Set Your Cue Points The RIGHT WAY - DJ Tips

Set Your Cue Points The RIGHT WAY - DJ Tips
In this video, I break down how I utilize cue points while I'm mixing. I go over everything from the basics to advanced beat counting and tricks to help make your mixes cleaner and more effective.

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0:00 Intro
0:43 Beat Counting Basics
1:19 Basic Phrasing
1:57 Example 1
4:15 Example 2
5:47 Example 3
7:00 Cold Endings
9:42 Example 4
11:12 Example 5
12:00 Saved Loops
13:13 Example 6
15:34 Advanced Cues
27:05 Applying Cues to Your Workflow

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[NickSpinelli]

Anyone color code their cues? I've been thinking about it lol #OCD

[staviiboyyy]

That fact that this guy put this video for free is crazy this has more step by step tutorial than any video I’ve seen on hip hop for DJ’s . Bro killing it keep dropping these type of videos.

[DJFLōST-jv]

It’s crazy how many DJ’s I’ve seen that don’t know how to count music…yet, they think their mixes are great.

I am a musician first before DJing, so counting music is just the basics. However, I’ll always be a student to the game. Thanks for all the gems that you drop!

[MISTERx_oPOOKIE]

I got 40 seconds in and I must comment, you are the guy that gave me the green light to quick mix. Fast forward a few years I'm now having people assuming that my mixes are premade and insinuating I'm fake mixing 😂 It's all about the CUE POINT SYSTEM!! You absolutely nailed it.

[cgentertainment]

Bro, this guide is so good. This is like when the math teacher actually shows you examples of every type of equation before giving you the homework. Easy work.

[selloutmc]

Thanks for the love bro!

An honour to get a mention from a legend like yourself 🙏🏼

[jacobclark]

Hearing Nick always talk about "No Hands" as his bathroom song and then hearing him play it live as he ran to the bathroom was hilarious. Nice breakdown of how you set cue points!

[NickChiodo]

Loving the new YT content Nick! 

Also, for newer DJs (or idiots like myself) -- it helps to add 1 or 2 cue points at the end of the track. If there is an outro do a beat jump 8 bars before the first beat of the outro and that is your last "mix-out" point.

[jackmono]

I always find it funny how different djs use cute points. I like your system. I do think that depending on what type of dj you are, you might do it differently.

I actually have a strategy for house, it works for tech house, deep house and bass house with mostly no difference in those types of genres. The genres are different but my cut points are similar for each.

But I also play Drum & Bass where my strategy is modified to account for doing double drops or drop swaps.

One thing I do in common with all of them is mark intro, bass change, which is similar to your “starts” it’s the place in a EDM track where if you do not already have the bass up, you will need to swap or turn the bass up. This is the first drop coming out of the transition.

I also have chorus and drops marked and use beat jump to get behind those to ensure two drops happen at the same time.

Finally in house I have wind downs and outros. Those mean something to me in each genre.

I think a good dj can get tons of ideas from how others do it. But ultimately, will come up with their own strategy.

Check my sets out…

[sotosoul]

Another suggestion for cue point labeling is to use negative numbers. I'm a fan of beats, so my cue points would be labeled -32, -16, 0, where 0 is a "point of interest" (start of the song or otherwise). I couple this with stored loops, e.g., 32-beat (8-bar) loop between cue point -32 and cue point 0.
I set matching cue points, i.e., cue points I can jump to from another cue point without messing with the energy of the music, using the same colour.

[davidjoelstephens]

Nick! I'm sitting here and the two count came in for Candi Staton, and I totally heard THE GEATOR saying over my left shoulder "My MAN! SpinoPhonic Nick! GIVE "ER THE WOOD!" - He is very missed - and you killed it at Memories. Thank you for your talent, and for sharing with our community your expertise. Just goes to show, you GET what you GIVE! That is all.

[DJHEV]

I have a coloring system for my cues. I typically just keep some sort of mental metronome when counting bars so cue points just act as a visual marker.

Where
GREEN = either beginning of track/verse or also end of verse
RED = Chorus/Known Point of interest/Hot spot of song
BLUE = A change is occurring/anticipating change (mashup or transition song)
PINK = Avoid/Abandon part of song. I usually would mix out if I’ve reached to this

[jmoak]

I’ve been preaching this to guys in my crew! Cue points are the most important part of my workflow. Probably even more than crates. My cue points are setup by beats themselves instead of bars because when I adopted this strategy back in the day I had no idea about beats/bar etc. lol

[rawdiggs]

Thank you so much! I am a beginner, and was just saying to myself that i needed to set up que points. I think i will like your system. I also appreciate the pointer of not letting the beginning of verses sneak in. I've been that dude in the crowd you talked about.

[StevieRayEntertainme]

great video Nick. I typically do. My First cue is typically Where I start my mix, 2nd is the beginning of the track that nothing should be mixed over, 3rd, 4th, 5th are chorus starts so I can shorten any song by skipping any point. 8th cue is my mix out point (where I want to start mixing my next track) sometimes this is the bridge, sometimes the start of the last chorus, etc. Cue 6/7 I use for special jump points...aka where a bride wants the song playing as she comes in during intros. or an instrumental portion i can loop to make my own intro/outro, or just to talk over.

[DJPADRE]

You have one of the best “explaining dj stuff “ ever. I subscribe to shit ton of videos and have to say 100% you are the best. Most are either duchey in their deliver or act like they are doing the video for Yale or Harvard. You understand the audience. Please keep it up. I subscribed and will check out your other videos.

Thank you YouTube. This video helps with my BS traffic ride home .

[Aespinosadj]

Great tips, Nick! Setting cue points properly has been a game changer for my mixes. Thanks for breaking it down so clearly definitely going to apply this to my next set!

[jojorilu]

Great vid, I'm a DJ of 15 years and actually use all of those methods. No one taught me that, i kind of figure it out through out the years, so it's nice to see established DJs confirming those Hot Cue methods. The only thing is why didn't u have the grids before hand? it would have made it easier for new DJs to follow along the waveform and the bars. Another thing is to explain why the 8 and the 4 are important. I'll explain, it's because those are the most common bar counts in traditional intros/outros/bridges and so forth. Meaning that that you can use either an 8 or 4 depending of the need. House music have 16 and 32 bar counts as standard.

I would like to know how you do it when you have an intro and the vocals doesn't start at the one, or having vocals beginning off count. Also when you don't have a traditional 4 or 8 count intro, but have a 3 or 6. I usually cut them down to 2 and 4 so its logical in my brain.

[xaviermiranda]

To avoid bleeds, I actually MIDI-mapped a "Vocal Echo Out" button so that right before I do the transition I hit it and I avoid those bleeds. I used the dedicated "Instrumental" button om my T7 so that the vocal out sounds cleaner than just muting it

[krayzee]

Best Cue Point Video Ever! Great explanation. Thanks!