You’ve got hot cue pads on your controller, and you’ve probably set a few already. But knowing where to put them, and what to do with them once they’re there, is what makes them useful.
In the video above I show you how hot cues work, where I set them on a track, and three easy ways to use them in a mix. It’s all done on a basic controller with the free software that came with it, so you can follow along on whatever gear you have.
Hot cues vs the cue button
Your controller’s cue button sets a temporary cue point. Press it and the software puts a marker on the track, and pressing it again while the track plays takes you straight back there.
But you only get one per track, and it’s temporary. Load the track again, or press cue somewhere else, and it’s gone.
Hot cues are permanent. They stay with the track until you delete them, even after you load another track and come back to it. So it makes sense to set them on the tracks you play a lot – every time you load one, they’re waiting for you.
Most controllers have a pad mode button that switches the pads to hot cues, and it’s normally the default. I’ve got four per deck in the video, and plenty of gear gives you eight.
Setting and deleting hot cues
To set a hot cue, press an empty pad where you want it. A marker appears on the track’s waveform.
To delete one, hold Shift and press the pad.
One thing that might catch you out: on a lot of gear, if the track is paused, a hot cue only plays for as long as your finger is on the pad. To keep it playing, hold the pad and press play. If the track is already playing, a tap is enough.
This is called gated cueing, and on some gear you can change it in the settings. Here’s more on gated vs “normal” hot cues.
Where to put your four hot cues
Here’s the system I use on house tracks:
- Hot cue 1 – the start you actually want. Lots of tracks open with a minute of plain beats. Put your first hot cue where something interesting happens: the bassline, a riff, the bit your crowd would recognise.
- Hot cue 2 – the start of the breakdown, where the beat drops out and the energy dips.
- Hot cue 3 – the drop, where the full track crashes back in after the breakdown.
- Hot cue 4 – a safe place to mix out. Near the end, find where the music stops and you’re left with just drums. That’s often around 30 seconds from the end.
Use the same pads for the same jobs on every track. Tracks differ, but nearly all have a good place to mix in and a safe place to mix out, so make those your first and last hot cues (one and four, or one and eight if you’ve got eight). Your fingers soon learn where everything is.
Don’t forget the temporary cue point is still there at the very beginning, so with one hot cue you already have two places to jump to.
1. Jump through the track
Once your hot cues are set, you don’t have to wait for anything.
Mix in from hot cue 1, skipping the boring intro. When you’re ready, jump to the breakdown. When you’ve had enough of that, jump to the drop. Then jump to the end, ready to mix the next track in.
In the video I race through a whole track this way in under a minute, which is how DJs who only play 30 seconds of each track do it. You won’t usually go that fast, but it shows how much control hot cues give you.
2. Cut out the breakdown
Sometimes the dancefloor isn’t in the mood for a big hands-in-the-air moment. They just want the groove to carry on.
When you see the breakdown’s hot cue coming up on the waveform, jump past it to the drop, and the beat never stops.
That’s the other use for hot cues: as markers. You don’t have to press them for them to help. Seeing them on the waveform tells you what’s coming.
3. Drop the next track in on a hot cue
Your fourth hot cue marks where the outgoing track is down to just drums. Drums are safe to mix over, because there’s nothing in them to clash with the next track.
So when the playhead reaches that marker, drop the next track in from its hot cue 1, the interesting bit, rather than its intro. Both tracks stay interesting, and you’re ready to transition.
You don’t have to bring the next track in at its start, either. In the video I stop the outgoing track dead and press play on the next one, already sitting on its breakdown hot cue. There’s no beatmixing at all, and it’s still a clean transition.
If your transitions sound messy when two tracks play together, here’s how to stop them sounding muddy.
Going further
This is the very basics. You can also colour code and label your hot cues, and use them creatively – playing them in rhythm, or cue juggling, as I show at the end of the video with a rush noise from one of the tracks.
See how the pros use hot cues
Our Mix Deconstructions and Deep Dive Action Plans break down real DJs, including some big names, using hot cues and much more, and teach you how to do it yourself. There are 250 videos, all part of All Access.
Phil Morse
