rekordbox Tips for Playing Out

Before a gig, set memory cues and hot cues at your mix points and turn on Hot Cue Auto Load, so the hot cues are waiting when a track loads on a CDJ or XDJ, then choose what the player shows under Preferences > DJ System. When you play from rekordbox itself, quantize, beat sync, key sync, slip mode and the keyboard shortcuts under Preferences > Keyboard save the most effort.

These tips are for rekordbox 7 and use its menu names. rekordbox has two modes: EXPORT mode prepares music for Pioneer DJ and AlphaTheta players, and PERFORMANCE mode is for mixing in rekordbox with a controller or mouse and keyboard. Building and cleaning up the library itself (importing, analysis settings, playlists, My Tag, backups) is covered in how to organise music in rekordbox.

Set cue points before the gig

• Memory cues mark points you'll come back to, such as the first beat or the start of the outro. Set a cue, then click MEMORY; each track holds up to 10 memory cues and loops, which show on the player. You can give each one a colour and a comment, which some players display.
• Hot cues jump straight to a point. rekordbox stores 8 per track (A to H) in EXPORT mode and 16 (A to P) in PERFORMANCE mode, and the number a player can use depends on the player. The cue and hot cue explainer covers the difference.
• Turn on quantize (the Q button) before setting cues and loops, so they snap to the nearest beat on the grid.
• Tidy them up. Right-click a track for Convert Memory Cues to Hot Cues, which fills empty hot cue slots from your memory cues, and Sort Hot Cues by Time, which puts the hot cues in the order they occur. Sorting can't be undone.
• Make a safety loop. Save a loop as a memory cue, then click its loop icon in the MEMORY panel to make it an active loop; the icon turns red. On players that support active loops, the track loops there by itself, which can save a mix if you're late with the next track.

Depending on your plan, Intelligent Cue Creation can set cues during analysis. Turn it on under Preferences > Analysis > CUE Analysis. In Auto mode it learns from tracks you add to the CUE Analysis playlist, and AlphaTheta suggests adding at least 30 tracks across different genres.

Settings for CDJs and XDJs

These are in EXPORT mode, under Preferences > DJ System, and they travel to the player with your USB export.

• Hot Cue Auto Load. Under the Others tab, tick Prepare Hot Cue Auto Load setting for CDJ/XDJ use (on import). Every track you import from then on has Allow to auto load HotCue on CDJ/XDJ ticked in its Info tab; tick that box by hand for tracks already in your library. When such a track loads on a player, its saved hot cues replace whatever was on the player's hot cue buttons.
• What the player's screen shows. Column picks the information shown to the right of each title when you browse on a player, Category sets which browse categories appear and in what order, and Sort sets the sort options. Each USB stick under Devices can also have its own settings, including a name and background colour.
• My Settings stores your player preferences on the stick, so each player you plug into picks them up. Changes you make on a player come back to rekordbox.
• Play history. Under the Device tab, tick Import the play history automatically. When you plug the stick back into your computer, rekordbox saves what you played to Histories, dated, and you can right-click a history to copy it to a playlist. You can also choose to delete the history from the stick after import. Only tracks exported from your own rekordbox appear in it.
• Bring back edits made on the player. Right-click the stick under Devices and choose Update Collection. Cue and loop points, hot cues, beatgrids, colours, ratings and comments you changed on the player come back into your library.
• Keep playlists current. SYNC MANAGER, at the bottom of the Media Browser, can sync chosen playlists to a stick, so each export brings them up to date.

Since rekordbox 7.2.11, an export writes two libraries to the stick, OneLibrary for newer players such as the CDJ-3000X, OPUS-QUAD and XDJ-AZ, and the Device Library for players such as the CDJ-3000 and XDJ-XZ, per AlphaTheta's March 2026 notice. Playlists and histories made on one kind of player don't show on the other, the USB Export Guide explains, so after a gig, run Update Collection and import any playlists you made on the players before you export again. The guide to the best USB sticks for DJing covers formatting and which stick to buy.

Playing in PERFORMANCE mode

• Beat sync. Click MASTER on the deck to follow, then BEAT SYNC on the other. It needs a correct beatgrid, and x2 and x1/2 sync at double or half tempo. The sync button explainer covers when to use it.
• Key sync. KEY SYNC shifts a track's key to match the other decks. The KEY SHIFT pad mode moves it in semitones, from -12 to +12, and KEY RESET puts it back. The guide to mixing in key explains the theory.
• Slip mode. With SLIP on, the track keeps playing silently underneath while you loop, scratch, reverse or hold a hot cue, and picks up from there when you let go, so you don't lose your place in the phrase.
• Beat jump. The BEAT JUMP pad mode moves the playhead forwards or back by a set amount, from a fine 5 milliseconds to 128 beats.
• Eject/Load Lock. Under Preferences > Controller > Deck, set Eject/Load Lock to Lock and you can't load a track onto a deck that's playing.
• Mixer settings. Preferences > Controller > Mixer has Auto Gain, the choice between EQ and ISOLATOR, and the channel fader and crossfader curves.
• Audio buffer. Under Preferences > Audio, a larger Buffer size stops audio dropouts but adds delay, which you notice when scratching. Raise it only if the sound skips.

MIX POINT LINK, which starts the next track by itself at a mix point you set from its cues, depends on your plan and works in the 2 Deck Horizontal and 4 Deck Horizontal layouts. Turn it on under Preferences > Controller > MIX POINT LINK.

Keyboard shortcuts

rekordbox's default shortcuts work in PERFORMANCE mode only. These are the main ones from the Performance 1 preset, per AlphaTheta's shortcut reference:

Ctrl/Cmd + Z undoes a track load, and Ctrl/Cmd + Return starts and pauses recording. Change any of them under Preferences > Keyboard, where you can also export your set and import it on another computer.

Find the next track

• Preview in the browser. Click the waveform in the Preview column to hear a track from that point, or click its artwork to hear it from the start and click again to skip ahead 30 seconds. Turn on Display Cue Markers on Preview under Preferences > View > Layout to see each track's cues in the list.
• Related Tracks lists tracks that match the one loaded, by BPM, key, genre, rating, My Tag and other conditions you set, searching the folder or playlist you choose. Open it as a subpanel beside the track list.
• Track Suggestion ranks tracks by Collection Radar (similar sound), Era, Mood and Association (same composer or label). Collection Radar needs Radar Analysis turned on under Preferences > Analysis > Track Analysis, and tracks imported before that need Add New Analysis Data.
• Tag List holds up to 100 tracks you can browse from every player connected by PRO DJ LINK.

Record and reuse

• Record your set. In PERFORMANCE mode, open the recording panel, choose Master Out as the source, set the level so the meter stays out of the red, and press record. rekordbox records WAV files and stops by itself after 20 seconds of silence. Recording depends on your plan, though connecting some DJ equipment enables it without a subscription, per AlphaTheta's introduction guide.
• Save a loop as a sample. In EXPORT mode's 1 PLAYER layout, while a loop plays, open the player's menu and choose Export Loop As Wav. rekordbox saves it as a WAV file and adds it to the Collection, ready for a sampler or a DAW.

How this page is made

Every setting and step on this page comes from AlphaTheta's rekordbox 7 Instruction Manual (the edition for version 7.2.18), its default keyboard shortcut reference, the USB Export Guide, AlphaTheta's notice on USB library formats and the introduction guide, read on 12 October 2026, when the current release was rekordbox 7.2.19. Menu and setting names are as rekordbox shows them in English, and AlphaTheta notes that some functions depend on your plan and the hardware you connect. The methodology explains how the site works.