DJing with Rapid Evolution

Once you've added your songs into Rapid Evolution you're ready to start taking advantage of its main features. It is most useful if you have already entered the important song information, such as the bpm, key, styles, etc. However, the program is still useful without this information.

Rapid Evolution is intended to be used while mixing, so it is helpful to have a laptop or PC near your turntables. If you are a software based DJ, you can take advantage of features like dragging and dropping the songs to play them. Otherwise the program can act as a reference or guide as you mix. If you don't have a computer near your turntables, it is still useful for planning mix sets and finding compatible songs ahead of time.

Most of the features on the main screen relate to the current song, which is displayed at the top:

At any point, you can make a song the current song by double clicking it in the search or mixout windows. You can also right/option click a song and select “set current song”. To view the history of songs you've been through, you can click “song trail” at the bottom, or traverse using the “back” and “next” buttons in the top right. These buttons may be hidden, to show them click the small arrow to the right of the rating box. Here is a brief description of the other top row buttons:

• edit - edit the current song's properties
• mixes - view mixouts by other DJs (the button will be enabled only if you are connected to the mixshare server and mixouts exist)
• roots - display songs that have mixouts to the current song (useful for finding mixouts and planning mix sets)
• sync - synchronizes mixout/exclude information with other songs (usually duplicates or remixes)

Once you've selected a current song, the mixout window will be populated with any mixouts saved for that song. The search window values will also change relative to the current song. The basic idea is that when choosing the next song to mix, you can use mixouts you've found and saved previously, or you can use the search window to find new songs to mix in.

A transition from song A to song B is referred to as a mixout. You can add a mixout for the current song by dragging and dropping a song from the search window to the mixout window, or by selecting a song and clicking “add mixout” in the bottom left. Depending on your screen layout, this is what you might see in the mixouts section for the current song:

For each mixout, you can specify the following information:

• comments: This allows you to enter any information you want to remember about the mixout, such as how to execute it, cue points, when you might want to use it, etc.
• bpm % diff: This is calculated automatically in most cases, but allows you to specify this value as well. This is an important value in determining whether a song is in range and can be made in key.
• mix score: This is a value between 0-100 indicating how good the mixout is. Scores above 50 will cause the song to be colored (see below). The scores are also used by the mix generator to rank mix sets.
• add-on: If this is checked you are indicating that the song should not be used as a transition. This is ideal for scratch material or songs that go well together partially but lack the necessary elements for a full transition.

While it is important to remember which songs make a good mix, there are many songs that don't go well together. When this happens, you can choose “add exclude” at the bottom and the selected songs will no longer show up when a bpm or key search is done from the current song. Basically, it is a way to prevent making the same mistake in song selection twice.

The program can assist you to quickly and easily find quality mixouts by ruling out incompatible songs based on style, bpm, key and time signature information. The search window is designed to be as flexible as possible by allowing you to configure what information is displayed. Based on your mixing style, you will need to decide what information is important when making your song selections.

The intended behavior is to use the “bpm search” and “key search” buttons. Both of these types of searches will only search within the selected styles (if none are selected it searches all songs). If you have “dynamic styles” selected then the styles should automatically change to match the current song. However, if you have disabled this option then the styles will stay at whatever you select (you can select more than one).

Before using either search method you need to have a key and/or bpm defined. In most cases this means selecting a current song, usually the one you're playing, and ensuring the bpm slider on the right accurately reflects the slider on the turntable (either by setting it manually or by tapping the bpm in the search window). You should also make sure the “key lock” checkbox next to the current song is correct (if key/pitch lock is enabled). In doing this, the program will be able to calculate the actual key and bpm, otherwise you need to enter this manually or use the live key detector and bpm tapper. In the following screenshot the bpm slider is pitched up and you can see the actual key and bpm reflect this:

Here is a description of the 2 main search methods:

• bpm search: This will show all songs within a compatible bpm range. This range is controlled by the value below the bpm slider in the search window (+/- 4%, 8%, 10%, 20% or 50%). By default, even multiple bpms are considered compatible (for example 50bpm = 100bpm). Furthermore, the time signatures of the songs are checked for compatibility. A song in 3/4 would be compatible with even multiples like 6/8. However, most dance music is in 4/4 time.
• key search: This will perform a bpm search and also filter out songs that are not harmonically compatible with the current key, based on basic harmonic mixing theory. If you use a key/pitch lock feature, you should realize some songs will only be compatible when playing the current song at certain speeds (you can see this visually by changing the bpm slider position and noticing the changes in the search table).

Here is a screenshot of a sample key search:

You will find that by analyzing the column data and using the song colors (discussed below), it is not always necessary to perform these searches. However, these 2 search methods are an easy ways to make quick, intelligent, song selections. Obviously the quality of the results depends on the accuracy of the information you enter.

You can search for songs by typing keywords into the search field, then choosing one of the 3 search methods. Virtually all fields of the songs are searched. If you enter multiple keywords, it looks for each word separately in a song. You can enter quotation marks around a set of words to search for an exact phrase. You can also separate keywords and phrases with the '|' and '&' characters to get multiple results. The example below searches for all songs by 2 artists:

To help you navigate quickly through the search table, you can start typing an artist name at any time and it will automatically search for the next result in the search table. This is useful if there are a large number of results and you need to find a specific song. Most times you only need to enter the first few letters of the artist name to find the song you want.

You can also sort any column in ascending or descending order by clicking the column title. This is useful when searching for mixouts. Similarly, you can rearrange the columns by dragging and dropping the column titles.

If you have both digital and analog (vinyl) media, you can filter the search results by using the bottom left radio buttons. If you can't find a song sometimes it's because of this setting.

In the options menu under the “search window” and “mixout window” tabs, you can choose which fields will be displayed:

If tooltips are enabled, then you can hover the mouse over each field type for a brief description, but here is a list of the most relevant fields for mixing purposes:

• # mixouts: This displays the number of mixouts saved for the song, which can be useful to know if you need to mix quickly and want to make sure you will have another song ready.
• # plays: This displays the number of times the song has been played (made the current song). It could be good to know to avoid playing the same songs too much.
• actual key: This will display the actual key of the song when played at the current BPM, within the nearest cent. This can be useful for working out pitch differences, but is generally not needed as Rapid Evolution can tell you what songs are harmonically compatible and therefore this level of detail isn't always needed.
• actual key code: This is the same as the actual key only using the Camelot key code notation instead.
• artist similarity: This displays a percentage indicating how similar the artist of the song is with the current song's artist. This is based off a comparison of the distribution of styles of songs belonging to those artists.
• bpm % diff: This displays the relative bpm % difference to the current speed. Changing the speed of the current song will not change this value.
• bpm % shift: This displays the absolute bpm % difference the song must be played at to match the current speed. If the speed of the current song changes, for example, this value will also change.
• bpm accuracy: This is a useful indicator of how reliable the BPM is for the song. This is automatically set when using the BPM detection algorithm, but can be set manually in each song's properties. Often times this can be used to indicate which song BPMs have been confirmed by ear.
• comments: This displays the song comments and is generally useful depending on what information you put there (in most cases, some description of the song itself).
• key accuracy: This is a useful indicator of how reliable the key is for the song. This is automatically set when using the key detection algorithm, but can be set manually in each song's properties. Often times this can be used to indicate which song keys have been confirmed by ear.
• key code: This displays a code based on the circle of fifths instead of the traditional key name (see key notation for more information). It is useful for the same reasons as key type, and is much easier when determining what songs are in key.
• key lock: If you have the ability to use key/pitch lock then this column is essential. It will display “yes” or “no” depending on which will make the song more in key. Songs that display as “no” are not naturally in a compatible key, and therefore require a shift to a different key. In these cases, it is ideal to play them at around +/- 6% to avoid sour sounding mixes. Note: the old behavior was to display “” if the song could not be made in key, however, the current behavior is to display whichever will require the least pitch shifting to be made in key. If you are utilizing the pitch shift column, then you should also be looking at this.
• key relation: This column will display the manner in which the song is harmonically related to the current BPM and key. The possibilities are:
  • Tonic: the same key
  • Tonic Modal: a modal variation of the same key
  • Dominant: the relative 5th
  • Dominant Modal: a modal variation of the relative 5th
  • Subdominant: the relative 4th
  • Subdominant Modal: a modal variation of the relative 4th
  • Relative Tonic: a modal relative (parallel) of the tonic
  • Relative Subdominant: a modal relative (parallel) of the subdominant
  • Relative Dominant: a modal relative (parallel) of the dominant

This column can be quite useful when harmonically mixing. If you were wanting to mix up the circle of 5ths, for example, you could look for “dominant” songs.

• pitch shift: This will display the minimal amount of pitch shift required to make the song in key with the current song, after it has been beatmatched. This is handy if you have the ability to alter a song's pitch without changing its speed. Theoretically this could be used to make any songs harmonically compatible. In most cases, due to harmonic music theory the closest compatible key should never be more than 250 cents (2.5 semitones) away. Note: if you have key lock enabled, then the value of the pitch shift assumes you are using the recommended key lock setting (yes/no).
• rating: This will display the rating (1-5 stars) for the song, which can be very useful in selecting your most favorite tracks.
• short id: This is a more compact form of the song id, which is useful when there's limited screen space. It uses the format: artist - title (remixer). The w/info option adds additional information such as the bpm, key, time and time signature.
• song id: Instead of having separate columns for the artist/album/title/etc fields, you can use this which will display all this information in a single column, in the format: artist - album [track] title (remixer). The w/info option adds additional information such as the bpm, key, time and time signature.
• style similarity: This displays the percentage of styles shared in common with the current song or selected styles. If your styles are defined well this can be a good indicator of how likely the song will match in style. Both similarity columns can be a good column to sort on to find songs that might be good mixouts.
• time: It is often useful to know the track length when selecting songs for mixouts, as shorter length tracks could be less desirable in a crunch.
• time sig: The time signature is the same for most dance music (4/4), but depending on the genre of music you spin you might have a lot of songs with different time signatures. If so then this column would come in handy.

As a visual indicator, songs in the search and mixout tables will automatically be colored under certain conditions. These colors can be customized in the options menu, and the default values depend on the skin in use.

The brightness of the color also has meaning. For example, for key searches it will indicate the degree that the song is in key with the current song. This is important because after beat matching songs, they might be slightly off key due to pitch changes. Therefore, the darker songs might be more sour sounding than the brighter colored songs. The brightness can also reflect the rank of mixouts and add-ons.

You may notice that some songs are highlighted in a different colour. These indicate that a song has mixouts and is either compatible or incompatible with the current song. The colours vary between skins, but generally blue indicates it is compatible and red/orange incompatible.

Depending on how you have set up your styles there are different ways of using them. If you are using them purely for genre then you can simply click the genres you want and the searh results will be filtered to reflect your choices. However, if your styles are set up for other attributes you may need/want to use the 'exclude' (ALT + click) and 'required' (CTRL + click) functions. 'Exclude' simply stops any tracks with the excluded style/s from being shown in the search window, and 'required' will only show tracks with all of the required styles. Please be aware that if you 'exclude' and 'require' many styles you my get very few results, so use sparingly

Here are some examples of using the 'exclude' and 'require' functions along with the normal way of selecting styles. For the these examples I have a set of style trees for: Genre (not too specific), Set Energy (inc. chillout, peaktime, warmup etc) and Style (inc. Funky, Latin, Hypnotic, Deep, Disco etc).

• Example 1: I want to play an upbeat Latin influenced set from several genres

As I want all search results for tracks to be Latin influenced I need to CTRL+click (require) the Latin style. Then to select the genres I want to use, I simply click on the ones that I would like. This basically means that the tracks in the search results can be any one of these genres. Finally, as I want to play an upbeat set I want to refine my search results further, so I need to ALT+click (exclude) styles such as chillout in the Set Energy style tree.

• Example 2: I want to play a peaktime House set that is neither jazzy or latin influenced

Here I would CTRL+click the House style in Genre and the Peaktime style in Set Energy, and ALT+click the Jazzy and Latin styles in Style (lol! no pun intended!!).

This option changes the selected styles according to the current song. This can be toggled on and off by the button under the styles window. Any styles that have been 'excluded' or 'required' will not be affected by this.