Drop a track in and get its key, its relative key, its Camelot code and the chords that belong to it.
It names the key a recording sits in, which is the fastest way to know what will fit with it. A key tells you which seven notes are in bounds, which chords are available, whether a sample will clash, and which other tracks you can mix into it without a sour collision in the middle of a blend.
This is a chromagram followed by a key profile match, and both halves are worth understanding.
Those profiles come from listening experiments: they encode how strongly each scale degree is felt to belong in a key. That is why the method works on real mixes and not just on clean piano. It is comparing the shape of your pitch content against the shape of a key, not looking for exact notes.
The relative pair is the classic error. C major and A minor use the same seven pitch classes, so the histogram cannot separate them and only emphasis can, which a chromagram does not measure. The result always shows the relative key alongside, so the right answer is on screen either way. Beyond that: modulating songs get one name for a moving target, chromatic jazz spreads its weight too evenly for any profile to win convincingly, and unpitched material has no key at all. Distortion and heavy sub bass can also tilt the histogram by piling harmonics into pitch classes the harmony never played.
No. The file is decoded and analysed in this tab by JavaScript, with no server and no account. Going offline before you drop a file in is the easiest way to prove it to yourself.
C major and A minor contain exactly the same seven notes, so a histogram of pitch classes cannot separate them on content alone. Only emphasis separates them, which means the bass line, the first and last chord, and the melodic resolution. The chromagram sees content, not emphasis, so relative pairs are the single most common mistake. If the result feels wrong, try the relative key shown next to it. It is almost always one of the two.
It is the DJ shorthand for harmonic mixing. Keys are numbered 1 to 12 around the circle of fifths, with B for major and A for minor, so 8B is C major and 8A is A minor. Tracks blend cleanly when the codes match, differ by one number, or differ only by the letter.
Music that modulates, since one key name cannot describe a song that moves. Heavily chromatic jazz and film music, where no diatonic set dominates. Drum loops and percussion, which have no key at all. Very bass heavy or very distorted mixes, where harmonics from one instrument outweigh the actual harmony.
No, and that is deliberate. It matches against two profiles, major and minor. A Dorian track will usually be reported as its parent minor or the relative major, which is the practically useful answer for mixing and for writing a part that fits.
Yes. The result lists the seven diatonic chords of the detected key. The same detector runs inside Gusta Music, the free browser studio this tool comes from, where the AI copilot composes in the detected key rather than guessing at it.
Gusta Music is the free browser studio these tools came out of: multitrack timeline, sampling, mic recording, and an AI copilot that edits the song with you instead of generating one for you. Your work stays yours.
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