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Digital DJing: The Countdown Method for Traktor cue points

August 14, 2013
 · 
1 min read

Traktor's cue points are a handy way for DJs to jump around and keep track of different events within a track. For example, the guys at DJ Tech Tools use cue points to highlight the first beat, the best start point, and vocal cues (as well as trigger points for sample loops).

Myself, I use cue points in a more traditional, yet universal manner. I've been using a technique I call the Countdown Method for about a year now. Basically, cues are used in reverse sequence (as in 3-2-1 go!) to coordinate mix-in and mix-out points.

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Comments
textur
Cool, one of the few nontrivial tutorials about the cue points topic! You could also turn cue 6 into a loop point, in case the fade out window is too short. If Traktor would offer labled cue points one would not have to waste precious hotcue slots for cue 3,2,7 and 6, but simply keep them stored as one of the 32 general cue slots..
Brian
Thanks for sharing
[…] summer, I shared my method for using Traktor cue points. This time I’m going to show a real-world example of this method […]
Kris
Wow, I’ve been struggling (my mixes aren’t awful, but my cue’s just weren’t doing it for me…) with setting up cue points in a way that made sense for me… you just blew my mind, I love this style and its what I was trying to do with not a lot of success so I always returned to basic 8-16 measure cue’s. This site just became priceless to me! Thank you for sharing all your hard work, most DJ’s aren’t willing to let this information go free or at all and I really do appreciate your willingness to share. Can’t wait to get home to redo a set I was just putting together last night (Progressive & Trance), I have a slow building style, less initial energy than yours, but this will still help me build it the way I wanted in the first place. The Titan breakdown also helped immensely.
rayhan
This was freaking amazing! I recently bought the Traktor S4 and I have been struggling with cue points and getting my mixes flowing properly. I used to mix using Ableton by just manually changing the highs, mids and lows then just pressing play so it was kind of a big leap to start mixing live. Reading your blog posts has helped me understand mixing to a whole new level! Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I really appreciate it and I would love to have you as a guestmixer on my podcast!
Ed
I had a similar strategy but the problem is remembering what the cue points mean, having that “what did I intend here?” moment mid mix. Good advice to introduce some rules!
Jess
Thanks a lot for this wonderful tip, probably one of the more useful yet simple tip I have encountered. Will defiantly be going back through my collection to make use of this super awesome strategy!
[…] Digital DJing: The Countdown Method … – Traktor’s cue points are a handy way for DJs to jump around and keep track of different events within a track. For example, the guys at DJ Tech Tools use … […]

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