What's new

CortexDJ ships constantly and auto-updates itself. Recent releases:

v2.30.5 — August 9, 2026

Sets build in seconds — and your first one needs no key

  • RENDER is about 40× faster. The step that measures how far apart the two tracks' kick drums are was doing enormously more arithmetic than it needed. A 20-track set spent over a minute on that alone; it now takes under two seconds. Same measurement, same result — just calculated properly.
  • Your first set is on the house. CortexDJ now builds one full set — full quality, no watermark — before it asks for a licence key. Hear what it does, then decide. The key is still free and still covers 2 computers.
  • Clearer about the key. The app used to say your key “was emailed when you downloaded”, which wasn't true if you never left an address — so it sent people hunting for mail that was never sent. It now says what's actually the case, and offers a button to get one.
  • A smaller download. Two libraries that were being bundled but never used are gone: 16 MB off the installer.
v2.30.4 — July 30, 2026

Tighter track entries — and recordings that can't fail in silence

  • The incoming track now lands on the beat. The step that nudges a new track onto the outgoing one's grid was leaving up to 40 ms of slip on real music — enough to hear as a flam on the first bars. Rebuilt and measured: the residual is now under 3 ms, with no audible seam at the joins.
  • Stopping a recording or stream can no longer freeze the app. If the streaming server stopped answering, ending the broadcast could hang the whole window — you couldn't even quit. Teardown now happens off the interface, and a stuck connection gets cut loose.
  • A failed recording tells you. If the writer died mid-session, recording simply stopped with no warning — you could lose an hour and only find out afterwards. It now raises an error immediately, and a multi-set broadcast starts a fresh stream instead of going out silent.
  • Live override polish. Moving the playhead on the outgoing deck mid-blend could snap the crossfader into a hard cut; taking a deck over could leave the next one silent for a whole track. Both fixed.
  • Also: another third-party component removed from the build (and cleaned off existing installs on update).
v2.30.3 — July 29, 2026

Take over the mix whenever you like — and recordings that stay in sync

  • Live override. Touch any control while the AI is mixing — filter, EQ, crossfader, FX, tempo, a deck's play button — and it becomes yours. The AI stops fighting you, keeps the set running, and hands the control back smoothly the moment you let go (or press ↵AI). Works from the screen and from a MIDI controller, which picks up without a jump.
  • Recorded video and audio line up exactly. A hardware-encoder stall at the start of a recording was silently dropping seconds of audio, which made the picture appear to lag. Fixed and measured — and long broadcasts no longer drift.
  • Sets that hang together. Splitting a folder into several mixes now groups tracks by key, tempo and energy instead of just by length.
  • Your licence is safer. A paid key can no longer be lost by entering another key, and cancelling Pro really does drop you to the free tier — the app keeps working. Pro keys now renew themselves while your subscription is live.
  • Also: export your library to rekordbox or Serato, a second launch brings the existing window forward, sharper key detection, and stem separation moved fully out of the audio path.
v2.29.5 — July 27, 2026

Cleaner upgrades & steadier long sessions

  • Upgrades now clean house. Installing an update removes components older versions left behind — keeping every install lean and current.
  • STOP is dependable mid-session. Stopping a multi-set run between mixes can no longer be overridden by a mix that was still preparing.
  • Hardened update downloads. The updater cleans up old downloads, checks free disk space first, and the AI stem model is integrity-verified with a full cryptographic pin.
  • Smoother marathon streams. Fixed a small periodic UI stall during kept-alive live broadcasts, and a browser-engine shutdown nit in YouTube Party.
v2.29.4 — July 25, 2026

Fleet-safe updates & no more stranded live streams

  • Auto-update hardening. The updater now understands beta version numbers correctly, so future releases always reach every install.
  • Live streams always end cleanly. If a queued mix fails to prepare mid-session, the broadcast is now closed out properly instead of streaming silence — and STOP works during the in-between-mixes moment too.
  • Steadier multi-set splits. Splitting a folder into mixes can no longer produce an unplayable one-track set anywhere in the queue.
  • Safer stem separation. The bundled AI model is integrity-checked before loading, and stem-heavy mashup builds wait politely while you're playing or recording.
v2.29.0-beta3 — July 25, 2026

Tighter transitions & fully-offline stem separation

  • Tighter transitions. Every deck now syncs on the track’s true tempo — a cached-analysis bug quietly fell back to a coarser BPM and let long blends drift out of phase. Fixed: cached tracks now beatmatch as tightly as freshly analysed ones.
  • Stem separation is fully offline. The AI bass-swap model now ships inside the installer — no first-use download, works with no internet at all.
  • Multi-set live fixes. Queued mixes hand over cleanly (no stranded stream at the end of a split set) and “Full app view” streams keep the real UI across every mix.
  • New in beta: dynamic EQ on live transitions, plus a 4-channel headphone cue for pre-listening on supported audio interfaces.
v2.28.9 — July 25, 2026

Bracketed folders scan again & steadier multi-set sessions

  • Folders with brackets in the name work again. A folder whose name contains square brackets — for example “[PSR322]” — now scans correctly instead of being skipped.
  • More reliable multi-mix / multi-set sessions. Back-to-back mixes and multi-set runs hold together more dependably from start to finish.
  • Stem-separation robustness fixes for the invisible bass swap and mashups.
v2.28.8 — July 24, 2026

Ask for several mixes — get them all, hands-free

  • Multi-mix live sessions. Split a folder into several mixes and choose “Perform live” — the decks now play every mix back-to-back automatically, and each one records to its own file (perfect for uploading as separate videos). Press STOP any time to end the whole session.
v2.28.7 — July 23, 2026

No more freezing while recording a mix

  • Recordings stay smooth. The background stem separation (used for the invisible bass swap) now runs in a separate low-priority process, so recording a mix no longer freezes or stutters — and the bass swap still works.
  • Windows & macOS (Apple Silicon) are both on this build.
v2.28.5 — July 23, 2026

Sharper key detection & safer stream keys

  • Key detection tuned to Mixed In Key. A retuned key model agrees with Mixed In Key more often — especially it no longer flips a track between its major and minor key, so your harmonic mixes line up better.
  • Mac: stream keys encrypted in the Keychain. On macOS your broadcast/stream keys are now encrypted with a key held in the system Keychain, not stored in plain text.
  • Per-platform auto-update (Mac tracks Mac releases), a smoother app exit, and the admin fleet view now shows whether each machine records on the GPU.
v2.28 — July 22, 2026

A new beat brain, GPU-powered recording & a cleaner stream picture

  • A brand-new AI beat engine. Beat detection is now driven by a state-of-the-art neural beat tracker with a constant-tempo grid fit, confident bar-one detection and kick-locked anchoring — plus a quality gate: a track that can’t be gridded reliably is benched instead of mixed badly. Your existing library upgrades itself quietly in the background.
  • Recording & streaming now use your graphics card. CortexDJ tests which hardware H.264 encoder actually works on your machine (NVIDIA / Intel / AMD) and uses it — video encoding moves off the CPU, keeping it free for the audio engine.
  • The “Full app view” stream picture shows everything. The whole console now fits the frame (no more zoomed-in crop), with a branded band and a live NOW/NEXT strip.
  • Fuller, louder transitions. The blends no longer dip in level while two tracks ride together — the mix holds its energy right through every transition.
  • macOS (Apple Silicon) catches up to v2.28. The Mac beta now has the same neural beat engine and louder transitions — and a fixed auto-updater that tracks Mac releases instead of offering the Windows installer.
  • Faster track loads on already-scanned folders, smoother exit, and stability fixes around recording start/stop.
v2.26 — July 18, 2026

Kick-locked beatmatching & long club-style blends

  • Kick-locked beatmatching. Every beat grid is now re-anchored to the track's real kick drums — so blends stay locked for the whole overlap, not just at the hand-off.
  • The auto-mix skips tracks it can't lock. Tracks whose grid can't be locked cleanly are left out of the set — you'll see which ones, in the status bar and the new MIX column.
  • Long, audible club-style blends. Both tracks breathe together for a ~22-second minimum overlap, and every track gets room up front before the next one comes in.
  • Softer “slam” moments. A split-second duck, never silence.
  • Grab any control mid-mix. Touch the EQ, filter, FX or crossfader and it's yours until the next transition — then the AI takes back over.
  • Recording & streaming fixes. Fixed black video on modern Windows/NVIDIA setups, the screen no longer sleeps mid-stream, and no more audio micro-dropouts when the next track loads.
  • CortexDJ now runs as a single instance.
  • macOS beta updated to 2.26.3 — signed & notarized.
v2.25.30–36 · Jul 2026

macOS beta, a tighter beat-lock & a more mastered mix

  • CortexDJ is on Mac. A macOS beta (Apple Silicon) is live — the AI auto-mixer, live decks, library and analysis all work today; recording, streaming and stem-based mashups are landing soon.
  • Flanger, not echo. The AI DJ now sweeps a flanger where it used to throw an echo — a cleaner jet-sweep on the way in and out of every blend.
  • Cleaner, more mastered blends. A shared mid-scoop keeps key-matched tracks from piling up and clashing in the mids during long blends, and a gentle bus-glue compressor gives the whole set that "one mastered record" cohesion.
  • Beat-locked live transitions. The auto-DJ now starts every blend on a real downbeat and drives the bass swap from the beat grid instead of the clock, so hand-offs land tight on the one.
  • Longer, more creative blends. The crossfader now holds both tracks together for most of the blend instead of switching fast, with filter-into-the-drop sweeps, risers, breakdowns and a Creativity dial (Minimal → Wild) in Settings.
  • A livelier mid-track ride. The AI now performs between transitions too — filter lifts, bass ducks and echo throws land every 8 bars, not just at the blend.
  • Fixed the rare audible glitch when the next track loaded, and the crossfade cutting out early if a track ended mid-blend.
v2.25 · Jul 2026

Pro beatgrid, controller auto-detect & a braver AI DJ

  • “One perfect mix” — auto-picks your best tracks. Point CortexDJ at a big folder and choose a length; it selects the best set for that hour — one beatmatchable tempo band, every blend in key, shaped to your chosen vibe — instead of just taking the first tracks that fit. Plus reliability/security hardening across the deck audio, auto-DJ, MIDI and the updater.
  • Pro beatgrid that actually locks. A neural beat-and-downbeat detector nails the true tempo and bar-one, fixing tracks that older detectors misread — so two decks stay beat-locked from the first bar to the last, with no drift.
  • Your controller just works (Pro). Plug in a Pioneer DDJ-FLX4/FLX2/400/REV1/FLX6/1000/FLX10, Hercules Inpulse 200/300 or Numark Mixtrack / Party Mix II — auto-detected and fully mapped on launch. MIDI-learn still covers everything else.
  • A braver AI DJ. Filter sweeps, echo throws, low-pass intros and full sweep-throughs on most transitions — plus sparse, beat-safe highlights: a split-second master slam, a gate-roll stutter into the swap, a tape-stop on quick cuts. Varied every blend, never disturbing the lock.
  • Real turntables you can watch. Platter + gold tonearm whose needle rides the groove with the track, and during the auto-mix the EQ knobs turn, the filter sweeps and the FX buttons light up live — you see every move the AI makes.
  • Sharper harmonic order using your library's own key tags, and the library auto-follows the playing track so its info is always in view.
  • Works fully offline for everyone — the pro analysis is bundled, nothing to install or upload.
v2.24 · Jul 2026

Free license keys & a reorderable library

  • Every download now comes with a free-forever license key by email; every key (free or Pro) works on up to 2 of your computers.
  • Drag tracks to reorder your library by hand — column sorting still works.
  • Hot-cues you set on the pads now survive restarts.
  • Safer auto-update (installer integrity is always verified) and crash-proof settings saves.
v2.23 · Jul 2026

Polish & startup update checks

  • The app checks for updates on startup and offers to install in one click.
  • Restored the deck track-name display, the analysis progress indicator, and fixed the mixer layout on short windows.
  • Tighter beat-sync lock.
v2.22 · Jul 2026

Recording & streaming go Pro

  • Recording your set (audio + HD video) and live-streaming to YouTube / Twitch / Facebook are now Pro features.
  • Free stays free forever: the AI mix still plays live and still renders to a file.
v2.21

Legally-clean build & mashup export

  • Switched to an LGPL FFmpeg build (OpenH264) so the app is clean to distribute.
  • Export any mashup straight to a WAV file.
  • Import / export your MIDI controller mapping to share it.
v2.20

MIDI controllers + new pricing

  • Full MIDI controller support with MIDI-learn (Pro).
  • New freemium model: free forever for home use, Pro $7.45/mo, Lifetime $127.
v2.19

Mashup moments in the AI mix

  • The auto-mix now occasionally drops a mashup transition — the incoming vocal riding the outgoing groove, in key.
v2.18

Playlist quality-of-life

  • Delete tracks straight from the playlist, and tracks you've already played this session get marked in the library so you can see what's been used.
v2.17

Describe your set in plain English

  • Type "90s peak-time house, 1 hour" and CortexDJ builds it.
  • "Best Mashups" scans your whole library for the strongest pairs.
v2.16

MASH column

  • Load a track and every other track shows a live 0–100 mashup score — sort to find the best partners instantly.
v2.15

Mashups

  • Find compatible tracks and build a vocal-over-instrumental mashup, beatmatched and in key, with AI stem separation.
v2.14

In-app auto-update

  • CortexDJ now updates itself — you always have the latest.
v2.13

Persistent library & crates

  • Your analyzed tracks, crates and cue points survive restarts. Sort by key / BPM / energy; mark what you've played.
v2.12

Polish

  • Realistic turntables, sortable library columns, and a fix for rendering very long sets.

On first install, Windows may show a SmartScreen notice — click More info → Run anyway; the installer is safe and code-signing is in progress.