Camelot Wheel (Harmonic Mixing Chart)

What the Camelot wheel is

Harmonic mixing means joining two tracks so that their notes agree, instead of letting two different keys rub against each other during the overlap. The idea is old, but knowing which keys agree normally requires music theory. The Camelot wheel replaces that with a diagram anyone can read: a circle of 24 labeled segments where neighbors mix well and distant ones do not.

The notation was popularized among DJs by Mixed In Key software. It uses a number from 1 to 12 for the position around the circle and a letter for the mode. A is for minor keys, which sit on the inner ring, and B is for major keys, on the outer ring. A track tagged 8A is in A minor, and a track tagged 8B is in C major.

On this page the wheel is interactive. Choose a key and the compatible moves are highlighted, the codes are converted into the other notations, and the key's chord can be played so you can hear what you are choosing. It is a reference and converter, so there is no file to load. To get the key of a track you own, use the key finder first, then bring the code here.

The 24 codes

The table in the Numbers tab lists every code. Read it as pairs: each number holds one major key and one minor key that share the same seven notes, which is why they sit side by side. 8B is C major and 8A is A minor, both built from the notes a piano plays without black keys. 9B is G major and 9A is E minor, and so on around the circle.

Moving up one number moves up a fifth. From C major, one step clockwise reaches G major, then D, then A. This is the same series of keys that the sharps in a key signature follow. Moving down one number moves down a fifth, from C major to F major, then B flat. After twelve steps you are back where you started, which is why the numbers loop from 12 to 1.

The numbering starts at an arbitrary place. Number 1 is B major and G sharp minor, not C. That may seem odd, but it is only a convention, and the numbers carry no meaning beyond position.

Some keys have two spellings, because the same pitches can be written with sharps or flats. The table shows the common choice, such as D flat major and G sharp minor. If a program shows C sharp major instead, it is the same key as D flat major, and has the same code. The interactive wheel on this page uses the same two spellings.

Camelot mixing rules

There are three safe moves, and each one keeps the music in tune with itself. First, stay on the same code: two tracks in 8A share every note and merge smoothly. Second, move one step up or down the number with the same letter: 8A to 9A or 7A. The keys are a fifth apart, so six of the seven notes are shared. Third, keep the number and swap the letter: 8A to 8B. This is the relative major or minor, where all seven notes are shared and only the mood changes.

Those three moves are what most DJs use for a clean blend, and they all follow from the same fact: they preserve most of the notes. A longer overlap is safer when the keys are fully shared, and a shorter one is wise when only six notes match.

Other moves are possible, but they cost something. Jumping two steps with the same letter, for example 8A to 10A, shares only five notes and can sound tense in a long blend, although it works as a deliberate lift. A move to a distant code, say 8A to 2A, shares few notes, and the bass lines and melodies clash.

If a clash is unavoidable, there are workarounds. Use a short cut or a drop instead of a long blend, mix during a section without a melody such as drums only, or an a cappella part, or move one track's pitch with the pitch changer until the codes agree. The clash comes from overlapping pitched sounds, so removing the overlap of pitched sounds removes the problem.

Energy boosts: plus 2 and plus 7

Two moves on the wheel are not about smoothness but about lifting the room. Plus 2 means going two numbers clockwise with the same letter, for example 5A to 7A. In musical terms the key rises by a whole tone. Plus 7 means seven numbers clockwise, which raises the key by a semitone, for example 8A to 3A.

Both change the key on purpose, and they work like a key change in a pop song, where the last chorus is lifted for a final push. The audience feels a rise in tension, and the new key sounds brighter even if nobody can say why. They share fewer notes than the safe moves, so they work best at a clean transition point, a break or an intro, not through a long melodic blend.

Use them sparingly. One boost per set builds a peak; three in a row feels like a siren. Going the other way, minus 2 or minus 7, lowers the key and relaxes the energy, which can be useful when you want to bring the room down after a climax.

A pitch change shifts a track around the wheel in the same way. Raising a track by one semitone moves it plus 7, and raising it by two semitones moves it plus 14, which on a loop of 12 is the same as plus 2. This is why the pitch changer and the wheel pair so well: the wheel tells you which shift you need.

Open Key and the other notations

Camelot is not the only code system. Open Key, used by some DJ programs, labels the same 24 keys with a number and a letter, where d means major and m means minor. C major is 1d and A minor is 1m. The numbers are shifted by seven compared with Camelot, so 8B in Camelot is 1d in Open Key, and 8A is 1m.

The wheel works identically in both notations, because it is the same geometry with different labels. The mixing rules are the same: same code, one step, or the other mode on the same number. If your tracks are tagged in one system and your program shows another, type the code here and the converter gives you the other.

Plain key names are the third notation, and the one that musicians use. F sharp minor is an acceptable way to write it, and so is F#m. The page accepts both, and lists the relative key beside the result.

Some libraries mix notations or use alternative spellings, so a tag that does not match the table is not necessarily wrong. Confirm by looking up the key name, not the code.

Camelot wheel versus the circle of fifths

The wheel is the circle of fifths in different clothes. Musicians have long drawn the 12 keys in a circle, each one a fifth from its neighbors, with the relative minors placed on an inner ring. The Camelot version keeps that structure and replaces the note names with numbers and letters, so no one needs to remember how many sharps a key has.

There are two visible differences. The circle of fifths usually puts C major at the top, since it has no sharps or flats, while the Camelot wheel numbers its segments 1 to 12 clockwise, starting at the top on this page, so C major (8B) sits near the seven o'clock position. And the circle of fifths is written for people who read key signatures, while the Camelot wheel is written for people who read labels in a track list.

For harmonic mixing, the practical difference is speed. Telling a DJ that D major and B minor are compatible requires a bit of theory. Telling them that 10B and 10A are compatible takes one second, and the same holds for neighbors: 10B goes to 11B and 9B. The theory is all still there, but it is hidden behind the numbers.

Using the wheel with the key finder and BPM finder for a DJ set

A DJ set needs two numbers per track: tempo and key. The BPM finder gives the first and the key finder the second, and the key finder shows the Camelot code directly. Load each track you plan to play into both, and write the pair of values in a note or in the track's tag, such as 8A and 124.

Sort by tempo first, since that decides what you can beat-match, and then walk through the list looking for compatible codes. A set might open at 8A and 120, move to 9A and 122, swap to 9B and 124, and finish with a lift to 11B and 126. Each step is a legal move on the wheel, and the tempo rises gently as well.

When two tracks have good keys but different speeds, the audio speed changer brings one to the other's tempo. Keep in mind that changing speed without keeping the pitch moves the key. If you change a track by about six percent, the pitch moves by roughly a semitone, which shifts the code by seven. If you change tempo and want the key to remain, keep the original pitch option on.

Remember that the codes come from an estimate. A track that the finder labels 8A might be 8B, because relative major and minor are easy to confuse. Since they are neighbors on the wheel, mixing is safe either way, but play both and use your ear for the final call.

The tools here work with files you already own. They do not look up songs and do not list tracks for a given code, so your collection and your taste still decide what goes in the crate.

Limits of the system

The wheel is a guide to shared notes, and sharing notes is not the same as sounding good. Two tracks in 8A can still clash if one is full of dissonant chords, or if their bass notes fight. A neighbor key can sound wonderful with careful timing and awful with a busy overlap. Treat compatible as a permission, not a guarantee.

Many tracks also change key, or sit between two keys, or use modes the wheel does not model, such as some folk scales and blues notes. For these the code is a best fit.

Last, the wheel covers pitch only. It does not know about tempo, rhythm, vocals or energy, so it is one input to a decision rather than the whole of it. Use it for the first filter, and then listen.