Stage Traxx Count-In: The ST4 Setup and the ST3 Workaround
· 7 min read
Whether Stage Traxx can count you in depends on which version you run.
The new Stage Traxx 4 has a real count-in. It takes some per-song setup, and this guide walks through it. Stage Traxx 3 has none, and the developer's answer on the support forum has always been the same: add the count to the audio file itself.
There is also a third route that works in both versions and in every other player you will ever use: bake the count-in into the track. We will cover all three, and when each one makes sense.
The count-in in Stage Traxx 4
Stage Traxx 4 introduced a metronome with a virtual beat grid, and with it a count-in. Per the manual, the setup for each song looks like this:
- Set the BPM in Song Details. Type it in or tap it on the tap button. Without a tempo, ST4 has no beat grid to count on.
- Place the beat anchor. The grid starts at the beginning of the audio, which is only correct if your file starts exactly on beat one. If the track has a lead-in, silence, or an unmetered intro, drag the beat anchor handle on the waveform to the first real downbeat. The manual's tip: zoom in on the first strong transient and put the anchor right on it.
- Set the Count-In / Pre-Roll beats for the song, for example 4.
- Trigger "Play with Count-In". It plays the configured number of metronome clicks and starts the song on the following beat. The action is available as a remote action and an assignable control, so you can put it on a MIDI controller, a footswitch, or a keyboard.
This works, and it is well designed. The metronome click even gets its own channel in the mixer, so multitrack users can route it to a separate output bus and send it to in-ears only.
Two honest caveats. First, everything above is manual and per song: the tempo is a number you type or tap, and the anchor is a handle you drag, for every track in the setlist. Second, the count-in lives in the app. It exists only while that song plays inside Stage Traxx 4, on that device.
Stage Traxx 3: there is no count-in
If you are still on ST3, the feature is simply not there. ST3 has no beat grid. Its metronome runs on its own clock, separate from the audio, so it will not line up with your track, and the global time delay in playback settings only inserts silence before playback. Silence is not a count. Nobody can find beat one in a pause.
Users have asked for a count-in on the support forum for years, and the developer's answer has been consistent: Stage Traxx does not know where your beats are, so if you need a count-in, add it to the audio. The community workflow that grew out of that advice is a DAW round trip: open the track in Logic, Ableton, Cubase or Reaper, set the project tempo, add a bar or two of clicks before the first note, export, and import the result into ST3.
That works too. It also means owning a DAW and tempo-mapping every song in the setlist by hand.
The version-proof route: put the count in the file
CountIn does the DAW step in the browser, automatically:
- Upload your track. The tempo and the first downbeat are detected for you.
- Check the beat grid on the waveform. If the detection missed, drag the downbeat marker or tap the tempo. Your ear has the final word.
- Choose how many bars of count-in you want and export. You get an MP3 or WAV with the count-in baked into the audio.
Import that file into Stage Traxx like any other track. Because the count now lives inside the audio, it works identically in ST3, in ST4, in a rehearsal app, on your backup phone, and in the files you send your bandmates. Setlists, automatic transitions, and lyrics scrolling are untouched, because the app just plays a file and the file counts you in.
The preview is free, so you can upload a song from your setlist and hear the synced count-in before paying anything. Exporting is a single one-time payment, no subscription, and it covers every track you ever prepare.
Which one should you use?
Use the ST4 built-in count-in if you are on Stage Traxx 4, you only ever play from Stage Traxx 4, and you do not mind tapping a tempo and placing an anchor for each song. It is a good feature and it keeps everything in one app.
Bake the count-in into the file if any of these is true:
- You are on Stage Traxx 3.
- Your tracks also get played outside Stage Traxx: rehearsals, a backup device, another band member's player.
- You have a long setlist and would rather have tempo and downbeat detected than tapped and dragged, song after song.
- You want the count to be part of the track itself, so it can never be lost to a settings sync or a missing controller assignment.
The two approaches do not conflict. A baked-in count-in plays fine in ST4.
Count-in for in-ears only
If the count should reach the band but not the audience, both routes can do it.
In ST4 with multitrack, route the click channel to its own output bus and send that bus to the in-ear mix.
If you run a plain stereo rig, or ST3, use CountIn's Split export instead: a two-channel file with the count-in alone on the left channel and the song, summed to mono, on the right. Feed the left channel to the in-ears and the right channel to the PA. This article explains how the split format works and how to wire it, and when the simpler Mixed export is all you need.
What a count-in is and is not
Honesty corner. A count-in is not a full-song click. CountIn puts clicks before the downbeat, plus optional INTRO bars that keep clicking into the first bars of the song. After that, the click stops and the band plays to the track. If you want a metronome running through the entire song, ST4's own metronome does that, in Play mode, and it stays in sync as long as the track was recorded at a fixed tempo and the beat anchor is set. The difference between the two jobs is spelled out in click track vs count-in.
Frequently asked questions
Does Stage Traxx have a count-in feature?
Stage Traxx 4 does: set a BPM for the song, place the beat anchor, choose the count-in beats, and trigger the Play with Count-In action. Stage Traxx 3 does not, and the developer's recommendation for it is to add the count-in to the audio file.
Does the Stage Traxx metronome sync to backing tracks?
In ST4, yes, within limits: the metronome follows a virtual grid from the BPM you set and the beat anchor you place, which stays aligned when the track was recorded at a fixed tempo. In ST3, no. The metronome and the audio run independently, which is why ST3 cannot count you in.
Do I need a DAW for any of this?
No. On ST4 you can use the built-in count-in. On ST3, or for a count that travels with the file, CountIn does the job in the browser: upload, check the grid, export. No install, no tempo mapping.
Will a baked-in count-in break setlists or automatic transitions?
No. The count-in is part of the audio file, so Stage Traxx treats it like any other part of the song. If you use timed lyrics, shift them by the length of the count-in.
Can the audience hear the count-in?
Only if you want them to. With a Mixed export the count plays wherever the track plays, like a drummer's stick count. If the count should reach only the band, route ST4's click channel to a separate bus, or use CountIn's Split export and send the count-in channel to the in-ears only.