Decks & Hardware

Cue Mix Knob

A knob that blends the headphone signal between the cued channel and the master output.

The cue mix knob controls the headphone blend between the pre-fader cue signal and the live master output. Turning it fully to one side isolates the cued deck; turning it fully to the other plays only the master mix.

Why it matters

Lets the DJ audition an incoming track in isolation to beatmatch, then crosscheck it against the master before committing to the transition. Without it, cueing and monitoring require separate hardware or a split-cue mode.

In practice

Set the knob toward cue when beatmatching, then nudge it toward master to confirm the blend sounds clean in the room before opening the channel fader.

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Frequently asked questions

It blends what you hear in your headphones between the cue channel (the track you are about to play) and the master output (what is already playing to the crowd). Turning it fully to cue isolates the incoming track; turning it toward master lets you hear both at once, which helps you beatmatch by ear.

Most DJs mix somewhere in the middle, keeping roughly 70-80 percent cue and 30-20 percent master in their headphones. This lets you hear the incoming track clearly while keeping enough of the playing track to lock the beats together. With experience you may shift toward full cue and rely on feeling the room for the master.

No. The cue mix knob controls the blend between cue and master signals. The headphone volume knob controls the overall loudness of that blend. They are separate controls, though on basic mixers and controllers they may be close together on the panel.

Hey, it's Ben Modigell 👋

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I DJ and produce as so I so — downtempo, minimal, dub house, tech house, and techno (releases on Spotify and SoundCloud, links above). Everything I write here comes from my own gigs, studio sessions, and library cleanups: the rules I follow, the failure modes I've actually hit, and the workflow I use when nobody's watching. If a technique didn't earn its place in my own sets, it doesn't make it into a tutorial.

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