Library & files
Cue sheet
A cue sheet is a small text file listing what plays when inside one long audio recording — track titles, artists and start times. It is how a recorded mix is split into a tracklist without being cut into separate files.
In practice
Write the cue sheet from the recording, not from memory: the times are the part you will get wrong.
Most DJ software can export one from a recorded session, which is worth using even if you tidy the titles afterwards. Where it matters most is anything that goes online — mix platforms read cue sheets to display and credit tracks, and radio submissions usually require the timings. Keep the file next to the audio with the same filename; a cue sheet separated from its recording is a list of times that belong to nothing.
Title + time
What every line holds
From the app
Where to export it
Same filename
How to keep them together
Where these come from: File-format and workflow conventions, not catalog figures — the format predates DJ software and is a plain text listing. For what we can measure, see the set list it records.
Why it matters
It is the format that turns a two-hour recording into something a platform, a listener or a rights society can read. Upload the mix with a cue sheet and every track in it is named at the right minute; upload it without one and it is an unlabelled block of audio.
For a DJ the practical use is the record it leaves behind. A cue sheet written after a gig is the only reliable account of what you actually played, and it takes minutes if the recorder wrote timestamps and hours if it did not.
Frequently asked
What is a cue sheet used for?+
Listing what plays when inside one long recording, so a mix can be uploaded as a single file and still show a tracklist at the right timestamps.
How do you make a cue sheet for a DJ mix?+
Export it from the software that recorded the set, then correct the titles. Writing one from memory afterwards is possible and the timings will be wrong.
Do I need a cue sheet to upload a mix?+
Not to upload, but without one the recording is an unlabelled block of audio — nothing in it is named, credited or findable by track.
Related terms
Set list
A set list is the running order a DJ intends to play — the sequence rather than the collection. How long it needs to be is arithmetic: slot length divided by how long the records actually run.
M3U playlist
An M3U is a plain text file listing paths to audio files in order. Almost every application can read one, which makes it the lowest common denominator for moving a running order between programs.
USB prep
USB prep is exporting the tracks, grids, cue points and playlists you need onto a drive a club player can read. What is not exported does not exist once you are behind the decks.
Memory cue
A memory cue is a saved marker you navigate to rather than trigger. It appears on the waveform and the player jumps to it when you call it up, without playing until you tell it to.
Explore: Set list · Planning a radio mix · Set length calculator · All DJ terms