Cues & loops · 7 min read

How to set hot cues and loops in Rekordbox (and save hours)

Hot cues and loops are what separate a prepared library from a pile of files. Here's the manual way to set them in Rekordbox, the layout most DJs settle on — and honest maths on what it costs you in time across a whole library.

Before you start: the grid has to be right

Every cue and loop snaps to the beatgrid. If the grid is off — wrong BPM, wrong downbeat, or a track that drifts — every cue you set lands slightly wrong too. Fix the grid first, then set cues. This is the step most prep problems trace back to.

Setting hot cues manually

1. Import the track into Rekordbox and let it analyse.
2. Play the track and pause on the exact beat you want to mark.
3. Press a performance pad in Hot Cue mode (or the Hot Cue button in the software) to store it.
4. Repeat for each moment you want instant access to.

A pad layout that works for most open-format and dance DJs:

• A — first beat. Your guaranteed mix-in point, whatever happens.
• B — a few bars before the build. Your last safe moment to start the blend.
• C — the first drop. The energy peak everyone waits for.
• D — the second drop. For quick doubles and energy resets.

Keeping the same meaning on every pad for every track is the real trick — muscle memory only works if pad C is always the drop.

Setting loops manually

Use Rekordbox's loop controls to set an in and out point on whole bars, then save it as a memory or active loop. The most useful loop for mixing is an outro loop: 8 bars (4 at very high BPMs) near the end of the track, in a section with low vocal activity, so you can loop it and take your time with the blend. Loops at the very start of a track are rarely useful — you're usually still mixing in there.

The honest time maths

Doing this properly — checking the grid, finding the four cue moments, setting a clean outro loop — takes roughly 2 to 4 minutes per track when you're focused. For a 500-track library that's 17 to 33 hours of prep. That's the real reason most USB sticks are full of tracks with no cues at all.

The faster route: automatic cues and loops

CueStem does this prep for the whole library in one pass. It analyses each track locally on your computer, fixes the grid where it can, then places hot cues using the exact pad layout above — A first beat, B before the build, C first drop, D second drop — plus an outro mix loop after the second drop. Everything exports into a Rekordbox XML you import once, cues and loops included.

One honest caveat: automatic placement is an estimate. CueStem flags the tracks it's less sure about so you can spot-check those first, and a pre-download check warns you if any cue landed off-grid. For most of a library it gets you from zero to prepared — and editing a cue that's 90% right is far faster than finding every moment from scratch.