Spektra is in
open beta.
It is free while the beta runs and imports from Mixxx and Rekordbox (local audio files only). It is also pre-1.0 software with rough edges, and every known one is listed below the downloads.
macOS 12+ · Windows 10+ · Linux. No card, no account, no email.
- Local audio files only — Streaming tracks in a Rekordbox collection have no file on your drive, so they’re skipped.
- Analyse in your DJ software first — BPM and key come from Mixxx or Rekordbox, not from Spektra.
- The first analysis is long — Hours on a large library. Pause it or close the app, and it picks up where it left off.
- 01Run the installer. SmartScreen stops it with Windows protected your PC.
- 02Click More info.
- 03Click Run anyway. The installer carries on as normal.
The warning appears because the beta installer isn’t code-signed, so Windows can’t tell who published it. v1.0 will be signed. macOS builds are signed and notarized and install without a warning.
What works
- Mixxx import — Reads your Mixxx library: tracks and crates. Nothing is written back.
- Rekordbox import (local audio files) — Reads the collection you export from Rekordbox (File → Export Collection in xml format): tracks and playlists. Export again when your library changes, and only new or changed tracks get analysed. Spektra never writes to Rekordbox’s database.
- Offline analysis — Spectral analysis and audio embeddings run on your machine. You don’t need an account, and the app sends no telemetry.
- The Observatory — Your whole library as one map. Drop up to five anchors, plot a course between them.
- Sonic neighbors — Point at a track you love and see what sits near it in the audio, not in the tags.
- Recon Deck — Audition tracks and transitions in the app before you commit to them.
- Export — Send a course or a saved playlist out as an M3U8 file into the software you already use. With a Rekordbox library, Spektra also keeps a Link File up to date with every saved playlist, so Rekordbox can import them without re-matching tracks by hand.
- All three platforms — macOS 12+, Windows 10+, Linux (AppImage and deb).
Observatory demo
The Observatory end to end: read the map, drop anchors, plot a course, audition it, save it.
What’s rough
Spektra reads BPM and key straight out of Mixxx rather than detecting them itself. Point a fresh Mixxx install at an unanalysed collection and Spektra gets a map with a dead BPM axis. Run the analysis in Mixxx before you import.
The same goes for Rekordbox: BPM and key come from your export. A track Rekordbox hasn’t analysed arrives with no BPM and sits in the NO BPM gutter on the far left of the map. If key analysis is switched off in Rekordbox, tracks arrive with no key.
Spektra reads the XML file Rekordbox exports, not Rekordbox itself, so there is no live sync. When your library changes, export the collection again over the same file and press Sync Now in Spektra’s Settings.
Beatport, Tidal, SoundCloud and other streaming tracks in a Rekordbox collection have no audio file on your drive, so Spektra can’t analyse them. They stay in your playlists but never reach the map, and the import tells you how many there are. A mostly-streaming collection gets little out of Spektra.
The Link File needs a one-time setting in Rekordbox, and Spektra’s Settings lists the steps. After that you import each playlist from the rekordbox xml tree yourself. A change you make in Spektra reaches Rekordbox only when you import that playlist again.
Rekordbox’s M3U8 import skips any track whose file path contains a #. Spektra names those tracks when you export. The Link File carries them, so use it for Rekordbox.
Spektra holds one library. Switching between Mixxx and Rekordbox replaces it: the new library is analysed from scratch, and your saved playlists are deleted. Spektra offers to export them all as M3U8 first.
The Windows installer isn’t code-signed for the beta, so SmartScreen warns you before it runs. Two clicks get you past it, and v1.0 will be signed. macOS is signed and notarized and installs without a warning.
Get past the warning↓macOS, Windows and the Linux AppImage update themselves. On the .deb you get a notification and a download link, and you install it yourself. Either way, updates stay on the 0.x line, and v1.0 will need a fresh download.
Every file is read once for spectral analysis and again for the audio embedding, and the two take roughly comparable time. Testers with ~15,000-track libraries have reported hours-long analysis runs, but it depends on your hardware. You can pause the pass, or close the app entirely, and it picks up where it left off. The map opens as soon as the first track is analysed, but a track can’t join a course until its embedding is done.
Some of what the canvas encodes does not yet line up with the attributes shown elsewhere in the app. Position and size are stable; the rest may shift under you.
Labels from earlier builds still turn up in a few corners of the interface. They’re being replaced.
What Spektra is not doing
Spektra does not write your set, generate music, or imitate a DJ. It measures what is already in the audio, the way a spectrum analyzer does. You point it at tracks you already know and it shows you what sits near them.
Energy is a useful approximation, not a verdict. If a track lands somewhere on the map that contradicts your ears, your ears are the ones that count. Send it in.
What the beta is trying to learn
- →Does the map match how you actually hear your own library? Where is it wrong?
- →What happened in your first ten minutes? That is where people decide.
- →What broke on your library specifically? Odd files, missing tags, an enormous collection, unusual folder layouts?
- →What did you find that you had forgotten you owned?
- →On Rekordbox: did a Spektra playlist land back in Rekordbox with every track matched? Send an email either way.
What you get
Spektra is free while the beta runs, for Mixxx and Rekordbox libraries alike. v1.0 is the first paid release, bought once with no subscription. Nobody asks for a card now.
You don’t need an account, an email address or a key. The installers are at the top of the page, and the app checks for updates itself.
Back to the downloads↑If you want to hear when v1.0 ships, join the email list. The app updates itself within the 0.x line but won’t move you to v1.0, so email is the only way you’ll find out. Signing up is a $0 checkout that also issues a beta key. The address gets build notes and nothing else, and the software is the same whether you sign up or not.
Get build notes by emailWhat broke?
Send bug reports, moments of confusion, things that felt wrong, and tracks you had forgotten you owned. All of it is useful, and all of it reaches the person who builds Spektra. Who makes Spektra?
Stuck rather than broken? The FAQ covers import, export and how Energy works.
Click Feedback in the sidebar, or Send Feedback in Settings. It’s anonymous, so every one gets read but there’s no way to reply.
Nothing goes until you press Send. Include recent log is off by default, and you can read the whole Log Excerpt before it goes.What the app sends
Want a reply, want to report a playlist that made it into Rekordbox, or happy to be quoted? Send an email. The form can’t do any of those.
[email protected]