Playback & Editing

Pads

BlackBox Cue gives you 300 pads organized across 25 pages of 12 pads each.

Each pad can hold one audio file and has its own playback settings.

Playing a Pad

Simply click a pad to play it. The pad lights up green while playing.

Navigating Pages

• Use the Page Up and Page Down buttons to switch between pages
• The current page number is shown at the top of the screen

Edit Mode

To configure a pad, switch to Edit Mode by clicking the Edit button. The Edit button blinks while edit mode is active as a visual reminder.

In Edit Mode, clicking a pad selects it for editing (it lights up yellow). You can then:

• Assign an audio file using the Browse button
• Set a caption (the name shown on the pad, up to 14 characters)
• Choose an end behavior (what happens when the track finishes)
• Choose a start behavior (where playback begins)
• Listen to a preview of the first seconds of the track
• Configure the equalizer for the pad (enable/disable, adjust bands)
• Apply an audio effect (reverb, delay, flanger, lo-fi, robot, distortion, vocal remover)
• Adjust the playback speed (50% to 120%, without changing the pitch)
• Switch to Blank mode to use the pad as a timed silence instead of an audio file
• Save

End Behavior

• One-Shot: the track plays once and stops
• Loop: the track repeats indefinitely (ideal for ambient sounds or music loops)
• Continue: when the track ends, the next pad plays automatically (ideal for sequential cue lists). In crossfade mode, when the last assigned pad finishes, playback loops back to the first assigned pad. In one-shot mode on the last assigned pad, playback ends with a smooth fade-out

Start Behavior

• Start from zero: playback begins at the very start of the file
• Auto-Trim: playback skips any silence at the beginning and at the end of the file (detected automatically). Note: Auto-Trim only works if the silence does not exceed 10 seconds. Beyond 10 seconds, the silence is considered intentional and part of the track, so it will be played normally
• Custom start and end points: set a custom start point and end point within the track to play only a specific portion of the file: for example, just the chorus or a particular passage. Use the +/- buttons to adjust each point. A minimum gap of 1 second is enforced between start and end

Blank Pads (Silence Mode)

Instead of playing an audio file, a pad can be set to Blank mode to play silence for a configurable duration (1 to 200 seconds). This is useful for timed pauses between tracks in a Continue sequence, or for pads that only send control cues (MIDI, OSC, AUDIO) without any sound.

To create a Blank pad, double-click the FILE label in Edit Mode to toggle between FILE and BLANK mode. Use the -/+ buttons to set the silence duration. Hold the button for faster adjustments (increments of 10 seconds). Add control cues in the CTRL tab if needed, then click Save.

Blank pad behavior:

• Always plays in Continue mode with no loop, no Auto-Trim, and no offset
• Equalizer, audio effects, Pre-Wait, Post-Wait, and Speed are disabled
• The display shows "BLANK n SECONDS" during playback
• Crossfade is bypassed: the pad always plays to the end before the next pad starts
• Control cues work normally during the silence
• The Clear button resets the pad back to normal mode

To switch back to FILE mode, double-click the BLANK label. If a file was previously assigned, the pad data (BPM, Auto-Trim, fade points) is recalculated. If the file no longer exists, the pad is reset (except for the caption).

Pre-Wait and Post-Wait

Each pad can have a pre-wait (silence before playback) and a post-wait (silence after playback), adjustable from 0 to 600 seconds.

• Pre-Wait: when you trigger a pad, the software waits for the specified duration before starting the audio. The display shows a countdown during the wait. Useful for inserting a timed pause before a sound effect, or giving performers time to get into position.
• Post-Wait: after the track finishes playing, the software waits before moving to the next action (continue to next pad, or stop). The display shows a countdown during the wait. Useful for inserting a silence between two consecutive cues.

Use the +/- buttons to adjust each value. Hold the button for faster adjustments.

Waveform Display

In Edit Mode, a waveform of the audio file is displayed. Click the waveform to toggle between viewing the beginning and the end of the track.

The waveform uses color-coded markers to indicate key positions:

• A yellow line indicates the Auto-Trim start point
• An orange line indicates the Auto-Trim end point
• A cyan line shows your custom start offset
• A red dotted line shows the detected fade-out position (used by AUTO crossfade)

The editor also displays analysis information for the current track: detected BPM (tempo), fade-out position, or energy drop point. This data is used by the AUTO crossfade to find the best transition moment.

Playback Controls

Stop

Click the Stop button to stop all playback, including any SFX currently playing.

• If a fade-out is configured, the first press starts the fade-out
• Press again during the fade to stop immediately

When you stop a one-shot track (outside crossfade mode), the next pad blinks purple to indicate the next cue to play: just like when the track finishes on its own.

Pause / Resume

Click the Pause button to pause playback. Click it again to resume. The time display blinks while paused.

Seek

Click on the progress bar to jump to any position in the track.

Fade Controls

Fade-In

Set the duration of a smooth volume ramp-up when a track starts playing. Adjustable from 0 to 10 seconds.

• Click + or - to adjust by 0.2 seconds
• Hold Shift and click to adjust by 1 second
• Hold the button to auto-repeat

Fade-Out

Set the duration of a smooth volume ramp-down when you press Stop. Adjustable from 0 to 10 seconds. Same controls as Fade-In.

Crossfade

Enable the Crossfade checkbox to smoothly transition between tracks. When you play a new pad while another is playing, the old track fades out while the new one fades in simultaneously. The crossfade duration is adjustable from 1 to 10 seconds.

AUTO Crossfade

In Continue mode, you can set the crossfade duration to AUTO. BlackBox Cue then analyzes each track during import and automatically determines the best moment and duration for the crossfade.

This means you don't have to set a fixed crossfade duration: the software handles it for you, producing natural-sounding, musically coherent transitions between tracks of different styles and tempos.

SFX Pads

In addition to the 300 main pads, BlackBox Cue provides 2 dedicated SFX pads (SFX 1 and SFX 2) for sound effects.

SFX pads play independently from the main playback: you can trigger one or both SFX while a main pad is playing, without interrupting it. Both SFX pads can also play simultaneously.

SFX pads are always one-shot (no loop, no continue). They have their own volume slider (0--130%), independent from the main fader. This allows you to set a fixed level for your sound effects regardless of the main output volume. Values above 100% allow you to boost quieter sound effects.

To configure an SFX pad, switch to Edit Mode and click the SFX 1 or SFX 2 button. You can assign an audio file, choose a start behavior, and adjust the volume level.