setting up cue points ahead of time

[omers]

@jdownesbaird

Well, he’s forgetting that these are CUE points, and not just markers, allowing you to MOVE around efficiently with the press of a CUE button if you mix that way. That has nothing to do with the ability to “instinctually know when a phrase is changing”.

OP, do you know what cue point juggling is? As you might expect, it’s impossible without cue points.

I am not forgetting that they are cue points. A cue point is exactly that a quick jump to where you can cue the track from. I was responding to someone flat out said “I don’t usually jump between cue points, but I like to have a visual cue for good transition points.”

Using cue points as cue points is fine, I have lots of tracks with cue points on acapella samples and stuff of that nature, it was the using them as “road signs” that I was confused about.

[pastabox]

I don’t cue juggle and I’ve gotten in the habit of only setting one cue point, at a drop usually, and just using beat jump to get to where I want to be relative to that point before starting to mix. After all, the way I’m going to mix in the song is always going to be relative to the drop in one fashion or another.

I don’t know, maybe it’s strange. Works for me though.

[jdownesbaird]

@omers

I am not forgetting that they are cue points. A cue point is exactly that a quick jump to where you can cue the track from. I was responding to someone flat out said “I don’t usually jump between cue points, but I like to have a visual cue for good transition points.”

Using cue points as cue points is fine, I have lots of tracks with cue points on acapella samples and stuff of that nature, it was the using them as “road signs” that I was confused about.

Well, these were your quotes:

“What is the added benefit to marking some of them with cue points?”

“I’m not trying to be a dick or anything, I just honestly don’t understand why anyone would need to or want to mark potential mix points with cue markers.”

The added benefit is that they are CUE points for jumping around, not just markers. I know now that you get that, but your question made it seem like you didn’t. I guess you meant “what is the benefit to using markers” in general for reference, but your specific use of the word CUE was confusing. There are many different kinds of markers.

And, markers are just another tool. Your argument would be similar to the whole SYNC vs. BEATMATCH BY EAR debate. Modern technology gives us all types of shortcuts, and taking advantage of them isn’t necessarily a crutch. A marker is just another piece of information. Even without markers, you are still reading the waveform, and as your graphic pointed out, it isn’t hard to see where the markers might be.

[Tortango]

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned ITT that I do on almost every track… set a cue point for when the melody stops near the end of a song.

It’s so useful to be able to have the melody for song B kick in exactly when the melody for song A stops, especially when mixing tracks in keys that don’t complement one another. That’s my favorite way to mix between tracks that contrast heavily without raising the energy level too much.

[bleclair8281]

Here’s how I use cues:

1. My first cue is always flipped to a load marker in Traktor. For me it’s just a workflow simplification step. I’m gonna beat-grid and cue the whole track you just save yourself 1 button push possibly more depending on the track.
2. Its important to me to keep my face out of the computer screen so, I set the title area to show me Beats To Cue, that way I don’t have to look at the waveform as closely to know how far away I am. Agree with others on knowing your music.
3. keeping my cues spaced in 16 or 32 beat increments allows me to use the beatjump & loop function on my controllers really quickly and effectively with the help of the cue points on the controller as well.
4. I used to do this but not so much anymore, write out the lyrics in the cues on vocal tracks example (3. i touched the SKY, sky, sky) with the both matching number cues for the acapella and the original as well as making words on the break CAPITALIZED. This would be helpful when loading acapellas on different decks and matching them to the original track. As I’d load the acapella, hit the cue lyric drop down and see exactly what lines up with what quickly. When done right it’s fool proof and you can go really quickly.

[Bassline_Brine]

I don’t use cue points. I probably should to some degree (I have the dicers, but mostly use them for looping when I need to extend something to properly mix out of something).

I don’t cue jump. I don’t really want to. I really like letting tracks speak for themselves. But it’s also my style of mixing, which everyone does it differently. I know most of my tracks in and out so I know when I need to mix them in without even looking at the waveforms 90% of the time. With new tracks I do tend to find myself looking at the screen more because I’m not as familiar… but that’s what practice is for (and also listening to your recent batch of music purchases non-stop after you purchase them to get familiar).

I see a lot of the guys locally who are into turntablism using them to a large degree, and I totally understand that. Having cue points while scratching much be such a nice feature.

That being said, I pick the needle up and move it over. I run in relative mode with absolute drop 99% of the time (unless something is fucking up and I go internal). I don’t jump back and forth, so it’s no big deal NOT to have them.

I do find it harder when I play on CDJ’s w/ Serato because I can’t needle drop as easily (usually using time-code CD’s). It’s something I’m working on, but as I don’t own CDJ’s to fuck around on (and none of my close friends do) it’s something that will come in time.

They are neat, but I really don’t find myself using them.