Hot cues and acapellas: how to prepare them and use them in a set

A hot cue is a saved spot in a track that you jump to with one button. An acapella is the vocal of a track on its own. Together, they let you drop a famous vocal over another record at the exact moment you choose. Here is how to set them up in any DJ app, and where to get acapellas legally.

Cue points, hot cues and memory cues

Every deck has one cue point: the CUE button marks a starting spot and sends the track back there, so you can start it on time or preview it in your headphones.

A hot cue is a cue point saved with the track and triggered from a pad. Press it and playback jumps there instantly, even mid-track. With quantize on (an option that snaps jumps to the beat), the jump lands in time.

Some apps add other saved points. Saved loops store a loop's start and length. Memory cues in rekordbox are saved markers on the waveform that you can also call up on a DJ player. Traktor keeps extra cue points in a cue list, and VirtualDJ calls all of these "points of interest." Everything is saved with the track for next time.

How many hot cues each app gives you

Checked October 2026 in each app's official manual or help pages.

Eight is plenty for most DJs. Every app here lets you name your cues. In rekordbox, Serato DJ Pro, VirtualDJ, Engine DJ and djay Pro you also pick each cue's color; in Traktor the color follows the cue type. Controllers with RGB pads (pads that light up in any color) show those colors under your fingers.

A simple color and position system

The trick is consistency: the same moment on the same pad, in the same color, in every track. Soon your hands find the drop without looking. One system for any style:

1. Pad 1, green: first beat. The first kick or downbeat, where the track enters your mix.
2. Pad 2, red: first drop. The moment the full beat and bass hit.
3. Pad 3, blue: breakdown. Where the drums drop out before the build.
4. Pad 4, yellow: vocal. The first word of the main vocal or hook.
5. Pad 5, purple: outro. Where the track starts to strip down: your point to mix out.
6. Pads 6 to 8: free. A second drop, a saved loop, a moment you love.

Pick your own colors if you like, just never change them (in Traktor, lean on the positions). Set each cue on the first beat of a phrase, a block of usually 8 or 16 bars (a bar is 4 beats in most dance music), so every jump starts a section cleanly. Do it when you add a track to your library, not on the night.

Three quick hot cue tricks

• Jump to the drop. Start the incoming track from pad 2 instead of the intro, on the first beat of a phrase. A hard, punchy switch for when the room is ready and a long blend would lose it.
• Cue juggling. Tap two or three cues in rhythm: the drop twice, then the vocal, then back. Keep it to a bar or two and land on the one (the first beat of a bar).
• Tease a vocal. With the next track's fader low, tap its vocal cue for one line over the playing track, then pull it out. Bring in the whole track minutes later: the crowd hears the hook coming.

What an acapella is, and how to mix one

An acapella is the vocal of a track with nothing else: no drums, no bass, no music. Laid over another track, it turns two records into a new moment, and nothing hides a mistake.

• Key first. The voice must fit the key under it: the same key or a neighbor on the Camelot wheel. Turn on key lock (it keeps the pitch when you change the tempo).
• Tempo second. Pick a backing track within a few BPM (beats per minute) of the acapella so the voice stays natural. With no drums to follow, the analysis can get an acapella's beatgrid wrong: set the first beat by hand if it drifts.
• Phrase it. Put a hot cue on the first word, wait for a new phrase in the backing track, and press. A vocal that starts mid-phrase sounds wrong even in the right key.
• EQ for room. Cut the acapella's low end (only rumble lives there) and dip the backing track's mids a little so the voice sits on top. Never let two vocals run at once.
• Use short loops. Loop one word or line, a bar or two long, through a build, then let the full line run on the drop.

A real example: James Hype in Ibiza

When James Hype opened for David Guetta at UNVRS Ibiza, he set hot cues on an acapella of Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank," so he could drop it at the exact moment he wanted. He also took out everything by Guetta, acapellas included, and tested his tricks at the sound check. The whole story is in what to play when you open for a big DJ.

The lesson works in any booth: one famous vocal, ready on a hot cue and dropped at the right time, beats ten random ones.

Where to get acapellas legally

• Official releases in stores. Beatport lists them in its DJ Tools / Acapellas genre and Traxsource has an Acapella genre. Some singles include one next to the extended mix: search the title plus "acapella".
• Label and artist packs. Some labels release whole acapella collections from their catalog, such as Armada Music's "Trance Legacy (Acapella Edition II)".
• Remix contests. Labels, and platforms such as SKIO Music, run contests that give out the official parts of a track. Each has its own rules on using them: read them before you play or post anything.
• DJ record pools. These paid services for working DJs also carry acapellas and DJ edits, as Digital DJ Tips notes.
• Stems in your DJ app. Most DJ apps can now split a track into vocals, drums, bass and the rest. A clean, modern vocal separates well; one soaked in reverb drags part of the music along. Our guide to stems in DJ software compares the apps.

The rights question

Playing an official acapella you bought in a licensed venue is like playing any other track: in most countries the venue pays the public performance license. Making one with stems for your own live set is generally treated the same way. Recording a mashup and posting or releasing it is different: it usually needs permission from the rights holders of every track in it. Stick to official acapellas, or ones you make from tracks you own. This is not legal advice and rules differ by country: read do DJs need a license, and ask your local collecting society (the body that collects music royalties in your country).

Before your next set, pick three vocals you love, check their keys with our guide to harmonic mixing and set the cues. Then open your style in all styles, play the 30-second previews and save the tracks that could carry them to your crate with the + button.

Sources: rekordbox 7.2.18 manual, Serato DJ Pro manual, Traktor Pro 4 manual, VirtualDJ manual, Engine DJ 5.1 user guide, djay Pro help.