How to: Dial in a mix, transition by transition

The workflow for taking a built mix from "mostly right" to "every blend hits" — working by ear, one transition window at a time, and committing everything at the end with ONE rebuild.

The big idea: setting a "1" gives you an instant local preview (the track slides so your "1" plays right at the transition window — no waiting), while the render still carries the old grid until you rebuild. So you tune the whole set fast, then make it stick once.

The loop

1. Play into the transition you're judging. Turn on the metronome (K) if you want a

reference click — it follows whichever track owns the playhead, accented on its "1".

1. If the incoming song enters off the count → its "1" is wrong. (Shortcut for spotting these

before you even listen: each clip label carries a ① badge — green = you set the "1", amber = machine guess. Amber tracks are the usual suspects; click the badge to jump straight into the editor. See guide 13.) Right-click the track → Set Downbeat (or use the Track tab). In the editor:

• Drag the waveform so the red line sits exactly on the downbeat — zoom in, use your ears

(Space plays from where you are; Cue replays from the current "1").

• Press ① Set Downbeat. If you try to set a "1" in the first quarter-second of the file,

it asks you to click again on purpose — a "1" at 0:00 is almost always the red line still parked at the start, not a real downbeat.

• Press ✓ Apply "1" — the ONE commit button. It saves the "1" to the grid, **slides the

track so you hear the fix immediately**, and adds it to the Rebuild count.

1. Listen again. Hitting? Move to the next transition window. Not hitting? Adjust and

re-apply — each Apply is instant.

1. If the blend starts tight but slides apart mid-window → that's tempo, not the "1":

• Track tab → Fix BPM if the whole track runs at a slightly wrong stored tempo.
• AI Flex if the track genuinely drifts (live-feel material) — it warps the audio onto a

steady grid on the next build.

1. Nudge for taste. ◀ ▶ moves a track by exactly one beat on its beatmatched lattice

(Shift = fine ms). ⇄ Sync pulls every track back onto the engine's measured alignment if dragging left something a fraction off.

1. Repeat until the whole set sounds right.

1. Hit ↻ Rebuild mix (always on the toolbar when a mix is loaded). The badge —

"↻ Rebuild mix (4)" — is how many saved grid edits are NOT yet in the render. One press re-renders the set through all your new "1"s and BPMs: ticking clock + progress while it runs. When it finishes, your edits are baked into the actual audio: entries re-cued on your "1"s, stretches at the corrected tempos, seams re-measured.

The two rules that keep you out of trouble

• ✓ Apply "1" is the only save you need in the timeline. (The editor auto-saves as you work;

Apply is what makes the edit count toward the rebuild AND lets you hear it now. The standalone Library grid editor keeps its own 💾 Save grid button — that's a different door into the same grid, for when no mix is loaded.)

• An edit isn't in the MIX until you rebuild. The instant slide is a faithful preview of the

alignment, but entries, seam corrections and stretched audio only change when ↻ Rebuild runs. If the badge shows a number, the render is behind your ears.

When a track fights you everywhere

If a track sounds off against everything — not just one seam — stop nudging and check its data (howto 09): almost always its stored BPM disagrees with the audio, or its "1" is a low-confidence guess. Fix the data once; every transition it touches gets better.