Track Prep

Track Prep replaces the deck waveforms at the top of the window with a focused editor for one track. It has three tabs: Beatgrid, for correcting a track's grid; Memory cues, for the markers you navigate to during a set; and Hot cues, for the pads you fire to jump and play. Every edit saves to Ora's library, never to the audio file.

Opening the view

Open it from View > Track Prep View, or pick Track Prep from the view dropdown in the header. It replaces the deck waveforms while the track list stays visible below, so you can keep browsing and loading tracks. Ora reopens Track Prep the next time you start the app if it was your last view.

Track Prep always edits the track on Deck A. Playback, the playhead, and every edit apply to that deck.

Loading a track

Load a track one of two ways:

• Drag it from the track list onto the view. A highlight ring shows when the drop will land.
• Load it on Deck A as usual.

The track title and artist show above the waveform. The Beatgrid tab needs an existing grid before you can edit it; if the track hasn't been analyzed yet, the view says so. See Track analysis for how grids are measured. Memory cues and hot cues work on any loaded track.

Transport

All three tabs share a Play and a CUE button.

• Play starts and stops Deck A.
• CUE sets the cue point at the playhead and returns to it, snapping to the nearest beat when Quantize is on. Hold it to preview from the cue, then release to jump back. It mirrors the CUE button on a connected controller.

The playhead is red while paused and white during playback. Press the space bar to play or stop Deck A without leaving the keyboard. The left and right arrow keys jump the playhead four bars back or forward, keeping its place within the bar.

Beatgrid tab

The Beatgrid tab corrects a track's grid in place: a downbeat on the wrong beat, a half- or double-time tempo, or a grid that drifts by a few milliseconds. Every edit commits immediately and saves to the library.

• Downbeat ◀ ▶. Shifts the whole grid by exactly one beat, earlier or later. Use this when the beats line up but the bar starts on the wrong one.
• Drag the waveform. Drag the zoomed lane left or right to slide the grid onto the transients. The shift commits when you release, and a toast offers Undo for ten seconds. Dragging slides the grid only on this tab; on the Memory cues and Hot cues tabs the same drag scrubs the playhead. To move a cue instead of the grid, grab its marker (see Moving cues on the waveform).
• Tempo ÷2 / ×2. Halves or doubles the BPM for a grid the analyzer read at half- or double-time. The grid stays pinned where it is; only the beat spacing changes.
• Fine − / +. Nudges the tempo by 0.01 BPM at a time, for a grid that drifts across the track.
• BPM field. Click the value to type an exact tempo. Enter commits, Escape reverts to the saved value.

The lower overview shows the full track with a bar marker on each downbeat. Click anywhere on it to seek. An active loop shows as an orange region in both lanes.

Analyze and lock

The Analyze dropdown re-runs analysis on the loaded track without leaving the view. Pick the scope: All, BPM & Beatgrid, Key, Energy, or Waveform. When analysis finishes, the grid updates right away.

A manual edit can be undone the next time a track is analyzed. The lock button prevents that: a locked track is skipped by every re-analysis path, including bulk re-analyze and re-import after a file change. The button turns amber while the track is locked, and Analyze is disabled. You can also lock or unlock from the track list: right-click a selection and choose Lock analysis / Unlock analysis. Locking protects every hand-tuned value, the beatgrid, BPM, key, energy, and waveform all stay as you set them.

Memory cues tab

Memory cues mark positions in a track you navigate to during a set. The tab shows ten slots in two columns, filled in chronological order: 1 to 5 down the left column, 6 to 10 down the right.

• Add a cue. Click the next open slot, marked with a +. The cue lands at the playhead, or on the nearest beat when Quantize is on. Only the next slot in line takes a new cue; later slots stay empty until the ones before them are filled.
• Color. New cues are red. Click the swatch to pick another color from the hot-cue palette.
• Name. Click the row to type an optional label.
• Delete. Click the × on a cue to remove it.

Memory cues show on the waveform in Track Prep and on the deck waveforms, and a connected controller can jump between them. Each cue saves to Ora's library with its position, name, and color.

Hot cues tab

Hot cues are trigger points you fire during a set, jumping straight to a position and playing from it. The tab shows eight slots labeled A to H in two columns: A to D down the left, E to H down the right.

• Set a cue. Click an empty slot to drop a hot cue at the playhead, or on the nearest beat when Quantize is on.
• Play from a cue. Click a filled slot to jump to it. If the deck is paused, it starts playing.
• Edit. Click the pencil to show a color swatch and a name field. New hot cues have no color until you set one; pick from the hot-cue palette. Add an optional label, then click the check to finish.
• Delete. Click the × to remove the cue.

Hot cues show on the waveform in Track Prep and on the deck waveforms, and a connected controller can fire them. Each cue saves to Ora's library with its position, name, and color.

Moving cues on the waveform

You can drag a memory cue or hot cue along the zoomed waveform to reposition it. Grab its marker at the top of the lane (the colored triangle for a memory cue, the lettered badge for a hot cue) and drag left or right. With Quantize on, the cue snaps to the nearest beat as you drag; with it off, it lands wherever you drop it. The cue keeps its name and color.

This works on any tab. On the Beatgrid tab, dragging the waveform itself still slides the grid, but grabbing a cue marker moves that cue instead.

Phrases

Ora DJ marks each track's structure as colored blocks under the waveforms: intro, breakdown, groove, outro, and more. You can correct them here in the zoomed lane. See Phrases.

Where edits are saved

Edits are stored in Ora's internal library. Beatgrid edits mark the grid as manually corrected and mirror the new tempo to the track's BPM everywhere else in the app. Memory cues and hot cues save with their position, name, and color. Your audio files are never modified.