Cue templates
Cue types are how QTracks groups your markers, and how it decides which grandMA3 sequence each marker ends up in. Define them once, reuse them as a preset across every song, and override per show when a track needs something special.
By Levyn Schneider, grandMA3 operator and creator of QTracks · Updated June 2026
A cue type is a named category for markers — “big hit”, “drop”, “verse change” — with a slot number, a colour, and an action. Tag a marker with a cue type and, on export, every marker of that type becomes a cue inside one grandMA3 sequence. Save a set of cue types as a cue preset (template) to apply the same structure to any song, then override it per show as needed.
Cue types
Each cue type has a name, a colour for scanning the timeline at a glance, and a slot number from 1 to 9. The slot is more than a label: press 1–9 while listening and QTracks drops a marker of that cue type at the playhead, so you can lay down a first pass without leaving the keyboard.
- Name & colour — how the cue type reads on the timeline and in lists.
- Slot (1–9) — the hotkey that drops a marker of this type, and the order cue types map into the sequence pool on export.
- Action — what kind of cue the type represents, carried through to the export.
From markers to sequences
Markers belong to the song, not to a stem — sliding a stem never moves a marker. On export, QTracks turns each cue type into its own grandMA3 sequence, and every marker tagged with that type becomes a timecode event plus a linked empty cue inside it. You program the actual looks in those cues afterwards, in grandMA3. See the grandMA3 export guide for how cue types map to sequence IDs.
Cue presets (templates)
Most operators reuse the same cue vocabulary across a whole set. Save your cue types as a cue preset and apply it to any song to start with the same structure every time. Each song keeps its own copy, so you can override a preset — add a one-off cue type, recolour, or renumber — without touching the others.
Try it on your next show.
QTracks is free for macOS, Windows, and Linux. No account, no licence key — download it and start programming.