Working with Cue Points.

Working with Cue Points

Working with Cue Points:

What are cue-points?
Cue-points are positions in the song. DJs are using them a lot, because they act as "bookmarks" in the song. As with a regular book, it's easier to put bookmarks, so you know what parts are most interesting, when a different chapter begins, and so on. So, basically a DJ loads a song in the deck and then starts searching for interesting positions/parts in the song (by listening in the headphones) to begin and/or end the mix. The DJ places those marks, so later he/she can cue to those saved positions. You will see immediately how this is done.

DJ Mixer Professional can store and operate with up to 8 distinct cue points for every song loaded. On the BCD2000 skin and the current skin, only the first 4/5 of them are displayed and also another one, which has a special meaning, something about we'll be talking shortly.

Switching between the cue points is very simple due to the buttons on each deck. The active cue point is the one with the red LED on. All operations related to the CUE button and the whole cueing process, takes place only on the current cue-point.

If you set a CUE point, it’s position will be indicated by an orange line marker on the waveform display. The waveform display's marker indicates the exact sound sample the cue point is set to. (more on the waveform display later on)

When a song is first loaded into a deck, no cue-points exists. When you find a good position and you want to set a cue-point on that position you just need to press the CUE button. This way the current position is memorized in the currently selected cue-point (which acts as a memory). If later on, when you are at a different position in the song, you want to go back to that saved position, you simply press again the CUE button. In fact, every time you'll press the CUE button, it will move the song's play cursor at that position. If the song is paused, pressing the CUE button moves to that position but doesn't start the playback. If the song is playing, the position is moved instantly to the saved position and the playback continues without interruption.

To make fine adjustments to the position of the cue-point you need to pause the song and press CUE. Then, using the Jog-Wheel or the mouse in paused mode you can fine-tune the position by spinning the Jog-Wheel or by dragging the sound (on the waveform display) with your mouse.

If the selected cue point already records a position, then the old position must first be erased, before recording a new one. In other words, to set up a new position in the already-set cue-point (to overwrite it), you need to erase it first (reset) by long-pressing the CUE button for about half a second. There is no other way to change the position that's stored in the cue-point without erasing the old one. Of course, you can also use another free cue-point from the 8 available. A right mouse click on one of the cue buttons will also erase it's content (position), after you'll confirm the operation.

When you load a song, the AUTO-CUE function automatically sets the last (8th) cue-point to the first position in the song where the signal exceeds -40dB (it skips silence by searching the first hotter sound).

All recorded cue points and the active cue-point number are saved for each title loaded in the decks, alongside other information (eq settings, bpm, etc), and is loaded with it.

Another useful button is the Back To Top button. Regardless of what the deck is currently doing, pressing this button pauses the deck and moves the play cursor at the beginning of the song.