CueWave is a native macOS app for cue-based show control. Audio, video, fades, OSC, MIDI — built for operators who need the next cue to land on time, every time.
Requires macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon and Intel · Free during early access
CueWave isn't trying to be a DAW. It does one thing — playback cues for live shows — and it does it the way you'd expect after years on a console.
Trigger any audio file or video clip with sample-accurate timing. Multi-output routing for stage, lobby, and recording sends. Stackable video effects — blur, color, sepia, pixellate, vignette, bloom. Hardware audio interfaces work out of the box.
Per-cue fade in / fade out / cross-fade with linear, s-curve, exponential, and logarithmic options. Set From Target snaps fades to whatever's playing right now. ⇧⌘P previews the fade before you commit.
Sequential, simultaneous, start-first-and-enter, and start-random groups. Pre-wait + post-wait on every cue, even children. Loops, follows, devamps, and panics — all standard.
Auto-connects to every MIDI source. OSC listens on UDP, broadcasts cue state back so Stream Deck and TouchOSC button lamps mirror the show. Hotkey conflicts get a warning before you go live.
Big GO button, big timecode, hotkey badges on upcoming cues, pause-all and fade-out-all where your thumb expects them. Active-cue meters tell you exactly what's playing.
Command Palette (⌘K) for everything. Drag-drop files onto Welcome to scaffold a show. Snapshots and full undo. Wall-clock triggers fire a cue at a set time of day. Memo, Network, Start, Stop, Text, Goto, Devamp — the cue types you actually use.
Rate and pitch from 0.25× to 4× with optional pitch preservation, ±12 semitones of shift. Duck-others fades the rest of the mix for voice-overs. Solo start clears the deck the moment a cue fires. Second-trigger action decides what a repeated hotkey does.
Network cues for a Behringer X32/M32 or X-Air, Reaper, Bitfocus Companion, ETC Eos, or QLab — pick the command from a menu instead of hand-typing OSC addresses.
Button-grid lists for SFX-style firing — no playhead, no sequencing, just click to fire. Drag files onto the grid to build one, right-click a pad to edit it.
Drag audio, video, or images onto the welcome screen. CueWave makes a cue per file, sized to the source, ready to fire.
Plug in a Stream Deck or a controller that speaks MIDI/OSC. Auto-connect handles the rest. Map a button to GO, map another to Panic.
Space fires whatever's at the playhead. Selection moves to the next standing-by cue automatically. Show Mode hides everything that isn't a transport control.
CueWave ships free on the App Store while we settle into real operators' workflows. Paid plans land in 2.0 — when they do, you'll have a clear choice between subscription and a lifetime unlock.
When paid plans arrive, they go live in-app via Apple's IAP — no credit cards on this site, ever.
No. CueWave borrows the cue-list mental model because the industry has converged on it, but the engines, file format, UI, and workflow are written from scratch. The aim is the same job at a fraction of the price.
Yes, natively. CueWave is a universal binary that runs on M-series and Intel Macs. Minimum macOS 14 (Sonoma).
Not yet — QLab uses a SQLite-based format we don't reverse-engineer. We're considering a proper import tool if there's enough demand. Tell us at info@artiflexx.nl what you need.
Via OSC over UDP (default port 53000) or MIDI. CueWave auto-connects to every available MIDI source and broadcasts cue-state back over OSC so button lamps stay in sync. Settings → OSC and Settings → MIDI for fine control.
Yes. CueWave does not collect or transmit any personal data. It has no accounts, no analytics, no telemetry, no crash-reporting service, and no cloud storage. Every show file stays on your Mac. Read the full Privacy policy linked in the footer.
Yes — CueWave is free on the App Store while we're pre-2.0. No trial limits, no nag screens, no in-app purchases today. Paid plans land in 2.0 as €14.99/month or a €99 lifetime unlock. Existing early-access users get a long grandfather window so the switch never catches anyone off guard.
Everyone already using CueWave keeps it working as it does today. The upgrade prompt only appears for features that are added in 2.0+, with plenty of notice. Billing then goes through Apple's IAP — secure, instantly cancellable, with Apple's refund process if anything's off.
We run it on our own shows and have not lost a cue in months. CueWave is on the App Store as a verified Apple binary — install it and use it on any production, no TestFlight invite needed.
No plans. CueWave is built directly on CoreAudio, AVFoundation, Metal, and CoreMIDI — Apple frameworks. Rewriting for other platforms would be a different product. Mac-only by design.
Free on the App Store while we're pre-2.0. Bring it to a real show this weekend — and send us anything that surprises you.
See what's new in the latest version
Bug reports and feature requests: info@artiflexx.nl
