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AlphaTheta — the parent company of Pioneer DJ — has released rekordbox 7, the latest version of the music organisation tool and performance software.

rekordbox 7 includes a complete rebuild from the ground up, now supporting Silicon chips on Apple computers and, according to AlphaTheta, featuring a much-improved performance with a “56% reduction in CPU Processing load and a 38% reduction in power consumption during startup”. There are also improved waveform rendering algorithms and database read/write speeds. 

Not all improvements are under the hood. A new slicker and simpler GUI replaces version six, with the tree view simplified to icons rather than text for quick switching between collection, playlists etc. The browser has also been optimised for streaming services, something AlphaTheta has clearly invested a lot of time into developing for version seven. There are now improved music discovery tools, with Beatport Streaming displaying the latest releases and recommended music, similar to the Beatport website’s UI. You can now also click on an artist's name to see more music by that artist, again similar to how you would browse the Beatport store.

Streaming Radar is a new feature that also leans into streaming by analysing your music for characteristics like atmosphere and genre, and recommending tracks that are similar beyond your own collection on streaming platforms like SoundCloud, TIDAL DJ and Beatport Streaming. rekordbox will then recommend similar tracks if you are subscribed to said service. There is also now a dual-player view in Export mode, so you can try out compatible mixes without moving to performance mode. 

Another new feature is Intelligent Cue Creation. rekordbox can either set cue points at consistent intervals, for example four bars, eight bars or sixteen bars, or you can allow the software to analyse your collection for cue points you’ve already set. Rekordbox will then ‘learn’ your cue point style, and apply that style automatically to newly analysed music. Using General Cue Tendency, it can also check the rekordbox servers for ‘crowd-sourced’ cue information for that particular track.

More streaming features include Collaborative Playlists, which let multiple people edit and add to a playlist, assuming they’re subscribed to the same streaming service. It can also work over rekordbox Cloud. 

Many of these features are paywalled behind rekordbox’s subscription tiers of Creative and Pro, which cost €15 a month and €30 a month respectively. You can find out more about the new update here.

AlphaTheta recently announced two new products including the OMNIS-DUO standalone DJ device.