Trigger Reference
Every trigger type CueSync can fire a cue on — 18 in all. Set a cue's trigger in the Cue Editor; the picker groups them into Music-Reactive and Scripted / Manual. Theatre show cues additionally choose a trigger mode (Timecode / Manual GO / Follow / Auto) in the Show Editor.
Editions: DJ, Theatre, Production (CueSync Production includes everything). A cue authored with a trigger your edition doesn't include shows a gate indicator and reports why it can't fire — it is never skipped silently.
Music-Reactive
| Trigger | You configure | Fires when | Editions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beat | beat in bar (1–4), bar interval, offset (ms) | The chosen beat of every Nth bar lands. The offset fires early/late for fixture pre-roll. | All |
| Phrase | phrase index, beat within phrase | Playback reaches that beat of that phrase. | DJ, Production |
| Phrase Change | phrase type, beat offset, optional pre-roll warning | The track enters a phrase of that type (every DROP, every CHORUS…). | DJ, Production |
| BPM Range | min / max BPM | The deck tempo enters the range. Fires once per entry — it must leave and re-enter to fire again. | DJ, Production |
| Energy Level | min / max level, optional trend | The track's relative energy enters the band. | DJ, Production |
| Energy Transition | from-trend → to-trend | The energy trend flips (e.g. stable → rising). | DJ, Production |
| Loudness Transition | min / max LUFS | The live loudness enters an absolute LUFS band — consistent across tracks, unlike relative energy. | Production |
| Fill | fill position (start / end) | A drum-fill section starts or ends within the phrase. | DJ, Production |
| Key | target key, exact or harmonic (Camelot) match | The loaded track's key matches. | DJ, Production |
| Hot Cue Hit | hot cue (A–H), optional player | The DJ hits that hot cue on the CDJ. | DJ, Production |
Scripted / Manual
| Trigger | You configure | Fires when | Editions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual | — | You press GO (or the cue's pad). | All |
| Hotkey | a key (letters, digits, F1–F12) | That key is pressed in Run Mode and the cue is next in the stack. P, L, R and SPACE are Run Mode's own keys and never fire a cue. | Theatre, Production |
| Track Position | target beat, optional deck | The playing deck reaches (or seeks past) that absolute track beat. Placed and retimed in Track Prep. | DJ, Production |
| Timecode | HH:MM:SS:FF, frame rate, tolerance, offset, fire in reverse | Incoming SMPTE/MTC/LTC/TCNet/Art-Net timecode reaches the position — never before it. A cue set to fire in reverse fires on the frame that reaches it running backwards. The tolerance only matters when timecode steps past the cue: it is still caught up if timecode lands within a short window set by its tolerance. | Theatre, Production |
| OSC Input | address, optional Value to match | A matching OSC message arrives on the input port. A value that is a number matches by value (1 equals 1.0, as a desk may send either); anything else must match exactly, capital letters included. | Theatre, Production |
| MIDI | message type, channel, note/CC, value | A matching MIDI message arrives. | All |
| Scene Chain | source cue, bars after completion | N bars after the named source cue fires, counted from beat events — chained scene changes without timecode. Needs a beat source (a deck, local playback or the internal beat clock), and waits while a Theatre show is playing or a Freeze or Blackout is on. | Theatre, Production |
| DMX Input | universe, channel, level, wire | A DMX channel on a universe CueSync is receiving crosses up through the level — a house desk, a wall panel or an architectural controller firing a CueSync cue. Fires on the crossing, so a fader held up fires once, and a channel that has fired fires again only after it falls clear below the level. Needs DMX Input switched on and that universe arriving. | Theatre, Production |
Which cue gets evaluated?
- Almost every trigger is sequential — it is checked against the next cue in the stack only, MIDI included. A stalled cue blocks everything below it; fix or disable it.
- Hot Cue Hit is the look-ahead exception — hitting a hot cue can fire any matching cue anywhere in the stack.
- Timecode walks forward — when the clock jumps ahead, CueSync advances through consecutive due cues in stack order.
- Scene Chain is scheduled — it fires its specific cue by bar count after its source fires, regardless of stack position. It only advances on beats, so with no beats it never fires. While a Theatre show is playing, or a panic Freeze or Blackout is on, the chain waits; it is not dropped, and fires once the show stops or the hold is released. Loading a new track or resetting the show clears any chain still waiting.
- Track Position keeps DJ authority — like Timecode, it bypasses Auto Pilot's duplicate suppression, so a deliberately placed cue always wins.
- DMX Input fires on the edge, never on the level — the channel must cross up through the threshold. A console that powers on with the fader already up does not fire the cue: there is no previous frame to have crossed from, and inventing one would fire every DMX-triggered cue in the show at power-on. Take the fader down and put it back up. A fader that jitters around the level fires once, not on every swing, and a button or panel that goes back to 0 between presses fires on every press, including a panel that rests just under the level.
Related
- Cues — authoring triggers in the Cue Editor
- Action Reference — what a cue can do once it fires
- Show Editor — Theatre trigger modes and control cues
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