CueSync for Lightkey Users: Show Control on a Mac

What this page is

You searched for lighting software on a Mac. This page describes CueSync only: what it does, what it needs, and when it is the wrong tool. It makes no claims about any other product.

On a Mac, and only a Mac with Apple Silicon

CueSync is a native Apple Silicon (arm64) application for macOS 12 or later. It does not run on an Intel Mac, and there is no Windows build. Check the machine before anything else on this page.

What CueSync does

CueSync decides when. It reads the beat and structure of the music, or a show's timecode, and fires cues on the console, media server and show-control software that hold the looks.

• Your own files. Local Audio plays them, and CueSync works out the beat grid, phrases, energy, key and loudness on your Mac, with nothing uploaded.
• Pioneer decks. CueSync joins PRO DJ LINK as another player and reads the position, BPM, phase and tempo master your CDJs share. Of the Pioneer units, only the CDJ-3000 has been through a hardware session.
• Cues that wait for the music. A cue can wait for a phrase change, an energy band, a fill or a hot cue press, and fire when the track gets there.
• Cue Pads. The moments that are not on a timeline get a pad, fired from the screen, the keyboard or a MIDI controller.
• Looks. A Look is a named stage state, such as a console cue, a media clip or a QLab cue, built once in the Palette and fired from any number of cues and pads.
• Timecode out. Every edition sends timecode as LTC, MTC, Art-Net Timecode and TCNet, at ten frame rates.

One cue can hold a console command, a media-server command, a MIDI message and an audio clip.

CueSync ships 15 output protocols — grandMA2 (Telnet), grandMA3 (TCP and UDP OSC), Avolites Titan, ETC Eos, ChamSys MagicQ, Resolume, disguise, VIOSO, Pixera, TouchDesigner, Unreal Engine 5, QLab (TCP and UDP), MIDI Show Control, Pangolin Beyond and Custom OSC — of which grandMA3, QLab, Resolume and Unreal Engine 5 (in-engine, on our own project) have been run against the real program or console, and the rest are built to each maker's published interface and have not yet been run against that equipment.

DMX, honestly

CueSync's own DMX output is Art-Net and sACN, sent to a network node when a cue fires. There is no USB DMX output. If the rig is fixtures and nothing else, point the output at your node; the route CueSync is built for is a programmed console that it triggers.

What it needs

• A Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 12 or later.
• Something programmed to trigger: a console, a media server or show-control software.
• The DJ or Production edition for the decks, Local Audio and music-driven cues; every edition connects to every output.
• An account. Without a subscription you can run the demo show and tour the app in read-only mode. Building and saving your own shows, and connecting real outputs, need a subscription.

When CueSync is not the right fit

• Your Mac has an Intel processor. CueSync needs Apple Silicon, and it does not run on an Intel Mac.
• You want software to light fixtures directly, with no console in the rig. CueSync is built first to trigger a programmed console; its own DMX output is Art-Net and sACN, so fixtures connect through a network node.
• Your fixtures hang off a USB DMX interface. CueSync has no USB DMX output.

The short version of this page has the same facts, and the mobile DJ setup guide walks a small rig from the start.