The new edit mode in rekordbox 6 brings powerful new functionality and creative possibilities
to the way you DJ.
In this video we’ll take a look at all the features in edit mode and check out how you
can use it to make custom versions of tracks and prepare music for your sets.
To access edit mode, click in the top left corner on the mode change tab, and select edit mode.
To choose a track to edit, click on the browser tab on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.
A browser will appear where you can load tracks from your collection into the edit mode workspace.
Note that you can’t use tracks from any music streaming services integrated with rekordbox
or licence protected iTunes tracks and videos, but any other track will be available for you to load.
Simply double click or drag in the song you want to load.
The track and its waveform will appear in the edit mode workspace.
Click the browser tab again to minimize the browser and enter the main work area.
You can now start making changes to the selected track using the edit mode tool set.
At the bottom of the screen, there are three sections; beat select, select and edit.
Let’s start by looking at the edit tools.
The clone tool enables you to select a section of the song, and repeat it each time you click it.
Copy enables you to select a section of the track and copy that selection to the rekordbox clip board.
You can then use the paste and insert tools to paste that section anywhere in the track.
Paste will overwrite the section of the track at the point you paste.
Insert will move the subsequent parts of the track along by the same length of time as the section you insert.
Delete enables you to select a section of the track and remove it.
rekordbox will join up the sections of the track on either side of the part you delete.
Clear allows you to select a section of the track and remove it leaving the section silent.
Undo and redo work the same way as in most applications, undoing and redoing the last actions you’ve performed.
You can look up the shortcuts for all of these functions by clicking the preferences here
then clicking the keyboard tab and selecting action pad.
Clicking on the beat grid within the enlarged waveform moves the play head to the start of that beat.
Clicking and dragging the play head will select a custom length of the track.
Clicking holding and dragging on the numbered beat grid above the waveform enables you to
move the waveform in whichever direction you drag.
The entire track waveform is displayed above the main waveform, which shows the part of the track you’re working on.
You can click anywhere in the entire track waveform to jump to that part of the track.
You can use the magnifying glass in the bottom left-hand corner of the main waveform to zoom in and out.
Clicking RST between the magnifying glasses will restore the waveform to the default zoom level.
If your computer has a track pad you can also pinch in and out or drag two fingers up or
down to change the zoom level.
You can use the beat select, and select tabs to select different beat ranges within the track.
The beat select tab enables you to select ranges within the track in increments from
one beat to up to 128 beats.
You can then use the tools in the select tab to have or double the section.
Edit mode includes a palette, where you can save different sections of a track to use later.
Clicking here to expand the window on the right-hand side of edit mode gives you access to the palette.
You can then select and drag track sections of any length into this window to save them.
You can also select a section of the track and click the add button in the palette.
That section of the track will then be saved to the palette.
You can preview sections of the track saved in the palette by clicking on their play button.
Now these sections are available for you to drag and drop anywhere in the track.
You can create new beat patterns, builds and breakdowns using these sections.
Finally, you can click the trash icon to delete sections from the palette.
Edit mode opens up a huge range of new creative possibilities, here are just a few examples
of how you can use edit mode to customise your tracks so they fit your performance perfectly.
To make a track easier to mix or to increase the anticipation in a track you can extend
the intro before the main part of the track drops.
You can do this by selecting the entire introduction using the beat selection tools then clicking the clone button.
This will duplicate the entire intro to double its length.
Or you can manually select part of the intro, copy it and insert it at the end of the intro before the drop.
If a track has a long break in the middle that reduces the energy of your mix you can easily remove it.
Simply select the breakdown and delete it so the sections of the track on either side are joined together.
You can also delete other parts of the track if it’s too long for your overall mix.
Once you’ve finished editing your track, you can save it as a project by clicking
the save icon in the top left corner of edit mode.
A dialogue box will appear where you can name the project.
By default projects are saved in your music folder on your PC or Mac, but you can change
this to any location on your system.
You can make further changes and save multiple versions of a project under different names
by clicking file then save as.
You can switch between different edit mode projects by using the project select
tab in the top left corner of edit mode.
All your saved projects are listed here in the dropdown menu.
Simply select the project you want to access and it will open.
To add your new track to your rekordbox collection and play it in a DJ set you need to render the track.
To do this click the render icon.
A dialogue box will appear enabling you to name the rendered audio file, add the artist information,
choose where to save the file to and change the format your track is saved in.
Check this box to make sure your track appears in your rekordbox collection after it is rendered.
Once the track is rendered the browser window will automatically open in edit mode and your
edited track will appear in your collection.
All the meta data and any hot cues that you haven’t removed will still be available.
You can now add your new edited track to your playlists.
This symbol here indicates that a track has been created in edit mode.
If you have matching set in your related track settings you can see the original track by
using the related tracks tab on the right-hand side of rekordbox.
You can now load your new edited track onto your decks and use it in your DJ performances.
You can also use rekordbox export mode to save the track to a USB storage device.
And that’s it.
The rekordbox edit mode opens up a whole new world of exciting creative possibilities to make your DJ set stand out.
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