How to place the first drop in an AI-generated track

Set the first drop with Drop at bar under 06 · DJ mix edit in the Club Ready Music studio: choose 16, 32 or 48, with 32 as the default. The bar number goes into the style prompt as "first drop at bar 32", becomes the first drop cue point written into your files, and is where the free 30-second preview on the share page begins. Place it at least one phrase after the intro ends.

Steps

1. Set the intro first

The drop has to come after the intro. Pick Intro bars (8, 16 or 32) before you pick the drop bar. The gap between the two is the build: the stretch where elements stack up before the drop hits.

2. Choose the gap you want

A 16-bar build is the club standard: 16-bar intro and drop at 32. An 8-bar intro with a drop at 16 gives a fast, radio-style opening. A 32-bar intro with a drop at 48 gives a long DJ-tool opening for techno, progressive and melodic sets. Match the gap to the energy setting: warm-up tracks want the later drop.

3. Tap the bar

In the Drop at bar row, tap 16, 32 or 48. On a phone the row is on step 4, DJ settings. There is no on-screen tag for the drop, so check the row before you render.

4. Check it fits the length

Convert the bar to time: bar 48 at 126 BPM is 91 seconds in. On a 2:00 track that is three quarters of the way through. For short tracks use 16 or 32; for 4:00 and 5:00 tracks any option works. See choose song length.

5. Decide what happens at the drop

The prompt says where the drop is, not what it contains. Describe it in 02 · Vibe: "first drop brings in the full bassline and the vocal hook" or "drop is drums and bass only, no lead". If you use the lyric writer, place the first [Drop] or [Chorus] tag where you want the vocal to hit; the writer's default structure puts a chorus and drop after the first verse.

6. Render and find the cue

After the render, the first drop cue is in the MP3 and WAV tags and in the DJ pack cue sheet. Open the file in your DJ software to jump straight to it. The share page at /t/{slug} plays its 30-second preview from this point, so the drop is the first thing a listener hears.

7. Adjust and re-render if needed

If the model dropped early or late, the cue still marks the bar you asked for, so you can hear the difference. Models follow bar counts approximately. Re-render with the same settings for two new takes, or move the drop one step and compare.

Tips

• Count in phrases of 8 and 16. DJs mix in 16- and 32-bar phrases, so a drop at 32 lines up with where the incoming track's phrase ends.
• Later drops suit longer tracks. Bar 48 on a 5:00 track is a quarter of the way in, which feels natural. On 3:00 it feels late.
• The preview sells the track. Because the share preview starts at the drop, make sure the drop is the best 30 seconds.
• A break is a second build. The Break bars setting controls the breakdown before the second drop; keep it 8 or 16 for peak time.
• Hard start keeps the count honest. With Hard start on bar 1 on, leading silence is trimmed, so bar 32 in the file is bar 32 in your DJ software.

Common problems

The drop came in early. The model treated the build as the drop. Set Drums-only intro on so the intro is unmistakably sparse, and add "long build, nothing drops before bar 32" to the brief.

The drop came in late or is weak. Say "first drop is the full track: kick, bass, lead and hook" in the brief. Tick Big drops under Sounds to feature if you want impact. Try the other take; drop strength varies between takes.

The preview starts in the wrong place. The preview starts at the first-drop cue, which is computed from your bar and BPM. If the model's real drop is elsewhere, re-render with a drop bar that matches what it did, or accept the take whose drop is on time.

The drop lands before the intro ends. Your drop bar is less than or equal to the intro bars. Set the drop one step later than the intro.