What are HOT CUEs? Where to Set & How to use them? ‘From 0 to DJ’ #10 ✅

In this chapter we are going to learn about HOT CUEs, what they are, how they are used and what we can do with them.
At the beginning it is quite normal not to know very well how or what to use them for. Let’s see what they are and their different uses. 🙂

Hot Cue module in a Pioneer controller

But first tell you that if you are new to the world of DJing, you can review our entire series of chapters – articles, ‘from 0 to DJ’. A series with which to learn all the basics to start DJing and familiarize yourself with the buttons and functions of DJ equipment in order to gradually advance on the road to get to play like a professional DJ.
Let’s get to it.

Table of Contents

1. What are HOT CUEs?

HOT CUEs can be defined in two ways based on their 2 main uses:

Direct Accesses that we can make to any point of the track.
Visual Marks to signal something on the timeline.

Most programs, controllers and players allow us to put at least 3 Hot CUE for each track. And they are saved in the memory of the software itself. So whenever we load the audio track, the hot cue will appear.

The vertical lines you can see in the timelines are the HOT CUEs (Traktor)

1.1 How to create them?

Creating a HOT CUE is very simple, you only have to press one of the buttons assigned to it being in the instant of the track that you want to assign or mark.

HOT CUES module in Virtual DJ

2. How to use HOT CUEs during mixing?

The HOT CUE offers many possibilities of use. For example: linking different parts of a track, making mixes with “acapellas” and playing with the parts we like the most, even using them only as guides or visual marks.

Now we will see it in more depth

2.1 Where to Set HOT CUEs: Examples of a Direct Link or Direct Access

A simple and basic example:

Suppose we want to skip a part of a track we have playing and we want to go directly to another more advanced block. At the end of a phrase, which is congruent, we simply press the corresponding HOT CUE previously prepared in that more advanced block. For it to sound good, of course, it will be necessary to press at the right moment.

Another very common trick in EDM festival sessions is to change the Drops*:

*The Drops are the most energetic blocks of the track.

For example, track A is playing, we get to the Break, the track begins to create expectation preparing for the entry into the Drop and suddenly instead of entering the Drop of track A, the Drop of track B enters. Being all the public surprised.

To be able to do this we had a HOT CUE previously prepared just in the first kick drum of the Drop of the song B, and when pressing that HOT CUE, this one enters directly.

This example is a bit advanced because you have to take into consideration that the tracks must be in the same key or tonality (to sound good). Which also implies already, some planning of the sessions, sorting the songs by tonality, etc.

2.2 Where to Set HOT CUEs: Visual Markings

Another very useful purpose is visual marking. When creating the HOT CUE, a vertical line appears on the partial and total time lines. So you can create them as reference points. To know when a phrase ends or starts, a block of the song you are interested in, etc. It opens a world of possibilities that could help you to make more complex effects and tricks.

For example: to create a mark to signal at what point we want to mix with an acapella that we have prepared in another channel.

Total Timeline with 5 HOT CUE markers in Virtual DJ

3. CUE VS HOT CUEs: What is the difference?

The CUE button traslades the player on the timeline to the position of CUE Point, but does not play it. (It only plays it in case we keep the button pressed, and the moment we release it, it will go back to the position where we had set the CUE Point). It help us ‘drop the track’ and do the beat match by setting the rhythm of the beats as we saw in the chapter on how to use CUE button.

HOT CUEs move the player on the timeline and play it directly. So its use is not the same, this is not oriented to facilitate the beat match, but directly to play the specific point that we have previously marked.

– CUE moves the player to the position of its point, but does not play it more than the time we keep it pressed.
– HOT CUE moves the player to the position of its mark and plays it directly.

Now it’s your turn 👇

In this chapter we have seen how to use the HOT CUE module, what functions they have and some examples of use during mixes.

We recommend you to look for examples on Youtube and practice a lot, you will see how useful it is.

In the next chapter we will finally talk about what Loops are and how to use them during mixes, an essential chapter.

How did it go? What tricks or techniques can you think of using HOT CUES? Let us know in the comments so we can all feed off the collective creativity!
Best regards and see you in the next one! 🙂

‘From 0 to DJ’ LESSON #11 ►

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