IntroEdits

Guides

How To Make Intro Edits From Your VirtualDJ Lists

VirtualDJ can loop and cue but can't save an intro version of a track. How to make intro and outro edits straight from your VirtualDJ lists and folders, on your VirtualDJ beatgrid.

VirtualDJ gives you more live tools than most — loops, cues, even real-time stems. But none of them changes how a record starts. If the vocal is in on bar one, you’re still improvising a way in every time you play it. An intro edit — the track with a run of clean beat in front of the drop — fixes that once, before the set.

Here’s how to make them straight from your VirtualDJ lists.

What you need

  • Your VirtualDJ library, as it is, on a Mac.
  • The IntroEdits desktop app. It reads your VirtualDJ lists directly, read-only.
  • About a minute per track.

Step by step

1. Open a list you actually play from

IntroEdits shows your hand-made lists, the folders you’ve pointed VirtualDJ at, and the filter folders it can answer. Start with what you’re playing this weekend.

2. Pick a track that starts cold

Vocal in straight away, or an intro too short to mix over. Open it in the editor.

3. Choose Intro, Outro or Both

Intro for a run-up to mix in over, Outro for clean beat at the end to mix out over, Both for records that need help at each end. More in what an outro edit is.

4. Set the drop

Put the moment the record should land on the white line and press Set the drop here. The bars are your VirtualDJ beatgrid, so they match what you mix to. If the drop is off a bar line, the app asks before it moves anything.

5. Choose the length and make it

8, 16 or 32 bars — 16 is the safe default (how to choose). Preview, then Make the edit: the instrumental is separated, looped to length, any words just before the drop carried over the tail, and the drop lands on the one.

6. Listen, save, add it to your list

Play the Changeover, then Save — the file goes next to the original with your DJ name on it, in the format you choose. Add it to your list in VirtualDJ like any new file and let it analyse.

Live stems or an edit?

Use both. Live stems are for moments you’re performing; an edit is for records you always struggle to get into. Doing that work once, on the phrase, with the vocal properly off, frees you to spend the mix on the next record instead of rescuing this one.

Try it

Your first three edits each month are free. Download the Mac app and point it at your VirtualDJ library, or try one in your browser first at introedits.com/lab/try. On Rekordbox or Serato? See intro edits in Rekordbox and from your Serato crates.

Common questions

Can VirtualDJ make intro edits?
VirtualDJ can loop, cue and even separate stems live, but it doesn't build a run-up of whole bars and save it as a new file you can play like any other track. IntroEdits does that, reading your VirtualDJ lists directly.
Does IntroEdits change my VirtualDJ library?
No. It reads your VirtualDJ lists and database read-only. Each edit is saved as a new file next to the original, so the original, its cues and its place in your lists are untouched.
Does it use my VirtualDJ beatgrid?
Yes. If VirtualDJ has analysed the track, the edit is built on that beatgrid, so the bars line up with what you already mix to. Tracks VirtualDJ hasn't analysed get a grid worked out from the audio.
Which VirtualDJ lists does it show?
Your hand-made lists (MyLists), the folders you've pointed VirtualDJ at, and filter folders where the filter is a plain question about the track. Filters that only VirtualDJ itself can answer are left out rather than shown wrong.
Why not just use VirtualDJ's live stems?
Live stems are great for performing, but you're working the controls in the moment and the result isn't saved. An intro edit is done once before the set, lands on the phrase, and is a file you can play on any setup.