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How to · Serato DJ

Set cue points in Serato.

Cue points let you jump to the exact moment a track does something. Here is the short version of how to set hot cues in Serato DJ Pro and Lite: play to the spot, hit an empty cue slot or pad, and the cue stays with the track. Marking the structural ones does not have to take a full listen per track.

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Vibes waveform analysis with intro, drop, and breakdown markers on a track

Mark the intro, the drop, and the outro on every track.

Setting cue points in Serato.

Here is how to set cue points in Serato DJ Pro and Serato DJ Lite. Pro gives you eight cue slots per track (Lite shows four), set manually while listening, with quantize (Pro only) to keep them on the beat grid. Cues save with the track and come back on every load.

01

Turn on quantize

Enable quantize so cues snap to the beat grid, which keeps your cue points musically aligned even if your timing is slightly off.

02

Set a hot cue

Play to the spot you want and click an empty cue slot, press a hardware hot-cue pad, or use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+5 for the left deck, Ctrl+6 to Ctrl+0 for the right deck) to drop the cue. The same numbers without Ctrl jump to a cue you have already set.

03

Color and label

Right-click the cue trigger button to recolor it. To rename a cue, double-click the cue point time display and type a name. For example, set the intro green and the drop red so the layout reads instantly.

04

Save to the track

Cues are written into the audio file in Serato's proprietary tag format, so they are there next time you load the track in Serato on any system with your files. Note that other DJ platforms cannot read these tags natively.

The catch

Serato has no native auto-cue detection, so every structural point is placed by hand, one track at a time. That is exactly the gap third-party cue tools are built to fill.

bass
mids
highs
lead
intro
verse
buildup
drop
breakdown
outro

The faster way

See the structure while you prep.

Vibes analyzes each track and marks the intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro on a multi-band waveform. One honest limit: Serato's crate format cannot carry cue points, so Vibes does not write cues into Serato. What it gives you is the map, so placing each Serato cue by hand takes seconds instead of a full listen-through.

See how it works
Automatic section detection: intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro
See the structure on a multi-band waveform while you prep
Place Serato cues in seconds with the map in front of you
Full cue point export goes to Rekordbox, Traktor, and Engine DJ

Organize in Vibes, export to Serato DJ.

Your playlists, tags, ratings, and cue points travel back to the gear you play on, so nothing you do in Vibes is locked away.

Track 001 by Artist A

Track 001

Artist A

128
3A
Track 002 by Artist B

Track 002

Artist B

124
5B
Track 003 by Artist C

Track 003

Artist C

132
8A
Vibes App
Playlists
Vibes
Mood
Aggressive
Euphoric
Melancholic
Mysterious
Peaceful
Playful
Tense
Function
Arrangement
Sets
Club Night 12/28
NYE Closing Set
Rooftop 01/04

Frequently asked questions

The honest answers, including the trade-offs.

No. Serato cue points are set manually. There is no native intro/drop/breakdown detection, which is why third-party tools and scripts exist to add it. Analysis gives you BPM and a beatgrid, but where the music actually turns is still a judgment call you make by ear, track by track.
You do not need to. Serato saves a hot cue with the track itself, writing it into the audio file's metadata, so there is no separate save step. Each cue keeps its slot, its color, and any name you gave it, and it is waiting there the next time you load the track, even if the file has been moved or renamed.
Not directly, and we would rather say that plainly: Serato's crate format cannot carry cue points, so Vibes exports crates and playlists to Serato but not cues. Vibes does auto-detect each track's structure and shows it on the waveform, so you place Serato's cues by hand with the sections already mapped. Into Rekordbox, Traktor, and Engine DJ, Vibes exports the cue points themselves.
You can. Vibes handles the structural prep automatically, and you are free to add or adjust custom performance cues in Serato on top. With eight slots in Pro, a common split is to keep the first few for structure (intro, drop, outro) and leave the rest for the stabs, vocal snippets, and loop-in points you actually perform with.
Eight in Serato DJ Pro, four in Serato DJ Lite. They are saved with the track and recalled every time you load it, and they follow your files to another computer running Serato. Coming from software with more slots, the extras beyond eight will not fit, so prioritize the structural points that earn a pad.
Yes. Practice Mode runs two decks with mouse and keyboard, no hardware attached, which is enough to rehearse cue juggling and check that your points sit where the music actually turns. EQ and effects need hardware or the Serato Play expansion, but cue work practices fine without them.

From a Vibes customer

The import worked perfectly. Have created several sets now and my life is so much easier
Danny

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Methodology

How we keep this honest.

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Every step is checked against the current version of Serato DJ.

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We make Vibes. We show the native way first and honestly, then where Vibes genuinely helps, and we say when it does not.

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Kept current

Last reviewed September 2026.

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