Phase 3:
rekordbox & Music Library
rekordbox is more than a player — it is your database, your analysis tool and your club export system. Master it properly and everything is ready before every gig.
A DJ with 200 well-prepared tracks beats one with 5,000 unsorted ones. This phase is about how you build your library, analyse it and prepare it so that you never have to search in the club.
What you learn in this phase
Installing rekordbox & connecting the controller
Free download · FLX2 detected automatically · performance mode
Knowing the rekordbox interface
Library · decks · waveform · mixer — understanding each zone
Checking the audio settings
Sound device · buffer size · sample rate — what actually matters
Understanding the waveform display
Blue = highs · green = mids · red = bass — you see drops before you hear them
Importing music into rekordbox
Add folder · MP3/FLAC/WAV only · quality over quantity
Running track analysis
BPM · key · beat grid — rekordbox analyses automatically
Correcting the beat grid by hand
When the automatic grid is wrong — and why that's critical
Creating and organising playlists
Structure that works in a club — playlists appear 1:1 on the USB stick
Seeing BPM and key in the library
Show columns · switch key to Camelot · use sorting
Really knowing your first 30 tracks
Intro · drop · outro by heart — not just having heard them
What you can do after this phase
Every sentence is phrased so that you can check it yourself — on your own tracks, with a number rather than a feeling.
Gets the software running with the controller and plays for 10 minutes without a single dropout.
Reads intro, drop, breakdown and outro of 3 tracks from the waveform alone and checks the division while playing.
Has imported and analysed at least 20 tracks and filed them into a playlist structure with a rating.
Checks the beat grid on 10 tracks and finds the ones where it has slipped.
Reads BPM and Camelot key of 5 tracks straight from the list and has prepared 30 tracks with hot cues.
Practical assessment: the library is ready
This is how you finish the phase on the gear — as a self-check with criteria you count off on your own material. The quiz tests what you know; this shows what you can do.
Get your music library into the state you can work from now on — the library itself is the piece of work being assessed.
At least 20 tracks are imported, analysed and carry a rating within a playlist structure.
The beat grid is checked on 10 tracks; the ones that had slipped are found and corrected.
30 tracks are prepared with hot cues.
XP reward
175 XP
after completing this phase + passing the quiz