Making mashups, re-edit and home-made remixes just got a whole lot easier as Mixed In Key released Mashup 2.0, the biggest revision of this popular DJ-focused editing package since it hit the market last year. What’s more, it’s free to anyone who bought Mashup before.
Designed to demystify and automate many of the tasks DJs face when wanting to start moving towards re-editing tracks, Mashup 2.0 builds on the original program with better key detection (from Mixed In Key 6.0), the ability to use FX via plugins, and easier editing of your creations. The overall look and feel has been improved too, with automation getting an overhaul, making it easier to lock desired changes in volume and so on into your creations.
The software’s goal is to enable DJs who maybe don’t understand a huge amount of music theory but who know what “sounds right” to be able to start making their own re-edits and mashups of existing material easily and quickly, and with great-sounding results. Working intuitively from your own music library, you can add tracks to your project, beatmatch them, chop them up and re-use or discard segments, add effects, and automate volumes and so on to give yourself a quick but professional-sounding result.
It would be good to see effects built in to the software (expecting beginner mashup/re-edit DJs to be able to work out Audio Units or VSTs is, I feel, a bit ambitious), and the usual caveat applies: This software may be making certain aspects of this craft easy, but it is a craft, and will reward those who respect that fact (for instance, not using dodgy, ripped MP3s but insisting on lossless source materials will reap dividends on your final output, to name but one “rule” of stepping into making your own sounds rather than playing other people’s).
Making your own mashups and re-edits is becoming a prerequisite for today’s DJ, and Mashup 2.0 is a great program to do it on. It’s available now from the Mixed In Key Mashup website, prices at US$39 or as mentioned, as a free upgrade for previous buyers.
Do you use Mashup already? Will you be taking advantage of the free upgrade? Feel free to give us your thoughts, and even share any mashups you’ve made (only with this software, though, please) in the comments below.
Phil Morse
