CUE counts the bars to the next section on a screen the whole stage can see.
If you play to a track, everyone on stage is guessing. CUE shows the bars until the next section, readable from the back of the room. Zero setup: it reads the locators already in your Arrangement.
Manual (PDF, two pages) — everything in detail.
The demo further down is the real device running in this page — no download, no clock, nothing to leave behind. Sales tax or VAT added at checkout for your country; fourteen days money back, handled by Paddle.
- Bands running playback from Live
- Theatre and musical productions
- Worship teams with a click track
- Anyone on in-ears who cannot see the laptop
For bands playing to tracks, theatre, worship teams and playback engineers. It does nothing for producers at a desk, and we would rather say that up front.
Thirty seconds of it, in real time
The countdown in the film runs at the speed it runs at 174 BPM. Nothing is sped up — on a device whose whole job is counting bars, a time-lapse would be the one lie that matters.
Ableton tells you where you are. It does not tell the room. So the band counts, somebody miscounts, and the guitarist comes in a bar early on the one night it matters.
Three rooms, one problem
Different music, different lighting, the same laptop nobody can see.
In-ears, a click, a laptop side-stage facing the tech. The drummer counts the intro on faith. CUE puts the number on the monitor above the kit.
A cue that has to land on a line, eight shows a week, with a different cast member watching from the wings. The count lives on the prompt monitor.
Volunteers who rehearsed once, a click in one ear, a stage where nobody can see the desk. The side screen already exists — now it says when the chorus comes.
This is the real thing, running here
Not a video. The same drawing as the device, the same arithmetic underneath — bars derived from beats. Press play, drag the playhead, move a section boundary and watch the count follow.
Drag anywhere in the tick band to move the playhead · Drag a tick to move that section boundary · Double-click a tick to jump there · Arrow keys move a bar at a time, hold shift for eight · Mirror is the stage tool from the window — FULL is the other one in Live
Stage tools, where the mouse finds them
Move the mouse into the window and two chips appear in the head: FULL takes the window to fullscreen on whichever screen it sits on — drag it to the stage screen first, press FULL, Escape brings it back. MIRROR flips the image for a mirror rig. Take the mouse out and both are gone. Below, the beat runs as a row of LEDs, the one in amber. The window now also shows the time to the next section and the bar you are in — for the people two metres away who can read a clock faster than they can count.
Below the name sits the setlist rail: the next sections with their length in bars, the coming one framed in green. All of it runs in the browser demo further up — same geometry, same behaviour.
Made to be read across a room
A separate window for the screen that faces the stage. The digits are drawn, not set in type — sharp at any size, and inside the warning threshold the whole display shifts to blue.
One button, then it is a window like any other
Press OPEN DISPLAY, drag the window to the screen that faces the band, pull the corner. It stays on top, remembers its place, and shows nothing but the count until you touch it.
It reads what is already in your set
| Counts | Bars until the next Arrangement locator — names, tempo and time signature straight from Live. |
|---|---|
| Setup | None. No dummy clips, no naming convention. |
| Audio | Passes through untouched, no latency. Put it on the Main track. |
| Requires | Ableton Live 10.1 or newer with Max for Live (10, 11 and 12). |
| Delivery | ZIP with the device, its scripts and a two-page manual. |
One device, nothing held back
| In the browser | Yours · $19 | |
| Count on the device, window at any size | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fullscreen, mirror, LED metronome | ✓ | ✓ |
| THEN line, setlist rail, clock, bar count | ✓ | ✓ |
| Runs in | This page, on any computer | Ableton Live 10.1 or newer |
| Reads your own Arrangement | — | ✓ |
| Updates | — | ✓ forever |
| How you get it | Nothing — it is already running | Link and serial in your receipt |
Asked before you ask
Does it change anything in my set?
No. CUE only reads — locators, tempo, time signature, playhead. The one thing it can do to your set is jump to a locator, and only when you double-click one on purpose.
Which Live version do I need?
Ableton Live 10.1 or newer with Max for Live — Suite, or Standard with the Max for Live add-on. The device is saved with Max 8, which Live 10, 11 and 12 all ship with, and it uses nothing newer than Max 6: the classic js object, jsui and the live.* controls. Tested here in Live 12; Live 10 and 11 should load it and we would like to hear from you if they do not. Live 9 is not supported.
What happens with a time-signature change mid-set?
Honest answer: untested. Live does not document whether its API follows time-signature markers. CUE reads the numerator and denominator every second, so it should follow — if your count drifts, write to us with the set and we fix it with you.
Can I run the window on two computers with one serial?
Yes. The serial is bound to your email, not to a machine. Enter it on every computer you use yourself.
Can I try it before buying?
Yes, and without installing anything: the demo on this page is the real device running in your browser, with three setlists and every control. There is no downloadable trial with a clock in it — at nineteen dollars that costs you more time than the device costs money. If you buy it and it is not for you, Paddle refunds you within fourteen days without asking why. If you want to see how this label builds things first, HALO is a complete reverb and costs nothing but an email address.
The type looks different from the pictures?
The digits are drawn and always look the same. The labels use IBM Plex Mono; if it is not on your computer, CUE uses Menlo or Consolas. The Plex fonts are in the download under fonts/ — install them, restart Live, done.
Refunds?
The demo needs none. For a purchase, the refund terms apply — write to [email protected] with your order number, no forms.
A serial, not a leash
The serial is a calculation over your email address, not a key on a server — so nothing has to be switched on for the device to run, and nothing can be switched off. The full rule, including why prices here never drop after launch, is on one page.
Pricing policyNineteen dollars, once
You have already tried it — the display further up is the device. If it does what your stage needs, this is the whole transaction: one payment, a link, a serial, every update from here on.
CUE is a stage tool and may not be what you need. HALO is — a complete reverb for Ableton, an email address, nothing held back. Same build, same measurements, same licence rules as the device on the right.
Get HALO free- Max for Live · Ableton Live 10, 11, 12
- Thirty-six presets, plus room for your own
- No expiry, no nag screen, nothing held back
- One click to leave the list again
Download link and serial in the same email, and under My licenses whenever you need them again.
Sales tax or VAT added at checkout for your country. Fourteen days money back, handled by Paddle.
- Ableton Live 10.1 or newer with Max for Live
- Bound to your email, valid on every computer you use
- Offline — no account, no launcher, no licence server
- The Max patch is open — take it apart
Want to say thanks on top? Entirely voluntary, and it changes nothing about the device you get.
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