A1R Cue

Automatic voice/cue triggers — A1R fires your Drum Rack cue samples in time, hands-free.

Coming soon in A1R ULTRA A1R Cue turns A1R into the brain of your cue system. It watches the setlist and bar count, then automatically sends MIDI notes to a Drum Rack of your own cue samples — announcing the next section and counting you in — so nobody has to place cue notes by hand.

How it works

A1R sends MIDI to a virtual port named "A1R MIDI". A track in Ableton (named "Cue") receives it, plays your Drum Rack cue samples, and routes the audio to whatever output feeds your in-ears. Everything runs on the server, so cues keep firing during a show even with no browser open.

Timing

• 2 bars before the current section ends → fires the next section cue.
• Last bar → count-in, one hit per beat, following the meter (4/4 → 1​·2·3·4, 3/4 → 1·2·3, 6/8 → 1‑6).
• Loop — while a section still has passes left, fires the LOOP cue; on the final pass it announces the real next section.
• Medley — moving into the next song fires MODULATION (next song); reaching the end with no next section fires STOP.
• Skip — skipped sections are passed over; A1R always announces the section that actually plays next.

Setup (once)

1. Virtual MIDI port "A1R MIDI". On Windows, install loopMIDI and create a port named exactly A1R MIDI (set it to autostart). On Mac, nothing to do — A1R creates the port itself at launch.
2. Drum Rack "A1R CUE". Build a Drum Rack with your own cue samples, one pad per cue, and name each pad after the cue it plays (see below). Save it to your User Library.
3. Track "Cue". Create a MIDI track named Cue. Set MIDI From → A1R MIDI, Monitor → In, drop in the A1R CUE Drum Rack, and route Audio To the output that feeds your in-ears (e.g. a dedicated interface output).
4. In A1R (logo popup → A1R CUE, Ultra only): confirm the port shows green, fill the mapping, hit Fire test, then turn the toggle on.

Pad names

Name your Drum Rack pads to match:

• Sections — e.g. INTRO, VERSE, PRE CHORUS, CHORUS, BRIDGE, INTERLUDE, MODULASI, OUTRO, ENDING.
• Transitions — MODULATION, STOP, LOOP.
• Count-in numbers — 1, 2, 3, 4 (add 5, 6 for odd meters).

Mapping

In the A1R Cue box, map each cue name to the MIDI note of its Drum Rack pad, one per line:

chorus = 60
verse  = 62
1 = 36
2 = 38
modulation = 48
stop = 50
loop = 52

Matching is tiered for numbered sections: Chorus 2 uses a CHORUS 2 pad if you made one, otherwise falls back to CHORUS. Case and extra spaces are ignored. If no pad matches, A1R stays silent for that cue.