Rekordbox Prep for Live Mashups

Hello! Welcome to your sixth lesson in the "DJing for DnB release" course.

Introduction

In our last lesson, we focused on mapping the musical structure of your tracks using Phrase Analysis and Memory Cues. You learned to create a high-level blueprint of a song, marking out intros, drops, and outros to navigate your sets with precision.

Today, we're diving deeper into track preparation to unlock one of the most creative aspects of modern DJing: live mashups. The learning outcome for this lesson is to: Prepare acapellas and instrumental loops in Rekordbox, including setting precise beat grids and cue points for live mashups.

This process is about deconstructing tracks into their core components—vocals and instrumentals—and preparing them as flexible, reusable assets. Just as in software development you might create a library of functions to be called upon when needed, here you will build a palette of sounds to paint with during your live set. Mastering this will allow you to create unique, on-the-fly remixes that can define your signature sound.

1. The Goal: Performance-Ready Elements

Before we get into the technical steps, let's establish our goal. We aren't just setting cues; we are creating tools for live performance. These tools, often triggered from Hot Cues, are what enable you to deconstruct and reconstruct music in real-time.

2. Preparing Instrumental Loops

Let's start with the more straightforward of the two: instrumental loops. These are often percussive breaks or melodic phrases that you can layer over another track. Since these loops have clear rhythmic transients, the process builds directly on the beatgridding skills you already have.

The main challenge with DnB is that Rekordbox's auto-analysis can sometimes get the tempo wrong, often halving it (e.g., reading a 174 BPM track as 87 BPM).

Your Workflow for Preparing an Instrumental Loop:

1. Load and Analyze: Drag your chosen track into Rekordbox.
2. Verify BPM: Check if Rekordbox has analyzed the BPM correctly. If it shows ~87 BPM for a ~174 BPM track, go to the GRID panel and click the x2 button to correct it.
3. Check the Grid: Zoom in on the first beat and ensure the first grid marker (the red one) is perfectly aligned with the start of the kick drum. Use the grid shift arrows to make fine adjustments. Scroll through the track to ensure the grid remains locked to the beat.
4. Find and Set the Loop: Identify a clean 4, 8, or 16-bar instrumental section you want to use. Use the IN and OUT buttons to set a loop. Ensure QUANTIZE is enabled so your loop points snap perfectly to the grid.
5. Save the Loop: You can save this loop to a Memory Cue or, more effectively for performance, directly to a Hot Cue. To do the latter, simply press an unlit Hot Cue pad while the loop is active. The pad will light up, and the loop is now saved and ready to be triggered instantly.

3. The Art of Beatgridding Acapellas

Acapellas present a unique challenge: they have rhythm and tempo, but no drums to guide the analysis. Rekordbox will almost always fail to create a useful beat grid automatically. We need to provide that grid manually.

The most reliable way to beatgrid an acapella is to use the original, full track as a reference. This is analogous to having a complete specification or a working implementation to guide your work when building a new module.

Here is the step-by-step process:

Your Workflow for Beatgridding an Acapella:

1. Prepare the Reference: Load the original, full version of the song. Ensure its beat grid is perfect and note its exact BPM (e.g., 174.00).
2. Load the Acapella: Load the acapella into another deck. Rekordbox's analysis will likely be incorrect.
3. Set the BPM: Go to the GRID panel for the acapella. Manually type in the exact BPM from the original track.
4. Find the Anchor Point: Play the original track and find the first distinct word or syllable of the vocal. Place the playhead right at the start of that sound. Now, do the same for the acapella track.
5. Set the First Beat: With the playhead at the start of that first vocal sound in the acapella, go to the GRID panel and click the "Set the first beat of a bar to the current position" button (it looks like a red-and-white arrow pointing down at a bar). This places the main 1 beat marker at that exact spot.
6. Verify and Adjust: Because you've already set the correct BPM, the rest of the grid should now fall into place. Use the metronome or play it alongside the original track to confirm. The timing should be tight throughout.

4. Setting Performance Cues

With a perfectly gridded acapella or loop, the final step is to set your Hot Cues for performance.

• For Instrumental Loops: As mentioned, saving the entire loop to a single Hot Cue pad is often the most effective approach.
• For Acapellas: You have more options.
  • Main Cue: Set a Hot Cue (e.g., Hot Cue A) on the very first sound of the main vocal phrase. This is your primary trigger to start the acapella in time.
  • Phrase Cues: Set additional Hot Cues at the start of other key phrases (e.g., the first word of the chorus, a memorable line).
  • Vocal Stabs: Find a single, powerful word or short sound and set a Hot Cue on it. This can be used for rhythmic, stutter-like effects.

An Important Nuance: Early Vocals
Sometimes a vocal phrase starts slightly before the first beat of the bar (a "pickup"). Your grid will be correct, but if you trigger the Hot Cue on the '1', you'll miss the start of the vocal.

5. Practical Exercise

Estimated Time: 20 minutes

Time to apply these workflows.

1. Prepare an Instrumental Loop:

   • Find a DnB track in your library with a clean, percussive intro or breakdown.
   • Follow the workflow to correct its BPM (if needed) and verify its beat grid.
   • Identify a 4 or 8-bar section that would work well as a loop.
   • Set the loop and save it to a Hot Cue.

2. Prepare an Acapella:

   • Find a DnB acapella and its corresponding original full track. If you don't have one, you can often find official acapellas on sites like Beatport or Juno Download, sometimes included in remix packs.
   • Follow the reference track workflow to set a perfect beat grid on the acapella.
   • Once gridded, set three Hot Cues:
     • Hot Cue A: The start of the first main phrase.
     • Hot Cue B: The start of the chorus.
     • Hot Cue C: A single, percussive vocal "stab".

Test your work by loading a simple, rolling DnB track and trying to trigger your newly created loop and acapella cues over the top. Thanks to your precise preparation, they should lock in perfectly with sync enabled.

Conclusion

You have now acquired a powerful set of skills for taking tracks apart and re-purposing them for creative performance. By preparing instrumental loops and acapellas with precise grids and cues, you've moved from being a selector of music to a live re-editor.

Key Takeaways:

• Loops and acapellas are performance tools. Prepare them with the goal of live remixing in mind.
• The Reference Track Method is key. For acapellas, using the original track to establish BPM and phrasing is the most reliable path to a perfect grid.
• DnB requires manual grid checking. Always verify the BPM and grid alignment, as auto-analysis often makes mistakes with this genre.
• Hot Cues are for triggering. Use them to save your prepared loops and mark key vocal points for instant access.

Next Lesson Preview

In this lesson, you created the individual performance elements. In our next lesson, "Master the use of Hot Cue Banks to prepare multiple performance options for a single track," we will explore how to organize these Hot Cues. You'll learn to group different loops, vocal phrases, and cue points into banks, allowing you to switch between different sets of triggers for a single track and dramatically expand your creative options in a live setting.