How to use the cue points Dropkit writes into your track

Every Dropkit take carries a set of cue points computed from your arrangement settings: start at 0:00, intro end at the bar you set under Intro bars, first drop at Drop at bar, outro start at the track length minus Outro bars, and vocal in when the model reports a timed vocal section. They are written into the MP3 and WAV as Serato cue markers with colours, listed in the file comment, and saved as cue points.txt in the DJ pack. Read them as a map of the track before you have heard it.

Steps

1. Set the arrangement that the cues are built from

In /studio under 06 · DJ mix edit, choose Intro bars, Drop at bar and Outro bars. These three values and your BPM decide where the markers land: seconds = bars × 4 × 60 ÷ BPM. With the defaults at 126 BPM, intro end is at 0:30 and first drop at 1:01.

2. Render and open the result

Press Generate. When a take is ready, the waveform in the result panel shows INTRO and OUTRO labels at the ends, which correspond to the intro end and outro start cues. The IN 16 · OUT 32 tag repeats the bar counts.

3. Know what each marker means

• start (0:00): the first beat. With Hard start on bar 1 on, leading silence is trimmed so this really is beat one.
• vocal in: where the model's first vocal section begins. Only present when the model reports timed sections.
• intro end: the end of the mixable intro. If the vocal starts inside a drums-only intro, this cue moves earlier to the vocal start so you are warned.
• first drop: the bar you chose, the moment the full track hits. The share page's 30-second preview starts here.
• outro start: where the vocal-free outro begins, counted back from the end.

4. Read the colours in Serato-compatible software

The markers are colour-coded: intro end red, first drop orange, outro start blue, everything else green. Up to eight cues are written. Software that reads Serato markers from the tag shows them as hot cues the first time you load the file.

5. Use the cue sheet when your software ignores tags

Press DJ pack and open cue points.txt. Each line gives the cue name and time, so you can set hot cues by hand in players that do not read Serato markers. The file comment in the MP3 repeats the same list.

6. Mix from the markers

Mix out of the previous record so your new track's intro end lands on a phrase boundary, bring the full mix in at first drop, and start the next blend at outro start. Because the cues are computed from bars, they are already phrase-aligned to your BPM.

Tips

• Cues follow your settings, not the model's whims. If the render's real drop is a few bars off, the orange marker still shows where you asked for it, which is a quick way to judge how closely the take followed the brief.
• Longer bars, later cues. A 32-bar intro at 126 BPM puts intro end at 1:01; at 174 BPM at 0:44. See set intro bars.
• Vocal in is your early warning. If it appears before intro end, the vocal gate muted the vocal in the intro window, or the model sang early on an ungated render. Compare the other take.
• Both takes get their own cues. Durations differ slightly between takes, so outro start is computed per take.
• The final tag pass waits for the cover. Cues are written when the take is stored and finalised once the cover art arrives; download after the cover shows to get the complete tag.

Common problems

I see no cue points in my DJ software. The player may not read Serato markers from tags. Use cue points.txt from the DJ pack to set hot cues by hand, or import via the included rekordbox.xml if your software supports it.

Intro end is earlier than the bars I set. The model reported a vocal starting inside the intro, so the cue moved to the vocal start. If the audio has no audible vocal there (the gate muted it), you can still mix to the original bar count.

The drop cue does not match where the drop sounds. Models follow bar counts approximately. Choose the take that lands closer, or nudge the hot cue in your software. Re-rendering with "first drop exactly at bar 32" in the Vibe box sometimes tightens it.

Outro start seems too early. Outro bars are counted back from the real end of the file, so a 64-bar outro at 126 BPM starts 2:02 before the end. Choose 32 bars if you want a shorter run-out; see set outro bars.