Coming from the two turntables and a mixer school of DJing where you actually had to learn to beatmatch, Yakov Vorobyev, President of Mixed In Key, was bored with digital DJing. Thus, he decided to come up with his own take on DJ mixing software, which would challenge him in new ways. Enter Flow 8 Deck.
The new software’s main Jedi power allows you to mix up to eight different sound sources at once with some Mixed In Key features thrown in to keep everything under control, pitch-wise that is…
Now, we’re not going to get into the whole “post-beatmatching” era of DJing, and the ramifications it has had on the art of the mix, but as you can see even from the Flow 8 Deck video demo on their site, more is not always better. Part of the magic of old school mixing was creatively turning two different tracks into a whole new song — it was never about how much you could mix. Even when mixing software first appeared with that magic SYNC button, and innovative DJs then turned to effects, and even adding live musical elements to the mix, it wasn’t about how much you can cram out a PA system. Unfortunately, things have changed and this seems to be the trend now.
Four different decks, sample pads, loops, and now STEMS…it’s all about more, more, more.
Now you can’t blame Yakov from being bored. Unless you’re taking in a DJ Shiftee show, watching a DJ, for the most part, is boring!! But adding more sound sources, even if they are all harmonically mixed, is not the answer.
We like what Mr. Vorobyev & Co. have accomplished by adding their core Mixed In Key feature set into the software mixing paradigm, but it seems that this is exactly what Flow’s mojo is…a feature set. Thus, instead of learning another bit of kit, wouldn’t it have been better to have added this functionality to Traktor, Serato, etc. as an “in-app” purchase?
To be honest, we’re not sure how far Yakov would have progressed pitching the “in-app” concept to Daniel Haver over at Native, but a whole new DJ mixing solution to basically pitch-sync eight tracks? Well, we’ll let you make that decision for yourselves…this is what we can tell you about the new release:
Features:
» Claims to play nice with all DJ controllers, inlcuding Pioneer, Numark, Native Instruments, Akai, Reloop, Allen & Heath
» 2, 4 & 8 Channel modes
» 2 channel DJ controller to play 4 decks inside Flow.
» Two effects: Energy (?) and Filter
» Supports STEMS
» Detailed audio wave graphics with visual indicators (type of sound, volume)
» Dimensional Mixing (mix inside of songs with auto cross fade)
» Flow Lines (shows harmonic options between the 8 sources)
» Full MIDI mapping
» Dynamic playlists recommendations based on Key & Energy
Mixed In Key’s Flow 8 Deck costs $58 and is available now.
