I have a question about the ‘Matching Track’ section in DJay.
(I changed the title from ‘Related’ to ‘Matching’ because Related is another feature…)
I’ve noticed that the first few suggested matching tracks (when available) clearly match 100% in BPM and key, but further down the list, the BPMs and keys start to vary. How does DJay handle sorting and prioritization in this case? Does a harmonically matching key take precedence? Is it random, or is there a weighted balance between key and BPM?
So what exactly are the rules or criteria that DJay uses to select tracks for this section? Is it possible to customize these rules in the settings to suit personal preferences? (e.g. involve genre or folder where they are in here as well)
Thanks for your help!
Device model MacBook Pro 2019
Version of operating system Mac OS, Sanoma 14.4.1.
It would be nice if we could get some ‘personalisation’ by matching tracks by hand. Like, I know some fit well together, but can’t always remember which one it was. It would be nice to be able to manually relate tracks.
Hi @Kikeon; you’re talking about ‘related’, but that’s different from what I meant. So, I changed my title from ‘Related’ to ‘Matching’, because that better fits what I intended.
Well in this case I think you are lucky because I think related-tracks is already in Djay!
Just select the extra screen on the right
Select the track where you want to relate another track to
Go to the info icon.
Select the Related tab and drop the song here that you want to relate to…
From now on it remembers this track combination (it can even remember more related tracks)
And they link vice versa. So, as soon as you add a related track to one, it becomes visible on the other as well. And once related they also become visible as first in the Matching tracks tab.
Alright, no problem. I’ve also noticed that functionalities can vary between platforms. So a feature might work differently or might not even be available on another device. It’s just the nature of different platform designs. And no worries about the thread hijack—it’s always good to add a bit of excitement to the conversation!
Hi @DJ_Big_Blender, I’m still waiting to hear back from engineering on how this criteria works. In the meantime, could you explain how exactly you would like to customize Match?
Hi.
It definitely needs to involve more other harmonic matching tracks. In the simplest form, a 10d track should also display 9d, 10m, and 11d tracks within a certain bpm range, prioritizing those already in the same playlist.
On other aspects I will elaborate more after I got the current specs of how it works.
Thanks for the update, @Slak_Jaw! I appreciate the effort. Incorporating this type of feature seems pretty obvious, as most current DJ software already includes similar capabilities.
By the way, this issue is somewhat related to this previous request by @Andreas_Haase1 from January 2023, which still hasn’t seen any visible progress. It might be worthwhile to look into how these requests are interconnected.
I find the match list generated for the active track to be helpful, but the breadth of its source is too wide. I have playlists for different and non-overlapping use cases: Alternative club music, Rave/Techno, 80s retro, Country, Wedding music, etc. There is no way to limit the match list to pull from a specified playlist or even genre tag, and thus it presents a list of matches from the entire collection, recommending Dolly Parton as a good match to my Anyma track in the club !!! This feature is tight on rekordbox ( about only thing that is on Rekordbox) !! So please let us fliter track match to a genre or folder or same playlist as a basic.
This is also what limits me in using this feature. It goes too broad over my whole collection, which is why I unfortunately don’t use this function to my regret.
It would work better if I could set the (iTunes) collection/folder(s) from where DJay takes its suggestions.
Unfortunately this question is still open:
What exactly are the rules or criteria that DJay uses to select tracks for the Matching Tracks section? Is it possible to customize these rules in the settings to suit personal preferences (e.g., involve genre or folder location in the matching process)?
The developers often request additional information such as videos, database files, or other details from users reporting bugs or submitting suggestions. Most of us, myself included, are happy to quickly and thoroughly provide this when needed.
However, on a straightforward question like this, it is a bit frustrating to have been waiting for an answer since May, especially when we all share the goal of improving the software. As loyal, paying customers, we’re invested in making the software the best it can be.
I’d appreciate your response and any clarity you can offer regarding the matching algorithm.
Hi @DJ_Big_Blender, sorry for the delayed response on this one. Unfortunately, I think it slipped through the cracks with various people being on holidays over the summer.
Since djay 5.2.2, the Match Criteria in My Collection has been:
search for tracks with a +/- 10 BPM and matching/adjacent circle of 5ths key.
results then sorted with tracks with the closest bpm to the seed track at the top of the list.
Thanks a lot for sorting this out. Glad to now official know what the criteria for DJays matching tracks are!
For Adjacent Key it looks like Djay is using the more strict rules of adjacent (I found that out by trying it at with a few tracks)
So, like adjacent for 8A (example in Camelot notation) is in DJay’s Current Case only 7A & 9A and 8B.
Apart from more flexibility by change the source (folder) of the matches (where a lot of people -including me- eagerly are waiting for) It would be a great idea when there would be an option to use e a less strict definition for ‘adjacent’ and so to be able to look for other cool harmonic matches (described by Mixed in Key) , like the:
Related Keys (Guetta’s +4 method) sometimes works as well (+4 within the same scale)
Switching scales:
The Diagonal Mix: that is or subtracting one (-1) if going from A to B (8A > 7B) or adding one (+1) to the Camelot key if going from B to A (5B > 6A).
The Mood Shift: that is adding three (+3) to the Camelot key if going from A to B (1A > 4B), or subtracting three (-3) if going from B to A (4B > 1A).
Also the Fuzzy Mix (Philip Morse) which gives more freedom, because you can use all options in both scales Plus and Minus 1 (so for 8A it goes with 8B as well with 7A&B and 9A&B).
A combination of the most of these techniques together (except for the Phil Morse method) is called ‘Mood Mixing’ by DJ.Studio.
==> So for me it would be a great idea to be able to expand the matchings for Track Matches in DJay with (some of) these extra option and add them in the Mood Mix Options.
This would broaden the Match and Mix opportunities a lot and gives soo much more flexibility.
If you have any questions; I would be glad to help.
