Deck controls
Hot cue vs memory cue
A hot cue jumps straight to its point when pressed. A memory cue is a saved marker you step through and load into the deck’s cue position. One performs; the other navigates.
In practice
Hot cues are the eight places you launch from. Memory cues are the map. Use both, for different jobs.
Set memory cues at every structural point that matters — intro, first drop, breakdown, the mix-out — so the waveform tells you the shape of a record you have not played in a year. Then promote the two or three you actually launch from to hot cues, and keep the pad layout consistent across your library so the same pad always means the same kind of point. That consistency is worth more than any individual cue, because it is what makes an unfamiliar record playable under pressure.
8
Hot cues on a typical player
Unlimited
Memory cues, effectively
Consistent
What the pad layout must be
Where these come from: Standard cue behaviour on club media players and library-preparation practice — not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see the performance half.
Why it matters
They are used for different halves of the job and using one for both is why people run out of cue points. Hot cues are your performance set — the eight places you actually launch from — and there are never enough of them. Memory cues are unlimited markers for structure you want to find, not places you want to jump to mid-mix.
The other real difference is what survives. Memory cues are visible on the waveform as markers, which makes them a map of the record; hot cues are pads you have to remember the meaning of. On a track you play rarely, the map is worth more than the pads.
Frequently asked
Should I use hot cues or memory cues?+
Both. Memory cues map the structure of the record; hot cues are the small number of points you actually launch from during a mix.
Do memory cues transfer to a USB stick?+
Yes, along with hot cues, provided you export through the software rather than copying the audio by hand.
How many hot cues should a track have?+
Two or three used consistently beats eight used arbitrarily. The value comes from the same pad meaning the same thing on every record.
Related terms
Hot cue
A hot cue is a saved position in a track that plays from that point the instant you press its pad. Most players store eight per track, and they are stored with the file rather than with the session.
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.
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.
Quick mixing
Quick mixing plays a short section of each record, often thirty to ninety seconds, before moving to the next. It is a style of set rather than a transition, and it depends on knowing which section matters.
Explore: Cue point calculator · Hot cue · Memory cue · All DJ terms