Cue Point Improvements

Over the years, the song analysis engine, wave form colors, stability, resource usage, column browser, and preferences window have all seen improvement. Even the sample decks got revamped and turned into remix decks (thank you). But the cue point system seems to have been neglected, and as such is in desperate need of improvement. A few simple things to improve the system are listed below.

1.) Colorized Cue Points, user preference
- Personally, I used to use the Fade-In / Fade-Out markers to signify the beginning of a chorus (Fade-In) or the beginning of a verse (Fade-Out)... This worked well, until I updated to 2.6.3... Why? because now, the "Track End Warning" marker is apparently based off the first "Fade-Out" marker, instead of the literal end of the track. This is a goof on NI's behalf, but if I could colorize cue points to distinguish them, this wouldn't be a problem.
- Imagine colorizing your cue points - we have loops already, fade in/fade out, and start... What about juggling spots? cutting spots? good spots for effects? Hollow spots to throw in DJ Name Drops? Sure, we know our music... but cue points are a tricky thing to remember, and I spend critical seconds testing each cue point to see what it is when I load a track. If I had a colorized indicator, I wouldn't have to waste this time and could spend it USING the cue points instead
- We can colorize our remix slots, we should be able to colorize our cue points in the same fashion. Get on this, NI!!

2.) Did you know Traktor can hold up to 32 cue points? 8 of those are assignable hot cues, and the other 24 are visual indicators to help (not that they help a lot, since they're all BLUE - see point #1 above). If you DIDN'T know that, then you should. If you DID know that, then you realize the P.I.T.A it is to set those additional 24 cue points!! The current system requires you to set your first 8 hotcue points before it will allow you to lay down your other 24 cue points. And, they lay down sequentially from 9 to 32. Why is this? We should be able to put our beatmarker on a spot on the wave form, press a button or two, and BAM - Lay down a cue point in the slot we want. The remix decks allow us to pick a spot on a 4x4 grid on 4 different pages in any order. That's 64 slots for a remix set and we have full access over it. But with our cue points (universally used by DJs everywhere), we've got perhaps the worst system for laying these down. Not to mention after laying down cue points 9-32, we have to delete the first 8 and set them to what we want (if we wanted to label our cues first, and set our hot cues afterward)

3.) Can't have a list without a three... I'm not going to ask that our flags be named (each DJ should be able to come up with a system, and I don't want long names showing up on my waveform overview)... however, I would like to be able to select a hot cue or cue point without activating it. That way I can rename/delete/move/color it without interrupting the flow, if I happen to notice it during a performance.

4.) Cue point manipulation... Currently if you have a cue point set on points 1,2 and 3, and you want to move everything forward one cue point, here's the process:

press cue 3, press cue 4, press cue 3, delete cue 3, press cue 2, press cue 3, delete cue 2, press cue 1, press cue 2, delete cue 1

why can't we select cue 3, and click "move" and set it to cue 4, instead of playing musical chairs with our software to shift everything forward of backward?

press cue 3, move to cue 4, press cue 2, move to cue 3, press cue 1, move to cue 2

Copy/Paste shouldn't be that difficult. Where is it?

There's no reason for us Traktor Fans to suffer through such an antiquated and neglected cue point system. Some DJs rely on cue points more than others for performance purposes, but one thing that's certain is that ALL DJ's use cue points in some fashion, and while your system isn't broken, it's definitely being bested by other options.

 

+1
i'm all in to see usability improvements in traktor. you raise interesting concerns about cue points, let's see if someday they are addressed in the program.

cheers

 

+1, also what about a hotcue that activates let say deck c or a sample slot automatically, for example i have a track on deck a with a good drop well i like to add acapella to that drop. so when the drop hits, it triggers deck c and now my concentration is on deck b and or fx on deck a, and also i have suggested before pop up hot cue as a reminder of what track i should mix, or break.etc.

 

+1

 

I was doing a set last night and thought to myself "Why can't I press a button and drop the cue list down for this deck so I can read my cue point descriptions?" ... I mean, I can press a button and automatically shrink the decks to expand the track list in the browser... why can't I press a button to bring up the cue-list so I can figure out what's what?

 

X100

 

+1000000

 

Yes please. Reordering cue points would be fantastic, as would seeing their descriptions/changing their colors. Also, having new cue point types such as In-track skips and loop catches (saved cue loops that automatically activate when the track enters this area) would be great as well

 

Funny that everyone knows what they want and n.i. just ignores us .

 

pc dex is stepping up, will be better when they fix the full screen rubbish http://www.pcdj.com/dj-software/dex-3/

 

If you wish to set a Cue Point that isn't a Hotcue, put the cursor where you want the cue, and put a GRID MARKER there, then change the cue type with the drop down list. You do not need to fill up 8 Hotkeys to do this.