Vibes is live
How to · Rekordbox

Set cue points in Rekordbox.

To set cue points in Rekordbox, load the track in Export mode, play to the spot, and click an empty hot cue button, or set the cue point and click MEMORY. Hot cues jump and play instantly, memory cues are markers you cue up from, and both save to the track the moment you set them. Here is how to set, save, delete, and export them, and how to get structural cue points without placing each one by hand.

$49$79USD one-time purchase. First 250 licenses at this price. 14-day free trial.

Vibes waveform analysis with intro, drop, and breakdown markers on a track

Mark the intro, the drop, and the outro on every track.

Setting cue points in Rekordbox.

Rekordbox gives you hot cues for instant jumps and memory cues as navigational markers. You set both by hand while you listen, or let the analysis place a first pass.

01

Know the difference

A hot cue jumps to a point and immediately plays from there. A memory cue is a saved marker: call it and playback jumps there and pauses, ready to start. Export mode gives you eight hot cues per track, labeled A through H, and those are the ones that travel to CDJs. Memory cues are capped at 10 per track in the software, and saved loops count toward the same 10.

02

Set hot cues in Rekordbox

Open Export mode and load the track into a player. Play or scrub to the spot, then click an empty A to H button in the HOT CUE panel of the sub-information panel, or in the CUE/LOOP function panel in the 1 PLAYER layout. To set hot cue points in Rekordbox more precisely, pause first, zoom the waveform, and move the playhead onto the beat before you click the button. With Quantize on, the hot cue snaps to the nearest beat of the grid.

03

Set memory cues in Rekordbox

Memory cues do not jump, they mark. Set the cue point first: pause and click CUE, or click IN during playback for a real-time cue. Then click MEMORY in the function panel. Each press adds a marker to the track's MEMORY panel, in position order, and a saved loop lands in the same list. The rule is simple: pad to set hot cue, MEMORY to set memory cue. Rekordbox writes both to the collection the moment you click.

04

Let Rekordbox place cue points automatically

Two options automatically set cue points in Rekordbox. Auto Cue, under Preferences > Controller > Deck in Performance mode, sets the initial cue point (the main CUE, not a hot cue) at the beginning of the track, where the audio first reaches the Auto Cue Level. Rekordbox 7 also has Intelligent Cue Creation, the CUE Analysis tab under Preferences > Analysis, which sets hot cues or memory cues while it analyzes a track: Auto mode works from phrase analysis and cue trend data, Manual mode places them from the 1.1 bars position at a fixed bar interval. It depends on your subscription plan. To set auto cue points in Rekordbox that way, turn Set CUE during analysis on before analyzing, and re-analyze tracks you imported earlier. Treat the result as a first pass and move any marker that lands off the phrase.

05

Save and check your cues

You do not need to save hot cues in Rekordbox by hand. Every cue writes to the collection database as soon as you set it, and it is there the next time the track loads. Setting a pad in Performance mode saves the same way, so you never save cue points in Rekordbox as a separate action. What is not automatic is a backup: File > Library > Backup Library keeps a copy of the cues along with everything else.

06

Color and name

Right-click a hot cue to change its color, and type a comment in its row of the HOT CUE panel, for example green for the intro and red for the drop, so the layout reads at a glance in the booth.

07

Export cue points to USB

In Export mode, connect the USB drive and drag a playlist or tracks from the collection onto the drive under Devices in the tree view. Hot cues, memory cues, and loops travel with each track, and colors and comments show on players that support them. Nothing separate is needed to export cue points in Rekordbox to a device: exporting the track exports its cues.

The catch

Even with Auto Cue and Intelligent Cue Creation, the markers that matter in a set, the drop, the breakdown, the bar where the vocal ends, are still placed one at a time, by ear, on every track. For a large library that is hours of repetitive work before the structure is usable. Analysis-based cues also follow the phrase analysis or a fixed bar count, so on tracks with loose or unusual structure they need checking anyway.

bass
mids
highs
lead
intro
verse
buildup
drop
breakdown
outro

The faster way

Auto-detect the structure.

Vibes analyzes each track and marks the intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro automatically, then exports those cue points back into Rekordbox so the layout is ready before you play.

See how it works
Automatic cue points for intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro
See the structure on a multi-band waveform
Cue points encoded at each track's native sample rate on export
Export back into Rekordbox so they appear on your CDJs

Organize in Vibes, export to Rekordbox.

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.

A hot cue plays instantly from its point when triggered. A memory cue is a marker you cue to and then start manually. Hot cues are for performance, memory cues for navigation. Export mode gives you eight hot cues per track, labeled A through H, and up to 10 memory cues including saved loops, so a common layout is hot cues on the moments you jump to and memory cues on the phrase boundaries you scan past.
Load the track in Export mode. The A to H buttons, MEMORY, and the cue call arrows sit in the CUE/LOOP function panel, and the HOT CUE and MEMORY tabs of the sub-information panel list what you saved. As for where to set cue points, Rekordbox shows phrase markers such as Intro, Verse, Chorus, and Outro on an analyzed track, and those boundaries plus the first beat are the usual anchors: one hot cue at the first beat, one where the intro ends, one at the drop.
For a hot cue, hover its A to H button in the CUE/LOOP panel and click the X, or use the delete control on its HOT CUE panel row. To delete memory cue in Rekordbox, call it up with the cue arrows in the CUE/LOOP panel and click the delete button beside them, or delete it from its MEMORY panel row. Both remove cue point in Rekordbox from the collection immediately, so the next USB export drops it too. To move a cue, delete it and set it again.
Two routes, depending on the destination. For another Rekordbox install, use File > Library > Backup Library and restore it on the other machine with Restore Library; cues, colors, and comments come with it. For other apps, use File > Library > Export Collection in xml format: the XML carries every hot cue and memory cue per track as position marks, and most library tools can read it. For CDJs, a normal USB export already carries the cues, see how to back up your Rekordbox library for the longer-term copy.
Vibes auto-detects structural points, the intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro, and exports them as cue points. You still place any custom performance cues yourself, but the structural prep is done. The structure shows on a multi-band waveform while you work, and the detected points export back into Rekordbox, so the layout is ready before you play.
Yes. Vibes encodes cue points at each track's native sample rate on export to Rekordbox, so they sit on the right beat when you load the track on standalone players. Once they are in your collection they behave like cues you set by hand: export the playlist to USB and the markers are there on the CDJs.

From a Vibes customer

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

One-time purchase

Get Vibes with a single payment. No subscription.

Vibes is the step before you open your DJ software, not a replacement for it.

First 250 licenses at this price, then $79.

Free Trial

14 days • Full access

Full access to all features
No credit card required
Works offline
Download Free Trial

No strings attached

FREE UPDATES FOREVER
$49USD
one-time payment
Includes Vibes Companion Pro
Use on 2 devices (macOS and Windows)
All updates included, free forever
14-day free trial to evaluate

Secure checkout with Stripe

Already have Companion Pro? Upgrade instead

Methodology

How we keep this honest.

Verified against the app

Every step is checked against the current version of Rekordbox.

We own our bias

We make Vibes. We show the native way first and honestly, then where Vibes genuinely helps, and we say when it does not.

Live pricing

The Vibes price shown comes straight from our checkout, never a hardcoded marketing number.

Kept current

Last reviewed September 2026.