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Here's a quick, simple and very helpful tool in getting your tracks sounding much more clean and in tune.
There is this freeware called KeyFinder (http://ibrahimshaath.co.uk/keyfinder/). Basically what this allows you to do is quickly tag ALL of your samples, mp3's, .wav, most if not all types of audio formats to show the key of the sample or song. This is very helpful for using only samples in the key of the track you are writing.
Trust me, using samples only in the scale of the track you're writing will make a huge difference and save you a lot of time for searching for that "right" sample. Staying in key, with ALL sounds in your track is very important and leads to a much more professional sound with the song.
This is even great for DJ's, as it allows you to stay in key when transitioning to a new song, so the mix sounds connected and simply just right.
There is a download for OSX as well as Windows. Once you have downloaded the software, extract all the files in the .zip to a new folder named KeyFinder.
I will now run you through the steps on how to use this software.
First and foremost, go to edit->preferences. Now if you use Tracktor or Serato, there are options at the top to browse and set up your music collection that you use for your DJ'ing program of preference.
Now once you have set that up (if you use DJ'ing software), go to the bottom left screen of the preferences and set the following preferences as such. I have my preferences as such.
Title tag: Append Artist tag: No Album tag: No Comment tag: Overwrite(this is if you don't mind this.) Grouping tag: No Key tag:No Filename: Prepend(this is going to be how it is tagged, prepend will write it as Cm - Clap1.mp3, while append will be Clap1 - Cm.mp3. I personally prefer prepend since it is much easier to find when searching for samples on your daw but whatever you prefer choose that method.)
BEFORE DOING THIS I highly suggest if you have a large library containing more than 1 GB worth of samples that you open your sample folder and do individual sample banks in batches of 5 or so. Unless you're using a very high end and fast computer, then you could probably be able to get away with doing it all in one go.
Now save your preferences on the button on the bottom right of the Preferences window screen that says "Save Preferences". Once you've done that, you can grab your entire sample folder and drag it onto the window that says Drag audio files here. Once that's done, you're going to want to click on one sample, press Ctrl+A (if using Windows, I believe for mac it's the Command button) and then click on Run Batch Analysis.
Once this is done, and the Analysis is complete, you're going to want to right click all the selected samples, then select the option "Write Key To File (Ctrl+T)
After that's complete, you should be able to see in your original sample folder, all your original sample file tags rewritten to Cm - Clap1.mp3 or Clap1 - Cm.mp3 depending on your Filename preference. Remember that File->New Batch Window is what you want to select if you want to tag a new set of sounds/samples/songs/etc.
I hope this has helped all you producers out there that are looking for new ways to improve the quality of your tracks. Though this might seem simple, as I've said before, it is very important to keep all your sounds in key, ESPECIALLY in EDM.
Thanks.