Where to put your energy values
Not everyone uses Mixed In Key. If your energy comes from Lexicon DJ, Serato, your own script, or you type it in by hand, this is exactly which tag we read it from and in what format. If yours lives somewhere else, tell us and we'll add it.
Which field
Read in this order. A field named ENERGY settles it on its own; after that, the first field with the word "Energy" written out wins.
| Field | Where it lives | Bare number accepted? |
|---|---|---|
| A field named ENERGY | ID3 TXXX:ENERGY, Vorbis/FLAC ENERGY, iTunes/MP4 ENERGY atom. Lexicon DJ can write a custom field with this name. This is the cleanest option and it wins over everything else. | Yes |
| Comment | Where Mixed In Key writes. Traktor INFO COMMENT, Rekordbox Comments, ID3 COMM. Also Traktor's second comment field (COMMENT2). | No |
| Grouping | Rekordbox's Grouping column and the ID3 grouping frame — the usual choice for DJs who keep their comments for notes. | No |
| Lyrics | The unsynchronised lyrics frame, and Traktor's KEY_LYRICS field. A real place to put it: nothing else reads it. | Yes |
| Producer | Traktor's INFO PRODUCER field. | Yes |
| Composer | Rekordbox's Composer column and the ID3 composer frame. | Yes |
| Label | Read as a last resort, and only with the word "Energy" written out. | No |
Which format
| If you write | We read | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy 7 | 7 | Mixed In Key's own format. |
| 8A - Energy 7 | 7 | Key and energy in one comment — read fine. |
| Energy: 7 | 7 | |
| Energy=7 | 7 | |
| Energy 7/10 | 7 | |
| Energy Level 7 | 7 | Also EnergyLevel 7. |
| 7 Energy | 7 | Value first works too. |
| 01 Energy | 1 | Leading zeros are fine. |
| 1.0 Energy | 1 | Decimals are rounded: 7.5 reads as 8. |
| E7 | 7 | Only when it is the whole field. |
| 7 | 7 | Only in the fields marked above — in a comment, a bare 7 is a comment. |
What we deliberately don't read
- "high energy" — no number, nothing to read.
- "Energy 0" or "Energy 11" — the scale is 1 to 10, and a value outside it belongs to somebody else's scale.
- A bare number in the comment field. "128" is a BPM, "2024" is a year, and "7" could be either — so we don't guess.
- "E7" inside a longer string, so a catalog number like E-1201 is never mistaken for an energy.
A confidently wrong number is worse than a missing one: a missing one is visibly missing, and a wrong one quietly reshapes your set.
We tell you where it came from
After an import, EnergyCurve shows how many tracks it found energy for and which field it read. If it says 0 of 24, that's a format mismatch and not your fault — and this page tells you which one to change.
If you have no energy tags at all
That's fine: EnergyCurve estimates the curve from BPM, genre and position, and you can edit any value by hand in the track table. Tags just let the analysis start from real data instead of an estimate.
Common questions
Do I need Mixed In Key for this to work?
No. Mixed In Key writes to the comment field and we read that, but we also read a field named ENERGY, Grouping, and lyrics — so Lexicon DJ, Serato, your own script, or a value you typed in by hand all work. If your energy lives somewhere we don't read yet, tell us and we'll add it.
Can I just write the number on its own, like "7"?
Only in a field named ENERGY, where a bare number settles it. Everywhere else the word "Energy" has to appear next to the value — "Energy 7" — because a lone number in a comment or a grouping is far more likely to be a catalogue number, a year or a rating than an energy value, and reading it as energy would quietly reshape your set.
It says it found energy for 0 of my tracks. What now?
That is a format mismatch, not a broken import, and the table above tells you which field to change. After every import EnergyCurve reports how many tracks it found energy for and which field it read it from, so you can check the fix rather than guess at it.
What if none of my tracks have energy tags at all?
The analysis still runs. EnergyCurve estimates the curve from BPM, genre and position, and you can edit any value by hand in the track table. Tags are what let the analysis start from measured data instead of an estimate — they are not a requirement for using the product.
This page is half the answer: which tag we read energy from. The other half is what EnergyCurve reads from each playlist format.
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