ANSWER · DJ SOFTWARE & EXPORT
Do Embedded Cue Points Work in Traktor?
No. Traktor Pro does not read hot cues or a beat grid from tags inside an MP3. It stores cues in its own collection file. It does read the standard tags, so a Club Ready Music file arrives with the correct BPM, key, genre, cover art and a comment listing the cue times, which makes setting cues a one-minute job.
What Traktor reads from a file
Traktor imports title, artist, album, genre, comment, key, BPM and artwork from the ID3 tag. It then analyses the track for its own beat grid and, unless disabled, its own key. Any cue data from Serato, rekordbox or another app is ignored because Traktor stores cues only in its collection.
Setting Club Ready Music cues in Traktor
Club Ready Music writes the cue positions into the comment tag in minutes and seconds, for example "intro end 0:30.000; first drop 1:00.000; outro start 4:00.000", and includes a plain-text cue sheet in the DJ pack.
- Import the MP3 into Traktor and let it analyse.
- Open the track and read the comment field, or open the cue points text file from the DJ pack.
- Load the track to a deck, jump to each time, and press a hot cue button to store it. Name the cues if you like.
- Check the grid: generated tracks start on bar one at zero, so the first beat marker should sit at the very start. If Traktor placed it elsewhere, move the grid marker to zero and set the BPM to the tag value.
Grid accuracy
Club Ready Music tracks are rendered at a fixed BPM with a hard start, so a single grid marker at zero at the tagged BPM is exact. Traktor's analysis usually finds the same number, but on tracks with a sparse intro it can be off by half a beat. Locking the BPM to the tag value and placing the marker on the first kick solves it.
For DJ edits of uploaded songs, the BPM tag is the detected or user-confirmed tempo. If a tempo shift was applied, the tag carries the target BPM. The edit's own intro starts on a downbeat, so the grid marker belongs at the start of the file.
Converting from another application
If you also use Serato or rekordbox, let that application read the embedded cues or the XML first, then use a library conversion tool to carry the cues to Traktor's collection. This is the only way to get cues into Traktor without setting them by hand.
Why Traktor works this way
Native Instruments designed Traktor around a single collection file that holds every track's analysis, grid, cues and metadata. The advantage is that cues can be edited without touching the audio file and backed up as one document. The cost is that cue data never travels inside the MP3.
Frequently asked
Does Traktor read Open Key from the file?
Traktor reads the key tag and displays it in its own notation. Club Ready Music also writes an Open Key text tag, which some library tools use. Traktor's own key detection can be turned off if you trust the tag.
Can I convert Serato or rekordbox cues to Traktor?
Yes, with third-party library converters. They read the Serato or rekordbox database and write a Traktor collection file. The cues then appear in Traktor.