playlists by Key to help you find the right track for the moment!

How to Search Traktor Playlists

It is extremely convenient to have your music in digital form as you can pull up a track and have it on a deck and playing within seconds. This works well, but only if you know what you’re looking for, or are skilled at searching for the right type of track.

The mobile Traktor DJ App auto-magically suggests tracks that will harmonise with the track currently playing. This function has not been built into Traktor Pro, although I feel it may appear in a future update.
In the absence of automated track suggestions (not something I wholly agree with) it is recommended that you fine tune your skills to search Traktor playlists manually and with speed. Sometimes when playing out you may find that you are playing short radio edits that are only 3 minutes in length, leaving you a very small window of opportunity to find a track and mix it in. This is where your ability to locate tracks quickly will increase your chance of performing a great set. Using the Key of a track as the deciding factor in selecting a track could also make your transitions a little smoother.

The video below shows you how you can search traktor playlists by key.

Traktor Key Chart

Another great tool to help you figure out the Traktor Key, was developed by Daniel Raizer from Quanta Brazil. It shows you what keys work well together. Memorising the notations of tracks along with the relevant codes will help you for when your tracks are not organised by Key in the Traktor playlists.

A while back I featured another great video with a Traktor Key translation and scales chart which is available for download too.

Do you use the Key functionality of Traktor as a deciding factor in your DJ sets, or is it too much to think about? Let us know in the comments.