Key finder

What it is

Keys, Camelot codes and key changes without looking them up.

Open a row, search "Key finder" (in ⌘K on the site or in the app), or go to aden.space/key (also key.aden.space, no account needed) for the wheel. ⌘K works on the page too: a key question there moves the wheel.

• Your key and the target: each has − and + to move a semitone. Tap one to pick it from the key picker (major or minor, flats or sharps), or tap the wheel to set it, or press a key on the wheel and slide your finger to move it.

• Wheel, Piano, Guitar: chips at the top turn each on or off (a check when on, dashed when off), and the ones on sit side by side (the wheel alone to start). The piano and guitar show the scale of the key you're setting on two octaves of piano or twelve frets of guitar, a dot on each note and the root's larger. Press a key or a dot to hear it. Bbm is Bb C Db Eb F Gb Ab, right there on the keys.

• Play from your keyboard: while the piano or guitar shows, your computer keyboard plays it, and each piano key shows the key that plays it. A to ' plays from C with the row above as the black keys (Ableton). The turn button beside the cog stands the piano up like FL Studio's piano roll. In the cog that shows when you hover the instrument, switch to two rows (Z and Q, like FL Studio), move the octave, or turn it off.

• Flats or sharps: the ♭/♯ switch in the key picker spells every key in the finder that way, on the wheel, the chips, the piano and guitar and the tracks (Db or C#). Until you switch, each key spells itself the usual way.

• Recent: the keys you looked at last sit at the left edge of a wide screen (under the keys on a smaller one), dimmed until you point at them. Press one to go back to it. They stay in your browser and never reach Aden; Clear empties them.

• Start over: the round arrow after the keys puts the finder back to how it opens: A minor, no target, every track in its own key. The tracks stay in the playlist.

• The middle of the wheel shows how many semitones to pitch, with − and + for one semitone more or less.

• Major to minor: pitching keeps the mode, so the Key finder aims for the target's relative key. It shares every note, so it mixes perfectly.

• Upload a track or drop one (an acapella, an instrumental, a whole song): it finds the BPM and key, colours the waveform by key over time, and plays it in the target key at the same tempo. Press − and + while it plays.

• Record (the red dot): opens a recording lane in the playlist, the one on a version card's stems. Drag its marker to where the take should start; it plays the mix while you sing over it, with the same vocal effects, and the take lands on the timeline where it began.

• Chords: for anything up to a minute (a recording, a loop, a sample) the Key finder also reads the chords and lines them up under the clip's waveform. Press a chord to play from it and see it on the piano or guitar.

• Save as track: in a dropped or recorded track's … menu. It opens New track in Aden with the file, its title, BPM and key filled in. Without an account, the track waits in your browser while you sign up and lands in your new workspace.

• A key in the timeline: when a track changes key, each key is printed on its clip's top strip where it starts. Press one to fit from that key, from that point in the track.

• Track buttons: the × removes a track. Save as track and Fit the others to this track show when you point at it.

• Playlist: every track on one timeline, like a DAW's playlist with only what timing needs. Drag a clip by its top strip to move it: its beats snap onto the anchor's, finer the closer you zoom (down to a sixteenth note), and a new track lands on them by itself. Hold Alt to place it freely; with the strip focused, ← and → move it a step, Shift a bar, Alt 10 ms. Drag along a waveform or the ruler to scrub. Pinch, hold Ctrl/⌘ and scroll, or drag the zoom slider to zoom in on the timeline; scroll sideways or drag the bar under the ruler to move along it. Space plays and pauses. Each lane has its level, mute and solo. Tap a track's name to fit it on the wheel. The corner button opens the playlist full screen (Escape closes it); Upload and Record sit under the tracks.

• Key and speed per track: each track shows how far it is pitched and how fast it plays. Press that to pick the key it plays in, step it a semitone, or type its BPM; the round arrow puts the fit back.

• Mix tempo: − and + beside the play button speed the whole mix up or slow it down a BPM at a time, while it plays; press the BPM to type one. The round arrow goes back to the anchor's own tempo.

• Mashups: drop an instrumental and some acapellas. The instrumental (guessed from its name, or the track you pick with "Fit the others to this track" in its … menu; an anchor marks it) is the anchor: its key becomes the target and its tempo the tempo, and every other lane says how far it is pitched ("+5 st") and sped ("−0.8%", with ×2 or ×½ when half or double time fits better). Pick another target to move the whole mix.

• Share a key change: copy the link of a key or a key change (aden.space/key?key=Gm&to=Db). In Discord, iMessage or Slack it previews as the Camelot wheel lit on those keys, with how far to pitch ("Up 3 semitones").

In ChatGPT, Claude and other AI apps, add Key finder by Aden (mcp.aden.space/key-finder) and ask the same questions. Answers come with the wheel as a picture and a link to share, and it can open the wheel in the chat.