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Topic: Harmonic Mixing in Foobar (Read 7828 times) previous topic - next topic
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Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

I just had a vision... I just need some help putting it into practice.

Here's the situation:
I use foobar to make, let's say, drafts or sketches for mixtapes/CDs and DJ sets. When putting a mix together, I try take into consideration tempo and key of song A and B -- in addition to mere gut feeling, which of course still applies. Therefore, all my MP3s have a tag <BPM> and <INITIALKEY>, like "138.50" and "A#m", and of course there are columns in my playlist for these tags.

As we all know, song B can be considered 'harmonically compatible' to song A if its key is identical or adjacent (in the circle of fifths) to that of A. So if song A was in A# minor, song B should be in A#, F, or D# minor [1].

Now it would be really helpful if there was a way to modify the column setup so that all songs in the playlist that are compatible to the one that's playing get highlighted in a certain way, for example by giving the song title (or their entry in the key column) a different color. So if song A was playing right now, all those that are in one of the three keys mentioned above would turn yellow (instead of white, in my case)...

I'm pretty sure this is possible somehow, for foobar's script language seems pretty powerful to me. I just don't have much of a clue about it and don't know where to start. So any ideas and thoughts are really appreciated...


cheers
Nils.

______________
[1] Or G major, but there's no major in my world or in my software that does the analyzing/tagging for me 

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #1 –
Out of curiosity, what program are you using to analyse the files for your  <BPM> and <INITIALKEY> values?

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #2 –
For the BPMs, I use 'Mixmeister BPM Analyzer' by Mixmeister. Despite the company's horrible name, it's a great tool. Pretty convenient, accurate -- and freeware. There's also a thing called 'Mixmeister Fusion', which I use for the key analysis. The good thing about it is that it's available as a fully functional free demo without a time restriction. It only adds annoying messages to your mixes, but you wouldnt wanna use it for mixing anyways as there's better stuff out there for that...

The cons, however, are that neither of them can handle Flacs or Oggs. I also find it annoying that Mixmeister Fusion does identify both BPM and key, but doesn't store the BPMs in the file so you always have to run your files through both of them. However, I have yet to come across anything better in terms of accuracy, and that's why I can still really recommend them...

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #3 –
Quote from: AntiLynd on
I'm pretty sure this is possible somehow, for foobar's script language seems pretty powerful to me. I just don't have much of a clue about it and don't know where to start. So any ideas and thoughts are really appreciated...
The script language may be powerful, but the problem is, it is absolutely limited to the currently playing/selected track, the only exception I know of is foo_cwb_hooks, which can determine tags of the next track inside the playlist. But thats about it... There's currently no way to make a script watch out for the other playlist entries or decide on the basis of others entries tracks.

E.g. we don't get (has been demanded) "Shuffle inside album" (shuffle inside album a and play it complete, then shuffle inside the next) - foobar can't decide on basis of "surrounding" tracks in the playlist.

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #4 –
Quote from: AntiLynd on
For the BPMs, I use 'Mixmeister BPM Analyzer' by Mixmeister. Despite the company's horrible name, it's a great tool. Pretty convenient, accurate -- and freeware. There's also a thing called 'Mixmeister Fusion', which I use for the key analysis. The good thing about it is that it's available as a fully functional free demo without a time restriction. It only adds annoying messages to your mixes, but you wouldnt wanna use it for mixing anyways as there's better stuff out there for that...

The cons, however, are that neither of them can handle Flacs or Oggs. I also find it annoying that Mixmeister Fusion does identify both BPM and key, but doesn't store the BPMs in the file so you always have to run your files through both of them. However, I have yet to come across anything better in terms of accuracy, and that's why I can still really recommend them...

Thanks, I've been using the BPM analyzer for a while but I didn't know about the other app, no more having to do key analysis the hard way for me. Now I just need to make a script to make temporary wave files and run them through.

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #5 –
Quote from: AntiLynd on
As we all know, song B can be considered 'harmonically compatible' to song A if its key is identical or adjacent (in the circle of fifths) to that of A. So if song A was in A# minor, song B should be in A#, F, or D# minor


Don't you mean F#?

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #6 –
Check out www.mixedinkey.com
Can't wait for a HD-AAC encoder :P
 

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Febs on
Don't you mean F#?


uhm... no, F is correct, for A# + 7 = F

Quote from: Squeller on
The script language may be powerful, but the problem is, it is absolutely limited to the currently playing/selected track


Thanks for the info. That's a problem I wasn't aware of. It's too bad actually, cause now that I know that it's not possible to access anything but the currently playing track, a whole lot of new things come to my mind that could be done if it was.

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #8 –
You can get a auto refreshing query (playlist) with foo_playlist_tree which could contain all tracks "harmonically compatible"/same tempo as the playing track.

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #9 –
Awesome! Thanks a lot! This is the first time I feel like the playlist tree is actually good for something. I haven't managed to realize the whole thing yet, but I think I'm getting there...

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #10 –
I use Mixmeister BPM Analyzer on mp3, but I have not found anything that works on other formats (FLAC specifically).

Anyone have any ideas?

Harmonic Mixing in Foobar

Reply #11 –
any news on this tppic?