Beatgridding in Rekordbox: How to Get Your Grid Right

A beatgrid is Rekordbox's map of where every beat falls in a track. Getting it right means setting the first downbeat on beat one, then checking the grid stays locked to the beats all the way through, so sync, cue points, and loops land in time.

That's the whole job of beatgridding in Rekordbox. If your Rekordbox beatgrid is off, this guide shows you how to beatgrid in Rekordbox 7: how to spot a bad grid, fix it, and lock it so it stays fixed.

What Is a Beatgrid?

When Rekordbox analyzes a track, it lays a set of thin vertical lines over the waveform. Each line marks a beat. The line that starts each bar (the downbeat) is marked more strongly than the others, so you can count bars at a glance.

The grid tells Rekordbox two things. The spacing between lines is the tempo. The position of the lines is where each beat actually falls.

Everything beat-based reads from that grid. Beat Sync, quantized hot cues, loops, and beat jumps all assume the lines are in the right place.

Why Your Beatgrid Matters More Than You Think

A bad grid rarely announces itself. The track loads, the BPM looks plausible, and you move on. Then, mid-mix, things start to slip.

Here's what an off grid does to you:

• Sync drifts. Rekordbox matches grids, not audio. Two tracks can show the same BPM and still flam if one grid sits a few milliseconds off.
• Quantized cues land off the beat. With quantize on, a cue snaps to the nearest grid line. If the line is early, so is your cue.
• Loops fall out of time. A 4-beat loop on a bad grid clicks or stutters every time it repeats.

That's how a wrong grid quietly ruins otherwise good prep. Your cue colors and names can be perfect and still fire in the wrong spot. The grid is the foundation the rest of your prep sits on, so check it first (more on the full routine in How to Prepare Your Tracks for DJing).

How Rekordbox Analyzes Beatgrids (Dynamic vs Fixed)

Rekordbox lets you choose how it builds grids, and picking the right mode before you analyze saves a lot of manual fixing. Go to Preferences, open the Analysis category, and find Track Analysis Mode on the Track Analysis tab.

• Normal (the fixed option). Rekordbox assumes one steady tempo and builds evenly spaced lines across the whole track. Use it for house, techno, drum and bass, and almost anything made in a DAW. Normal also lets you set a BPM Range, which stops a 174 BPM track from being read as 87.
• Dynamic. Rekordbox follows tempo changes and builds a grid that speeds up and slows down with the music. Use it for live drummers, older records, and edits where the tempo moves.

On the same tab there's a high precision beatgrid switch. It analyzes more slowly but more accurately, and turning it on adds a third mode, Auto, where Rekordbox picks the approach for you.

A dynamic beatgrid in Rekordbox is not a free upgrade. On steady electronic tracks, Dynamic can pick up tiny fluctuations that aren't really there and give you a grid that wobbles. Keep Normal as your default and switch to Dynamic only for tracks that genuinely move.

After changing modes, select your tracks, right-click, and choose Analyze Track. Grids you've already locked stay as they are.

How to Check If Your Rekordbox Beatgrid Is Correct

Load the track and zoom into the waveform. Then check three things.

1. The downbeat. Find the first clear beat one, usually the first kick of a bar. The emphasized bar line should sit exactly on it, not a beat early or late. If your bar counts or phrases feel off by one beat, this is usually the cause.
2. The lines against the transients. Zoomed in, each line should sit on the front edge of the kick. Not in the middle of it, not just before it.
3. The ear test. Turn on the metronome in the grid panel and play the track. The click should land right on the kick. A flam means the grid is shifted.

Then check for drift. Jump to the middle of the track, then to the last minute, and repeat the checks.

A grid that starts perfect but drifts later has a slightly wrong BPM. The error per beat is tiny, but it adds up, so by the final breakdown the lines sit visibly ahead of or behind the kicks. This is the most common reason a Rekordbox beatgrid is not lining up.

How to Fix a Beatgrid in Rekordbox (Step by Step)

All the Rekordbox grid edit tools live in one panel. Here's how to fix a beatgrid in Rekordbox 7.

1. Open the grid panel. In EXPORT mode, load the track into the player and pause it. Click GRID in the function panel, next to CUE/LOOP. In PERFORMANCE mode, the same tools sit in the GRID EDIT panel.
2. Set the first downbeat. Park the playhead on a clear beat one. Click the button that sets the first beat of the bar to the current position. This is how you set a beatgrid in Rekordbox when bars are counted from the wrong beat.
3. Shift the grid. If the spacing looks right but every line is slightly early or late, use the shift left and shift right buttons. They move the whole grid in 1 ms steps without touching the BPM. Zoom in and nudge until the lines sit on the kicks.
4. Fix the spacing. If the grid drifts, the BPM is wrong. Type the correct value into the BPM box if you know it, or click TAP in time with the track while it plays. For fine corrections, use the expand and shrink buttons to widen or narrow the gap between beats.
5. Halve or double the BPM. Lines on every other beat, or two lines per beat, mean Rekordbox read the tempo at half or double speed. Use the halve or double button rather than typing a number, because it keeps the grid aligned while the value changes. Drum and bass and hip hop trip this often.
6. Choose whole track or from here. The panel lets you apply a change to the whole grid or only from the current position forward. Use whole track for steady tracks. Use from the current position when the start is right and only a later section is wrong.
7. Lock it. Click the lock button (Analysis Lock). This stops a later analysis pass from overwriting your work and blocks accidental edits.
8. Recheck the end. Scrub to the last minute and confirm the lines still sit on the kicks. Small BPM errors only show up late.

Undo and redo are in the same panel if a change goes wrong.

When the grid is right at the start but drifts

You have two options. The first is to re-analyze that track in Dynamic mode, which is built for this problem. Check the result, because Dynamic isn't always clean.

The second is to fix it manually in sections. Play from the start with the metronome on. When you hear the drift begin, go back to the last point where it was still tight and park the playhead on a grid line there.

Now apply your correction from the current position, so everything before that point stays put. Use expand or shrink until the next stretch lines up, then move further in and repeat.

One limit to know: Rekordbox doesn't let you drag individual beat markers. Every edit applies to the whole grid or from the playhead forward, which is why drifting tracks get fixed section by section.

Beatgridding Tricky Tracks

Some tracks will never grid perfectly on auto. Better to expect that than fight it.

• Live drums. A human drummer pushes and pulls the tempo. Dynamic analysis helps, but check every one.
• Older recordings. Disco, funk, and 80s and 90s records made before DAWs often drift because of tape edits and live playing. These are the classic Dynamic tracks.
• Tempo changes. Tracks that switch tempo or drop into half time need either Dynamic analysis or section-by-section manual work.
• Intros with no clear beat. Ambient pads, spoken word, or a beatless build give Rekordbox nothing to lock to. Set the first downbeat where the drums actually come in and count your bars from there.

Be realistic about software. Auto-gridding is excellent on steady electronic music and unreliable on anything played by people. Budget manual time for those tracks, and lock them the moment they're right.

Beatgrid First, Then Cues

Cue points are only as accurate as the grid under them. With quantize on, every hot cue snaps to a grid line, so a correct beatgrid is step one of track prep.

Step two is setting cues, and that's the slow part. Finding the drop, placing cues on it and on the key sections, then repeating that across hundreds of tracks eats whole evenings. You can do it by hand (Rekordbox Hot Cues) or hand it off (Automatic Hot Cue Placement).

Once your grids are right, KimiCue handles step two: it detects the drop and places 8 hot cues per track across your whole library, then exports them to Rekordbox via XML (it works with Serato too). It's a one-time $29, no subscription. To be straight with you, KimiCue places cues. It doesn't fix a broken grid, so get the grid right first and let KimiCue handle the cueing.

FAQ

What is a beatgrid in Rekordbox?

It's the set of lines Rekordbox lays over a track's waveform to mark each beat, with the first beat of every bar emphasized. Rekordbox uses it to know the tempo and where every beat falls. Sync, quantized cues, and loops all depend on it.

Why is my Rekordbox beatgrid off?

Usually one of three things: the first downbeat was detected on the wrong beat, the BPM is slightly wrong so the grid drifts, or the tempo was read at half or double speed. Tracks with live playing or tempo changes are the most common problem cases. All three can be fixed in the GRID panel.

What's the difference between dynamic and fixed beatgrid analysis?

Normal (the fixed mode) assumes one steady tempo and spaces the grid evenly across the track. Dynamic follows tempo changes, so the grid can speed up and slow down. Use Normal for electronic music and Dynamic for live or older recordings.

How do I fix a drifting beatgrid?

Try re-analyzing the track in Dynamic mode first. If that doesn't work, fix it in sections: find where the drift starts, park the playhead on the last tight grid line, and apply expand or shrink from the current position forward. Repeat until the whole track lines up, then lock the grid.

Does the beatgrid affect cue points?

Yes. With quantize on, cue points snap to the nearest grid line, so a shifted grid puts every cue slightly off the beat. Fix the grid first and your cues land where you expect.

Get the Grid Right, Then Build on It

A correct Rekordbox beatgrid is the foundation for everything else: sync, cues, and loops all read from it. Set the first downbeat, check for drift, fix what's wrong, and lock it.

Make beatgridding in Rekordbox the first step of your prep, not an afterthought. Grid-first prep means everything you add after it lands in time.