CDJ question – cue points/beat counting

IF (and it’s a big IF) the CDJ’s you are playing on support RekordBox, you should most definitely run your tracks through RB. It will give you your cuepoints and several other big advantages, like having your playlistst there, track info, faster searching, faster loading (especially of the waveforms), no on the fly track analysis, etx.

Depending on the display of the CDJ, I think you get like a colored dot where the cuepoint is. Since it seems you are not using your cue point as such (i.e. a place to jump to in a track) but rather as a visual indicator where you should start the incoming track and start your transition, I am not sure how much use that particular cue point is gonna be.

So trying to do the counting (and really that should be second-nature) is definitely the best way to go, combined with knowing your tracks well. The good news is that the makers of modern dance music have made it easier for you. Most of it is made to a pretty basic template. With that knowledge in place it’s a lot simpler to figure the spot where you want to start mixing out the track.

Hope that helps & good luck.

Greetinx.

I have a slightly different look on that (and I have only written a cue point on a CD sleeve once – Ease On Down The Road … very long and boring intro :-).

I look at what a track does, if people enjoy it … I wait til the outro comes. If they seem a little bored or confused by the track, I will do a transition halfway. In other words if you are counting, you know when the next possible (8 bar) phrase starts and if you know your tracks well enough, you will know where breaks, drops and other significant moments are about to happen.

If you are just starting out, I guess it would help to write down a few good mix in mix out points. However, I doubt I would use time. First because you will have to keep a close look at the timer, you have to make sure you wrote down the time remaining or time played time and that it coincides with the time shown by the player (always time remaining for me) and secondly because you get lazy and stop counting. If you were to write down Track A: after first break, then you’d be forced to count while you listen to your track. You have to notice, hey this is the first break, so at the end of my 7-2-3-4, 8-2-3-4 I have to start the other track.

This way you will automatically practice counting and understanding track formats while playing. It’s good practice, imho.

Greetinx.