Key & harmony
Enharmonic
Two notes are enharmonic when they sound identical and are written differently — C sharp and D flat are the same pitch with two names. It is a notation difference, not a musical one.
In practice
One pitch, two spellings. It is why a key column can list the same key twice and refuse to sort.
Normalise the whole library to one notation and the problem disappears permanently — Camelot is the easiest choice because it has one code per key by construction. If you prefer classical names, pick sharps or flats and convert everything to it in a metadata editor rather than fixing them as you notice them. This is a twenty-minute job once, and an ongoing irritation forever if you skip it.
1
Pitch
2
Spellings
1 code
What Camelot gives you
Where these come from: Notation and library-hygiene practice, not a catalog figure. For what we can measure, see which notation to standardise on.
Why it matters
For a DJ it explains a specific and irritating library problem: the same key appearing twice under two names, so a sort by key splits records that are actually identical. F sharp minor and G flat minor are one key and two strings, and no amount of filtering will reconcile them.
It is also the strongest argument for Camelot in a library. The wheel has one code per key, so the ambiguity simply cannot arise — which is worth more than the theory it hides, because a key column that splits itself is worse than useless.
Frequently asked
Are C sharp and D flat the same key?+
The same pitch, written two ways. In a DJ library they are one key and two strings, which is why a key sort can split records that belong together.
How do I fix duplicate keys in my library?+
Normalise everything to one notation in a metadata editor. Camelot is the simplest target because it has exactly one code per key.
Does it matter musically?+
Not for mixing. The distinction matters in written music, where the spelling tells a player how a note functions; in a key column it is pure friction.
Related terms
Camelot vs classical key
Camelot relabels the twelve major and twelve minor keys as numbers and letters arranged so neighbours are compatible. Classical notation names the actual key. Both describe the same twenty-four keys.
Musical key
The musical key is the note a track resolves to plus whether it is major or minor — A minor, F major. It is the same information a Camelot code carries, written the way a musician would write it.
Search filter
The search filter narrows the browse list on a player by typed text or by field — genre, artist, key, BPM band, rating, colour — so you can find a track on a stick of thousands without scrolling through them.
ID3 tags
ID3 tags are the metadata written inside an audio file — title, artist, album, genre, year, comment, and on DJ files often BPM and key. They travel with the file rather than with the software that read it.
Explore: Key converter · MP3 metadata editor · Musical key · All DJ terms