Harmonic mixing energy boosts

An energy boost is a key change you can feel, not a second word for "compatible". On the Camelot wheel the move people mean is +2: two steps up, same letter. 8A goes to 10A. A minor goes to B minor. The tonic is a whole tone higher.

The move, and the four that are smoother

From any code, the pairs Sonata calls In key are the same code, one step down, one step up, and the relative major or minor. One step up is a perfect fifth, seven semitones. 8A to 9A is that move. It is the usual small lift, and it is not the boost.

+2 is outside those four. 8A into 10A is the example. Every code's page has the same row. The key checker answers any pair, and the wheel lists the +2 column as a clash. How to show the codes in Serato is in Camelot wheel in Serato.

DJs call +2 an energy boost: add 2, keep the letter. It changes the key more than one step on the wheel. Use it when you want a lift and the arrangement supports it. Camelot numbers are positions on the wheel, not semitones. A pair is In key or it is a key clash.

Why Sonata flags it

Same key, one step on the same ring, or the relative key is In key. Everything else is a key clash, the +2 included. The flag is there so a gear change is not mistaken for a smooth match. You can still play the pair. Hear it. Shorter overlaps are kinder when both tracks are carrying a melody, because two tonal centers a whole tone apart do not sit inside each other the way a fifth does.

Sonata never transposes a track to make the boost "fit". Both songs stay in the key they were written in. Key lock inside a blend keeps the pitch while the tempo moves. A clash stays a clash.

What +7 means, because the name collides

Two different moves get called +7.

• Seven semitones is the perfect fifth. On this wheel that is one step up, already In key. 8A to 9A. It is not a boost.
• Seven Camelot numbers is one semitone between the tonics. 8A goes to 3A. That is a key clash, and it does not behave like a lift. If a note says "+7" and does not say semitones, check which one it means.

Moving one Camelot number is not the same as moving one semitone. 8A to 9A is A minor to E minor.

Where a boost belongs in a set

Use it when you want the room to notice a change of key: into a peak, or out of a long run of neighbouring codes. Do not use it as the default step between every track. A run of +2 jumps (8A, 10A, 12A, 2A) walks the tonic up by a whole tone each time and will sound restless if the melodies overlap.

The structure guide puts the peak in a place you chose. The boost is one way to arrive there. Is harmonic mixing necessary? covers the other reasons to leave the basic four.

Check the pair, then play your own files. Each key page ends with a way to hear that code against the tracks you actually have.

Sources

• Sonata's key rule, as used by the checker: +2 is a key clash