Do any of you DJs typically (or once in awhile) change the key of the song?

If you listen to some songs when the go into the final chorus sometimes, they will move the sequence up by a semi-tone. Sometimes this can bring up the intensity a little bit. Some mixes scale up both the pitch and the BPM as they mix out, sometimes with looping before they cut into the next song in the mix.

I don’t recommend screwing with pitch on recognizable songs much unless you’re doing a full remix, it’s very obvious. Someone is likely to ask if you’re having equipment trouble.

Though it can be a whole lot of fun to transpose the notes from minor to the relative major (or vice versa)… “Since when does Nirvana make HAPPY music?!?!?” 😉

Yes Vintage and people still scream in terror 😛

With pitch changes, I try to either do them very subtly or very obviously. To put it better- If I want to blend two tracks subtly and need to do a pitch-shift, I only do it as one main phrase goes into the next, preferably as the main melodic elements of the first track drop out.

The other option is the complete opposite- make the pitch change the MAIN focus, in a way that lets people know “something big is about to happen.” But you absolutely need to stick the landing. Have something really good lined up at the end of that pitch shift.