Memory Cues in Rekordbox: What They Are and How to Use Them

Memory cues are saved position markers in Rekordbox that let you jump to a specific point in a track without triggering playback. Unlike hot cues, they don't play the track when you select them, they move the playhead there and wait. DJs use memory cues to mark mix-in points, drops, breakdowns, and outros so they can navigate a track fast on CDJs or in the software.

That's the short version. Here's how they actually work, how they differ from hot cues, and where to place them so your prep pays off in the booth.

What Is a Memory Cue in Rekordbox?

A memory cue is a bookmark inside a track. When you call one up, the playhead jumps to that position and cues from there, the track doesn't fire off on its own. You press play when you're ready.

That's the whole point: memory cues are for navigation, not performance. They show up as small red markers on the waveform and in the memory cue list to the right of the player panel.

You can set as many as you realistically need in the software. The practical ceiling is high enough that you'll never hit it during normal prep, though older CDJ hardware only loads a limited number per track, which we'll cover below.

Memory cues save to the track's data in your Rekordbox library. When you export a playlist to USB, they travel with the track and appear on any compatible Pioneer DJ player. Prep once at home, use everywhere.

Hot Cue vs Memory Cue: What's the Difference?

This trips up almost everyone at first, because both are "cues" and both mark positions. The difference is what happens when you hit them.

• Trigger behavior - Hot cue: plays instantly from that point. Memory cue: moves the playhead there, waits for play.
• Quantity - Hot cue: 8 per track (16 in software, but pads map to 8). Memory cue: effectively unlimited in software; hardware may cap what loads.
• Use case - Hot cue: performance, juggling, re-drops, live edits. Memory cue: navigation, finding your mix points fast.
• Access - Hot cue: performance pads / hot cue buttons. Memory cue: search buttons on CDJs, memory list in software.

The one-line answer: hot cues play instantly and are for performance; memory cues are markers for navigation and track prep.

In practice, plenty of DJs use both on the same track. Memory cues map the structure - intro, drop, breakdown, outro. Hot cues sit on the moments you want to trigger live.

How to Set Memory Cues in Rekordbox (Step by Step)

Setting one takes about three seconds once you know where to look.

• Load the track and position the playhead where you want the marker. Pause and nudge to the exact beat, or hit it on the fly during playback.
• Press the MEMORY button in the CUE/LOOP panel (the small panel near the jog display in Performance mode, or above the waveform in Export mode).
• The cue appears as a red triangle on the waveform and gets added to the memory cue list on the right side of the player.

Turn on Quantize before you do this. With quantize active, every memory cue snaps to the beatgrid, so your markers land exactly on the beat even if your timing is slightly off. If the beatgrid itself is wrong, fix that first - a cue snapped to a bad grid is a bad cue.

Repeat for every point you care about. Most DJs settle into a system of 3-5 memory cues per track.

How to Delete or Edit Memory Cues

In the software, open the memory cue list next to the loaded track. Each entry has a delete option, click it and the marker is gone. You can also select a cue in the list to jump to it, then re-set it in a better spot if the original placement was off.

There's no "drag to move" for memory cues. Editing means deleting the old one and setting a new one, which is quick once you're used to it.

On CDJs, use the memory search buttons to step to the cue you want, then hold the delete/clear button for that function to remove it directly on the player. Changes made on the hardware apply to the track data on that USB stick.

Where Should You Place Memory Cues?

Random markers don't help you mix. A consistent system does, because after a few weeks your hands find the same points on every track without thinking.

Here's a placement system that works for most club music:

• First beat. Skip the silence and any long ambient intro. This is your default load point.
• 16 or 32 bars before the drop. This is your mix-in point, start blending here and the incoming drop lands right as the outgoing track is ready to leave.
• The breakdown. Useful as a bail-out point and for planning longer blends.
• The outro mix-out point. Mark where you'd start bringing the next track in, so you're never guessing how much runway is left.

Genre matters. House and techno tracks usually have long, DJ-friendly intros, so a "32 bars before the drop" marker earns its keep. Hip-hop and pop edits often slam in within a few bars, so you might only need first beat, hook, and outro.

Whatever system you pick, keep it identical across your whole library. The value isn't any single cue, it's knowing that cue 2 means the same thing on every track you own. If you want the equivalent layout for hot cues, where to place your cue points works the same way, just on your performance pads instead of the waveform.

Memory Cues on CDJs

This is where the prep pays off. Export your playlists to USB from Rekordbox, and every memory cue rides along with its track. The steps for setting hot cues in Rekordbox export the same way, so both cue types land on the player together.

On the player, load the track and use the memory search buttons (the arrow buttons near the cue section) to step through your markers. Each press jumps the playhead to the next memory cue, forward or back. The track cues from that point and waits for you.

Two hardware notes worth knowing:

First, older players cap how many memory cues they'll load per track. If you've gone overboard in the software, the earliest ones take priority. Keeping it to a handful per track sidesteps this entirely.

Second, memory cues set or deleted on the CDJ live on that USB stick until you sync back. If you prep on multiple sticks, make your edits in Rekordbox and re-export so everything stays consistent.

The Problem: Setting Cues on Hundreds of Tracks Takes Hours

Here's the honest downside of everything above: doing this properly across a real library is slow. Five cues per track, a few minutes each, multiplied by 500 tracks, that's a lot of evenings you could spend practicing transitions instead.

Rekordbox 7 does ship with CUE Analysis, which auto-places cues based on phrase analysis. It's worth trying, but it reads song sections rather than the actual energy of the track, so results are hit-or-miss - it'll happily mark a "chorus" that isn't the drop, and you end up checking every track anyway.

If you'd rather skip the manual prep: KimiCue analyzes each track's audio to find the drop, then places 8 structured hot cues per track, intro, mix-in, drop, breakdown, outro, across your entire library in one run. It imports into Rekordbox via XML (Serato is supported too), costs $29 one time, and the free demo does 2 tracks a day with no credit card. Run it on a couple of your own tracks and judge the placements yourself.

FAQ

Wrapping Up

Memory cues are the unglamorous half of DJ prep: nobody sees them, but they're the reason a prepared DJ can find the mix point on any track in two button presses. Set them with a consistent system, keep quantize on, and export to USB so your work follows you to any booth.

Once you're comfortable with memory cues, the next step is getting your hot cues organized the same way. And if you'd rather automate the whole thing, here's how set your cues automatically across a full library instead of one track at a time.