Pre-Cueing: How to Use DJ Headphones? | ‘From 0 to DJ’ #9 ✅

In this chapter we are going to see how to use headphones to help us mix. To understand it we will see what is the concept of pre-cueing or pre-listening. 🙂

DJ using pre-cueing for mixing

Table of Contents

1. What is Pre-Cueing?

Pre-cueing consists of listening to one or several channels without the signal coming out of the master or general sound, as preview as a preview to help you in the mix. For this you will need headphones.

To be able to do this you will need a mixer or a controller that allows you to do it (most of them already allow it).

1.1 How to activate Pre-Cueing?

In almost all software and mixers there are buttons* to activate and deactivate the pre-cueing of each channel.

You can select the channels you want and the sound will be emitted through the headphones.

*These buttons on Pioneer mixers are called CUE (not to be confused with other CUE functions), it is easy to identify them because they are just above or below the volume control of each channel. While in software such as Traktor or Virtual DJ they appear with the icon of headphones as we will see later.

Pioneer DDJ SB2 Pre-Cueing Controls

In addition to on and off, you can adjust the volume of that pre-listen output. Even in some programs and mixers, you can mix the sound of the channels activated in the pre-cueing with the general sound (Master) in the pre-cueing itself. A combination also adjustable, similar to the functioning of the crossfader.

2. How to use Pre-cueing and Headphones for mixing?

The pre-cueing function is very simple and intuitive. Listening from the headphones we will carry out the phrase match and beat match process.

This will allow us to prepare everything in the background, without the overall sound emitting all that process of corrections in which we will be trying to match the beats.

Let’s see it in an example:

1. We have a track A playing. We are going to mix with a track B.

2. We lower the volume control* of track B and press the pre-cueing button of that channel.

*The headphone volume is NOT controlled from the volume control bar of each channel. The headphones, as mentioned above, have their own volume control.

Pre-listen Volume Controls. Top: Traktor; Bottom: Virtual DJ

3. At that moment, if we play track B, it will be heard only through our headphones. We will listen with one ear to the general sound (in this case only track A) and with the other ear with the headphone to track B.

4. This will allow us to drop it, to make the mix and the corrections comfortably without being heard through the speakers.

5. Once we have the beat match, we attenuate the frequencies (EQ) and raise the volume control of track B.

6. And we start the transition as explained in the previous chapter on how to EQ during the mix.

3. Tips for using the Headphones ⚠

This section is mainly oriented to when you DJ in public or at high volumes.

Whenever possible only make use of 1 earphone (one ear) instead of 2.

For the following reasons:

3.1 Health for your Ears

By DJing at high volumes you are sending a lot of sound into your eardrums, and as much sound as you can avoid, in the long-term, your eardrums will thank you for it.

Ears communicate with each other, and simply having one ear free allows them to release some of the sound through it as an escape route.

It is quite common for DJs to have long-term ear problems, especially professionals. If you are going to dedicate yourself to this the best thing would be to buy some specialized earplugs like those of the image that subtract from 17 to 26 decibels, according to the filters that you apply. It is common to see some famous DJs wearing them during their performances.

Earplugs to protect the ears, highly recommended for a DJ in places with high volumes

3.2 Capturing What’s Playing in the Room

If you wear both headphones, you will hear what is coming out of the mixer into your headphones, but you will not hear what is coming out of the mixer into the venue speakers.

Technical glitches and so on can happen and you don’t realize it, because many professional DJ headphones isolate the sound from exterior.

Now it’s your turn 👇

In this chapter we have seen how to make use of pre-cueing, what function it has, an example of use and some healthy recommendations.

As always we recommend that you practice a lot, if you have the right equipment for it and master it, you will greatly increase your DJ experience.

There is one thing we haven’t mentioned, and that is that the concept of pre-listening is related to DJing without using SYNC button.
Even if you want to make use of SYNC, we recommend at least learning how to play without it. In a mix with SYNC, using the pre-cueing is not so necessary, since you don’t need to make any corrections. You can simply go straight to the EQ part of the mix process. But you probably lose some of the fun, live tension and DJ skill development.

In the next chapter we’ll talk about HOT CUEs, what they are and how they can help you.

How did it go, did you know how to make use of headphone cueing, what do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Best regards and see you in the next one! 🙂

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