CueSync for MaestroDMX Users: Lighting That Follows the Music

What this page is

You searched for lighting that follows the music by itself. This page describes CueSync only: what it does for that job, what it needs, and when it is the wrong tool. It makes no claims about any other product.

Software on a Mac

CueSync is an application for Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 12 or later, and it needs that Mac running for the whole show. It does not run on an Intel Mac, and there is no Windows build.

It fires the systems that own your fixtures: a console, a media server or show-control software, each in its own protocol. Its own DMX output, Art-Net and sACN, reaches fixtures through a network node.

Hands-off, with a plan you can read

Auto Pilot works out a fire plan when each track loads, from the track's phrases and energy. It shows every planned moment on the timeline before it happens, fires on the beat, and records why each moment fired, so you can read the set back afterwards. Take over with two quick GOs and it steps back; it resumes on the next track.

Before the doors open, queue your own files in Local Audio and press Rehearse set: it plays every queued track's beats against the rig that is connected right now, sends nothing, and lists what would fire, on which beat, and which moment no connected output takes.

Where the music comes from

• 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 the decks share. Of the Pioneer units, only the CDJ-3000 has been through a hardware session.
• DJ software. OS2L carries a beat from VirtualDJ, or from Serato or rekordbox through an OS2L bridge. It drives beat cues and pad quantise only.

When something drops

When an output stops answering, CueSync keeps trying to reconnect, and once repeated attempts fail it raises an alert and marks the pads that use it. Before doors, Pre-Show Check names each output your cues target that will not answer. A venue profile saves a room's outputs and roles, so the next night in the same room starts from what worked.

What it needs

• A Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 12 or later, running for the whole show.
• Something programmed to trigger: a console, a media server or show-control software.
• The DJ or Production edition for Auto Pilot, Local Audio and the decks.
• 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

• You want a box that runs the lights with no computer in the booth. CueSync is software and needs a Mac running it.
• 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.
• You need it on Windows or on an Intel Mac. There is no Windows build, and CueSync does not run on an Intel Mac.

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