How to · Traktor Pro

Manage hot cue colors in Traktor Pro.

Traktor Pro 4 lets you assign colors to each hot cue slot so you can read your track structure at a glance. Prep your cue points in Vibes first and they land in your NML file ready to go.

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Traktor Pro deck with color-coded hot cue points visible on the waveform

Color-coded hot cues make drop, breakdown, and intro markers instantly readable on the Traktor waveform.

Manage hot cue colors in Traktor Pro, step by step.

Traktor Pro 4 gives you eight hot cue slots per deck. Colors on those cues are set automatically by cue type: regular cue points appear blue, loops appear green, load cues appear yellow, and floating cue points appear white. There is no palette to manually pick a color per slot. Here is the native workflow for setting and managing cue points inside Traktor.

Load a track and open the CUE page

Load a track onto a deck. Click the Advanced panel button (a small arrow button below the loop controls for that deck) to reveal the Advanced panel. Then click the CUE tab at the top of that panel to see the eight hot cue slots and the cue list.

Set a hot cue and change its type

Seek to the position you want to mark, then click an empty hot cue button to drop a cue point there. To change the cue color, change its type: use the Cue Type dropdown at the bottom of the CUE page to select a different type (Cue, Load, Fade-Out, etc.). Each type has a fixed color that appears automatically on the waveform and Stripe. To add a label, click the name field displayed at the bottom of the CUE page and type your text.

Read cue markers on the waveform and Stripe

Each cue marker appears on the scrolling waveform and on the Stripe (the full-track overview bar) in the color matching its type. The waveform frequency color scheme (Ultraviolet, Infrared, X-Ray, Spectrum) is set separately in Preferences under Decks Layout and does not affect cue marker colors.

Save cue points to your collection

Traktor writes hot cue data to its NML collection file when you close the application. A timestamped backup is also written to the Backup folder in your Root Directory at that time. To verify or change the Root Directory location, go to Preferences, open File Management, and check the path under Directories > Root Dir.

The catch

Traktor stores cue data, including type-based colors, only in its own NML collection. Tracks brought in from another DJ app arrive without Traktor cue data. You must set cue points and types manually inside Traktor for each track. Custom user-chosen colors per cue slot are not available natively in Traktor Pro 4; color is tied to cue type.

bass

mids

highs

lead

intro

verse

buildup

drop

breakdown

outro

The faster way

Export labeled cue points into Traktor before you touch the decks.

Vibes analyzes your tracks and detects structural sections, then exports cue points directly into your Traktor NML file so your hot cues are waiting when you load the track.

See how it works

Auto cue points mark intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro on every track during analysis

Export writes cue points directly into your Traktor NML collection via the native file format

Section labels carry through as cue names, so each colored marker tells you exactly what is coming

Batch-process your whole library so hundreds of tracks arrive in Traktor pre-cued, not just the ones you prep manually

Organize in Vibes, export to Traktor Pro.

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

Artist A

128

Afterhours

Mysterious

Introspective

Track 002

Artist B

124

Cozy Floor

Peaceful

Home

Track 003

Artist C

132

Rave

Aggressive

Festival

Build & Release

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.

No. Vibes is a prep and library tool, not a performance app. It exports cue points with section labels into your NML file before your session, but the actual color assignments you see in Traktor are set inside Traktor. Vibes accelerates the setup; Traktor owns the playback.

Vibes exports cue point positions and labels into the Traktor NML format. Traktor assigns its default colors to imported cue slots. You can then tweak individual colors inside Traktor using the right-click context menu on each cue slot.

Yes. Vibes imports libraries from Rekordbox, Serato, and other sources, analyzes tracks to detect structural sections, and exports cue points into Traktor NML. This makes it practical to prep a cross-platform library in one place and land with organized, labeled cues in Traktor.

Methodology