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How to · Serato DJ

Sort tracks by key in Serato DJ.

Right-click the library column header area, tick Key, then click the Key column header once for ascending order or twice for descending. Hold Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) and click BPM to add it as a secondary sort, so tracks group by key first and by tempo inside each key. Tracks only show a key if they were analyzed with the key option switched on.

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A Vibes library table with BPM, Camelot key, energy, and vibe tags on every track

Key on every track, and the compatible ones one click away.

Sort tracks by key in Serato DJ, step by step.

Most answers to how to sort by key in Serato stop at the column header. The secondary sort column and a key smart crate are the parts that make it useful in a real crate.

01

Analyze with the key option on

Click the arrow next to the Analyze Files button to open the analysis settings, then check Set Key (it is called Analyze Key in Serato DJ Lite). Click Analyze Files, or drag a folder or crate onto the button to do a smaller batch. Serato DJ 4.0 also analyzes on import by default. Locked tracks keep the key they already have.

02

Turn on the Key column

Right-click any part of the header area above your library and tick Key in the list of columns. The same list holds BPM, Genre, Grouping, Comment, and Location. Drag the column edge to size it. If Custom Crate Columns is on in Setup, each crate keeps its own column layout, so you may need to do this in more than one crate.

03

Pick the key notation you read fastest

Open Setup, go to the Library + Display tab, and use the Show Key As dropdown to choose which key notation Serato displays in your library. If your tracks were tagged by another key detection app, choose Original Key so Serato shows the tag exactly as that app wrote it instead of its own value.

04

Click the Key column header

Click the Key header once to order by ascending values, twice to order by descending values. Every track in the same key now sits together, which is the grouping you want when you are hunting for the next record inside a crate rather than scrolling the whole collection.

05

Add BPM as a secondary sort

Hold Ctrl on Windows, or Cmd on macOS, and click the BPM header. That assigns BPM as the secondary sort column, so each key block is ordered by tempo inside itself. Clicking a primary or secondary column again flips it between ascending and descending. Ctrl and Shift held together while clicking the secondary column switches secondary sorting off.

06

Save the useful ones as smart crates

Click Add Smart Crate, then Add Rule, and set the field to Key with Is or Contains and the key you want. Add a BPM rule and tick Match all of the following Rules to combine the two. The crate refills itself as you add music, so a key you play often is one click away instead of a re-sort.

The catch

A column sort is a view of the crate you are in, not a saved order, and Serato has no rule for keys that are merely compatible with the one you picked. A smart crate matches the key values you type, so covering a full harmonic neighborhood means one rule per key, or one crate per key.

Find compatible12B12A1B1A2B2A3B3A4B4A5B5A6B6A7B7A8B8A9B9A10B10A11B11A
8A120-136 BPM

The faster way

Sort by key once, then let the compatible tracks come to you.

Vibes imports your Serato crates, analyzes BPM and key locally, and shows the key in Camelot, musical, or Open Key notation, whichever you read fastest. Find Compatible lists the harmonic Camelot neighbors of any track inside a BPM window you set, half and double time aware, so you skip the manual re-sorting. Set Designer can sort a whole set along a key path or an energy curve, and the finished list exports back to Serato as crates, with optional Camelot key sub-folders.

See how it works
BPM and key detected locally on import, displayed in Camelot, musical, or Open Key notation
Find Compatible surfaces the harmonic Camelot neighbors of a track within a BPM window, half and double time aware
Set Designer sorts a set by key path or by energy flow instead of one column at a time
Export straight back to Serato as crates, with optional Camelot key or BPM sub-folders

Organize in Vibes, export to Serato DJ.

Your playlists, tags, ratings, and cue points travel back to the gear you play on, so nothing you do in Vibes is locked away.

Track 001 by Artist A

Track 001

Artist A

128
3A
Track 002 by Artist B

Track 002

Artist B

124
5B
Track 003 by Artist C

Track 003

Artist C

132
8A
Vibes App
Playlists
Vibes
Mood
Aggressive
Euphoric
Melancholic
Mysterious
Peaceful
Playful
Tense
Function
Arrangement
Sets
Club Night 12/28
NYE Closing Set
Rooftop 01/04

Frequently asked questions

The honest answers, including the trade-offs.

Play tracks that share a key, or that sit next to each other on the Camelot wheel: same number, other letter (8A into 8B), or one step around the circle (8A into 7A or 9A). Those moves keep the melodies from clashing. It only works if the key on the track is right, so fix the odd wrong reading before you trust the column. See fix a wrong key in Serato. Sorting puts the keys in order; the harmonic mixing chart is what tells you which of the neighbours actually blend.
Right-click the header area above your library and tick Key. The column then shows the key of every analyzed track. To change the notation, open Setup, go to the Library + Display tab, and use the Show Key As dropdown. If you want the wheel-style numbers rather than musical names, follow show Camelot key in Serato. Both Serato DJ Pro and Serato DJ Lite have the Key column.
Key Shift and Key Sync need the Pitch 'n Time DJ expansion pack, which you toggle in the Expansion Packs tab of the Setup screen. With it on, a loaded track shows a key display, two Key Shift buttons, and a Key Sync button beside the deck info area. Key Shift moves the track in semitones. Key Sync picks a key that fits the other playing track. The track needs a key tag first.
Switching key means moving the notes up or down by a set number of semitones, or modulating into a related key part way through a song. A DJ does the same thing with pitch: shift a track a semitone or two and it lands in a new key, which is what Serato's Key Shift does. Large shifts start to change how vocals and drums sound, so most DJs keep it small.
It depends on your files, and we have not run a controlled test, so we will not call a winner. Mixed In Key is a dedicated key detection app and Serato's own support pages point at using it alongside Serato. If you do, turn Set Key off in the analysis settings so Serato does not overwrite the tag, and set Show Key As to Original Key. See use Mixed In Key with Serato.
No. Harmonic mixing is one tool, not a rule. Plenty of DJs pick by energy, groove, vocal, or crowd read and never look at the key column, and a short blend over a drum section rarely exposes a clash at all. Key matters most on long melodic blends and on tracks with strong vocals or lead lines. Sorting by key just makes the option available when you want it.
Usually those files were analyzed before the key option was on. Open the analysis settings from the arrow beside Analyze Files, check Set Key, then drag those tracks or the whole crate onto the Analyze Files button. Locked tracks are skipped on purpose and keep whatever key they already have. If Show Key As is set to Original Key, a track with no key tag written by another app shows nothing.
Holding Ctrl and Shift while clicking the secondary column switches secondary sorting off, and that is easy to do by accident. Hold only Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) and click the column again to reassign it. If a column is missing entirely in one crate but present in another, Custom Crate Columns is enabled in Setup, which gives every crate its own column layout.
Yes. Vibes reads your existing Serato library, analyzes BPM and key locally, and shows the key in Camelot, musical, or Open Key notation. Find Compatible then pulls the harmonic neighbors of any track inside a BPM window instead of making you re-sort a column, and finished lists export back as Serato crates. Vibes is a prep tool, not a DJ app: no decks, no mixing. Download Vibes or see Find Compatible.

From a Vibes customer

The import worked perfectly. Have created several sets now and my life is so much easier
Danny

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Last reviewed June 2026.

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