How to · Engine DJ

Set cue points in Engine DJ.

Engine DJ lets you set hot cues and memory cues directly on your hardware or in the desktop app. Vibes goes further: it detects your track sections automatically and writes cue points straight into Engine DJ's database before you ever touch the decks.

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Vibes waveform view showing auto-detected sections with cue point markers

Vibes detects intros, buildups, drops, and outros, then exports them as cue points into Engine DJ.

Set cue points in Engine DJ, step by step.

You can set cue points in Engine DJ software on your desktop or directly on compatible Denon DJ hardware. Here is the standard native workflow using the Engine DJ desktop app.

Load a track in Engine DJ

Open Engine DJ on your desktop and browse your collection. Double-click a track (or drag it to the deck) to load it into the player deck. The waveform will appear once the track is loaded.

Play or scrub to the position you want

Use the waveform scrubber or the playback controls to navigate to the exact point where you want to place a cue. Zoom into the waveform for more precise placement. Pause playback at the target position (you can also set hot cues while the track is playing).

Set the hot cue

Click one of the numbered hot cue buttons in the deck area to assign that position as a hot cue. Engine DJ supports up to 8 hot cues per track, shown as colored markers on the waveform. Note: Engine DJ does not have a memory cue feature - hot cues are the only cue type available natively.

Save and sync to your device

Engine DJ saves cue points to your local library database automatically. To get them onto a Denon DJ device, connect your USB drive or device and use Sync Manager within Engine DJ desktop to export your collection. Your cue points will be included in the sync.

The catch

Setting cues manually is fast for a single track, but cueing an entire library track by track is slow work that has to be redone any time you rebuild or migrate your collection.

bass

mids

highs

lead

intro

verse

buildup

drop

breakdown

outro

The faster way

Auto-generate cue points, then export to Engine DJ.

Vibes analyzes every track and detects section boundaries: intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro. It writes those positions as cue points directly into Engine DJ's m.db database, so your hardware is ready before you load a single track.

See how it works

Section detection on every track: intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro become cue points automatically

Writes directly into Engine DJ's m.db database, no manual re-entry or export steps on your part

Cue point export is toggled per-platform in Vibes, so you control exactly what gets written

Pairs with BPM detection, key detection, and energy curve analysis so each cue point has full musical context

Organize in Vibes, export to Engine 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

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.

Not entirely. Vibes is a prep and library tool, not a performance app. It auto-generates cue points from detected sections and exports them into Engine DJ's database before you play. You still use Engine DJ or your Denon hardware to perform, and you can always manually adjust or add cues there after Vibes has done the initial work.

Vibes writes to Engine DJ's m.db on export. If you have manually set cues you want to keep, set them before running a Vibes export, or check the cue point toggle in Vibes export settings. It is good practice to keep a backup of your Engine DJ database before any bulk export.

Vibes uses downbeat-locked beatgrid analysis and an energy curve to detect section transitions, so detected boundaries land on musical phrase points rather than arbitrary timestamps. Results are strong for tracks with clear structure. For unusual or live recordings, you may want to review and tweak a handful of cues manually in Engine DJ.

Methodology