Two modes, two jobs
The manual gives EXPORT and PERFORMANCE mode chapters of their own, and that is not a formality: the interfaces differ, and functions you hunt for in one live in the other. Anyone practising on a controller at home and playing on club players works in both — one after the other, not at the same time.
EXPORT mode
Prepare and write to a storage device — for players that will never see your computer. Everything to do with library, analysis, cues and playlists lives here, and this is where the stick for the club is built.
PERFORMANCE mode
Playing out of the software with hardware connected. This is the mode you practise in at home — and the one where a hardware-unlock device removes the subscription requirement.
What it costs — and what it doesn't
AlphaTheta puts it plainly: connecting a hardware-unlock device lets you control PERFORMANCE mode without subscribing to a paid plan. The FAQ names PERFORMANCE mode, recording, sharing mixes, MIDI LEARN, MERGE FX and SAMPLE SCRATCH among the unlocked features. Alongside those sit the Free, Core, Creative and Professional plans.
What the paid plans add on top is not spelled out in that FAQ — which is why it is not stated here either. “Free in performance mode with matching hardware” is documented; “completely free” would not be, and the difference shows up exactly when you need a feature.
From installation to your first export
Eight steps that take an hour the first time and ten minutes a night afterwards. They are the real answer to why some DJs look calm in the booth.
Choose the right mode
At startup you decide what the session is for: EXPORT mode to prepare and write to a storage device, PERFORMANCE mode to play with hardware connected. The manual describes them separately and the interface looks accordingly different — mix them up and you go hunting for functions that live in the other mode.
Import your music instead of hunting for it
Drag folders into the collection and leave them where they sit on disk. rekordbox remembers the path; move files in your file manager afterwards and you get a library full of question marks. One music folder, tidied once, saves hours later.
Let it analyse — in batches
Select everything new and run the analysis in one go. It computes waveform, tempo and grid; without it a track is a blank field in the booth. The best time is the evening the music arrives, not the evening before the gig.
Check and correct the beat grid
Jump to the middle of the track, not the start: a grid that fits at the front and drifts at the back only shows up there. For reworking it rekordbox has its own controls — shift the grid millisecond by millisecond, widen or narrow the spacing, double or halve the BPM, and re-set the grid from the current position.
Set cues where you'll need them in the dark
rekordbox stores up to 16 hot cues and 10 memory cues per track and can set cue points automatically if you want. Don't use up the allowance: one point at the entry, one at the first drop and one at the last usable exit are worth more in a booth than sixteen colours you would have to tell apart in the dark.
Build playlists for the night, not for eternity
One list per situation — warmup, main part, emergency. The playlist is the shape the music takes on the stick later, and in the booth it is the only structure you can still take in under pressure. Genre folders that live forever are admin; night lists are preparation.
Export to the device — through the software
Connect the stick and write the track or playlist to the device with the export function. Only that route takes the database with grids, cues and lists along; copying in a file manager produces a stick that looks like nothing in the player. Mind the file system: FAT32 on Windows, FAT32 or HFS+ on Mac.
Verify the stick — and take a second one
Eject the stick, plug it back in, open a playlist, load a track. What works on your own machine does not have to work on the player, and the worst moment to learn that is the start of your slot. Two identical sticks are the cheapest insurance in the whole setup.
The beat grid — where care pays off
A shifted grid makes sync useless, loops crooked and every cue point inaccurate. rekordbox brings its own tools for fixing it, and they are all in the manual:
Shift by one millisecond
Move the whole grid left or right. The move for tracks whose grid is correct but sits a hair off.
Widen or narrow the spacing
Changes the distance between grid lines by a millisecond. Needed on recordings that slowly drift — the start fits, the end does not.
Double or halve the BPM
Sets the tempo value to twice or half its value; the grid spacing follows. The standard case for slow genres the analysis reads as twice as fast.
Re-set the grid from here
Re-sets the grid from the current position — the rescue for live recordings and anything played without a click.
Check in the middle, not at the start
A grid that fits at the front and drifts at the back looks perfect at the beginning of a track. Jump to the middle and the end before you call one finished.
Exporting to the stick
This is where most first club nights fall over, always at the same point: files were copied rather than exported. rekordbox only writes to media with a supported file system, and it only carries the database along through its own export function.
| File system | Works with | What to watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| FAT32 | Windows and Mac | The safe choice. The manual names FAT32 for Windows and FAT32 or HFS+ for Mac. |
| HFS+ | Mac only | Fine if you only ever prepare on a Mac — on a Windows machine the same stick becomes a problem. |
| exFAT | depends on the device | The manufacturer points to its device list in the FAQ: whether exFAT works is decided by the player, not by the software. |
| NTFS and HFS | not supported | rekordbox cannot write to them. A stick that looks perfectly fine in your file manager is worthless in the booth. |
Five mistakes that get expensive in the booth
Copying files instead of exporting
The most common first shock in a club. Without the export function the database does not travel — the player shows folders with no grids, no cues, no playlists.
Moving music after importing it
rekordbox remembers where a file lives. Tidy up in your file manager afterwards and you get a library full of question marks — the tracks only come back once you relink them.
Analysing the night before the gig
Analysis takes time and processing power, and it is the precondition for everything else. Leave it to the last evening and there is time for neither grid checks nor cues.
Setting sixteen hot cues because you can
The allowance is a ceiling, not a target. In the dark and under pressure, three reliable points beat sixteen whose meaning you have to look up.
Taking only one stick
Sticks get dropped, left behind in booths and break. Two identical sticks are the cheapest insurance this entire hobby sells.
A note: everything here about modes, cue counts, grid tools, export and file systems comes from the rekordbox manual and the manufacturer's FAQ; as of August 2026. Software changes faster than hardware — if a menu item is named differently on your machine, your version's manual wins over this text.
Frequently asked questions about rekordbox
What is the difference between EXPORT and PERFORMANCE mode?
They are two separate operating modes of the same software, and the manual treats them in their own chapters. In EXPORT mode you prepare and write to a storage device — for players that will never see your laptop. In PERFORMANCE mode you play out of rekordbox itself with a controller connected. Anyone who practises at home and plays CDJs in a club uses both.
Is rekordbox free?
Partly, and the line runs differently than most people assume. AlphaTheta states that connecting a hardware-unlock device lets you control PERFORMANCE mode without a paid subscription plan. The FAQ lists PERFORMANCE mode, recording, MIDI LEARN and MERGE FX among the unlocked features. Alongside that there are the Free, Core, Creative and Professional plans — the FAQ does not spell out what the paid plans add, so neither do we.
How many hot cues and memory cues can a track have?
Up to 16 hot cues and 10 memory cues — that is what the manual says in the section on CUE analysis. The analysis can also set cue points automatically; on short tracks with few phrases it sets fewer than the configured upper limit. In practice three or four well-placed points per track go further than the number suggests.
Can't I just copy the files onto the stick?
No — at least not in a way the player can use. rekordbox has its own commands to export a track or a whole playlist to the device, and only that route carries the database with beat grids, cues and playlists along. Copying in a file manager puts audio files on a stick that turns into a bare folder list in the booth.
Which file system does the USB stick need?
rekordbox only writes to media with a supported file system. The manual names FAT32 for Windows and FAT32 or HFS+ for Mac; NTFS and HFS are not supported. For exFAT the manufacturer points to the device list in its FAQ — whether your player copes is down to the player, not to rekordbox. When in doubt: FAT32, and reformat the stick beforehand.
Do I really have to analyse every track?
Yes, and before you need it. Analysis is the work that produces the waveform, the tempo and the grid in the first place — without it a track is a blind spot in the booth. Analyse in batches rather than one by one: import, let it run, go make coffee. The evening before a gig is the worst possible time for it.
The beat grid is wrong — now what?
It can be corrected by hand, and the manual describes every move: shift the grid one millisecond left or right, widen or narrow the grid spacing by a millisecond, double or halve the BPM, and re-set the grid from the current position. On live recordings and older tracks, reworking the grid is the rule rather than the exception.
Rekordbox or Serato — which should I learn?
The honest answer depends on your hardware and on the club you want to end up in. If you want to play on Pioneer players, EXPORT mode is hard to avoid. If you own a Serato controller, learn its software first. We compare the four big programs on a page of its own — and the basics of analysis, grid, cue and playlist mean the same thing everywhere.
Start learning
A library that carries you
In DJLearn, library work is a phase of its own — with exercises you do on your real collection, not on sample files.
Start for free