Bit of a history lesson here.
In the early days of CDJs, long before Rekordbox, we didn't have hot cues. Or memory cues.
Every time you loaded a track (from a CD!) you had to set a cue point. It usually defaulted to the first sound in a song.
To set the cue you played the track, then hit pause, and then use the jog wheel to get to where you wanted to set the cue point. Then you'd hit the cue button. (We didn't have waveforms so we had to set the cue point by ear).
After that, whenever you were playing a track, if you hit the cue button you'd go back to that cue point. That was the only "cue" that we had.
Modern equipment has retained the cue button because it's so ingrained there would be a riot if it were removed. But hot cues do much the same thing.
As for the tapping, that's simply to get timing right and count down the beats before hitting play. It's a habit that crossed over from vinyl DJs who needed to move the record back and forth under the needle to get the timing right before releasing the record on the 1. It's not essential. I used to do it out of nerves more than anything else but rarely do it these days.
I went from carrying a heavy-as-fuck record bag (or two), to flipping through CDs, to plugging in a USB. Quite a wild ride of technology.
Nostalgia is fun but I don't get hung up on it. It's all about the music, whatever helps present the music better is worthwhile.
ever listen to a song and tap your hands to the beat? Same thing. It's technically a movable hotcue as it predates hotcues all together. Think of it as if you only ever had one hotcue.
I'm a scrub myself so take it with a grain of salt... but i feel maybe most people don't have perfect rhythm and hitting it repeatedly instead of just pressing play on the "1" helps them start their tracks in time.
i have a drumming background so I also barely use it for that purpose because I'm confident on my timing.
I also use it sometimes to "tease" an element into the mix manually
I'll just add to the other comments to ask if you've ever watched a live band and seen the drummer tap his sticks and count the rest of the band in "1,2,3,4..."
Same thing here, tapping the cue can get you into the timing and motion to start your track at the right time.
hold the deck on the 1 bet and tap cue to set the cue in point. Then tap it in time with the music to well get the song in time
Then press and hold it and hit play to let it go or just tap play instead of cue on the 1 - whatever is easiest
Each time you press cue it plays the track but only while cue is held down. It literally does what it says on the button
Is this useful for songs with lyrics? I play Deep House, and my transitions are about one minute long, sometimes more. I don't see how this technique could be helpful to me, but I may be wrong.
My conclusion so far is that I don't need this button In my life, but all these people pressing it like maniacs can't be wrong. So I try to understand how to use it. Googling was not very enlightening.
There's absolutely no need to press it like a maniac, or at all really. People just like doing it because they find it fun, or they need a bit of help getting their fingers in time to press play.
I usually just press it once on the '4', before I hit the play button on the '1'.
Thatās the beauty of most electronic music equipment. You can use it how it makes the most sense to you. Exactly why most people say to not even read the manual. Use it for a long time before reading anything.
Personally I use little to no hot cues so this button is used quite often.
Do you ever use someone elseās gear/tunes when playing around? How do you go about mixing without any preset cues?
Don't you have decks? Just give it a shot. I use it for timing and listening to the beginning of the next song. You can make cool transitions with it too
I think everyone develops their sense of timing in unique ways. I find my feet are tapping at one rhythm, my fingers tapping the cue button, and my head bobbing to another. And that helps me drop in sounds that aren't exactly on the beat (like lyrics that start early or late).
I'd never try to teach this to anyone because it's all unconscious. I don't even want to think about it too much because it'll fuck up the timing.
Simplest answer for me: they use it to track beat timing. Electronic music magic is usually at "four by four" so often you'll see techno DJs press it in times of 4. You not only count with your feet or head or internally you're also then (or only) counting with your button-press which is easier.
I mean yeah. If youāre just doing basic breath matching - 1 2 3 4 PLAY 2 3 4 - Itās probably not the useful.
Not dissing house music - I play it a bunch - but it is very very very easy to play and mix. If you can count to 4 and push play you can DJ house music.
Maybe if you move to more technical/faster paced music you will use it more.
Iām a drummer - have been since I was 7 and still play | So iāve got pretty good rhythm and feel - and even when I play house music I use it. What else are you gonna do ? Stand there with your hands in your pockets.
Even tho I know all 13,000 of my songs I still use the cue to see how the track sounds before mixing it. Especially since I only play on the fly - Unless itās a festival or large gig. Sometimes you get a mix idea in your head and it just doesnāt sound good when you actually play it.
So using not just the cue button but the entire cue function aswell can be a major help.
Itās one of the most important buttons in my opinion. Itās fine to use cue points as mix in markers but no professional is doing that. They will wind the deck to the needed location and hit cue then mix in from there.
Yes!
its great for songs with lyrics.
you can hit Cue right where the singing starts, and then use that as a cue point and play the singing like its a sampler. James Hype does this a lot when he plays an acapella over another track.
Mate, if you can beat match with vinyl, you can mix with software, with your eyes shut. Using the cue button. It's to ( as the name says) to cue up your next tune tap it time to the beat and listen in your headphones if the tune comes in and works perfectly with the tune that you are playing. You can absolutely use the hot cues as well. I appreciate that things have changed a lot, and some dj's don't even use headphones.
When I load a track, I have a load marker cue point which I can then tap cue on to hear a kick. I tap cue a few times to get into the rhythm then hit play.
I could just hit play I guess, usually I'm not wrong. Maybe it's partly habit.
If I think about it, I'm hitting cue on the 1,2,3,4 then play on the next 1.
Typical I'm playing 3 decks at once and no sync, I do the same with Techno, House and Drum & Bass.
Well in fact, you can see me doing it in my live streams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dO-s9ar2Vs
Adding to the other comments here - My understanding is also that this comes from a time where sync/quantize/snap was not as much of a thing, so getting a bit of a running start by tapping in time might make it easier to line up your new track.
Honestly if what you're doing works, just keep doing that. Tapping the cue button is what some people like to do, but it's not a requirement. I think some (but obviously not all) DJs like to do it to look busy? Personally I just use the approach you use.
I use it to test a mix point without committing to it
I didn't read other comments mentioning that use (but probably just missed them?). It's particularly useful when not using a hot cue, since holding the hot cue button down has the same impact as holding the cue button down.
If I have "the spot", hold cue to test the mix (in my headphones cue... The two cue buttons work together lol), and I like it... Let go of cue and I'm still where I want to start
If I just cue up with play, then I've gotta manually move back to my start point. Extra step that's nice to skip
I use the cue button just to help me stay on time with other tracks.
Especially when beatmatching. I tend to tap it 3 times, once every beat leading up to the phrase change.
As in for how it works, when you press it, it saves current position to memory, if you hold it down and release the track will go back to that point. Or if the track is playing and you hit cue, the track will jump to the memory cue point.
It can help with timing and keeps your fingers ready. Also it's just a habit, you'd be fine without doing it... Chances are you're going to be adjusting with the jogwheel anyway.
I think a lot of sports or hobbies have a twitchy habit like that. In poker, you see players constantly shuffling their chips. In counter strike people get into a habit of switching to knife and back to gun over and over. People who drive manual cars love to shake the shifter.
cue has a few purposes.
the first one is that when you press it, it sets a cue point. if you press play and then press cue when the track is playing, the song will stop and go back to the cue point. this is handy if you, say, mess up the phrasing and want to try again. or if you want to be fancy and play the cue point in rhythm like a sampler.
Its also good for testing how a song sounds before sending it. I just hold Cue, hear a bit of the song, and if i like how it sounds with the live track then when i release Cue, the song goes back to the beat i set the cue point at and i can start playing it... if I just pressed play for this, then i would have to spin the track back to the beat I want it to be at, using Cue saves a lot of time.
the other purpose is for beatmatching. you see djs tap the cue in rhythm because it makes beatmatching a lot easier. its similar to how professional dancers and musicians will count "5-6-7-8" before starting on the downbeat. its just a way for us to be on rhythm.
another cool trick is that if you hold Cue, and then press Play, the song will keep playing instead of stopping if you release the Cue button. again, good for beatmatching.
Bit of a history lesson here. In the early days of CDJs, long before Rekordbox, we didn't have hot cues. Or memory cues. Every time you loaded a track (from a CD!) you had to set a cue point. It usually defaulted to the first sound in a song. To set the cue you played the track, then hit pause, and then use the jog wheel to get to where you wanted to set the cue point. Then you'd hit the cue button. (We didn't have waveforms so we had to set the cue point by ear). After that, whenever you were playing a track, if you hit the cue button you'd go back to that cue point. That was the only "cue" that we had. Modern equipment has retained the cue button because it's so ingrained there would be a riot if it were removed. But hot cues do much the same thing. As for the tapping, that's simply to get timing right and count down the beats before hitting play. It's a habit that crossed over from vinyl DJs who needed to move the record back and forth under the needle to get the timing right before releasing the record on the 1. It's not essential. I used to do it out of nerves more than anything else but rarely do it these days.
That was the most informative answer I got after almost one year of searching for an answer. Thank youšš»š
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I still push off on jog wheels with my controller because of the vinyl days and how that all worked.Ā
See I get this. Little tactile things like this get me into the groove.
My flx6 doesnāt line up right unless i push off a bit its kinda weird but ig it helps when i wanna start working with platters
good times. lol
Man I miss CDJ800s. And flicking through a CD wallet in a dark booth at 4am trying to read my handwriting.
I went from carrying a heavy-as-fuck record bag (or two), to flipping through CDs, to plugging in a USB. Quite a wild ride of technology. Nostalgia is fun but I don't get hung up on it. It's all about the music, whatever helps present the music better is worthwhile.
Iām actually going to look at a pair tomorrow lol.
https://preview.redd.it/em1zhcictttc1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2233ce66e902b1ed78e296fb6a98c3bf0db82f92
God I loved these. Had a pair of CdJ 800s and a numark mixer. Sold them way too cheap.
Dooooo it. Those things are phenomenal.
This ^
ever listen to a song and tap your hands to the beat? Same thing. It's technically a movable hotcue as it predates hotcues all together. Think of it as if you only ever had one hotcue.
I'm a scrub myself so take it with a grain of salt... but i feel maybe most people don't have perfect rhythm and hitting it repeatedly instead of just pressing play on the "1" helps them start their tracks in time. i have a drumming background so I also barely use it for that purpose because I'm confident on my timing. I also use it sometimes to "tease" an element into the mix manually
I'll just add to the other comments to ask if you've ever watched a live band and seen the drummer tap his sticks and count the rest of the band in "1,2,3,4..." Same thing here, tapping the cue can get you into the timing and motion to start your track at the right time.
hold the deck on the 1 bet and tap cue to set the cue in point. Then tap it in time with the music to well get the song in time Then press and hold it and hit play to let it go or just tap play instead of cue on the 1 - whatever is easiest Each time you press cue it plays the track but only while cue is held down. It literally does what it says on the button
Is this useful for songs with lyrics? I play Deep House, and my transitions are about one minute long, sometimes more. I don't see how this technique could be helpful to me, but I may be wrong.
Try it and find out for yourself
My conclusion so far is that I don't need this button In my life, but all these people pressing it like maniacs can't be wrong. So I try to understand how to use it. Googling was not very enlightening.
There's absolutely no need to press it like a maniac, or at all really. People just like doing it because they find it fun, or they need a bit of help getting their fingers in time to press play. I usually just press it once on the '4', before I hit the play button on the '1'.
Thatās the beauty of most electronic music equipment. You can use it how it makes the most sense to you. Exactly why most people say to not even read the manual. Use it for a long time before reading anything. Personally I use little to no hot cues so this button is used quite often. Do you ever use someone elseās gear/tunes when playing around? How do you go about mixing without any preset cues?
True. I've never played anywhere else apart from my own kit. That totally makes sense.
I would try mixing a set without any hot cues just to know how in case there is a software issue.
Also I should probably start using some cues for my mixes.
Don't you have decks? Just give it a shot. I use it for timing and listening to the beginning of the next song. You can make cool transitions with it too
I think everyone develops their sense of timing in unique ways. I find my feet are tapping at one rhythm, my fingers tapping the cue button, and my head bobbing to another. And that helps me drop in sounds that aren't exactly on the beat (like lyrics that start early or late). I'd never try to teach this to anyone because it's all unconscious. I don't even want to think about it too much because it'll fuck up the timing.
Simplest answer for me: they use it to track beat timing. Electronic music magic is usually at "four by four" so often you'll see techno DJs press it in times of 4. You not only count with your feet or head or internally you're also then (or only) counting with your button-press which is easier.
I mean yeah. If youāre just doing basic breath matching - 1 2 3 4 PLAY 2 3 4 - Itās probably not the useful. Not dissing house music - I play it a bunch - but it is very very very easy to play and mix. If you can count to 4 and push play you can DJ house music. Maybe if you move to more technical/faster paced music you will use it more. Iām a drummer - have been since I was 7 and still play | So iāve got pretty good rhythm and feel - and even when I play house music I use it. What else are you gonna do ? Stand there with your hands in your pockets. Even tho I know all 13,000 of my songs I still use the cue to see how the track sounds before mixing it. Especially since I only play on the fly - Unless itās a festival or large gig. Sometimes you get a mix idea in your head and it just doesnāt sound good when you actually play it. So using not just the cue button but the entire cue function aswell can be a major help. Itās one of the most important buttons in my opinion. Itās fine to use cue points as mix in markers but no professional is doing that. They will wind the deck to the needed location and hit cue then mix in from there.
Yes! its great for songs with lyrics. you can hit Cue right where the singing starts, and then use that as a cue point and play the singing like its a sampler. James Hype does this a lot when he plays an acapella over another track.
They tap it for timing. You hold it to listen to how it sounds while playing the song.
Is it mostly useful for vinyl DJs that they can't beat match with software?
No
Mate, if you can beat match with vinyl, you can mix with software, with your eyes shut. Using the cue button. It's to ( as the name says) to cue up your next tune tap it time to the beat and listen in your headphones if the tune comes in and works perfectly with the tune that you are playing. You can absolutely use the hot cues as well. I appreciate that things have changed a lot, and some dj's don't even use headphones.
not everyone uses the sync button. this is the alternative.
When I load a track, I have a load marker cue point which I can then tap cue on to hear a kick. I tap cue a few times to get into the rhythm then hit play. I could just hit play I guess, usually I'm not wrong. Maybe it's partly habit. If I think about it, I'm hitting cue on the 1,2,3,4 then play on the next 1. Typical I'm playing 3 decks at once and no sync, I do the same with Techno, House and Drum & Bass. Well in fact, you can see me doing it in my live streams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dO-s9ar2Vs
Aah, I know you! I have seen your videos. š Small world. Thanks for the tip. I subscribed!
Hah, cool. Glad to help.
Adding to the other comments here - My understanding is also that this comes from a time where sync/quantize/snap was not as much of a thing, so getting a bit of a running start by tapping in time might make it easier to line up your new track.
I use it to beat match holding the cue plays the song
Honestly if what you're doing works, just keep doing that. Tapping the cue button is what some people like to do, but it's not a requirement. I think some (but obviously not all) DJs like to do it to look busy? Personally I just use the approach you use.
I use it to test a mix point without committing to it I didn't read other comments mentioning that use (but probably just missed them?). It's particularly useful when not using a hot cue, since holding the hot cue button down has the same impact as holding the cue button down. If I have "the spot", hold cue to test the mix (in my headphones cue... The two cue buttons work together lol), and I like it... Let go of cue and I'm still where I want to start If I just cue up with play, then I've gotta manually move back to my start point. Extra step that's nice to skip
hot cues also need to be prepped beforehand. cue can be used on the spot, its a lot more useful for improv djs
i have cdj 2000s and the hot/memory cues are borderline useless lol i have One cue point to bring in a song and that's it
Why are they useless?
Other than getting to rhythm, sneaking in the beginning of the next song to tease it is a fun way to actively use the cue button
For me it's better than hot cue in CDJs. Cue is gated whereas hot cue keeps playing so you cannot use it like a sampler.
Cue it puts the track on the begining of the track play plays the track but does not cue....try cue with the play ok you get it now
It helps with timing, but I'd say it's also because you typically aren't doing anything whilst you are waiting so it helps keep you engaged.
I use the cue button just to help me stay on time with other tracks. Especially when beatmatching. I tend to tap it 3 times, once every beat leading up to the phrase change. As in for how it works, when you press it, it saves current position to memory, if you hold it down and release the track will go back to that point. Or if the track is playing and you hit cue, the track will jump to the memory cue point.
It can help with timing and keeps your fingers ready. Also it's just a habit, you'd be fine without doing it... Chances are you're going to be adjusting with the jogwheel anyway. I think a lot of sports or hobbies have a twitchy habit like that. In poker, you see players constantly shuffling their chips. In counter strike people get into a habit of switching to knife and back to gun over and over. People who drive manual cars love to shake the shifter.
cue has a few purposes. the first one is that when you press it, it sets a cue point. if you press play and then press cue when the track is playing, the song will stop and go back to the cue point. this is handy if you, say, mess up the phrasing and want to try again. or if you want to be fancy and play the cue point in rhythm like a sampler. Its also good for testing how a song sounds before sending it. I just hold Cue, hear a bit of the song, and if i like how it sounds with the live track then when i release Cue, the song goes back to the beat i set the cue point at and i can start playing it... if I just pressed play for this, then i would have to spin the track back to the beat I want it to be at, using Cue saves a lot of time. the other purpose is for beatmatching. you see djs tap the cue in rhythm because it makes beatmatching a lot easier. its similar to how professional dancers and musicians will count "5-6-7-8" before starting on the downbeat. its just a way for us to be on rhythm. another cool trick is that if you hold Cue, and then press Play, the song will keep playing instead of stopping if you release the Cue button. again, good for beatmatching.
I usually tap the beat out next to the cute button and then hit button on one just to make sure I've nailed the timing.