Cue points are the quiet secret behind DJs who always seem to drop the next track at exactly the right moment. They are markers you set inside a track so you can jump to any spot instantly, without hunting for it live. Set them well and your mixing gets faster, tighter, and far less stressful. This guide covers where to place them, how to name them, and how to use them for clean transitions.
Cue Points vs Hot Cues
First, a quick distinction, because the words get used loosely.
- A memory cue (or just "cue point") is a saved marker stored with the track. It stays there every time you load the track. Think of it as a permanent bookmark.
- A hot cue is a marker mapped to a pad you can hit live. Press the pad and the track jumps to that spot instantly, often triggering playback.
In most software the two overlap, and you can save hot cues so they load every time. The point is the same: instead of scrubbing through a waveform mid-set, you press a button and land exactly where you planned. That is the difference between guessing and knowing.
Where Should You Place Cue Points?
Good cue placement is about marking the structural moments of a track, the spots you actually care about when mixing. For most club tracks, these are the ones worth marking:
- The first downbeat. The very first strong beat of the track. This is your anchor for beatmatching and clean starts.
- The start of the intro. Where the mixable intro section begins, often a clean drum pattern you can blend over.
- The breakdown. Where the track strips back before building again. Useful for creative blends and mood shifts.
- The drop or main section. Where the full energy hits. You will use this constantly for impact.
- The outro. Where the track begins winding down, giving you a runway to bring in the next one.
You do not need eight cues on every track. Three or four well-placed markers usually cover everything you need. Focus on the moments you would actually mix into or out of.
Name Your Cues So They Make Sense Live
A screen full of unlabeled colored markers is useless at 1am under club lights. Naming and color coding your cues turns them into instant instructions.
A simple, consistent system works best:
- Use clear labels like "Intro," "Drop," "Break," and "Outro."
- Keep colors consistent across your whole library. For example, always green for intro, red for drop.
- Once your brain learns the color code, you can read any track at a glance without squinting at text.
The goal is that when you load a track you have not touched in months, you instantly know where everything is. Consistency across your library is what makes that possible, so pick a system and stick to it.
How to Set Cue Points in Rekordbox
The mechanics are the same on the Rekordbox laptop app and on a CDJ. Load the track, move the playhead to the exact spot, and set the marker:
- Memory cue. Press CUE to drop a temporary cue at the playhead, then press MEMORY to save it. It stays on the waveform every time you load the track.
- Hot cue. At the point you want, press an empty hot-cue pad (A to H). Press it again to jump straight there, playing or paused.
- Label and colour. Open the cue, give it a name like "Intro" or "Drop," and set a colour. On the CDJ that label is what you read at a glance.
Two habits save you in the booth. First, zoom in and land the cue on the actual beat, not near it, so a jump never drops you off the grid. Second, check the beat grid before you trust a cue, especially on anything with a live drummer or a slow intro, because an auto-grid that drifts drags your cues with it. Doing all of this at home, then getting it onto a stick, is covered in the USB and Rekordbox export walkthrough.
Mix In and Mix Out Cues, and How Cratefox Places Them
The two cues you use most are the mix-in and the mix-out. The mix-in marks where you bring a track in, usually the first clean, mixable phrase after the intro. The mix-out marks where you start blending toward the next track, near the outro. Set both and every transition starts and ends at a point you chose in advance instead of one you hunt for live.
This is the one part Cratefox does for you up front. When it builds a harmonic crate it exports one .m3u8 playlist and one Rekordbox .xml, with key and BPM written into each file's tags and mix-in and mix-out cues written into the Rekordbox XML on every track. On the sample crate that came to 190 cues across 32 tracks. Import the XML and those cues are already on the waveform.
To bring the crate in, enable Rekordbox's XML import in its preferences and point it at the .xml Cratefox produced. The exact wording of that setting shifts between Rekordbox versions, but it is always the option for loading an external rekordbox xml library. The crate then appears under the rekordbox xml node in the sidebar; drag it into your Collection and Rekordbox keeps the mix-in and mix-out cues along with the key and BPM.
Be clear on what this is and is not. The key and BPM ride in the file tags, so Rekordbox, Serato and Traktor all read them (how accurate those tags are is spelled out on the accuracy page). The mix-in and mix-out cues live in the Rekordbox XML specifically, so they land when you import into Rekordbox; Serato and Traktor read the tags, not that XML, and Cratefox does not write a native Serato or Traktor library. The mix-in and mix-out points are a starting read from each track's energy, not a hand-checked beat grid, so nudge them to the exact beat and trust your ears. And Cratefox does not set your hot cues: your pad triggers, loop points and creative markers stay your call. It puts the structural cues in place so you start ahead, then you add the rest.
How Do You Use Cues for Tight Transitions?
Here is where cue points earn their keep. With markers in place, your transitions stop being a scramble.
A common clean transition works like this:
- As the current track heads toward its outro, load the next track.
- Jump straight to that track's intro cue instead of hunting for the start.
- Beatmatch or sync, then bring the new track in over the outro of the old one.
- Use the drop cue later if you want to slam straight into the main section for impact.
Because you jumped to a precise, pre-set point, your timing is tight and repeatable. You are no longer hoping you dropped it in the right place. You know you did.
Hot cues also let you do more creative things:
- Loop rolls and re-triggers. Hit a hot cue on beat to restart a phrase for a stutter effect.
- Skip a long intro. Jump straight to the meat of a track when the crowd needs energy now.
- Rescue a bad start. If a blend drifts, jump back to a cue and reset instead of riding out a mess.
Prep Cues Before the Gig, Not During It
The biggest mistake new DJs make is trying to set cues live. Setting markers takes attention, and attention is exactly what you do not have while performing. Do this work at home instead.
A solid prep routine looks like this:
- Go through the tracks you plan to play and set cues in advance.
- Keep your naming and colors consistent as you go.
- Make sure your key and BPM data is accurate too, since cue prep pairs naturally with organizing the rest of your track info.
This is where prep tools save real time. If you are already tagging key and BPM and getting a crate ready to export, handling that alongside your cue prep keeps everything in one pass. A tool like Cratefox helps get your library analyzed and organized so that when you sit down to set cues, the tracks are already sorted and club ready.
Build the Habit
Cue points reward consistency more than cleverness. A few well-placed, well-named markers on every track will do more for your mixing than any single trick. Start simple:
- Mark the intro, drop, and outro on your next ten tracks.
- Use the same colors every time.
- Practice jumping to your intro cue on every transition until it is automatic.
Do that, and mixing starts to feel calm and controlled instead of rushed. That calm is what separates a DJ who is reacting from one who is in command.
Common Questions
How do you set a cue point in Rekordbox?
Load the track, move the playhead to the spot you want, and press CUE to drop a temporary cue there. Press MEMORY to save it as a memory cue so it loads every time. For a hot cue, press an empty hot-cue pad (A to H) at that point, then press it again to jump straight back. Set these at home, not in the booth.
What are mix-in and mix-out cue points?
A mix-in cue marks where you bring a track in, usually the first clean, mixable phrase after the intro. A mix-out cue marks where you start blending toward the next track, near the outro. Together they give you a precise in point and out point, so every transition starts from a spot you chose in advance instead of one you hunt for live.
Does Cratefox set cue points for me?
Cratefox writes mix-in and mix-out cues into the Rekordbox XML it exports, with key and BPM in the file tags. Import that XML into Rekordbox and the cues are already on the waveform. They come from the track's energy, not a hand-checked beat grid, so nudge them to the exact beat, and set your own hot cues on top; those personal trigger points stay your call.