How to · Serato DJ

Set cue points in Serato.

Cue points let you jump to the exact moment a track does something. Here is how to set them in Serato, and how to get structural cues without placing every one by hand.

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

Setting cue points in Serato.

Serato gives you hot cues you set manually while listening, with quantize to keep them on the beat grid.

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.

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+1-4 for the left deck, Ctrl+6-9 for the right deck) to drop the cue.

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.

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

Auto-detect the structure.

Vibes analyzes each track and marks the intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro automatically, then exports those cue points into Serato so the structure is ready before you play.

See how it works

Automatic cue points for intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro

See the structure on a multi-band waveform

Fills the gap that paid auto-cue tools charge for

Export the cue points back into Serato

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

Artist A

128

Afterhours

Mysterious

Introspective

Track 002

Artist B

124

Cozy Floor

Peaceful

Home

Track 003

Artist C

132

Rave

Aggressive

Festival

Build & Release

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.

Yes. Vibes auto-detects structural points, the intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, and outro, and exports them into Serato as cue points, so the prep is done before you load a track.

You can. Vibes handles the structural prep automatically, and you are free to add or adjust custom performance cues in Serato on top.

Methodology