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M-Audio Torq DJ Equipment User Manual

1. 24 A dio CDs occ oe SE oS kn a hele Be be UL Vs 54 Adjusting with Nudge BuUttONS o o o 24 Table of Contents Torq User Guide Chapter T0 gt ra onea e a os d aa 55 Chapter i o seu ica or dd a o ic 73 Mii a o ia ds 55 ROW Gig 2 o a a hed Re eR ea de 73 Mixer Architecture are serie Blea e Real eee Gece ele 55 Master Tompo i momed a fod leeds T cto A dod Boi Bikey Bae aoe Megha E 73 Ghannelst srar ai o Be seed he he eee ate WAR 55 Audio RONG ics 5 5 has Sahl os ely as ls a a 74 Gain Mute ooo 55 Chapter 15 ooo 75 BOUKINS 3 cee ate AAA Beha a ce te ds 56 Preferences s dn dare he deat amp ek Ded do eed cb he dk 75 PFL Headphone Cue 2 2 0 eee ee 56 Audio TAY aiea ag heh sie Bot a sew Sense ar Ala Rosie atl aes aa ep 75 Channel Volume Faders 2 2 0 2 eee ee eee 57 Audio Interface 0 e eee ee E 76 Line Input Buttons int es at pal ae ease aie Shs 57 Sample Ratos s k a eae ec E rt e area aih di Gul 6 76 Grossfadais s as abies Ave eo eh R e E E A a Dee T BA Be 57 Buffer Size ans o ao ri hh a ia eee Gera E 76 Chapter TI o irre ecra e eto a a e a e a Bat 59 MIDI Tab ooo LLL 77 PFL Headphone Cue o o 59 Auto Detect M Audio Devices On Off 78 Volume Control ono ci e a Ree AS 59 Scratch Sensitivity Cuts Bes amp aa a ALA td Gee as eae 78 Split Button and Source Knob 2 2 6 ee eee 59 Nudge Sensitivity ios orcos ee ee a a ee ee 78 Chapter Tos
2. Note that this setting differs from the Scratch Sensitivity parameter which changes Torq s sensitivity to scratches which push or pull your waveform much more quickly and forcefully than a nudge Unlike a scratch a nudge very gently slows down or speeds up a track and is used to fine tune the timing of two tracks Crossfader Curve Control This preference allows you to assign a MIDI controller to the Crossfader Curve parameter You can then control the Crossfader Curve with a knob or slider on your MIDI controller Press the button labeled Learn to activate it 2 Turn a knob on your MIDI controller 3 Torq will immediately assign the knob to the Crossfader Curve Check this by looking at the Crossfader graphic in the main window while turning the knob MIDI SHIFT Key When using Torq the SHIFT key on your computer s keyboard is used rather often This option lets you assign a MIDI Note to function as SHIFT in Torq thus allowing you to do SHIFT based combinations such as SHIFT Nudge entirely from an external MIDI controller To assign a MIDI note Press the button labeled Learn to activate it 2 Push a button or key on your MIDI controller DJ oriented MIDI controllers with turntable platters will vary in how they handle scratching and nudging Certain products will allow you to control only nudging while others such as the M Audio Xponent will allow you to control both n
3. Phase Grid Torq superimposes a Phase Grid over the Scrolling Waveforms to indicate the location of the beats in a song The thicker lines in the Phase Grid indicate the locations of the downbeats in the music Torq will attempt to position the Phase Grid in the proper location as part of the analysis when loading a song into a Deck Torq uses the position of the Phase Grid to properly synchronize the song If you would like to turn the Phase Grid lines off click the Hide Phase Grid button located above the waveform display next to the zoom controls Torg User Guide Chapter 4 22 Playback Manipulations The Waveform Display allows you to manipulate the song playback in a variety of ways using your mouse The method of control differs depending on the control type you have selected for the Deck Vinyl CDJ Hybrid Vinyl Mode With this mode selected using the mouse on the waveform will work in a similar fashion to using your hand on a turntable l Click and hold the mouse on the waveform Playback will stop as if you have placed your hand on a record to stop it 2 Continue holding the mouse button then drag the mouse left and right This will scrub or scratch the song 3 Releasing the mouse button will cause the Deck to play the song back from the current location Hybrid Mode With Hybrid mode active the waveform will respond exactly like the CD mode while the Deck controls Play Pause Cue etc beh
4. o 82 TWealoKnob ricota a aS 63 Search Tunes Library with Database o o 82 Tweak Button ie as ci A a aia es 63 Transport Mode coi incio o se he eee dor te te da eet hal E ew 82 Saving Effect Racks 1 2 0 eee oo ee eee 63 TOQUE da Se diia oc Midas eh de da OR Boel Bethe e ee 82 Loading Effect Racks co t ce dee nia iea se a e at ele ed 64 Sample Counters avs CEES a Soe ee ae eee dh ae 83 Bypassing the Effects ss dotor wie do a toe dae ts 64 SYNC MOde sogi cies adiciona 83 Built IniEffects s sain Bite a le a i Ra ww We sl eo 64 SKIN e atig Rs ance ae Sec A a Eats Seas ae 83 Delay ee 64 Chapter 16 icici ae Sah eee dee We Rae a le 84 Reverb starse nn Bee alg ae ve gs diate wey ea Bea we ap ia 65 eu APPO iii a oi Oe eee ee ae ae ee ee eae 84 Flanger ie Bae ee ER A ee eS 66 i Preset Key Assignments ananuna aa 84 Phasa sa aa A AN 67 Global Key Commands naaa o a 84 Dual Filters soerg ddi ee Eu Eh EEE E EER ae EUT TI RAIE A 67 ORMOTON 15 4 oooh Saba o a Hossa E E a Sh bN 84 Distortion Lii 4 65 de cio de le lode E ae oe 68 SNUTE 2s reg aa riada TEAR devel oe 84 SMODE a o a a awh Wa BS 69 Stanton g e as cana See Gn ca tis da rc eae 84 REVERSE ii a os 69 Windows Key Commands o o e ee eee 84 Breil a a lia de aoe Bw 6 e a ee eS 70 Mac Key Commands 2 2 0 eee ee 84 REPO at Sy 2 8 a5 toro ae cag saat ge See eee Ree ars 70 VST EMOS esa 2 alg abd tia es orate B
5. Q Performance Software User Guide Table of Contents Torq User Guide Chapter e iey a ene aa a A a a RTA ae in bi 3 Adjusting with Offset Buttons o o e 24 A ad hee ia eie bee eb adie de 3 Syne Button ee 25 Locked SYNC masete Beam nipae eile GUIS rl gates ed ce 25 Torq Overview 2 20 0 a 3 Momentary Syne iii e ge Settee eh ee ee a 25 DES RARE e A RR A EWE ER A Ps Dw 4 Master Tempo sie ic a e O Bees ic ii 25 Main Waveform Display o oo ee ee ee 4 a E E 5 Chapter Geo ie aiii aai a o ie od Lain de dai die 26 PFL Headphone Cue 5 External Control o ees es a s acipa e a e a oe p ko ara a 26 Browser Database noaoo aa ee 5 Enabling Vinyl CD Control soci e e a ae ee 26 EtisotRacks 604 aroia ele a Ela a E a a adi A 6 External Control Calibration o o 28 DEMO dns daa se alo de le de de cl dede io dede ade ieee ato del 6 Control Types cenas ri es aa 28 SNApshols r ata 2d to aa a a Eee 6 Velocity and Position 0 2 64 e646 bu sar e 28 Master Module 000 ce eee ee ee ee 7 Error INGO hai ici o ao Oe A Jorba 29 Chapter2 0 2 a 8 Standard Mods p45 we es ke a ER Oe Ee E a 30 g Absol te Mode tsis as patem ia a AES Ae en 30 System Requirements lanaa aaa e 8 Relative Mode uc ee ee 30 WINDOWS cb ee ee EEE EE Oe wR Se EO 8 AMPutate Mode oleae ee ee ew ee a 30 MIDE kt Ae ee ee ee ee ee ee Hoa Hoek RO 8 Deck Control iii ete
6. s Tweak knob is determined by the state of the Tweak button When the Tweak button is off the Flanger will be in Manual mode The Tweak knob will then control the delay time of the Flanger When the knob is counterclockwise the Flange effect will be very tight As the knob is turned clockwise the effect will become more dramatic and metallic in nature Ifthe Tweak button is on the Flanger will be in Automatic mode In this mode the delay time for the Flanger will be adjusted automatically The Tweak knob will then set the rate of the automatic adjustment turning the knob clockwise will increase the modulation rate Torq User Guide Chapter 13 67 Phaser A Phaser is a somewhat mellower version of the Flanger Like the Flanger a Phaser works on the principle of mixing two identical audio sources together However unlike a Flanger the timing difference between the two audio sources is very small The result is that some of the frequencies in the song will be removed or cancelled out Some people describe this sound as a wind tunnel effect E Enable Button This button will turn the effect on and off m Mix Knob and Routing Button Like the Flanger effect above the Phaser works best with the Routing button set to Insert mode This allows you to completely replace the original audio signal with the phased version by turning this knob fully clockwise in order to emphasize the effect Note The effect will still work
7. BPM of one Deck to another When you engage Sync on a Deck the Sync icon is on it will change that Deck s tempo to match the other Deck Furthermore when you press Play Torq will align the song to the phase of the other Deck Essentially the synced Deck will be slaved to the other Deck which would be the master Locked Sync Sync will remain active until you turn it off by clicking the Sync button again While Sync is active the Decks will effectively be locked together The slaved Deck will be affected by tempo changes made to the opposite Deck If you slow down the master Deck the slaved Deck will also slow down in kind If you attempt to scratch or re align the slaved Deck Torq will automatically snap it back into alignment to match the phase of the master Deck Momentary Sync When you turn Sync off on a Deck it will keep the tempo setting allowing the song to keep playing in time with the other Deck However Torq will no longer attempt to keep the two Decks in sync if you make changes to them Torq will no longer snap the songs back into alignment if you move one of them nor will Torq continue to match tempos if you change them So if you just need to synchronize for a moment and wish for the music to run freely afterward click the Sync button once to turn it on then click it again to turn it back off the Tempo will be matched to the other Deck and you ll be free to start and manipulate the music as you wish Master
8. External Control When using external Vinyl or CD control the Key Tempo Lock button will behave differently When you press this button Torq will automatically re tune the music you re playing back into its original key You ll load up a song onto a Deck change its speed using the turntable s pitch adjuster which will result in the music changing speed and pitch then click the Key Tempo Lock button to shift the music back into its original key while maintaining your new tempo Sync Button The Sync button provides an automatic method of synchronizing the beat and BPM of one Deck to the other or the Master Tempo When you engage Sync on a Deck the Sync icon is on it will change that Deck s tempo to match the other Deck or Master Tempo Furthermore when you press Play Torq will align the song to the phase of the other Deck or Master Tempo Essentially the Synced Deck will be slaved to the other Deck which would be the master Sync will remain active until you turn it off by clicking the Sync button again While Sync is active the Deck will be affected by tempo changes made to the opposite Deck or Master Tempo If you slow down the master Deck the slaved Deck will also slow down in kind If you attempt to scratch or re align the slaved Deck Torq will automatically snap it back into alignment to match the phase of the master Deck When you turn Sync off on a Deck it will keep the tempo setting allowing
9. If you have multiple folders assigned to the Database all the files in all folders will be listed simultaneously in the File List Therefore to use the Database efficiently you ll only want to assign folders that contain music you d like to spin m Adding Folders to Database To add a music folder to the Database Use the browser to search for a folder 2 Right click on the folder you want to add 3 Choose Add to database from the pop up menu 4 The folder will then be assigned to the Database you can click the in front of Database to see this new folder listed beneath it 5 Now when you click on Database the contents of the folder you just assigned will be listed in the File List m Adding Multiple Folders You may find that one folder will contain many folders that you d like to add to the Database A great example of this is when your music is automatically sorted by a program like Apple iTunes Typically there will be a folder for each artist in your collection and each of these folders will contain individual folders for each album by that artist Therefore if you want to add all the music by this particular artist to the Database you actually need to add all of the individual album folders To make this easier Torq includes an option for adding folders including their subfolders to the Database Use the Browser to locate the folder containing the sub folders you want to add 2 Right
10. Knob The functionality of the Mix knob differs depending on the status of the neighboring Routing button When the Routing Button is set to Insert the Mix knob will adjust the wet dry mix of the effect When the Mix knob is all the way to the left only the original audio signal will be heard no effect When the Mix knob is all the way to the right only the output of the effect will be heard thus becoming a full insert effect When the knob is at 12 o clock an even 50 50 mix of dry signal and wet effect will be created When the Routing Button is set to Send the knob will act as an effect send amount When the Mix knob is all the way to the left no amount of the signal will be sent to the effect As you begin to rotate the Mix knob clockwise signal will be sent to the effect and you will begin to hear the results of the effect in your mix When the Mix knob is all the way to the right you ll actually be boosting the signal to the effect so the effect output can be louder than the source audio Routing Button The Routing button will change how the associated effect is routed within the signal path between the Deck and the Mixer The two options are Insert mode and Send mode Insert mode is characterized by the fact that the entire audio signal from the Deck is replaced by the audio from the effect The other mode Send mode is different in that it adds the sound of the effect into the original signal from the Deck So how do yo
11. QuickLoop Size option and choose Beat from the drop down list 3 Click the X to close the Preferences window Now when you use the QuickLoop buttons as described above you ll find that they capture loops of one beat two beats four beats and eight beats in size Torg User Guide Chapter 3 15 QuickLoop Behaviors Along with the obvious functions stated above the QuickLoop buttons are capable of a few other behaviors You can change various loop lengths while the song is looping For instance if you have set a one beat loop pressing the 4 button will automatically extend the Loop Out marker to make the song loop perfectly four beats Also repeatedly pressing a QuickLoop button will cut the current loop length in half For example if you press QuickLoop 2 to loop two bars of audio pressing the button again will change the loop to one bar in length Pressing it again will reduce the loop length again this time to two beats half a bar By holding the Shift key while pressing these buttons the opposite behavior will occur The loop will double its length each time you press the QuickLoop button Speed Slider Torq s Decks are each equipped with a Speed Adjust slider for the purpose of beat matching songs This slider behaves just like the pitch adjusters found on DJ turntables and CD players As you move this slider the neighboring ADJ display will show how much the song s speed is being altered expresse
12. Tempo Using the Sync button as described above will allow you to sync one Deck to the other However if you wish to have your looped samples sync up to your mix or if you wish for your mix to follow the tempo of the ReWire host you ll use the Master Tempo torq Pt E When you click the Master button the Master Tempo will be active Now when you press the Sync button on a Deck it will sync to the Master Tempo as opposed to syncing to the other Deck If you turn Sync on for both Decks both Decks will be synchronized to the Master Tempo and will therefore play in sync Additionally when you trigger looped samples those loops will play in sync with the Master Tempo and any synced Decks Changing the Master Tempo will result in the same change to the synced Decks and the Sampler There are a couple ways to adjust the Master Tempo Il Use the and buttons to increment or decrement the current tempo by one BPM 2 Hold the Shift key while dragging up and down on the Master Tempo Display to make smooth changes to the tempo 3 Click repeatedly on the Master Tempo Display to tap a new tempo EXTERNAL CONTROL One of Torq s greatest features is the ability to use external sources to control the playback of your song files In particular you can use the Torq Control Vinyl or Torq Control CDs to provide the familiar tactile sensation of DJing with traditional turntables and or CD decks Torq also allows you to use external MIDI hard
13. a button that is already set to a particular location the old QuickCue location will be overwritten in favor of the new one m Playing QuickCues Once you ve set a couple QuickCue Points all you have to do is click on the desired QuickCue button and the Deck will immediately jump to this new location and begin playing If you set your QuickCue Points at key positions within the song you can immediately jump to different sections on the fly such as jumping ahead to a chorus or back to the intro Note There are 10 QuickCue Points five for each Deck These points are mapped to the number keys on your computer keyboard Numbers l 5 correspond to QuickCues l 5 on Deck A while numbers 6 0 correspond to QuickCues l 5 on Deck B Pressing one of these number buttons has the same effect as clicking one of the QuickCue buttons on screen Additionally you can set QuickCue Points without using the mouse by holding the Shift key and pressing one of these number buttons Deck Mode In order for Torq to feel familiar to all types of DJs the Decks can be operated in one of three different modes m Vinyl Mode Vinyl Mode will make the Deck behave as if it was a turntable This means Pressing Play Pause to pause playback will cause audio to stop just like pressing stop on a turntable 2 Clicking and dragging on the Scrolling Waveform will have audible results like scratching a record Torq User Guide Chapter 3 13 m CDJ Mode CDJ mode will mak
14. a side effect of the VST plug in in use and is not related to this buffer setting MIDI Tab This tab features all options pertaining to Auto Setup and MIDI control HO Auto Detect M Audio Devices On Off When this option is enabled Torq will automatically set the Audio and MIDI interface options to those of any known M Audio controller and interface that is connected to your system This will ensure proper operation of Torq and connected devices Note If you have created a custom mapping for your controllers or special assignments for your audio interface and don t want Torq Torg User Guide Chapter 15 to replace these mappings with the defaults upon the next startup leave this option turned off Scratch Sensitivity This option allows you to configure how rapidly a Deck will respond to messages sent from a MIDI controller It is designed for controllers that will move the waveform back and forth like a scratch DJ l By increasing the number the Deck will respond more rapidly 2 By decreasing the number the Deck will respond more slowly Nudge Sensitivity This setting allows you to adjust Torq s sensitivity to nudging or gradually slipping the phase of one deck to match the phase of the other deck By default this parameter is set to 5 however By increasing the number the Deck will nudge your track more rapidly 2 By decreasing the number the Deck will nudge your track more gradually
15. are not familiar with this leave the default selection and choose Next The installer will give you the option of creating a desktop icon This icon is used to quickly launch Torq directly from your desktop Make your selection and choose Next Confirm your install settings and choose Install Torq will begin installing its process indicated by a Windows progress bar When Torq is finished installing choose Finish Close the installer screen Double click the Torq application icon to launch the program Macintosh OS X PO NAM a won Place the Torq disc in your CD DVD drive Double click the Torq CD icon on your desktop This will display the contents of the CD Double click the Open Me icon Select Torq from the drop down menu and click Install The Torq installer welcome screen will appear Click Continue The Software License Agreement window will appear Click Continue Choose Agree from the drop down dialog box Select a drive on which to install Torq and click Continue Note By default the Applications folder on your main hard drive will be selected if you would like to select another folder click Choose and make a selection 9 10 Il Click Install to begin the installation When installation has completed select Close A Torg shortcut icon will be displayed on your desktop Double click the icon to launch the p
16. assignment Press a key on your computer s keyboard or trigger a MIDI note on your external controller and Torq will immediately bind it to the Snapshot Right click again to assign a different key if you wish Now the Snapshot will be activated any time you press the assigned key Note Because of the large amount of Snapshots you may create while using Torq you can to use modifier keys when making assignments For example you can assign the W key SHIFT W CTRL W and ALT W to different Snapshots you can even use multiple modifiers like CTRL SHIFT W Duplicate Snapshot Click on a Snapshot in the list to select it then click the Duplicate Snapshot button just to the right of the New Snapshot button Another Snapshot will appear in the list but this one will contain an exact copy of the parameters from the previously selected Snapshot You can give the duplicate a new name then select different masking parameters to make the Snapshot behave differently Assign a different key to this Snapshot and you can fire off either with ease Delete Snapshot The third button above the Snapshot list is the Delete Snapshot button Select a Snapshot from the list then click this button to delete it Torq User Guide Chapter 8 42 Momentary vs Latching Behavior By default a Snapshot will only be active as long as you hold the assigned key As soon as you release the key the Snapshot is deactivated and all previous settings
17. by the following rules I Ifa song is playing pressing the Cue button will make the song jump to the Cue Point and will pause there 2 If Cue is pressed and held again the music will begin playing from the Cue Point The music will stop playing when the Cue button is released and the song will jump back to the Cue Point 3 Ifa song is paused in a location different from the Cue Point pressing the Cue button will set the Cue Point to the current location Torg User Guide Chapter 3 12 QuickCue In addition to the primary Cue Point described above Torq allows you to set up to five QuickCue Points in a song that are assigned to the QuickCue buttons below the Overview Waveform display These buttons can then be used to quickly jump between the various QuickCue points m Setting QuickCues There are a few different ways to set QuickCue Points but all methods deliver the same results l Click the QuickCue Set button then click one of the QuickCue buttons A QuickCue Point will be set at the current location this can be done while the Deck is playing or paused When added the TRANSPORT KEY QuickCue will be visible in the Overview Waveform display 2 Hold the Shift key while clicking one of the QuickCue buttons Again the QuickCue Point will be set to the Now Line whether the Deck is playing or not When added the QuickCue will be visible in the Overview Waveform display Note If you try to assign a QuickCue to
18. click CTRL click on Mac the folder and select Add folder to Database Recursively Torq will automatically add the folder along with all its sub folders to the Database Torq User Guide Chapter 9 45 m Adding Folders from Your OS If you d prefer you can add folders to the Database by dragging them from your operating system into the Torq Browser You can do this using either Explorer for Windows or Finder for Mac Find your desired folders using the tools of your operating system Explorer or Finder 2 Click and drag the folder from the operating system into the Browser 3 Release the mouse button and the folder will be added to the Database Note You can also include the subfolders by holding the Alt key while dragging the folder into the Database m Searching Specific Database Folders Clicking on the Database heading will display every song contained in the Database in the File List to the right of the Browser window If you would like to confine your search to only a particular folder within the Database I Click the in front of the Database heading The list will expand to show all of the folders contained in the Database 2 Click on one of the folders The File List will be updated to only show the songs contained in that specific folder m Removing Folders from Database There are two ways to remove folders from the Database You can either search through the folders currently listed within the Database and
19. creating a live remix of the song The Torq Decks accomplish these tasks using the controls described below Play Pause Songs are played and stopped by clicking the Play Pause button Simply load a song into the Deck and press Play Pause to start it Press Play Pause again to pause TRANSPORT KEY the music Note When you pause the music the song will not return to the beginning it will stay in the same location as when you stopped it If you want to return to the beginning use the Seek controls described below Seek The Seek buttons are used to skip forward or backward through the song allowing you to find certain points or beats within the song from which you can start playing I If you click briefly on the Forward or Backward buttons the music will jump only slightly in that direction 2 If you click and hold one of these buttons Torq will scroll through the song going faster and faster as long as you hold the button Scrolling will stop when you release the button 3 To jump to either the beginning or end of the song hold the Shift key while clicking Seek buttons Cue The Cue button will establish a primary Cue Point within a song A Cue Point is a reference position within the track that you can jump to instantly rather than having to seek through the track to find it Typically a DJ will set the Cue Point where the beat begins in a song It is visible in red within the Waveform Display The Cue button abides
20. drive s Although you are searching for a specific missing file it is possible to select any audio file to be used in its place If you choose a file that is different than the missing file shown in the File List the 1D3 tag info for the new file will be shown in the Playlist in place of the original song Torg User Guide Chapter 9 51 m Saving a Playlist Torg can also export your Playlists into standard m3u playlists for use within other programs Select the Playlist you wish to save 2 Right click CTRL click on Mac the Playlist and select Save Playlist from the pop up menu 3 A standard dialog box will open allowing you to choose a location and name for the file Press Enter when done 4 The Playlist will be saved to disk m Loading a Playlist Torq can import Playlists created by other programs if they conform to the m3u file format To load one of these Playlists I Right click CTRL click on Mac the Playlist s heading in the Browser pane 2 Select Load Playlist from the pop up menu 3 A standard dialog box will open allowing you to locate and select a Playlist 4 Once selected the Playlist will be imported into Torq and Torq will begin checking for the necessary files explained above Session Playlist The Session Playlist is an automatic Playlist that keeps track of every song you ve played since you launched Torq This is handy when you need to see if you ve played a song already or if y
21. hard drive as opposed to recording them in Torq the sample will need to be cut to an even bar length in order for the loop to play properly You will need to use an external audio editor to cut the loop if it s not already trimmed to the proper length Sample Volume Knob Each sample has its own volume control allowing you to mix multiple samples together with appropriate levels Click and drag up and down on this knob to change the sample playback volume Hold SHIFT and click on the knob to reset the volume to unity the original sample volume Sample Speed Rate Knob This knob adjusts the playback speed of a one shot sample or will scale the playback rate of a looped sample When using one shot samples the Speed knob will set the playback speed pitch for the sample When the knob is set at 12 o clock the sample will play at its original speed When using ooped samples this knob will either double or halve the playback rate in order to remain in sync with the Master Tempo When the knob is turned counter clockwise the playback rate will be cut in half Turned clockwise the playback rate will be doubled Torq User Guide Chapter 7 38 Sample Name Window The Sample Name window serves multiple purposes I It will display the name of the sample file loaded into the slot 2 The background of this window will fill from left to right as the sample plays like a progress meter 3 Clicking on this window will display a pop up men
22. iTunes Library with Database If you happen to have a copy of Apple iTunes installed on your computer selecting Yes for this option will integrate its Music Library into Torq s Database Any songs currently a part of your iTunes Library will be instantly accessible in Torq along with all other folders assigned to the Database If this option is off you ll have to specifically select the iTunes Library in the Browser window to view its contents Transport Mode The Nudge and Offset buttons in the Decks can have their directions reversed using this preference By default this option is set to Reverse meaning the buttons operate in a manner similar to a DJ using turntables Instead of pressing right to go faster or ahead in the song you ll press left just like the closest edge of a record spinning past a DJ If you prefer more of a tape machine style control switch this option to Normal Tooltips If you hover your mouse over a control in Torq often a small Tooltip will appear describing the function of the control Additionally when you move a knob or slider with the mouse a Tooltip will be displayed showing the new setting of the knob or slider This preference chooses the level of detail in the Tooltips Full when selected all Tooltips will be displayed both when you hover your mouse and when you operate a control Adjust when selected the only Tooltips that will appear are those showing the adjustment appli
23. of the interface you d like the Snapshot to control If you put a check box in the Deck A column the Snapshot will use the information for the left side of the interface You can check Deck B instead if you wish the Snapshot to only affect the right side of the interface Check them both and the entire interface can be updated with the Snapshot Once you ve selected which Deck s should be controlled by the Snapshot place additional check boxes in the columns corresponding to the parameters you d like to control For example if you check the Deck A and EQ knobs columns only the EQ knobs on the left side of the mixer will be updated when the Snapshot is triggered Any other settings the current key of the song any effects in the Effect Racks etc will remain unchanged If you were to also check the EQ Kills and Key columns the Decks key setting will be updated by the Snapshot along with the EQ Kills too Checking all of the columns and all parameters within the Snapshot will override the current settings When you release the Snapshot all previous settings will be restored Using Snapshots The second column in the Snapshot list is labeled Assignment and contains the name of the current keyboard key or MIDI note assigned to the Snapshot When you make a new Snapshot this column will be blank Simply right click CTRL click on Mac on the empty field and the message Press a key will appear indicating that Torq is waiting for your key
24. the Strobe E Tweak Knob This knob changes the rate of the Strobe A tooltip will appear whenever you adjust this knob to show the current rate expressed in note values E Tweak Button Activating this button reverses the behavior of the Strobe what was normally muted will be unmuted and vice versa Reverse Reversing the playback direction of a song can be a fun party gimmick you and your friends can look for hidden messages backmasked in the song However it can be a useful DJ technique for adding emphasis and it can also be used to clean up profanity as heard on the radio The traditional method for reversing playback is to actually reverse the rotation of the turntable This has a couple of inherent problems First the turntable can t change direction immediately it must slow down to a stop then speed back up in the opposite direction This can make reversing playback seem sluggish Additionally if the song is playing backwards it will no longer be in the proper location when you resume normal playback For example if you reverse playback as a way to add emphasis one bar before the chorus in a song you ll find that playback is now two bars before the chorus when you resume normal playback Torq overcomes these shortcomings by implementing reversed playback as an effect rather than as a function of the Deck By doing so you can reverse playback instantaneously there is no lag due to the turntable changing direc
25. the effects you ll begin creating multi effects effect chains of more than one plug in You ll find that you can get some jaw dropping sounds when using multiple effects at the same time and some of those combinations may be worth saving for later use You can save the entire state of an Effect Rack including which effects are in use as well as their settings using the Save button at the top of the Rack l Configure your Rack as desired and click the Save button at the top of the Rack A standard Save dialog box will appear 2 Type a name for the file and choose a location on your hard drive to store it and click OK The file will be saved as a preset containing all information regarding the Effect Rack configuration Torq User Guide Chapter 13 64 Loading Effect Racks Obviously if you can save the settings of an Effect Rack you can recall them too That is accomplished with the Load button at the top of the Rack I Click the Load Rack button A standard dialog box will appear 2 Browse to the location on your hard drive in which the Effect Rack configuration file is stored select the file and click OK The file will load all Effects in your Rack configuration exactly as you saved them Note Loading an Effect Rack will discard all effects currently in the Rack If you have a combination you like make sure to save it before you load in another configuration Bypassing the Effects When using multiple effects at the same
26. the one used in Torq the truth is that the system is still analog There are digits encoded on the Torq Control Vinyls and CDs but those digits are transferred to Torq by analog means through the inputs of your audio interface Because of this the control system is subject to certain environmental and physical variables that can influence its performance The system is very robust and compensates for many of these factors allowing a wide range of variance between equipment to yield identical control response This means the equipment you already own turntables cartridges styli CD players etc is probably sufficient for use with Torq s external control system M Audio has diligently tested the control system using a wide variety of equipment from different manufacturers but not every possible combination of gear could be tested While unlikely it is possible that there could be problems with components in your DJ setup that might render the control system inoperable When this happens the Control Calibration displays on the External Control Preferences tab will be your first place to look in order to diagnose the problem Control Type If the external control system is enabled but doesn t seem to be working first check the Control Type settings for each Deck before you tear out all the wiring in your DJ rig If you have the wrong Control Type selected Torq will not react in the proper manner to the control signals Once you ve
27. the song to keep playing in time with the other Deck However Torq will no longer attempt to keep the two Decks in sync if you make changes to them Torq will no longer snap the songs back into alignment if you move one of them nor will Torq continue to match tempos if you change them Nudge Buttons If you re not taking advantage of Torq s ability to keep tracks aligned using Sync you can do it manually using the Nudge buttons If you hear a song become ahead or behind the other the Nudge buttons will allow you to push the song back into alignment by creating a small change to the playback speed of the song If the song is ahead of the beat press the right Nudge button to slow it down You ll see the waveforms of the two songs move in relation to each other Release the Nudge button once the songs are aligned properly and the original playback speed will be restored Note The behavior of the Nudge buttons can be reversed in the Preferences if you prefer the song to speed up when pressing the right Nudge button Offset Buttons Sometimes when mixing two songs together you may find that the beats are aligned with each other yet the two songs are still out of phase This is most obvious when one song is offset by one beat causing the snare drums of the tracks to be out of alignment The Offset buttons can be used to correct this Pressing these buttons will make the Current Song Position jump forward or back by one beat length Note If you
28. time you may want to turn them on or off all at once instead of clicking each effect s Enable button Clicking the Bypass button at the top of the Rack will do just that the audio from the Deck will bypass the Effect Rack and will be sent straight to the Mixer Click the button again to disengage the bypass Built In Effects The following is an explanation of the 10 built in effects in Torq Delay Delay is the technical term for what the Delay effect does but you ll probably like to think of this effect as an echo Essentially the Delay effect listens to the incoming audio holds on to if for a predetermined amount of time then spits it back out When the Delay output is blended in with the audio it sounds like an echo Furthermore you can feed the Delay output back to its input again causing echoes of the echoes also known as Feedback DJs typically use Delays to fill up space during a break in a song the last couple of beats before the break can be echoed or to stretch out the ending of a song by letting it echo and slowly fade away Because of the tempo synced nature of Torq s Delay effect you ll also be able to add rhythmic variance by layering echoes that are perfectly timed to the music m Enable Button Deactivating this button stops signal from feeding into the Delay input The output of the Delay will still remain active so the remaining echoes can naturally fade away m Mix Knob Routing Button When the Rou
29. use the Channel Volume faders for other effects such as volume fades cuts and stutter effects similar to the scratch techniques used on the Crossfader Whichever approach you choose is entirely up to you Note You can quickly return a Channel Volume fader to full volume by holding SHIFT and clicking on the fader Line Input Buttons Located above the PFL icons in each channel of the Mixer is a Line Input icon Clicking this icon will activate the line input for that channel This will allow you to feed audio from an external audio source such as a CD player or turntable connected to your audio interface for mixing with Torq s Mixer All functions such as EQ Gain Effects and PFL will still work even when using external audio sources Note In order for Line Input to work you will need to assign audio channels to the Line Inputs in the Audio tab of the Preferences See the Preferences section for more information on setting up these inputs Crossfader After the audio leaves the individual mixer channels via the Channel Volume faders the signals enter their respective sides of the Crossfader The Crossfader is the large horizontal fader just below the Mixer As you will see its name is very appropriate as it allows you to fade between the two channels in a motion that goes side to side across the mixer When the Crossfader is in its middle location you will hear both of the mixer channels If you move the Crossfader all the way to the l
30. while it s waiting for the downbeat Once the downbeat is reached the button will turn red and recording will commence 2 Clicking the Record button again while recording will not stop recording immediately Instead recording will continue until the end of the next bar again determined by phase information from the source Deck The Record button will be yellow while it s waiting for the end of the bar the Sampler will be recording during this time Once the end of the bar is reached recording will stop and the loop will be ready to play loop will already be selected m Naming Scheme for Recorded Samples Each time you record a sample Torq will give it the name SampleXXX wav where XXX is an automatically generated number The number will increment every time you create a new sample regardless of which Sampler you use for the recording The first sample you record will be named Sample00I wav The next sample that is recorded will be named Sample002 wav and so on This numbering can be reset to start at 001 within the Torq Preferences menu Torq User Guide Chapter 7 37 Trigger Sample Button Pressing this button causes the associated sample to play One shot and looped samples exhibit slightly different behaviors E Triggering One Shot Samples I Click the Trigger button The button icon will light and the sample will play immediately During playback a progress bar behind the sample s name will fill from l
31. 49 0 7941 98 70070 Web www m audio de M Audio U K WDI7 ILA United Kingdom Floor 6 Gresham House 53 Clarenden Road Watford M Audio Canada 1400 St Jean Baptiste Ave 150 Quebec City Quebec G2E 5B7 Canada Technical Support e mail tel Mac support tel PC support support maudio co uk 44 0 1765 650072 44 0 1309 671301 Technical Support Sales tel 44 0 1923 204010 fax 44 0 1923 204039 Web www maudio co uk M Audio France Floor 6 Gresham House 53 Clarenden Road Watford e mail techcanada m audio com phone 418 872 0444 fax 418 872 0034 Sales e mail infocanada m audio com phone 866 872 0444 fax 418 872 0034 Web www m audio ca M Audio Japan PCYBTO OD ABH LA 74 ASB T 460 0002 BAUR heer ARIA 2 18 10 WDI7 ILA United Kingdom Renseignements Commerciaux Avid Technology K K 2 18 10 Marunouchi Naka Ku Nagoya Japan 460 0002 AAZY FR b Technical Support tel e mail 0810001 105 info m audio fr e mail e mail Macintosh RASH tel win support m audio jp mac support m audio jp 052 218 0859 10 00 12 00 13 00 17 00 Assistance Technique PC 0 820 000 731 MAC 0 820 391 191 Assistance Technique mac m audio fr fax e mail support m audio fr t NWAKATSSEMUSHE Sales e mail info m audio jp tel 052 218 3375 fax 052 218 0875 Web w
32. It allows you to navigate drives folders and playlists through an easy to use file structure The Browser contains two standard headings Database and Playlists which are shown at the top of the Browser pane The Browser will also contain a listing of each drive connected to your system those drives will be listed by their names for example C or Macintosh HD Finally all connected media players will have an entry along with any inserted CDs English Torq User Guide Chapter 9 44 Navigation in the Browser follows a few simple rules To view any songs contained in a folder click on the folder s name If the folder contains music files those files will be displayed in the File List to the right of the Browser pane If Torq cannot identify any playable music files in the selected folder the list will be blank 2 To view any sub folders click the plus sign next to a folder A list will appear below the parent folder showing all available sub folders To close this list click the in front of the parent folder Database The Database is the first item displayed in the Browser pane The Database is simply a collection of file folders located throughout your computer system even on external disk drives used to make locating and organizing you music more efficient Once a folder is added to the Database the songs it contains will be listed in the File List whenever you click on the Database heading
33. Loop In marker will snap to the beginning of the nearest l6th note in the song waveform 3 When playback reaches the end of the section you want to loop click the Loop Out button This will place a Loop Out Marker at the Now Line which will also snap to the nearest l6th note At the same time the Loop On Off button will automatically be activated causing playback to jump back to the Loop In Marker The music will now loop between these two points indefinitely Torq User Guide Chapter 3 14 4 When you re finished looping this section of the song you can click the Loop On Off button to turn it off Now when playback reaches the Loop Out Marker it will simply pass it and proceed playing the rest of the song Note If you reposition playback using one of the QuickCue buttons while Looping is activated playback will jump to the new location Torq will then automatically place the Loop In Marker at that point and will place the Loop Out Marker in a position to maintain the same loop length in use prior to pressing the QuickCue button Loop On Off The Loop button will indicate whether Torq is looping audio or not Whenever this button is illuminated Torq will be looping something whether triggered with one of the QuickLoop buttons or set manually with the Loop In and Loop Out buttons Click this button to toggle looping on and off QuickLoop More often than not a DJ will loop audio that is an even number of beats or bars That is th
34. Pressing one of the buttons assigns that sample to the associated QuickScratch slot i e pressing the QSI button on Sampler will assign the sample to QSI m Activating QuickScratch Each of Torq s Decks also have a pair of QuickScratch buttons When you press one of them the associated sample assigned using the QuickScratch buttons in the Sampler will be immediately loaded into the Deck You can then manipulate the sample in the same manner used for full songs Press the QuickScratch button again and the original song will be loaded back into the Deck Here s a practical example You place your two favorite scratching sounds into the samplers you put the Aaaah sample into Sampler and the Fresh sample into Sampler 2 You then activate QSI in Sampler and QS2 in Sampler 2 Now when you press QSI in a Deck the Aaaah sample will be loaded Pressing QS2 results in the Fresh sample being loaded This allows you to access your favorite scratch sounds with the quick push of a button Note If the user changes the QuickScratch assignment in the Sampler while using the QuickScratch feature on a Deck the sample used in the Deck will be updated immediately SNAPSHOTS By now you ve surely noticed that Torq has many features designed to make DJing easier Automatic tempo detection and beat matching allow you the DJ to spend your time doing other things rather than manually keeping two tracks in sync For example you c
35. Repeat effect In other words the effect will begin repeating a new section of audio whenever you press the button as if you d turned the effect off and back on again 70 Torg User Guide Chapter 13 71 VST Effects The 10 built in effects provided with Torq cover a wide range of effects typically used by DJs many DJs will never need more than these built in effects Others however will want to explore the possibilities of additional effects For this reason Torq allows you to use third party plug ins that adhere to the VST standard referred to as VST plug ins The amount of third party VST effects available on the market today is staggering The variety can range from top of the line audio mastering plug ins to simple devices made by someone in their spare time As a result your mileage with VST plug ins will vary Latency Another potential drawback from using VST plug ins is latency Latency is the observed lag between when you trigger an event or action on the computer and when you finally hear the results When running without any VST plug ins Torq s latency is nearly undetectable Torq will respond to scratches button presses and knob tweaks immediately Some VST plug ins however must perform very complex calculations on the audio Sometimes these calculations require that the plug in buffer the audio so that it can process it in large chunks In these cases the plug in will fill its buffer with some audio
36. The EQ will jump to 0 Press X again and the EQ will jump back up to 6 m Assigning Knobs or Sliders to Buttons Conversely you could assign a MIDI knob or slider to one of Torq s buttons When doing this the button will turn on anytime the knob or slider is turned past its halfway point outputting a MIDI value greater than 64 The button will turn back off when the knob or slider is moved lower than its halfway point SAMPLER When talking about music a sampler is not a plate of hors d oeuvres A sampler is a device that will digitally record a sound that you can then replay at various pitches If you re into any kind of electronic dance music or hip hop you ve undoubtedly heard samplers in use But what good is a sampler for a DJ In recent years DJs have used samplers to add sound effects to their mix Such effects range from simple sounds like laser guns and bombs to more complex passages such as a radio station s identification or the DJ s name Torq s Sampler will let you do the same and due to its tight integration with the Decks you ll also be able to record loops that will stay synchronized to your mix This will give you the ability to record and layer a song back on top of itself or to play other loops in sync with your music This can be especially effective when using the Sampler with various drum and percussion loops you can create your own drum patterns to layer with your mix for added emphasis or to keep t
37. Your Lover has been removed from the list Note Reference to artists and bands is for informational purposes only and does not imply an endorsement or sponsorship of Torq by such artists or bands m Reset Button When you are done with your search and are ready to begin a new one press the Reset button This will clear the Search and Ignore fields as well as deselect any categories that had been previously selected Torg User Guide Chapter 9 49 Playlists While many DJs will perform off the cuff without any previous rehearsal or forethought other DJs will pre program their sets either due to the complexity of the set or simply as a method for remembering vital songs this can be helpful for wedding or party DJs who take requests Torq features Playlists to help you organize and store lists of songs You can create and manage multiple Playlists each with as many songs as you like Each Playlist can then be edited by adding or deleting tracks or by rearranging their order within the Playlist IGNORE m Creating New Playlists To start you must create a new Playlist as follows I Right click CTRL click on Mac on the Playlists heading in the Browser and choose New Playlist from the pop up menu 2 A new Playlist titled Empty Playlist will appear below the Playlist heading click the plus sign in front of Playlists in order to see this list Note If there is already an Empty Playlist
38. ae ee ein ae Banc ue heed 71 Late ia rra a A e a a ata ada Wh es 71 delectingiEMHEC S voii de ae e a ds Mode 71 Assigning ControlS o ooo o 72 VST Crash GUA ota oia ia dp ros aa 72 VST Preset Management o o o ooo 72 O 2007 Avid Technology Inc All rights reserved Product features specifications system requirements and availability are subject to change without notice Avid M Audio Conectiv Xponent Torq and SynchroScience are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology Inc All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners WELCOME Congratulations on your purchase of a Torq based performance system one of the finest DJ tools available today Each qualified M Audio hardware product works with Torq in a unique fashion and those methods are outlined in each of their user manuals This manual will outline the use of the Torq application itself and we recommend that you read this manual first in order to familiarize yourself with the architecture of Torq It will then be easier to understand how your hardware works in conjunction with the software TORQ OVERVIEW Torq is a software extrapolation and extension of tried and true DJ tools and techniques for your Mac OS X or Windows XP computer Torq is not bound by the limits of hardware it embraces the technology of today s most advanced audio production applications and integrates with them in a f
39. aiting for an assignment 5 Press a button on your MIDI controller to assign it to the Key Adjust button 6 Now that your buttons are assigned press the button assigned to The Key will move up one semitone 7 Now press both buttons simultaneously 8 The Key Adjust will return to 0 m MIDI Keyboard Control I Make sure that your MIDI keyboard or control surface has been properly installed and is configured to work with Torq Please see chapter 6 for more information about configuring your external MIDI hardware to control Torq 2 Right click CTRL click Mac on the Key Display lt will turn red indicating that it s waiting for an assignment 3 Press a key on your MIDI keyboard This key will automatically be assigned as the root key of the Torq Key Adjust 4 If you press a MIDI key that is semitone ABOVE the root key the Deck s Key will be changed to I semitones 5 If you press a MIDI key that is 2 semitones BELOW the root key the Deck s Key will be changed to 2 semitones 6 The range of Key transposition is plus or minus 12 semitones This makes it possible to control the Key Adjust of both Decks using a single MIDI controller keyboard as long as the keyboard has enough keys to make up four 4 octaves Note Torq will allow notes from the same controller and same MIDI channel to be used as long as the root keys are at least two octaves apart O Torg User Guide Chapter 3 19 m
40. ame for the Snapshot Type in something you can remember and press Enter You can always rename the Snapshot by double clicking its name and typing in a new one English Torg User Guide Chapter 8 41 Masking a Snapshot Each Snapshot you create contains the settings of almost every component in Torq A Snapshot will remember they Key setting of a Deck the EQ settings in the Mixer including the state of the EQ Kills the channel gains and volumes the Crossfader position and the contents and settings of the built in Effect Racks VST effects are not saved in the Snapshots You can therefore have a Snapshot that will update all of these parameters at once if you wish More often than not however you ll want to only override a portion of your current settings using a Snapshot For example you may want to recall the settings of one effect rack while leaving all other settings channel volumes EQs etc as they currently are This is the purpose of masking which allows only particular portions of the Snapshot to be used Each column in the Snapshot List corresponds to certain portions of the Torq interface You ll find columns for Deck A and Deck B Key FX EQ Kills EQ knobs Crossfader and channel volumes When you create a new Snapshot these columns will be blank As a result nothing will happen when you trigger the Snapshot The way to enable the Snapshot is to place check boxes in these columns to indicate what portions
41. an remix the song using loops and QuickCues tweak the sound using effects and EQ and add samples to the mix The sheer quantity of options available to you easily exceeds the number of fingers you have on your hands so controlling all these features simultaneously can become a challenge Torq s innovative Snapshot system allows you to overcome these obstacles by allowing you to perform multiple tasks with the simple push of a button or two A Snapshot is very much like it sounds a virtual picture of settings within Torq You can configure the controls and effects in Torq as you like then save all those settings in a Snapshot that you can recall instantaneously Torq enables you to make a virtually unlimited list of Snapshots all with unique control parameters and sort them in the Snapshot list this list becomes an arsenal of your best tricks which you can use at any time Snapshot List If you press the Tab key on your keyboard or click the Camera tab shown below the Database and Browser will be replaced with the Snapshot List The list has multiple columns like the File List and each row represents one Snapshot Press the Tab key again or click the Browser tab to return to the Database and Browser Creating a Snapshot To create a new Snapshot simply click the New Snapshot button above the Snapshot list Torq will immediately create a new Snapshot entry and the name will be highlighted so that you can type in a proper n
42. ard Any assignments for the control will be erased torq Torg User Guide Chapter 6 34 Changing MIDI Assignment If you assign a MIDI knob for example to the Low EQ in the Mixer you can assign it to the Mid EQ by simply right clicking CTRL click on Mac the Mid EQ knob and moving the MIDI Knob Doing so will clear the assignment to the Low EQ knob and the MIDI control will now be mapped to the Mid EQ knob This allows you to use a small controller for Torg since you can continually reassign its controls without worrying about what the previous assignments were E Keyboard Learn You can also use your computer s keyboard to control elements of the Torq interface using the same method as MIDI Learn above Simply right click CTRL click for Mac on a control on screen then press a key on your keyboard That key will then be assigned to the selected control The same method for changing and clearing MIDI assignments described above also works for keyboard assignments m Assigning Buttons to Knobs or Sliders If you so desire you can assign a MIDI button key or a key on your computer s keyboard to a knob or slider in Torq s interface When doing this pressing the MIDI button or key will cause the knob or slider s value to toggle between an assignable minimum and maximum value For example assign the X key on your computer keyboard to the Low EQ knob Turn up the EQ to 6 using the mouse then press the X key on your keyboard
43. are located between each Deck and the Mixer and will house up to three effects from Torq s built in library as well as one external VST effect This means you can be using up to eight effects within your mix at the same time Controls The controls for the built in and external VST effects are basically the same and will be described here The VST effects have some additional controls and considerations of which to be aware and these will be covered in the next chapter Effect Slot To begin using effects you need to select an effect for use in one of the Effect Slots Each slot can hold one effect parameter which you ll chose from a list 1 Click on an empty Effect Slot A pop up list of available effects will appear 2 Click on one of the effect names from the list to load it into the slot When loaded an icon will appear in the Effect Slot representing which effect is in use 3 To remove an effect choose the blank effect at the top of the pop up list Enable Button Before you can use an effect you must turn it on and that s the purpose of the Enable button By default this button will be off whenever you load a new effect This allows you to set the effect the way you desire before you use it in your mix Some of the effects don t utilize the Enable button and will function in a different way which is outlined in the various effect sections later in this manual Torq User Guide Chapter 13 63 Mix
44. are restored This is excellent for simply punching in little tweaks and effects that you only use for a few moments at a time If you place a check box in the Latch column of the Snapshot list the Snapshot will become active when you press the assigned key and will remain active even after you release the key When you press the same key again the Snapshot will be turned off This mode allows you to recall a setting that you may want to leave active for a while such as a special stutter pattern that you created using multiple Strobe effects Polyphonic Snapshots On top of all this you can trigger multiple Snapshots at a time You can for example trigger one Snapshot that cuts the bass and boosts the treble on Deck A while triggering another that detunes the track on Deck B You ll notice that whenever you activate a Snapshot its check boxes in the Snapshot List will light up indicating that those parameters are being controlled by the Snapshot On the occasion that you trigger another Snapshot that has conflicting settings both Snapshots you re triggering have FX checked for example the last Snapshot you triggered will take precedence You ll note that the green check mark in the FX column of the first Snapshot will turn red indicating that the parameter is overridden by the other Snapshot As soon as you deactivate the second Snapshot the red check will turn green again indicating that the parameter in the first Snapshot i
45. ashion that makes you part of the music Exercising this level of control upon your collection of songs is a task that has many facets and Torq addresses each of these with a specialized array of controls and features that are cleverly arranged and accessed throughout the user interface This section will give you an overview of these features and how they contribute to your arsenal of digital mixing tools and techniques English Torg User Guide Chapter 1 DJing begins with music so you will get to know Torq s Decks very well A Deck is what Torq uses to play back a single digital music file and is analogous Slammin big beat mix to the turntable or CD player used by DJs The Deck allows you to play a track jido genshi change its speed and its key as well as rearrange it by looping and jumping to new Time Elapsed 2 5 locations within the song Torq is equipped with two of these Decks one on A 8 q quipp Time Remain 00 00 15 25 each side of the screen VINYL TRANSPORT KEY SPEED BPM 121 1 ADS 0 9 Main Waveform Display One of the wonderful benefits of computer technology is the ability to visualize audio While being interesting to the eyes in their own right waveform displays can be an invaluable tool when DJing Torq s user interface is dominated by two such waveforms at the top center of the screen one corresponding to each of the Decks Use these scrolling waveforms to check the synchronization of tracks
46. ates how much time is left before the song ends At the beginning of the song the Time Remaining will be the same as the entire length of the song When the Deck is playing the Time Remaining will count down Note The Overview and Scrolling Waveform displays will begin to flash red when there is less than 30 seconds remaining in the song This is to notify you that you d better get ready with another song to play Torq User Guide Chapter 3 11 Overview Waveform Each Deck includes an Overview Waveform display which shows a miniaturized version of the song s waveform in its entirety This display serves several purposes I It allows you to see where the breaks and builds are in a song before they happen 2 The yellow Now Line indicates your current location within the song 3 QuickCue points described later will be superimposed over this waveform 4 You can click anywhere in this waveform and playback will jump to that location Controls As mentioned before the purpose of the Deck is to play a music file similar to how iTunes or WinAmp plays files on your computer However in the scope of DJing things don t stop there A DJ needs to be able to control the playback of the music with greater detail such as changing the speed and or key of the song looping sections of audio and jumping to other locations within the song This allows the DJ to match tempos of various songs during a mix or to re arrange the song in essence
47. ation folder for your recording then give it a name and press enter The dialog box will close and your new filename will be shown on the Filename button Note The sample rate of the recorded file will match the sample rate currently selected in the Audio tab of the Preferences Setting the Record Level The Master Volume slider will control the level of your recording You ll want to set this slider as high as possible without constantly triggering the limiter it s OK if you trigger the limiter every once in a while If you set the Master Volume slider too low your mix will be recorded quietly and will therefore have less fidelity Note Changes made to the Master Volume slider will be committed to your recording even while you re in the middle of your mix Recording Now that you have set the filename and recording level you can begin recording I Click the Record button It will light up to indicate that recording has commenced You ll also see the Record Time window begin to count the length of the recording 2 Perform your mixing magic as you normally would 3 Press the Record button again to stop the recording and save the file EFFECTS Effects are devices that alter an audio signal These alterations can range from subtle to extreme and can be a great source of creative fun within Torq Each Deck can be processed individually with multiple effects and that is the purpose of the Effect Racks The Effect Racks
48. attempt to determine the tempo of the song For most dance music TRANSPORT KEY Torq will be able to determine the tempo accurately Once scanned the tempo of the song will be shown in the BPM display for the Deck which is located just to the left of the Speed Adjust slider The BPM shown here is a living value it will change when you alter the speed of the song with the Speed Adjuster This is extremely helpful when trying to synchronize two songs since you ll be able to nearly match the tempos of the two songs just by matching the BPM values shown in the displays Double Halve Button When Torq incorrectly identifies the tempo of a song it will often return a result that is half the original tempo or double the original tempo This occurs frequently when using Drum amp Bass tracks with tempos in the neighborhood of 170 BPM Torq may think that the tempo of the song is 85 BPM which is half the actual tempo When this happens you can quickly double the tempo using the Double Halve button The first time you press this button the up arrow will light and the tempo of the current song will be doubled The second time you press the button the down arrow will light and the tempo of the song will be cut in half from the original tempo The third time you press TRANSPORT KEY this button the arrows will turn off and the tempo will revert to the originally detected tempo Manual Tempo As mentioned above Torq can determine t
49. ave like Vinyl Mode Il Click and hold on the waveform The music will continue to play 2 While holding on the mouse button drag the mouse left The playback tempo will be momentarily increased making the waveform scroll a little faster to the left 3 Now hold and drag the mouse to the right Playback will remain going forward but the tempo will be slowed slightly resulting in a waveform that still scrolls right to left but at a slower rate 4 As soon as you stop dragging playback will return to its original tempo even if you are still holding the mouse button CDJ Mode With this mode selected the waveform will not be scratched with the mouse Instead mouse movements will simply nudge the music ahead or behind by a small amount Il Click and hold on the waveform The music will continue to play 2 While holding on the mouse button drag the mouse left The playback tempo will be momentarily increased making the waveform scroll a little faster to the left 3 Now hold and drag the mouse to the right Playback will remain going forward but the tempo will be slowed slightly resulting in a waveform that still scrolls right to left but at a slower rate 4 As soon as you stop dragging playback will return to its original tempo even if you are still holding the mouse button SYNCHRONIZATION At most of today s dance clubs and events the DJ will mix the songs together using a technique called beat matching The goa
50. be able to keep tracks on beat English Torg User Guide Chapter 14 Audio Routing When using two programs together via ReWire the audio generated by Torq will be fed to audio channels in Live or whatever Host application you choose to use With this system in place you can further process the outputs of Torq using the Host application s effects You can record the output of Torq into the application to add to your productions You can also create your own drum parts basslines and other loops in the Host which can be layered on top of the music you re playing in Torq you can even play instruments in real time for spontaneous results When Torq is used with a regular audio interface you have the option of assigning various output channels of Torq to outputs on the audio interface see Audio Preferences When using ReWire those same audio outputs are available within the Host application If you switch Torq into External Mixer mode you ll find that ReWire channels and 2 carry the signal from Deck A while channels 3 and 4 carry the signal from Deck B If you use Internal Mixer mode channels and 2 will carry the Master Output from the Mixer while channels 3 and 4 carry the PFL Headphone signal This allows you to create your own monitoring path or mixing path in the Host application to suit your needs 74 PREFERENCES This section provides a comprehensive review of the Preferences for Torq Open the Preferences
51. bles or CD players without having to interact with the Torq interface Relative Mode In contrast Relative mode will ignore the playback position of the Control Vinyl or Control CD Torq will only monitor the direction and speed of the control source To enable Relative mode on a Deck click the Absolute mode button its icon will change to lt gt indicating that Relative mode is now active click the button again to toggle back to Absolute mode You ll now notice that placing the needle in different locations on the record will have no effect on the music playback will resume from the point it left off as soon as the needle touches the record again Even though the playback position of the Control Vinyl or Control CD is not affecting the playback position of the song on the Deck the speed and direction of the control source will still continue to work You can change the playback speed using the pitch adjusters on your turntables or CD players and the playback speed of the Deck will follow You can even scratch like normal The added benefit is that should the needle skip a groove while you re scratching you won t lose the sound you were using You can continue to scratch the same location of the audio file even if the needle keeps skipping Note While there will be no audible change in music playback when switching a Deck from Absolute mode to Relative mode there is a chance that the playback position could jump to an unanticipated positi
52. box ccs ante bax eee e a ee eo eS 60 Crossfader Curve Control 2 2 2 ee ee 78 MIDUSHIFT Kyse s a soos ag rca ee Gilera Oe de as 78 Master Output cecce ra ew 60 oy MIDI Devices sis akg x Seta oe eh ee sad a dea 79 Volume Control soci BAe Shee hee BESS Bie ed E 60 External Control Tab ss coco de ae ese o ea dentate wick dee a ie aE 79 Level Meter and Limiter 2 005 occ e ee es 60 External Controls 20 4 3 36 a8 aeti o ae age ai we 79 M ster Recorder coda adas A lack A eed Sete es es ee 6l AMPutate Mode o o oo ooo o ee 79 Filename tii aia a adn a 6l i Control Calibration s xico pocas e a eke a a Be 80 Setting the Record Level 2 2 0 2 0 2 eee eee ee 6l PNG eI STAD eco ion a A e FES alee ic iio 80 Recording a rr ra e A Sig SL A ds 6l do System VST Plug in Directory o ooo ooo o 80 Chapter T3 g A a ee Custom VST Plug in Directory 2 2 2 0 ooo o 8l A O Se cde eee Bee ea Gee ee 62 Miscellaneous Tab suso Gotu condicio de dd e ee 8l CONOIS dl 3 5 adas a de da cr ide eects god 62 Torg ENGINEA ue leas aa e Bee BSS a e a E Gel 8l Effect Slots iii e dais a a es 62 Cue Exclusivity a es Bee be et 8l Enable Buttons sisua do de es desd doo de rd le as dott So ead de 62 Schatiel Mode sS aioa pia ae a a e de ao ad a i 82 MIX KAOB sa 2 a Ble es ts AA oe 63 QuickLo0p SIZO pen ip e ii ee SA ir aa ee 82 Routing B T ss ni i e a Noe e Me Med ee 63 Search iPod with Database o o ooo
53. by clicking the Preferences icon NOTE An additional tab appears on the right side ofthe Preferences window when certain M Audio products such as the Xponent DJ controller are being used in conjunction with Torq This tab contains parameters relating specifically to the operation of the connected M Audio device To learn more about the contents of this additional tab refer to your new hardware s User Guide Audio Tab This tab houses options relating to the audio interface used with Torq You ll select the interface to use set sampling rates and buffer sizes and assign the various inputs and outputs Torq supports ASIO and DirectX protocols on Windows and Core Audio on Mac OS X Note Although Torq will work with a single stereo output audio interface it is recommended that you use a multiple output audio interface The extra outputs allow you to make use of song cueing i e pre listening to a song on headphones before you mix it Torg User Guide Chapter 15 Audio Interface This preference allows you to select an audio interface for Torq Click the Audio Interface box 2 A menu will be displayed listing all audio interfaces currently connected to your computer 3 Select the audio interface you want to use with Torq Sample Rate Below the Audio Interface selection you will see sample rate adjustment Increasing this value will improve sound quality depending on your source material but will also place heavier de
54. can also make the swaps less abrupt by using the EQ knobs instead PFL Headphone Cue Once the audio signal leaves the EQ it is sent to two different locations One location is the PFL Button which looks like a pair of headphones PFL stands for Pre Fader Listen which refers to hearing an audio signal without being under the influence of the Volume fader on some mixers this function is called Cue That definition may not make sense if you re not familiar with a mixer so think of it as a way to privately hear the music in a mixer channel regardless of what your audience can or cannot hear This is what a DJ uses to listen to the next song before he plays it for his audience When you press the PFL button that channel is sent to the PFL section which is described below You ll be able to hear the music on the headphones and you ll even be able to record it into the Sampler Torg User Guide Chapter 10 57 Channel Volume Faders Besides going to the PFL the audio leaving the EQ also goes to the Channel Volume fader This is the primary volume control for the channel though it is subordinate to the crossfader which works just like a volume fader on a traditional mixer You can match volumes of the two tracks using the Channel Volume faders However some DJs prefer the technique of leaving the Channel Volume faders fully up you then match the volumes of the songs using the Gain knobs The reason for this is that you re then free to
55. cause the song keeps playing you can use the Brake effect to create the slow to stop sound then bring the music back in on the next downbeat which is impossible with real turntables or CD players E Enable Button This button will be on at all times it cannot be turned off m Mix Knob and Routing Button The Mix knob has no function The Brake effect is automatically configured as an Insert effect E Tweak Knob This knob will set the Brake time As you turn this knob clockwise the Brake time will become longer E Tweak Button Press this button to engage the Brake effect The music will slow to a stop Press the button again to resume normal playback Repeat This effect can be used to create the granular hyper repeats heard in lots of today s dance music All you have to do is trigger the effect and play with the loop length to get instant results Here s how it works E Enable Button Engaging this button will start the effect The Repeat will remain active until this button is turned off again m Mix Knob and Routing Button The Mix knob has no function The effect will automatically be configured as an Insert effect when loaded m Tweak Knob This knob sets the size of the audio slice being repeated A tooltip will appear showing the current slice length whenever you move this knob The repeated slices will always be quantized to the current tempo E Tweak Button When you press this button it will re seed the
56. cies will be the first to exhibit signs of distortion As you continue turning the knob the distortion will move lower and lower into the frequency range of the audio until all that remains is low sample junk Torq User Guide Chapter 13 69 Strobe Just about anyone who has been to a dance club in the last 20 years has experienced a strobe light Those are the super bright lights that flash really quickly They have the effect of making everyone look like they re in stop motion the flash is so fast that you can t see movement anymore Torq s Strobe effect will create a similar stop motion effect but it will do it to audio The Strobe will essentially mute and unmute the audio at a rate that you can control The rate can be as slow as one bar 2 beats unmuted followed by 2 beats muted or as fast as 1 64 note E Enable Button Turns the Strobe effect on and off m Mix Knob and Routing Button Because the Strobe effect is designed to mute the audio from a Deck it needs to be used as an Insert effect Therefore the Routing Button will be set to Insert mode whenever you load this effect The Mix knob will control the Dry Wet mix of the effect In use this will control the depth of the Strobe effect Since the Strobe effect is muting the signal that passes through it setting the Mix knob at 50 will result in 50 of the signal still being present whenever the Strobe is muting Therefore you can use this knob to adjust the intensity of
57. cy Note While ID3 tags will support storage of the information listed above it is common to find music files with some if not all of the ID3 fields blank Even if the music file does not contain information for all categories you are still able to fill in the missing info by hand in order to aid in searching through your files Editing Fields Torq will extract the relevant song information from the file s ID3 tag in order to populate the fields of the File List as described above You are free to edit the information shown in the File List simply by double clicking a field and typing in new data It is important to note that Torq does not update the song s ID3 tag with your edits Instead your edited fields are stored in a special file with the same name as the song but with the extension tqd at the end This is the Torq Data file By saving your edits to the TOD file Torq can save your changes much faster changing an ID3 tag requires re writing the entire audio file something that could affect system performance during live use Additionally the audio file could become corrupted during the re write process So Torq leaves your precious music files untouched by saving data to the TOD file Artist Song Filename Swap Occasionally the ID3 tag information of a song described above may contain incomplete song information In the worst case the ID3 tag may not even contain the name of the song or the artist who wrote it When this
58. d as a percent where 0 is the original speed of the song For those not familiar with these controls your first impression may be that the slider is working backward since the speed of the song will increase as you move the slider down on screen However this is the proper behavior for pitch controls found on DJ turntables and CD players It makes sense if you consider the following The pitch adjust slider on a turntable is mounted flat on the surface of the turntable s housing Therefore when you use the slider you either push it away from you or TRANSPORT KEY pull it towards you When a song is going too fast you push the slider away from yourself just as if you put out your hand in a slow down motion If you need the song to go faster you pull the slider toward you similar to how you would gesture towards yourself if you wanted someone to move quickly After a few hours of practice this backward response will feel natural m Slider Range By default the range of the Speed Adjuster is 8 That means that if you move the slider to either of its extremes you ll only get an 8 change in the speed of the song To the left of the Speed Adjuster is a display showing the current range setting for the slider You can change the range of the Speed Adjuster by clicking on this range display Each time you click the range will advance to the next highest setting The order is 8 10 20 then 50 When you click the dis
59. djust is different from other controls in Torq You can assign a knob or slider to the Key Adjust or you can assign keys on your MIDI keyboard the behavior of the Key Adjust is dependent on your control method Make sure that your MIDI keyboard or control surface has been properly installed and is configured to work with Torq Please see chapter 6 for more information about configuring your external MIDI hardware to control Torq 2 Right click CTRL click Mac on the Key Display it will turn red indicating that it s waiting for an assignment 3 Move a MIDI knob or slider on your MIDI controller This will automatically assign the knob or slider to the Key Adjust 4 The Key will be adjustable in one semitone steps 5 MIDI CC value 64 equals 0 semitones This generally means when the knob or slider of your MIDI controller is at center position the Key will be at 0 MIDI Button Control Make sure that your MIDI keyboard or control surface has been properly installed and is configured to work with Torq Please see chapter 6 for more information about configuring your external MIDI hardware to control Torq 2 Right click CTRL click Mac on the Key Adjust button It will turn red indicating that it s waiting for an assignment 3 Press a button on your MIDI controller to assign it to the Key Adjust button 4 Right click CTRL click Mac on the Key Adjust button It will turn red indicating that it s w
60. e the Reverb will become longer until it sounds similar to a huge cathedral E Tweak Button Pressing this button will freeze the Reverb When activated the Reverb will stop accepting audio input from the Deck and will feed back on itself instead The result is a reverb that hangs or stalls indefinitely When you turn Freeze off the Reverb will begin accepting input signals again and the current frozen reverb will fade away following the current Reverb Time This can be another interesting way to fill up space during a break or to add emphasis to a hit in the song Flanger A Flanger is a common effect found in most effect processors Flanging grew from a studio trick where engineers would play identical material on two tape decks then make slight changes to the play speed of the two tape machines by dragging their hand on the flanges of the tape reels The result is a wooshing sound that can be compared to a jet flyover m Enable Button Naturally this button turns the Flanger on and off m Mix Knob and Routing Button Unlike the two effects discussed so far the Flanger works best with the Routing button set to Insert mode This allows you to completely replace the original audio signal with the flanged version by turning this knob fully clockwise in order to emphasize the effect Note The effect will still work in Send mode but it will be less pronounced Tweak Knob and Button The function of the Flanger
61. e the Deck behave as if it was a CDJ player In use Pressing Play Pause to pause playback will cause the Deck to stop and begin repeating a small section of audio The repeating section corresponds to the position where playback will resume when you press Play Pause again 2 While the audio is repeating you can click and drag on the Scrolling Waveform to move the start location you ll hear the repeating audio slice change as you do this 3 Clicking and dragging on the Scrolling Waveform while the Deck is playing will not stop audio Instead you ll be able to drag left or right to offset the playback speed of the track This will allow you to align the track against the other Deck when beat matching m Hybrid Mode Hybrid mode provides a blend of the CDJ and Vinyl control modes Pressing Play Pause to pause playback will cause audio to stop just like in Vinyl mode 2 While paused clicking and dragging on the Scrolling Waveform will have audible results like scratching in Vinyl mode 3 When playback is active clicking and dragging on the Scrolling Waveform will not stop audio Instead you ll be able to drag left or right to offset the playback speed of the track like in CDJ mode This will allow you to align the track against the other Deck when beat matching Looping Technology is always evolving thus DJing is always evolving With the introduction of DJ CD players DJs gained many new exciting capabilities that were u
62. e window Il Open the Preferences 2 Click on the Misc tab 3 Next to Search iPod With Database select Yes 4 Close the Preferences 5 Torq will now include the songs from the iPod the next time you click the Database heading Note If using an iPod with a large collection of audio files it may take Torq a moment to download the entire music list the first time you try to access it during a Torq session Also keep in mind that Torq streams the music directly off the iPod You cannot disconnect the iPod until you are done playing any music contained on it Torq User Guide Chapter 9 Drives Torq can also search any hard drives connected to your computer whether they are internal hard drives or external ones Every drive available to the system will be listed in the Browser by name Click the plus sign in front of the drives to explore the contents of the drives You can add folders from external drives to the Database using the same methods described earlier Note If you are connecting an external hard drive to your computer after Torq is already running you will need to refresh the Browser window in order to see the new drive in the Browser list To do this press F5 on your computer s keyboard or click the Browser heading at the top of the window Audio CDs Torq can also play music from audio CDs inserted into your computer s CD drives Click on the Audio CD heading in the Browser to choose an audio track
63. each channel discretely Some DJs find it easier to hear misalignments in rhythm and tempo in this mode Try it out for yourself and compare Note In Split mode the Cue Source knob will adjust the relative volumes of the two Decks in the headphones Also don t forget that your audience can hear one of those Decks MASTER OUTPUT The Master Output is the last step in Torq s audio signal flow before the music goes out to your audience It contains a Master Level slider a Master Level meter a Master Limiter as well as an Audio Recorder All of these controls are located below the right Deck in a neat horizontal arrangement Volume Control As you may assume the Master Volume slider controls the overall output of Torq s Main Outputs This slider is also used to set the level of the Torq File Recorder explained later in this manual Unlike the Channel Volume faders the Master Volume slider is on its side moving the slider to the right will increase the output volume while moving to the left will decrease it Level Meter and Limiter The Master Level meter shares the same space as the Master Volume slider You ll see the meter moving behind the slider while music is playing Since Torq is a digital audio system it has a limited amount of headroom dynamic range Whenever your mix exceeds the headroom clipping distortion normally occurs To prevent this undesired sound Torq features a Limiter on the Master Out
64. ed to a knob or slider The normal Tooltips seen when hovering the mouse over a control will be hidden None when selected will disable all Tooltips entirely Torg User Guide Chapter 15 83 Sample Counter Pressing this button will reset the automatic numbering of newly recorded samples back to 000 Sync Mode This option determines the forcefulness of the synchronization used in Torq Bar when selected Torq will align a synced Deck to the tempo and downbeat of the other Deck or Master Tempo Any attempts to adjust the alignment of the track will result in Torq forcing the tracks back into synchronization with their downbeats aligned the thick lines of the Phase Grids will be aligned with each other at all times Beat when selected Torq will match a synced Deck to the tempo and beat of the other Deck or Master Tempo with no regard to the downbeats in the Phase Grids Any attempts to realign the synced Deck will result in Torq forcing the track back into alignment with the nearest beat the thick lines of the Phase Grids may be out of alignment with each other Tempo Only when selected Torq will only match the tempo of a synced Deck to the other Deck or Master Tempo When you press Play on the Deck Torq will not force the song into alignment It will be up to you the DJ to start the music at the right moment and keep it in alignment Skin This option allows you to select a different Skin o
65. eft you will only hear the channel for the left Deck Similarly if you move the Crossfader all the way to the right you will only hear the right Deck The Crossfader was invented to offer DJs an easy way to fade out of one song while fading in another while only using one hand Indeed it still performs this task quite well However since its introduction DJs have taken this simple tool and transformed it into a virtual razor blade that allows them to perform lightning fast cuts scratches and a myriad of other techniques Note Torq s Crossfader has been designed to be very quick and responsive However if you are only using a mouse to control Torq you probably won t be able to use the Crossfader for more than fading between songs If you want to use the Crossfader for cuts and scratching we recommend you control the Crossfader using one of the real crossfaders found on M Audio controllers The tactile response of the Crossfader comprises part of the scratching technique m Crossfader Curve Speaking of scratching one of the improvements to crossfader design is an adjustable Crossfader Curve This refers to the rate at which the songs fade in and out as the crossfader is moved from one side to the other At one extreme is the Equal Power Contour which is good for slow fades between two songs As you move the fader from the edge toward the center it will slowly fade in one song However as it is fading in this song it will also start fadi
66. eft to right When the sample ends the Trigger button will turn off 2 If the Trigger button is pressed while the sample is already playing the sample playback position will immediately jump back to the beginning of the sample 3 To stop sample playback before the sample ends hold the SHIFT key on your computer keyboard and click the Trigger button This will stop the sample immediately m Triggering Looped Samples I Click the Trigger button The sample will start playing in sync with the Master Tempo when the Master Tempo button is active lf you trigger the sample at a point other than the downbeat the sample will jump to the proper playback location in order to remain in sync with the Master Tempo If Master Tempo is off the loop will play independently of the current tempos 2 To stop the loop click the Trigger button again The loop will stop at the end of the bar 3 To stop the loop immediately hold the Shift key while clicking the Trigger button The loop will stop immediately when clicked Loop Sample Button The Loop option can be checked or unchecked to enable or disable sample looping When active the sample will loop automatically when it reaches its end The looping will be synchronized with the Master Tempo if the Master Tempo button is activated When deactivated the sample will be triggered as a one shot This means the sample will play only once when triggered Note If you wish to use samples already on your
67. egin to play like normal v o ND Uw Now load a track onto Deck B and click its Vinyl button You ll notice that Deck A will automatically switch to Hybrid or CDJ control whichever mode you used last and will continue to play At the same time the external control source will now be controlling Deck B 10 You can swap external control back and forth as you please and the music will remain playing on both Decks at all times So you can see that swapping external control is as simple as clicking the Vinyl button on the Deck you wish to control you could assign MIDI notes or keys on your computer s keyboard to the Vinyl buttons too If the external control source is stopped when you switch control to the other Deck it will remain stopped lf the control source was playing when you switch control to the other Deck it will remain playing Note Because the AMPutate system allows you to swap control between two independent Decks the Decks are forced into Relative mode to prevent any undesirable jumps in playback position when toggling control Therefore when using AMPutate mode you will use the on screen controls Fast Forward Rewind Overview Waveform QuickCues etc to set the playback position of the song needle drops will not work Torq User Guide Chapter 6 32 BPM Matching So how does one go about doing a DJ set with only one turntable It is a little different than doing it in Standard mode primarily due to the fact t
68. eh ee ee ae in ede es 31 Installation ir a a Ree a ea Bob eee 9 BPM Matching 0 000000 eee eee eee 32 Windows XP ooo 9 Runout Protection oc lt 6 a ee eh ee ee 32 Macintosh OS X ao eco o m Eune a a decd soils ae ves awe oem E eB 9 MIDI Gonttol 3 lt ar ra a ee we 32 Chapters sar a A Re a Be woe ee ears 10 Chapter 00 00 ee ee eee nee 35 DeckS ti ete Mien ede Bh dem ahah esa dem ed 10 Sampler i A ad 35 Displays ee 10 Signal SOURCE 3 a Sa Mee Se Sih We ee oe Deed te cee ee eae 35 Song Name ooo 10 Sampler Controls lt s os esoo ess cacc SAE Ree e a 36 Artist Name ooo 10 Record Sample Button o o ooo ooo o 36 Time Elapsed ahua o 10 Trigger Sample Button o o ooo see 37 Time ROMAIN 4d di eae wp i dee teil ae 10 Loop Sample Button s s o sa cos ee ee 0 37 Overview Waveform ooo 1 Sample Volume Knob o oo ooo ooo ooo 37 Controls eee 1 Sample Speed Rate Knob o o o oo ooo 37 Play Pause ooo I Sample Name Window 2 000 20200004 38 Seek ee I QuickSeratch s ica ico La AS o e g e 39 UI AA AER li Chapter 8 oaoa tee 40 WICK CUE e are o a iR ee AAA a 12 Deck Mods ei o A ii A 12 AI ES AA a eC ee dai ee eee 13 SnapShot Liste i feb hoja eden ch dl bk ord Sask ote eee Hate thes a ewes 40 Speed Slider cee eevee eee 15 CreatingaSnapshot sec ooo 40 Wey cso ae tes e e 17 Masking a Snapshots s soe e dk e la e cd 41 O rd a a 19 Using SnapShots s si acts ar
69. epeats and distortions Ten effects are ready to go and full of creative potential You can use up to three of these effects on each Deck and you can also expand your collection using widely available VST plug ins Delay Reverb Flanger Phaser Dual Filter Distortion Sampler A Sampler can be thought of as a miniature tape recorder lt can record a short segment of sound and then play it back on command at varying speeds and volumes DJs use samplers to add additional sounds into their mix like crash cymbals boomy bass drums and vocal hits Torq has a 6 cell sampler that can play audio files and record loops that play in perfect sync with your mix Snapshots DJing is done with the hands but you may find that your mind wants to hear more than your two hands are capable of To surmount this obstacle Torq allows you to combine multiple movements such as button presses and knob tweaks into one grand gesture called a Snapshot that can be triggered by a single keypress Torq manages a collection of Snapshots that can be recalled interchangeably even in rapid succession The Snapshots can even be layered together to create massive changes in your mix Torg User Guide Chapter 1 Master Module When all is tweaked and mixed to perfection the resultant audio is sent to the Master Output Torq features an automatic output limiter that will keep your music from distorting as well as a module for recording the final mix
70. eplace any samples that are currently loaded into the Sampler If you want to keep the current configuration save the bank using the procedure below before loading a new bank m Save Sample Bank Once you have built a collection of samples drum loops of a particular style or a collection of vocal stabs for example you can save the collection as a sample bank Choosing this option from the menu opens a standard Save dialog box that will save a proprietary Sample Bank file This file references the samples currently loaded into the Sampler Browse to your hard drive and choose a location to save the file The file will be saved with the extension tsb Torq Sample Bank A file folder will also be created of the same name but with the word Samples appended to the end This Samples folder will contain copies of the samples used in the bank for easy recall in the future Torq User Guide Chapter 7 39 QuickScratch While firing off samples using the Trigger buttons can be a lot of fun it doesn t always provide the level of control that you may want for the sample Torq s QuickScratch feature allows you to control the sample using the variable speed and variable key engine within a Deck This means you can scratch the sample using the mouse or with the Torg Control Vinyl or Control CD systems m Assigning Samples Torq features two QuickScratch slots QSI and QS2 You ll see that each sampler has a pair of these QS buttons
71. erences The following Styli and Cartridges have been tested and approved for use with Torq using Conectiv Hardware Ortofon m Nightclub S and E m Djs M Scratch S Shure m M44 7 Stanton m D6800 HP English Torg User Guide Chapter 16 85 WARRANTY Warranty Terms M Audio warrants products to be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use and provided that the product is owned by the original registered user Visit www m audio com warranty for terms and limitations applying to your specific product Warranty Registration Immediately registering your new M Audio product entitles you to full warranty coverage and helps M Audio develop and manufacture the finest quality products available Register online at www m audio com register to receive FREE product updates and for the chance to win M Audio giveaways M Audio USA 5795 Martin Rd Irwindale CA 91706 M Audio Germany Kuhallmand 34 D 74613 Ohringen Germany Technical Support web tel pro products tel consumer products fax shipping www m audio com tech 626 633 9055 626 633 9066 626 633 9032 Technical Support Sales e mail sales m audio com tel 1 866 657 6434 fax 626 633 9070 Web www m audio com e mail support m audio de tel 49 0 7941 9870030 fax 49 0 7941 98 70070 Sales e mail info m audio de tel 49 0 7941 98 7000 fax
72. ers are advised to not open the Timecode Preferences Dialog while streaming more than one Timecode source into Torq as this may degrade G4 performance The user is advised to calibrate before performing one Timecode source at a time Torg User Guide Chapter 2 INSTALLATION Note The following directions are for installing the Torq software onto your computer Torq will not run however unless an appropriate M Audio hardware device such as the Conectiv interface is installed and plugged in to your computer Please follow the installation instructions provided with your hardware device before launching Torq Windows XP E a N Place the Torq disc in your CD DVD drive Windows will automatically launch the install screen If the install screen fails to launch you can manually start it by clicking on Start gt My Computer gt Torq CD ROM Select Torq from the drop down menu and click Install The Installation Wizard will appear Choose Next The License Agreement window will appear Select I accept the agreement then choose Next Windows will prompt you to select a destination folder The default path is C Program Files Torq If you would like to install Torq in another location click the Browse button and choose a new location When you have chosen an install folder click Next You will be asked where Torq should install the application shortcuts in the Windows Start menu If you
73. es is a wide and ethereal sound that can add a nice touch of space to your mix The most obvious characteristic of a Reverb is how long it lasts This is referred to as the Reverb Time and is the only adjustable parameter in Torq s Reverb effect E Enable button If this button is not activated the input to the reverb unit will be silent The output however will continue to be active allowing the reverb to naturally fade out when you turn this button off m Mix Knob and Routing Button When the neighboring Routing button is set to Send mode the Mix knob will set the amount of signal fed into the Reverb processor This signal will then be blended with the original signal from the Deck making it sound like the Reverb was added to the song When the Routing button is set to Insert mode the Mix knob will adjust the Dry Wet balance of the Reverb The difference is that the audio generated by the Reverb will replace the original song as you turn this knob up By default the Reverb effect will load with the Routing button set to Send mode since this is the typical way to use a Reverb However feel free to experiment with Insert mode you can create ambient textures that can be interesting to blend into your mix Torq User Guide Chapter 13 66 m Tweak Knob This knob controls the Reverb time When fully counterclockwise the Reverb will be extremely short similar to the sound heard in a small shower stall As you turn this knob clockwis
74. eversed Playback Direction If you find that Torq seems to be responding backwards to the Control Vinyls or CDs take a look at the Velocity display If the number shown is negative while the control source is playing forward it could mean that the audio cables connecting the turntable or CD player to your interface are backwards Swap the left and right plugs on the back of the audio interface and the problem should be fixed o Torq User Guide Chapter 6 29 m Erratic Playback Position If Torq seems to be jumping around to random locations in the song during playback take a look at the Position display This number should be rapidly growing larger as the control source plays If this number looks like it s counting erratically this is most likely due to damaged control records which is normal after extended use This could also be due to poor stereo separation in the turntable s needle or preamp This is especially common with very old needles To fix this purchase a replacement vinyl record replace your stylus or purchase one of the recommended styli cartridges listed at the end of this manual m Erratic Velocity Values A turntable is a very sensitive piece of equipment It can take the smallest vibrations and amplify them into audible sound That s what s happening when you play a record the grooves in the record vibrate the stylus as they play and those vibrations are translated to audio The problem with turntables though is t
75. ey will loop a single bar four beats or two bars eight beats or may do micro loops of only one or two beats Instead of having to quickly press the Loop In and Loop Out buttons to create loops of these lengths Torq provides one button access to these loops via the QuickLoop buttons Using QuickLoops The QuickLoop buttons allow you to instantly loop a section of a song by a preset length By default each of the four buttons represents a different bar length one bar two bars four bars and eight bars Simply press one of these buttons at the beginning of the section you want to loop and Torq will automatically place the Loop In and Loop Out Markers in the appropriate locations I Load a song into a Deck and press play 2 Press the QuickLoop button labeled 1 The Loop button will be switched on and the Loop In Marker will immediately be placed at the Now Line Furthermore the Loop Out Marker will be placed exactly one bar later and the song will begin looping a perfect bar 3 To turn the loop OFF click the Loop button Playback will now proceed beyond the Loop Out Marker QuickLoop Size Preference As mentioned above the default loop lengths for the four QuickLoop buttons are one bar two bars four bars and eight bars The QuickLoop Size preference allows you to change the QuickLoop buttons to beat values instead of bar values Open the Torq Preferences menu and click on the Behaviors tab 2 Click the arrow next to
76. from the CD Because Torq must rip the audio from the CD into a temporary file on your computer it will take longer for the song to be ready to play after loading it onto a Deck This increased load time is normal Note If you are inserting an audio CD into your computer after Torq is already running you will need to refresh the Browser window in order to see the new disc in the Browser list To do this press F5 on your computer s keyboard or click the Browser heading at the top of the window MIXER Step one when DJing is controlling the music That s what Torq s Decks are for Step two is blending or mixing the music together As you d expect Torq has a section for that too While existing in software Torq s Mixer sounds and behaves just like a top of the line hardware mixer It is therefore instantly familiar to anyone who has used a mixer before and it is capable of performing the same tricks and techniques utilized by DJs on traditional hardware mixers Mixer Architecture Before you start tweaking knobs and sliders on the Mixer you should have a basic understanding of the components in the mixer and the signal flow between the components Without this basic understanding some controls may seem to be misbehaving or completely inoperative only because you ve unknowingly set another control to a conflicting position Additionally there are some terms you should get to know as they will be used repeatedly through
77. gs like update the clock on your screen check your network connections monitor RAM usage etc When all things work properly the computer will complete its other tasks and fill the buffer with more data before the buffer empties thus resulting in perfect audio while multi tasking If the audio buffer happens to empty before the computer can fill it with more data the audio playback will stop until the computer can fill the buffer again These dropouts happen very quickly not sounding like prolonged gaps of silence but sounding more like clicks and pops or otherwise distorted audio When this happens the solution is to either lighten the CPU load by closing unnecessary applications or processes that are wasting the computer s time or by increasing the size of the audio buffer allowing it to play longer thus giving the computer enough time to perform its other tasks So why not just go with a large buffer size and avoid dropouts The problem is that increasing the buffer size increases the system latency Latency is the time between when you tell the computer to do something such as activating an EQ Kill and when you actually hear the results from the speakers If you have a large audio buffer the buffer will have to play out its entire contents before you ll hear any new EQ changes in the audio When DJing this can be a nightmare if you re trying to do things with accurate timing all of your actions will have a delayed effect on t
78. happens Torq will list blank audio files they will look blank in the File List but you ll still be able to load them and play them Obviously it s almost impossible to tell which files you re working with in this situation so Torq will allow you to swap out the Song and Artist categories with one larger Filename category I Right click CTRL click on Mac on the Artist or Song category heading 2 The Artist or Song category will then be replaced with a single Filename category that will display the filename of the song rather than the artist and song information contained in the ID3 tag IGNORE 3 To revert back to the Artist and or Song categories right click CTRL click on Mac on the Filename category again Torq User Guide Chapter 9 47 Loading Songs into the Decks To load a song from the File List into one of Torq s Decks you have a couple options m Click and Drag Click and hold on the desired song in the File List It will become highlighted 2 While continuing to hold the mouse button drag the song up into either of Torq s Decks 3 Once the song is over your desired Deck release the mouse button and the track will be loaded into the Deck Note You can also drag the song onto the Scrolling Waveforms Dragging the track onto the top waveform will load it into Deck A at the left Dropping the track on the lower waveform will load it into Deck B at the right m Function Keys I Cl
79. hat they cannot distinguish between what is an intentional vibration caused by the moving grooves in the record and an unintentional vibration picked up through the body of the turntable For example if you kick the table the turntable is on that thump will be transferred through the turntable up through the needle and translated into sound What this means in terms of the External Control system is that vibrations and other unintentional noise can contaminate the control signals being read from the records When this happens the noise can temporarily throw off the ability of Torq to track the records In order to help minimize this problem Torq has a setting called Power Threshold with various level settings The idea is to set this value above any of the extraneous noise such that Torq will only focus on the louder control signals from the records Here s how to set this level properly Open the External Control Preferences and enable External Control 2 Place the needle of your turntable on the Control Vinyl but leave the turntable stopped 3 Lower the Power Threshold to 40 and look at the Velocity value for the deck 4 If the Velocity is showing random values even though the turntable is stopped that means the Power Threshold is too low Torg is picking up noise and interpreting it as a control signal 5 Increase the Power Threshold by 5dB and look at the Velocity value again If you still see random Velocit
80. hat you must use Torq s on screen Speed sliders to match tempos as opposed to using the pitch sliders on your turntable or CD player Try it out Click Vinyl on a Deck and start the external control source While the song is playing move the Deck s on screen Speed slider Sure enough the playback speed of the song changes just as if you d moved the pitch slider on the actual turntable or CD player The reason for requiring the use of the on screen controls lies in the fact that external control can be toggled back and forth between the Decks at will Any time you do this you ll want the Decks to keep their previous tempos If the tempo of a Deck changed when swapping external control the mix would suddenly fall wildly out of sync Therefore the speed of the Control Vinyl or Control CD must remain constant Torq will scale the playback rate as appropriate based on the setting of the Decks Speed sliders If you change the speed of the control source you ll find that the Decks suddenly change speed any time you toggle external control There is however one unique advantage to this setup you can make use of Torq s automatic beat matching Instead of manually moving the on screen Speed slider with the mouse or MIDI Control you can simply click the Deck s Sync button and it s Speed slider will be moved to match the tempo of the other Deck Click the Sync button again to turn it off and the Deck will remain at the proper speed waiti
81. have the Sync Mode set to Bar in the Preferences the Offset buttons will have no effect when the Deck s Sync button is on This is because Torq will counteract a one beat offset when set to Bar mode If you want to offset the music by one beat when Sync is on you ll need to offset the Phase Grid which is explained later in the section titled Synchronization WAVEFORM DISPLAY One of the most prominent features of the Torq user interface is the Scrolling Waveform Display which takes up a decent amount of real estate above the Mixer and Effect Racks Unlike the smaller Overview Waveforms found in each Deck the Scrolling Waveforms only show a few seconds of the current song before and after the current play position The song in Deck A on the left is shown at the top of the Scrolling Waveform display Deck B on the right is shown at the bottom of the window While the Now Line moves from left to right within the smaller Overview Waveform Display as a Deck plays the Now Line remains fixed in the Scrolling Waveform window while the waveforms move behind it Information Shown on Display So what purpose do these Scrolling Waveforms serve other than looking really cool Answer They offer you a way to visualize the alignment and synchronization of the two Decks as well as providing some other important information Waveform By looking at the audio waveform itself you can see where the beats are in the song These sharp hits t
82. he beat flowing during a breakdown in the music Torq has 16 individual Sample Slots each capable of recording and playing back a single audio sample Below you ll learn the how to use the various controls in the Sampler along with techniques for capturing perfect loops Signal Source Before you can record a sample you must choose an audio source for the sample When using Torq this is as simple as engaging the PFL headphone icon on a Mixer channel When you do this you ll hear that channel in your headphones and it will also be routed to the Sampler This means that the Headphone Volume slider also acts as the Record Level adjustment for the Sampler This routing scheme has two benefits First you can record a sample from an audio source that your audience cannot hear For example you could record a vocal break from your next song and play it to hint at the track you re about to play Secondly this routing scheme allows you to record from more than one source at a time If you enable the PFL on multiple Mixer channels their signals will be mixed together for sampling as a whole The idea when making any type of digital recording is to record the sound as loud as possible but not so loud that it causes distortion Like The Price Is Right you want to get as close to the maximum without going over Torq includes a limiter on the PFL so you won t have to worry if the sound you re recording has a few loud peaks they won
83. he music 76 Torq User Guide Chapter 15 77 The solution is to set the buffer size as low as it can go without inducing any audio problems This is just like playing a game of limbo Load some music into a Deck and play it 2 While the music is playing open the Audio Preferences 3 If music is playing back properly open the Buffer Size menu and select the next smallest buffer size The buffer will be updated immediately and the music will continue to play 4 Listen to the music for a moment If it sounds clean no click pops or glitches then lower the Buffer Size to the next lowest setting 5 Keep repeating this procedure listening to the quality of the audio each time until you reach a setting where the audio breaks up 6 Once you find this lower threshold set the Buffer Size to the next highest setting the last one that worked properly and your system will be optimized While Torq should be very stable at these settings keep in mind that the system performance can be compromised as you increase the CPU load This is most notable when using CPU intensive VST effects Loading one of these effects may cause pops and click in your audio at which point you will have to increase the buffer size until the audio is clean again Note Using some external VST effects can introduce additional audio buffering within the Torq application When this happens your manipulations of the Decks will seem sluggish this is
84. he tempo of most dance music Some music however is too complex or not repetitive enough for Torq to detect the tempo with precision Fortunately you can help Torq to determine the proper tempo through a number of different methods The appropriate method will be based on the type of tempo correction you re trying to achieve Torg User Guide Chapter 3 17 Tap Tempo On rare occasions Torq will determine an incorrect tempo that has no direct relation to the actual tempo not a fraction or multiple At times like this you ll want to use the Tap Tempo feature to determine the tempo of the song while it plays While the song is playing click on the BPM display with each beat that you hear 2 The BPM display will update the BPM to reflect the timing of the taps you performed 3 The more taps you provide the more precise the calculation will become Note If at any time you wish to revert back to the automatically determined tempo hold the Shift key while clicking on the BPM display BPM Entry If you happen to know the BPM of a song you can manually enter it into the BPM display thus overriding the tempo detected by Torq I Hold the Shift key and double click on the BPM display 2 Type in a new BPM value from your computer keyboard and press Enter 3 The new BPM will then be set for the song Note If at any time you wish to revert back to the automatically determined tempo hold the Shift key while click
85. hese playlists through the iTunes heading in the Browser Simply click the plus sign in front of Playlists to view them Click on an individual Playlist to see its contents in the File List IGNORE Torq User Guide Chapter 9 53 m Searching iTunes with the Database Torq can also automatically add the contents of the iTunes Library to the Database That way when you click the Database heading in the Browser you ll get the files from all folders assigned to the Database as well as all files within the Tunes Library To enable this feature Open the Preferences 2 Click the Misc tab 3 Next to Search iTunes Library with Database select Yes 4 Close the Preferences 5 Torq will now include the contents of the iTunes Library when you click the Database heading iPods Torq also allows direct access to the contents of any connected iPod excluding the iPod Shuffle When an iPod is connected it will be listed in the Browser window IGNORE Like the iTunes Library above the contents of the iPod can be searched using the Library or Playlist headings You can also include the contents of the iPod in the Database by doing the following Note If you are connecting an iPod to your computer after Torq is already running you will need to refresh the Browser window in order to see the new iPod in the Browser list To do this press F5 on your computer s keyboard or click the Browser heading at the top of th
86. ick on the desired song in the File List It will become highlighted 2 Press Fl to load the song onto Deck A or press F2 to load the song onto Deck B Note This technique can be extremely helpful when using the Full Browser View F6 which hides the Decks from view Also if using a Mac laptop computer you may need to hold the Fn key while pressing the function keys in order for these features to work Sorting the List There are eight categories displayed across the top of the File List window Artist Song Album Track Track Number BPM Beats Per Minute Genre Length and Comment These categories are taken from the ID3 tags of your music files or in the case of song length and BPM calculated as part of Torq s file analysis An ID3 tag is a standard format for storing additional information within a music file You can sort the contents of the File List by clicking on any one of the categories at the top of the window For example if you click the Album category the File List will be sorted alphabetically A to Z by Album name If you click Album again the order will be reversed Z to A You could also click on the BPM column to sort all your songs by their BPM This can be very useful when looking for songs of a similar BPM Click the Reset button to return to the default sort order Searching the List The simplest method for searching is to type a keyword or keywords into the Search field above the Database Br
87. igned or out of phase it will sound terrible as the beats of the two songs will be playing at different times in DJ jargon this is known as a train wreck and is something that should be avoided at all times Torq s Scrolling Waveforms will help you match the phases of the two songs Not only can you visually align the transients in the waveforms you can also use the Phase Grid for automatic synchronization Phase Grid Manipulations Torq also places a Phase Grid over the Scrolling Waveforms to help you see where the beats are even during a breakdown or rhythmless intro of a song In order for Torq s automatic synchronization to work the Phase Grid will need to be aligned properly with the music With the Phase Grids of both songs aligned properly Torq will be able to sync the two songs together without creating train wrecks Torq will attempt to place the Phase Grid in the proper location during song analysis If Torq positions the Grid incorrectly it will be up to you to re align it to the proper beat TEPE ME LL Torq User Guide Chapter 5 24 When a mis alignment occurs as seen above you ll see that the grid does not line up with the beginnings of the beats transients in the waveform In the example the Phase Grid is too early leaving a gap between the grid lines and the transients in the waveform There are a number of ways to fix a mis aligned Phase Grid Which method you choose to use will probably de
88. in this chapter English Torg User Guide Chapter 6 3 Open Torq s Preferences and select the Audio tab NOB WwW a Make sure your audio interface is selected in the Audio Interfaces drop down menu Click the Control Input A drop down menu and choose input input 2 Click the Control Input B drop down menu and choose input 3 input 4 Now click the External Control tab 27 Torq User Guide Chapter 6 28 8 The first option enables External Control Click the drop down menu and select Yes 9 The next step requires you to select the type of control signals you ll be using for each Deck If you ll be using the Torq Control Vinyl records select Torq Vinyl for the Control Type If you ll be using the Torq Control CDs select Torq CD for the Control Type Since this selection is independent for each Deck you can use any combination of vinyl and CD control that you d like Note If you own the Ms Pinky Interdimensional Wrecked System you can use those vinyl records to control Torq Select Genl Gen2 or Gen3 corresponding to the generation of records you own Torq currently supports generations through 3 10 The playback of the Decks will now be controlled by the incoming control signals you have selected External Control Calibration While terms such as digital vinyl are sometimes used to describe vinyl control systems such as
89. in Send mode but it will be less pronounced E Tweak Knob and Button The function of the Phaser s Tweak knob is determined by the state of the Tweak button When the Tweak button is off the Phaser will be in Manual mode The Tweak knob will then control the phase of the effect If the Tweak button is on the Phaser will be in Automatic mode In this mode the phase will be adjusted automatically The Tweak knob will then set the rate of the automatic adjustment turning the knob clockwise will increase the modulation rate Dual Filter A coffee filter is designed to stop coffee grounds while allowing water to pass through Audio filters work in a similar fashion they prevent particular frequency ranges within an audio signal from passing through the effect Filters come in a variety of flavors and Torq features three of the most popular types Low Pass High Pass and Band Pass The names of these filters are descriptive of what they do A Low Pass filter for example will only allow low frequencies bass tones to pass through it will remove the high frequency treble content from the audio signal A High Pass filter works the other way it allows the treble to pass through while bass is removed A Band Pass filter is essentially a High and Low Pass filter put together it will remove high and low frequencies from the audio signal only allowing a narrow band of frequencies to pass The most important parameter for a filter is it
90. in the list a number will be appended to the name to differentiate it from the other s i e Empty Playlist 1 m Rename Playlist l Right click CTRL click on Mac on your desired Playlist and choose Rename Playlist from the pop up menu 2 Type in the new name you would like to give the Playlist and hit the Enter key on your computer keyboard 3 The Playlist will display its new name m Deleting a Playlist I Right click CTRL click on Mac on the Playlist and choose Delete Playlist from the pop up menu 2 The Playlist will be removed from the list in Torq It will still be on your computer however stored in the Deleted Playlists folder These Playlists will be kept for up to 30 days then permanently deleted m Duplicating a Playlist If you like a particular Playlist and would like to build a new one based upon it you can duplicate or copy it for future modification I Right click CTRL click on Mac the Playlist you would like to duplicate and choose Duplicate Playlist from the pop up menu 2 A duplicate of the selected playlist will be created and displayed underneath it 3 A number will be added to the name of the Playlist to differentiate it from the original Of course you can rename this Playlist using the method described above Torg User Guide Chapter 9 50 m Adding Songs to a Playlist Once you have created and selected a Playlist you ll begin adding files to it using the follo
91. ing on the BPM display Key The Key Adjust is used to raise or lower the Key of a song without changing the tempo This is useful when attempting to match the melodies of songs in both Decks during a mix known as key matching You can adjust the key of a song with the Key Adjust buttons or by dragging the up or down on the Key Display m Fine Tuning Click and hold the mouse cursor over the Key Display number 2 Drag the mouse up or down The number will adjust in increments of one cent Note To reset the key transposition to 0 hold down the Shift key on your computer keyboard and click on either of the Key Adjust buttons Key Displays If you have adjusted the key in finer increments the key will be reset to 0 however the fraction will remain For example if the key is 4 23 resetting will make it 0 23 m Key Speed Lock The Decks in Torq have the special ability to change the playback speed of the song without changing the pitch of the song this is known as time compression and time expansion This means you don t have to worry about music changing pitch as you beat match However if you would like to disable this feature and essentially lock the Key and Speed of the music together turn on the Key Tempo Lock button With this on the music will behave like a regular vinyl record slowing down the music will make the music drop in pitch Torg User Guide Chapter 3 18 m MIDI Slider Knob Control MIDI control of the Key A
92. irectory This preference allows you to select an alternate folder of VST plug ins for Torq to use This will allow you to specify only specific plug ins to use by copying only the ones you need into a unique folder that you create 1 Click the arrow next to the first option and select Yes from the drop down menu 2 Torq will now use the alternate VST plug ins found at the path listed in the window just below 3 To change the path click on the path name 4 This will open a standard System dialog box 5 Select the folder in which your alternate VST plug ins are stored Miscellaneous Tab This tab contains miscellaneous options that affect the behavior of certain features of Torq Torq Engine This setting is used to switch the Torq Audio Engine between Normal and Economy modes This option should be left on Normal unless you have a slow computer Switching to Economy will degrade graphical performance and have a slight impact on sound quality but can often allow Torq to run smoothly on older machines Cue Exclusivity This option affects how the Deck Cue buttons behave When this option is On pressing the Cue button on a channel will cause the other Cue button on the other channel to turn off This will ensure that you are only hearing one audio source through your headphones at a given time When this option is Off you can cue multiple channels at once These Cue sources are mixed and heard through your headphones simul
93. ithin the audio signal Torq is equipped with a 3 band EQ meaning it can control the levels of three different frequency ranges bands named High Mid and Low The 3 band EQ is comprised of three knobs and three buttons arranged vertically in each mixer channel Naturally the High EQ is above the Mid EQ which is above the Low EQ The X buttons next to each EQ knob is a Kill Activating these buttons will completely remove or kill the associated frequency band from the audio activating all three at the same time will therefore completely mute the audio signal EQ may very well be the most powerful tool on the DJ mixer though some would argue that the crossfader is the ultimate weapon The EQ controls are used to I improve the sound quality of poorly recorded or produced songs 2 assist in matching the overall frequency content of two songs 3 add emphasis to the music by removing or isolating one or more of the frequency ranges and 4 mix songs together in a jigsaw fashion by swapping the frequency ranges of two songs as they play together Old songs typically don t have as much bass as today s tracks Therefore you ll often use the Low EQ to boost the bass low frequencies of the old song to match the louder bass of a recent song Without doing this it may sound like the music gets quieter as you mix from the recent song to the older one Likewise even tracks recorded within the same year can sound different fro
94. l is to fade the volumes between two songs while keeping them perfectly in beat with one another If done properly the audience will never have to stop dancing as the beat of one song will blend in with the beat of the new song sounding like one single song DJs will do this for hours at a time creating one gigantic non stop mix from the individual songs they have in their collection Proper execution of this technique requires the mastery of two tasks matching tempo and matching phase Automatic Tempo and Phase Detection As mentioned before tempo is the measurement of speed of a song expressed as BPM Torq automatically determines the tempo of a song when you load it onto a Deck so matching tempos is as simple as moving the Speed slider on a Deck until the BPM Display shows the same value as the other Deck If you re using external vinyl or CD control you can adjust the speed of the song using the turntable s or CD player s pitch adjuster Once you have matched the tempos of two songs you need to start both songs at precisely the right moment or in phase with each other Phase refers to the starting point within a cycle In terms of music it refers to where the beats are located in a song such as the downbeat of a measure When beat matching songs you ll normally want the downbeats of both songs aligned with each other When aligned properly the beats of both songs will blend together into one larger beat If the songs are misal
95. l signal are reached Torq will automatically switch the Deck into Relative mode when it engages the Runout Protection The Deck will remain in Relative mode after you reset the record or CD thus preventing the music from jumping to an unexpected location when external control is enabled again MIDI Control While the Torq Control Vinyl and Control CDs offer a great way to control song playback on the Decks there are still plenty of other features in Torq that would surely feel good under the fingertips For that purpose Torq provides the option of MIDI control for nearly every button knob and slider on the interface Since MIDI is a common protocol shared between all types of musical gear you can use almost anything capable of generating MIDI note or CC messages to control Torq they do not need to be specialized DJ controllers This will offer you a way to experiment with different control methods when Djing such as using an M Audio Trigger Finger to control samples or an Evolution UC 33e to control effects Torq User Guide Chapter 6 33 m MIDI Prefs The second tab of the Preferences contains the MIDI options At the bottom of this tab is a list of all the available MIDI input devices on your computer Each device has a Yes No option to enable or disable it Set the MIDI device to Yes if you wish to use it to control Torq Otherwise set the device to No and Torq will ignore it allowing you to use it to control a diffe
96. locate sounds predict breakdowns and much more Torg User Guide Chapter 1 Mixer It s all in the mix or so they say and Torq s Mixer delivers the goods The Mixer takes the audio from the two Decks and gives you control over what can be heard by means of volume controls audio equalizers and a crossfader Two Decks and a Mixer the essential tools for a DJ PFL Headphone Cue DJs commonly listen to a track on their headphones without letting their audience hear it This allows them to match the tempo of the new song to the current one along with finding the correct starting position for the song Torq will allow you to monitor either Deck on headphones and also features a stereo headphone split normally reserved for high quality DJ mixers SPLIT PFL 6 gt main Browser Database There is a third ingredient to DJing and that s music lots of music To help you stay on top of your massive music collection Torq features a Database for cataloging and searching tracks It will monitor your favorite folders and allow you to create playlists for future performances IGNORE 5 Torg User Guide Chapter 1 Effect Racks Effects are a great way for you to manipulate or mangle your music in unique ways to enhance your mix Torq has a collection of built in effects that are specifically designed for DJ use Tempo synced delays and strobes Shimmering phasers and flangers Glitchy r
97. lter unaffected 2 Turning the knob counterclockwise from 12 o clock will begin to lower the Cutoff Frequency of the Low Pass filter You will hear the music become dull and muffled as you turn this down to the point where you ll only hear low bass rumbles 3 Turning the knob clockwise from the 12 o clock position will begin to raise the Cutoff Frequency of the High Pass filter You will hear the music become more thin and brittle as you do this until only the highest of the high frequencies remain When the Tweak button is on the Tweak knob will merely control the center frequency of the Band Pass filter As you turn the knob down counterclockwise you ll hear the high frequencies become muffled while you begin to hear more of the bass Distortion Distortion by definition is the altering of a signal In practical terms it refers to feeding audio into a device so loudly that it exceeds the dynamic range of the device The result is a fairly raunchy noise that at times can be exactly what you re looking for This is known as Overdrive Distortion and is one of the two types of distortion possible with the Distortion effect The other type of distortion is Sample Rate Reduction When an audio file has its sample rate lowered it looses the ability to accurately reproduce high frequency sounds Instead of sounding soft and muffled like a Low Pass filter the Sample Reducer will sound grainy and harsh E Enable button This button tur
98. m one another even when playing at the same volumes This is usually because one song will have stronger Mid frequencies compared to the other If the bass parts in both songs sound like they re the same volume you can use the Mid EQ to turn down the louder song until it more closely matches the quieter song DJs also like to mix things up during their sets by adding their own manipulations to the songs they play For example a DJ might cut the High and Low frequencies from a track a few beats before the chorus of a song then bring them back right when the chorus starts the perfect job for Torq s High and Low Kill buttons When two songs are playing at the same time you ll frequently find that the music sounds muddy This is normally due to uncomplementary bass content in the two songs This can be as simple as the two songs being in different keys or could occur if both songs have long sustained bass notes In order to clean things up you can simply remove the bass from one of the songs will one of the Low Kill buttons This will leave the bass from the other song in the mix so it will still sound natural When you re ready press both Low Kill buttons at the same time This will kill the bass in the other track while bringing in the bass from the other This will sound like the bass part in the overall mix has changed which it has and the mix will still sound full You can also swap frequencies with the other frequency bands You
99. mands on your computer It is therefore recommended to leave the sample rate only as high as you need it to be If you only play MP3 files or songs from CDs you won t really have any reason to raise this value beyond 44 100 since that is the sampling rate used by MP3s and CDs Buffer Size The other important setting for your audio interface is the Buffer Size This parameter can cause a lot of confusion for some users but is actually not that complicated To understand how the buffer size affects the performance of Torq you must understand a little bit about how your computer processes audio Multi tasking is a term that refers to doing multiple jobs all at once It s what allows your computer to run more than one program at a time i e listening to Tunes while surfing the Web While it looks like the computer is doing two separate things at once it s actually not it s still doing only one task at a time but changing between tasks faster than you can see This provides for a streamlined computing experience but creates a problem when using audio applications Audio is non stop a 5 minute song will play for 5 minutes without interruption So how can the computer keep audio playing while it s jumping around to do other tasks The answer is buffering An audio buffer is a temporary storage tank that can hold a brief moment of audio The computer will fill the audio buffer with music then let the buffer play while it does other thin
100. move the plug in and try another Either way Torq s got your back and will keep the music flowing VST Preset Management Just like you can save the built in Effect Rack you can also save the settings for a VST plug in Some plug ins will manage their own presets from within the GUI In these cases you ll need to consult the plug in s user manual to learn how to use the presets Other VST plug ins will rely on the host application Torq in this case to manage their presets In this case you ll need to use the Preset Management tools that appear above the plug in s GUI 72 REWIRE Now that you ve mastered all the techniques and tricks in Torq where do you go from here Remixing and production After all Torq offers you so many tools for remixing and sound design that you can cross over the boundary of simply playing songs and easily enter the realm of music production Torq is unique in that it can operate as a ReWire slave ReWire is a special technology created by Propellerhead that allows two or more different audio applications to share audio and MIDI data The system is composed of a single ReWire host and multiple ReWire slaves The slaves will all send their audio outputs to the host allowing you to mix EQ and refine the audio using the tools within the host application Furthermore the host and slaves will all share transport and timing information allowing the multiple software applications to act as a single u
101. navailable to them when working within the confines of vinyl records One of those features is looping which is merely the act of repeating a section of a song The creative aspect of DJing suggests that a simple trick such as looping can be exploited in a variety of ways Indeed you can use looping to remix a song by changing the arrangement extending your favorite parts of the song You can also use looping as a safety net allowing the end of a song to play infinitely giving you more time to mix into the next song Looping can also be used to isolate a section of the song such as the breakbeat for layering on top of other songs Torq offers you two different ways to loop audio You can specify the start and end points of the loop manually or you can capture loops of a specific length using the QuickLoop buttons Furthermore Torq will help you make the perfect loop every time by automatically matching your loop points to the tempo of the song m Loop In Out Looping an entire song doesn t have much benefit for a DJ so Torq allows you to move the Loop Markers by using the Loop In and Loop Out buttons I Load a song into a Deck and press Play The song will begin to play 2 When playback reaches the beginning of the section you want to loop click the Loop In button This will place a Loop In Marker at the Now Line shown as a yellow marker line in the scrolling and overview waveforms and the song will continue to play The
102. ng Torq in fullscreen mode clicking on the Torq interface will cause Torq to move to the foreground and your VST Effect to move to the background effectively being obscured from view To bring the VST Effect back to the front click on the Wrench icon in the VST Effect slot VST Crash Guard A plug in works by inserting small bits of programming code into another program in this case you ll be inserting an effect processing plug in into Torq This can be problematic since some VSTs are made with little to no external testing at all and they may not have been tested with Torq specifically Granted it s usually the free VST plug ins found on the web that lack the testing imposed by other professional plug ins These dirty plug ins can be some of the most experimental and creative offerings out there which is why you may still want to try them Obviously it would be completely unacceptable for Torq to crash right in the middle of a gig because of a little VST plug in However the music must keep playing at all times For that reason Torq has been designed with VST Crash Guard which is a system that will allow Torq to stay running even if an error should occur in the VST plug in causing it to crash If this occurs Torq will detect the crash and will quickly bypass the offending plug in to keep the music going When this happens you can either attempt to re load the plug in in hopes that it will reset and become functional again or you can re
103. ng for the external control signal to begin All you have to do then is start the music at the right time and keep it in alignment during the mix via external control This makes the process of preparing the next track much faster Runout Protection Since there is only about 12 minutes of usable control signal on each side of the Control Vinyls or on each track of the CD it is possible that the song you are controlling could exceed the length of control signal available on the record or CD This is extremely common when using Relative mode since the needle or CD position could be halfway through when you start the next track In order to prevent the music from stopping abruptly if the control signal runs out on the record or CD Torq features Runout Protection which essentially disables external control when the record or CD reaches the last 30 seconds of its signal When this happens Torq will temporarily disable external control for the Deck while letting the song on the Deck continue to play You will be able to take the needle off the record and place it back at the beginning without Torq stopping the music the same is true for the CD you can jump back to the beginning of the track without stopping the music Once Torq reads a few seconds of signal from the new location it will re engage external control again allowing you to scratch and manipulate like normal Note If you are currently in Absolute mode when the last 30 seconds of contro
104. ng out the other song The end result is that the overall volume remains the same as you fade even when both songs are playing at the same time At the other extreme of the adjustable range is the Hard Cut This shape causes a song to fade in to full volume almost immediately after moving the fader inward from the edge Similarly the other song will not begin to fade out until the crossfader is almost all the way at the other edge Then right before the crossfader reaches the edge the other song will fade down This is the shape preferred by scratch DJs as they can cut in a track to full volume with very little motion of their hand When performed quickly you don t even hear the volume fade up and down it sounds as if the sound is being abruptly cut in and out Torq User Guide Chapter 10 58 When Torq is launched for the first time the Crossfader Curve will be set to a happy medium between these two extremes You can of course change this curve using either of the following Adjusting with the Mouse I Hold down the SHIFT key on your computer keyboard 2 While holding down shift click and drag over the Crossfader The Crossfader itself will not move but the graphic below the Crossfader will change to indicate the new curve As the blue bars expand toward the edges the curve approaches the Hard Cut shape With no blue bars the curve is an Equal Power Contour Adjusting via MIDI Click the Preferences button to o
105. nit While Torq will interface with any ReWire host application it was specifically designed to work with Ableton Live This outstanding DAW software is geared towards live real time production and performance and is therefore the perfect complement to Torq To begin a ReWire session I Launch the ReWire Host application This could be Ableton Live Pro Tools M Powered or any other application that will host a ReWire session 2 Launch Torq Since Torq is launched second it will automatically launch into ReWire Slave mode 3 In order to hear Torq you ll need to select Torq as the source for audio channels in the host application In Live this is done by selecting Torq in the top box of the Channel I O strip You ll also need to turn the Monitoring to In to allow the audio from Torq to pass through Live Master Tempo Torq s Master Tempo will lock to the tempo and timeline in the ReWire Host application This means that any song you play in Torq can sync up to whatever you re currently doing in Live or Pro Tools even if you change the tempo while the music is playing Simply turn on Torq s Master Tempo then turn on Sync in the Decks The Decks will then sync to the Master Tempo shared by Torq and the ReWire Host Note The transport will need to be running in the ReWire host for the synchronization options to work properly If transport is stopped Torq will only match the BPM of the host application it won t
106. ns the Distortion on and off m Mix Knob and Routing Button Like the Dual Filter above the Distortion is designed to be used as an Insert effect The Routing button will switch to Insert mode automatically any time you load the Distortion effect You should also turn the Mix knob fully clockwise so that you can only hear the output of the distortion if you blend the distorted signal with the original signal the distortion will be less pronounced Tweak Button This button is used to set the operating mode of the Distortion When the button is off the Distortion is in Overdrive mode When the button is on the Distortion will be in Sample Rate Reduction mode E Tweak Knob When set to Overdrive mode the Tweak knob will increase the volume of the signal being fed into the distortion When the knob is fully counterclockwise the input signal is not boosted and therefore undistorted As you turn this knob clockwise the volume will begin to increase At a certain point you ll start to hear the audio become distorted You can leave the knob here for a subtle distortion or you can continue to turn it clockwise in order to push the distortion into really nasty realms When set to Sample Rate Reducer mode the Tweak knob will control the output sample rate When the knob is fully counterclockwise there is no sample rate reduction so the audio will be undistorted As you turn the knob clockwise the sample rate will be lowered The high frequen
107. ntroducing any anomalies Please see the External Control Calibration section earlier in this manual for the proper calibration procedure Velocity this display allows you to see the influence of the external control input When working properly playing back the Control Vinyl or CD at its original speed should result in a number very close to 1 0 in this field Position when external control is working properly this display will show a number that increases as the source plays forward Error Index if the number displayed in this field is below 1 5 the control source is being read properly If the number is higher than 2 0 the display will turn red indicating problems with the incoming control signal You will then need to adjust your control settings clean your records and or replace your stylus to fix this Plug ins Tab Torq allows you to use VST plug in effects to further enhance and mangle your music VSTs can be stored in various locations on your hard drive and these preferences will choose the plug in locations for Torq to use System VST Plug in Directory This preference gives you the option to use your system VST plug in directory as the VST folder for Torq I 2 Click the arrow next to the first option and select yes from the drop down menu Torq will now use the VST plug ins found at the path listed in the window just below HO Torq User Guide Chapter 15 81 Custom VST Plug in D
108. on Playlist a new one will be created that will track all songs played from that point forward iTunes iTunes is a free media player available from Apple for both Mac and Windows computers www itunes com It provides an excellent way to download organize and rip music as well as interfacing with Apple s famous portable media player the iPod Torg can interface with iTunes providing you instant access to your entire collection of music and playlists without having to manually add folders to the Database Furthermore any updates or changes that you make to your iTunes Library or Playlists will automatically be reflected in Torq m Library The iTunes Library is the entire collection of music and videos currently managed by iTunes You can browse and search the iTunes Library by clicking the plus sign in front of the iTunes heading in the Browser then clicking the Library heading The contents of the Library will be shown in the File List IGNORE Note If you have an especially large iTunes Library it may take a moment for Torq to read the entire contents of the Library the first time you select it in a Torq session Once you ve clicked the Library heading you can search and sort the Library contents in the same manner as the Database described earlier m Playlists iTunes also supports the creation and editing of playlists but they are a different format from the m3u format used by Torq Not to worry Torg can still access t
109. on when switching from Relative mode back into Absolute mode This is due to the fact that while using the features of Relative mode the playback position of the Deck and the actual location of the control source could fall out of sync for example if you loop the song on the Deck the song will no longer proceed forward but the location of the control source will continue to play forward When you switch back to Absolute mode Torq will immediately jump to the position indicated by the control source this could even be a position after the song has ended Therefore be extremely careful when toggling back to Absolute mode Only do so if I you know the location of the song and control source are still in sync or 2 you mute the Deck before switching over thus preventing any jumps from being heard by your audience AMPUutate Mode While exploring the depths of Torq you will repeatedly run into scenarios that would not be possible with traditional DJ hardware techniques that can only be achieved through the flexible power of computer technology Torq s AMPutate mode is a perfect example of this it allows you to DJ using only one turntable or CD player Wait what DJing has always been about two turntables and a mixer right When using AMPutate mode it still is but one of the turntables is virtual The idea behind AMPutate mode is that you generally need to manipulate only one song at a time when DJing One song will be playing f
110. ou need to reference a list of what you played at a previous gig An empty Session Playlist is created each time you launch Torq It is named Session Playlist YY MM DD where YY MM DD represents the year month and day of the Playlist respectively Each song you load into a Deck will automatically be added to the bottom of the Session Playlist Note If a Playlist already exists with the current date a number will be appended to differentiate it Note Torq will only store Session Playlists for the last 30 days Any Session Playlists that are older than 30 days will be automatically deleted in order to keep your hard drive from becoming overpopulated with Playlists m Rename the Session Playlist If you find that you d like to permanently keep a Session Playlist all you have to do is rename it Once renamed the Playlist will be moved from the pool of Session Playlists and be kept with your normal Playlists To do this I Right click CTRL click on Mac on the Session Playlist and choose Rename from the pop up menu 2 Type in a new name for the Playlist and press Enter 3 The Playlist will be saved If you renamed the current Session Playlist a new Session Playlist will be created that will track all songs played from that point onward Torq User Guide Chapter 9 52 m Deleting Session Playlists You can delete the Session Playlists using the same method for deleting standard Playlists If you delete the current Sessi
111. out this User Manual Channels When audio from a Deck enters the Mixer it enters a channel A channel is a section within a mixer that processes a single audio signal Since Torq has two Decks the Mixer has two channels one for each Deck While the signals from both Decks enter the same mixer they remain separate in their respective channels allowing you to process them differently before mixing them together into a single channel which is what your audience hears Gain Mute When audio from a Deck enters a channel in the Mixer the first thing it runs into is the Gain control seen at the top of each channel in the mixer This knob will increase or decrease the volume of the incoming audio signal allowing you to boost the level of quiet songs or reduce the level of loud ones This is a basic step in both maintaining high quality audio and matching the levels of the two songs you re mixing together Torq s Gain knobs will boost the incoming signal by up to 6dB or will cut it by as much as 12dB The X button next to the Gain knob is the Mute button Activating this button will mute the incoming audio resulting in a silent channel English Torq User Guide Chapter 10 56 EQ Kills Next in the signal chain is the Equalizer or EQ for short While the Gain knob above increases or decreases the level of the entire audio signal in the channel an EQ increases or decreases the level of only a specific frequency range w
112. owser I Click the Database heading in the Browser pane to select it 2 Click in the Search field and type in your search term s Terms can include an artist s name a song title BPM etc 3 As soon as you start typing Torq will begin searching the Database for the letters you have typed There is no need to hit the Enter key on your keyboard 4 When you stop typing you ll have a list of all files that contain the search term in one of its fields For example if you type the word love into the search field Torq could return the following results Artist Song Album Deee Lite Power of Love World Clique Jennifer Love Hewitt Can t Stand in the Way of Love Let s Go Bang Love and Rockets Angels and Devils Express Madonna Pd Rather Be Your Lover Bedtime Stories Sade Flow Lover s Rock Torq User Guide Chapter 9 4 m Search Categories As you can see the above search worked it found songs that contained the word love in any category However this may not be quite what you were looking for You may have actually wanted files with love in the song s name only To search for such titles you ll need to confine the scope of the search to the Song category only To confine a search to a particular category I Hold down the SHIFT key and click a category name The category name will turn red 2 Torq will refine its search results and only show songs that contain your search te
113. pen the Preferences menu 2 Click the MIDI tab 3 Click the Learn button next to Crossfader Curve The button will turn red 4 Move the knob or fader that you want to use for Crossfader Curve control Torq will read the incoming MIDI messages and immediately assign it to the Crossfader Curve 5 Exit the Preferences m Crossfader Assign Another part in the evolution of the Crossfader is the Crossfader Assign As explained above the left Deck is routed to the left side of the Crossfader while the right Deck is routed to the right side Clicking the Crossfader Assign buttons will swap the assignments so that the left Deck will be heard when the Crossfader is at the right and vice versa This is sometimes known as hamster style control m Transform Buttons Another feature to aid scratch DJs is the Transform button The Transform buttons are found at the left and right sides of the Crossfader Pressing a Transform button will cause the associated channel to temporarily bypass the Crossfader and go straight to the main mix For example if the Crossfader is fully left you ll only hear the left Deck If you press the right Transform button you ll hear the right Deck along with the left Deck PFL HEADPHONE CUE You ve undoubtedly seen the archetypical image of a DJ standing behind a set of turntables and a mixer with a pair of headphones on If everyone is dancing to the music they hear on the speakers what is the DJ listening to on
114. pend on whether you re comfortable using the mouse and keyboard or whether you prefer to use external MIDI control The results are all the same so choose whichever feels good for you Adjusting with the Mouse I Hold down the Shift key then click and drag left or right with the mouse 2 The Phase Grid will move left or right following your mouse movements 3 Once you have aligned the thicker downbeat marker of the grid to the downbeat of the music release the mouse button Note You can turn on Caps Lock instead of holding Shift if you need to adjust the grid using just one hand Turn off Caps Lock when youre finished so you can regain proper control of the waveforms Adjusting with Nudge Buttons I Hold down the Shift key then click on one of the Nudge buttons 2 The Phase Grid will move left or right depending on which Nudge button you click 3 Use the buttons to align the thicker downbeat marker of the grid to the downbeat of the music Adjusting with Offset Buttons I Hold down the Shift key then click on one of the Offset buttons 2 Instead of making a small change to the Phase Grid this will have the effect of moving the grid an entire beat left or right This is a quick way to fix the Phase Grid if it happens to be aligned to the beats but has the downbeat in the wrong location Torq User Guide Chapter 5 25 Sync Button The Sync button is an automatic method of synchronizing the beat and
115. pin Mie eb Sn a Sees ae ete A aca aan des 41 Nudge Buttons 19 Duplicate Snapshot core eeri o a see i EE e and acs ae 41 Offset Buttons a ii otro acia io Boe 19 O H Momentary vs Latching Behavior aaao ooo o 42 Chapter cec anu a ic a ein Ria ade da 20 Polyphonic Snapshots ses 5 066 6 be eee e a 42 Waveform Display cs wooro eoem a aa no i pa ee os 20 C ARTAN Chapter9 0 etc noah 43 Information Shown on Display 2 2 2 o e ee 20 A i 20 Browser Database o o e 43 a AN 21 Browser Panes i 4 cori eai o a e di ci Ge ee e A 43 Gop Pot ed tl edo el la E 21 Database vecs ce o AA ARE as do e 44 ae eh da 21 RIG LiCl codi aa a ee a Se eB 46 PHESG GAD a a db ca 21 EditingiFieldS ie ini a sais aa as Bebe Da ort 46 Playback Manipulations 2 o o e ee eee 22 Artist Song Filename SWAP E ga ee ee E O an 22 Loading Songs into the Decks aoaaa 47 Habia dde 22 Sorting the listada iia a ae BR a oe ed 47 CDJ Mode ooo LLL LLL 22 Searching th Lists ik doi o ad ee ah e 47 Playlists pde Sie a pea a e le ADA A 49 CHOSPLEED e de a we EA a He Oe a AA 23 Session Playlisty 20 ds A A ae Sse Gh ad 5I Synchronization oo ooo ooo coo o 23 A O A 52 Automatic Tempo and Phase Detection o 23 iPods bbb bbs 53 Phase Grid Manipulations o o 23 Dios ta Bete ee oe ade ate AL 54 Adjusting with the Mouse o o
116. play again the range will wrap around back to 8 You ll only need to increase the range when you re trying to match two songs with very different tempos or when you want to perform an extreme speed change as a special effect TRANSPORT KEY Torq User Guide Chapter 3 16 Most experienced DJs will simply match the tempos of two songs by hand using the Speed Adjust slider which is a perfectly acceptable method of matching songs indeed this is the way it s been done for decades Since it requires a lot of practice to hear when one song is playing faster or slower than another those new to Djing will benefit from some of the extra features built into Torq Such features include automatic beat detection BPM displays scrolling waveform displays and automatic synchronization m BPM Display Tempo is a measurement of the speed of a song and is normally expressed as Beats Per Minute BPM As the BPM increases the speed of the song increases In order for two songs to be mixed together with their beats aligned the two songs will need to be playing at the same tempo This is why Torq s Decks are equipped with Speed Sliders In the event the DJ is trying to mix two songs with different tempos which happens more often than not he will need to use the Speed Sliders to match the tempo of the new song to the tempo of the current song Automatic BPM Detection Any time you load a new track into a Deck Torq will analyze it and
117. put which will keep the Main Outputs from clipping Whenever the green circle located at the right edge of the Master Volume meter lights the Limiter is protecting the system against clipping lt does this by quickly reducing the volume any time the Master Volume exceeds the maximum headroom A limiter is not foolproof though you ll want to be sure that you aren t triggering the limiter all the time If the volume of your mix is too loud the limiter will reduce the volume all the time and this will sound strange If you find that the green indicator is on most of the time during your mix you should turn down the Master Volume slider so your mix doesn t constantly peg the limiter To make up for the reduced volume turn up the volume on the house sound system Torq User Guide Chapter 12 61 Master Recorder The Master module also includes a Recorder which allows you to record and save your mix as an audio file as you perform it You can then take your recorded mix and burn it onto a CD or distribute it as a podcast for example The process of recording your mix is extremely simple You start by choosing a name for your mix and a location on your hard drive for saving it Then you mix When you re done press Stop and your file will be ready to go Filename To set the filename for your recording 1 Click the Filename button which looks like when no name is set A dialog box will open 2 Select the destin
118. r color scheme for Torq Il Click to drop down the Skin menu 2 Select a skin color scheme from the list 3 Torq will change its color scheme but all interface features will maintain their shape and orientation within the interface APPENDIX Preset Key Assignments While Torq is basically a blank slate as far as keyboard assignments are concerned there are a few keys that are preset to various functions in the Torq interface Global Key Commands Fl Load selected track into Deck A Shift l Set QuickCue on Deck A F2 Load selected track into Deck B Shift 2 Set QuickCue 2 on Deck A F5 Refresh Browser window Shift 3 Set QuickCue 3 on Deck A F6 Max Browser view Shift 4 Set QuickCue 4 on Deck A F7 Max Waveform view Shift 5 Set QuickCue 5 on Deck A F8 Hide Sampler Shift 6 Set QuickCue on Deck B Tab Toggle Browser Shift 7 Set QuickCue 2 on Deck B and Snapshot views I QuickCue on Deck A Shift 8 Set QuickCue 3 on Deck B 2 QuickCue 2 on Deck A Shift 9 Set QuickCue 4 on Deck B 3 QuickCue 3 on Deck A Shift 0 Set QuickCue 5 on Deck B 4 QuickCue 4 on Deck A 5 QuickCue 5 on Deck A 6 QuickCue on Deck B 7 QuickCue 2 on Deck B 8 QuickCue 3 on Deck B 9 QuickCue 4 on Deck B 0 QuickCue 5 on Deck B Windows Key Commands Mac Key Commands ALT F4 Quit Torq CMND Q Quit Torq CTRL Open Preferences CMND Open Pref
119. ransients typically look like long thin spikes in the waveform In the picture below you can see the heavy bass drum beats of both songs in the Scrolling Waveforms When the drums stop you ll notice that the tall spikes go away This is how you can tell if a breakdown or slow section of the song is approaching By the same token you ll also be able to see where the drums come back in again English Torq User Guide Chapter 4 21 Zoom At times you may find yourself wanting to zoom in to the Scrolling Waveform Display to match beats more precisely or to zoom out in order to see more of each track Use the magnifying glass icons directly above the display to do this The magnifying glass button on the left zooms out while the button on the right zooms in The total amount of time in seconds from the left edge to the right edge of the Scrolling Waveform Display is listed between the two buttons Loop Points The Loop Points of the song set with the Loop In Out buttons or the QuickCue buttons will be shown on the Waveform The looped area of the music will appear in a lighter shade compared to the rest of the waveform Cue Points If you ve used the Cue button or QuickCue buttons to place various Cue Markers in the song you will see them here The QuickCue markers have numbers attached to them corresponding to the assigned QuickCue button and the standard Cue Point appears as an orange line
120. reely the one your audience is dancing to while you play with the other turntable in order to match tempos and find the perfect starting place for the next song Once tempos are matched and the time is right you ll start the song and apply small adjustments to it in order to keep it in sync while mixing it in Once the song is fully mixed in and the previous song is over your need for manipulating the song will be over At that point you d put a new record on the other turntable and begin the process of cueing and beat matching Torg User Guide Chapter 6 31 Deck Control AMPutate mode allows you to control one of Torq s Decks with a single Control Vinyl or Control CD while the other Deck operates in Hybrid or CD mode To enable AMPutate mode l Open the Preferences and click on the External Control tab 2 Ensure that External Control is enabled If not turn it on now by selecting Yes in its drop down menu 3 With External Control enabled you ll also be able to enable AMPutate mode by selecting Yes in its drop down menu 4 AMPutate will use the control source chosen for Control Input A on the Audio Preferences tab Check your selection on this tab to make sure you have selected your desired control source Close the Preferences Load a track onto Deck A and click the Vinyl button located right below the QuickCue buttons Deck A will now be under external control Start your turntable or CD player Deck A will b
121. remove them or you can locate the original folders on your hard drives to remove them To remove folders directly from the Database I Click the plus sign next to the Database This will drop down a list of all folders assigned to the Database 2 When you have found the folder you want to delete right click it 3 Choose Remove from database from the pop up menu The folder will then be removed from the Database while the original audio files will still remain on your hard drives To remove folders from the Browser Use the Browser to locate the original folder on your computer 2 Right click the folder to display the pop up menu 3 Click Remove from Database to remove this folder only If the folder contains sub folders that are part of the Database they will remain in the Database 4 Click Remove from Database Recursively to remove this folder along with all of its sub folders from the Database Torg User Guide Chapter 9 46 File List The window to the right of the Browser pane is called the File List If you have selected a source in the Browser that contains music such as the Database or an individual folder the songs contained therein will be listed here The File List not only shows you the name of the song but also shows the artist name album name track number genre and other fields contained within the song s ID3 tag These additional categories can help you find song with greater efficien
122. rent application such as when ReWired into another host program Once you have enabled a MIDI Input you will be able to use it to control Torq by means of MIDI Learn which will be described next m MIDI Learn Every musician approaches their craft from a slightly different direction DJing is no different That is why Torq is basically a blank slate when run for the first time there are no pre set control assignments for any of the buttons knobs or sliders seen on screen for you to memorize Instead you get to assign the most important controls for you to whatever MIDI controls make the most sense to you Creating a MIDI Assignment Torq uses a simple MIDI Learn scheme to make assigning controls on your MIDI controllers a breeze I Right click CTRL click on Mac the button knob or slider you wish to control via MIDI The control will be highlighted in red indicating that Torq is standing by 2 Move the desired control on your MIDI controller That is move the knob or slider you want to use or press the button key you wish to use 3 Torq will intercept the incoming MIDI message and will instantly assign it to the control The red highlight will disappear and the MIDI control will be active Clearing a MIDI Assignment If you ve assigned a MIDI control using MIDI Learn and you wish to clear the assignment simply right click CTRL click on Mac the desired control in Torq then press the Delete key on your computer s keybo
123. rm within the selected field 3 You can hold SHIFT and click additional categories if you wish i e you can select Song and Album simultaneously 4 SHIFT clicking a selected category will de select it Using our example above confining the search to the Song category would yield the following results Artist Song Album Deee Lite Power of Love World Clique Jennifer Love Hewitt Can t Stand in the Way of Love Let s Go Bang Madonna Pd Rather Be Your Lover Bedtime Stories Now only the songs with love in their titles are shown m Ignore Field Torq offers another method for refining your searches by means of the Ignore field Here you ll enter terms that you want Torq to omit from the search results The Ignore command will only be applied to the currently selected categories explained above To omit terms from the search results Click to put a cursor in the Ignore Field 2 Type in the term you would like to filter out of the search 3 Torq will display only the songs that contain the information required in the Search field while omitting the songs that fit the criteria of the Ignore field Again using the example above entering the term Lover into the Ignore field will return the following list Artist Song Album Deee Lite Power of Love World Clique Jennifer Love Hewitt Can t Stand in the Way of Love Let s Go Bang You ll see that as a result I d Rather Be
124. rnal vinyl or CD control for the Decks The Deck Play Pause buttons will also change to Absolute Relative buttons when this option is enabled see External Control section earlier in this manual AMPutate Mode This option enables AMPutate mode which allows one external control source to control either of the Decks In this mode you can press the Vinyl button on the Deck you wish to control with record or CD All other Decks will automatically switch to Hybrid or CD mode Torq User Guide Chapter 15 0 Control Calibration The settings within this preference are used to configure each input pair of Torq for use with external control records or CDs For vinyl control you can use the Torq Control Vinyl records or some versions of the Ms Pinky control records Control Type Genl Gen2 Gen3 Torq Vinyl Torq CD this pop up menu allows you to set the vinyl or CD source to use for the Deck To use the Torq Control Vinyl or Torq Control CD select Torq Vinyl or Torq CD respectively Genl Gen2 and Gen3 are for use with Ms Pinky records generations I 2 and 3 Power Threshold this setting sets the minimum signal necessary to make External Control work If this setting is too low quiet noises picked up by the turntable could be interpreted incorrectly as control signals If this setting is too high the Deck will not respond to the external control signals at slow speeds This should be set as low as possible without i
125. rogram DECKS When Djing everything begins with the Decks The Decks will play the music that you ll mix and effect Buddha Bounce jido genshi Time Elapsed 00 0 Time Remain Decks in Torq have been designed to emulate both ES using all the tools in Torq Traditionally a DJ s decks will be turntables or CD players Therefore the turntables and CD players as well as offering a special hybrid mode only possible with software e TRANSPORT KEY Displays Each Deck has various informational displays throughout the interface These are mostly for relaying information to you such as which song is playing how long it s been playing and how much time is remaining Song Name At the top of the Deck is the name of the current song The name is taken from the song category seen in the File List If there is no song name listed in the File List the name of the actual file will be shown instead Artist Name Below the Song Name is the Artist Name Like VINYL TRANSPORT KEY SPEED the Song Name above this field will be empty if there is no entry in the Artist category of the file me i211 Time Elapsed This is the current location of the song marked by the yellow Now Line in the Overview Waveform Display The Time Elapsed is expressed in hours minutes seconds frames 30 fps When the Current Position Marker is at the beginning of the song the Time Elapsed will be 0 0 0 0 Time Remain This field indic
126. s Cutoff Frequency It determines the frequency where a filter will begin to stop frequencies For example when using a Low Pass filter with a cutoff frequency of IkHz frequencies below IkHz will pass through the filter unaffected while the frequencies above IkHz are reduced or removed While there are other parameters that also affect the behavior of a filter Cutoff Frequency is the parameter that you ll be controlling in Torq E Enable button This button will turn the Dual Filter on and off m Mix Knob and Routing Button The Dual Filter is designed to be used as an Insert effect For this reason the Routing button will automatically switch to Insert mode whenever you load this effect Then the Mix knob will serve as a Dry Wet adjustment which you will want to leave fully clockwise so you only hear the output of the Dual Filter m Tweak Button The Tweak button is used to set the filter mode for the Dual Filter effect When this button is off the two filters High Pass and Low Pass will be adjusted only one at a time When you turn this button on the High Pass and Low Pass filters will be linked thus creating a Band Pass filter where both filters are adjusted simultaneously Torq User Guide Chapter 13 68 m Tweak Knob This knob will adjust the Cutoff Frequencies of the filters When the Tweak button is off the knob will behave as follows Placing the knob at 12 o clock will result in the audio passing through the Dual Fi
127. s in use again BROWSER DATABASE A DJ s most important asset beyond the gear he uses is his collection of music Without a wealth of top notch tracks in his arsenal a DJ is not equipped to dominate a dance floor Anyone who has been Djing for even a short while will have amassed a decent collection of songs and finding those songs quickly is the job of Torq s Browser and Database The Browser is very similar to the navigation methods employed by your computer s operating system The Browser will allow you to explore the contents of all your hard drives internal and external connected MP3 players such as iPods and audio CDs You can then add music folders to the Torq Database in order to search for songs using keywords or sorting techniques which makes finding your music much easier than thumbing through CD wallets or crates of vinyl Torq also supports the building of playlists which will allow you to preselect a series of songs to use in a later performance and Torq will even document all of the songs you play in a set for later review the Session Playlist This section will show you how to navigate your hard drive s using the Torq Browser and how to add folders containing music files to the Database It will also explain how to search for particular songs how to organize songs by categories for easier viewing and how to manage playlists Browser Pane The Browser pane is located on the bottom left of the Torq interface
128. sent from Torq It will then process the audio and send it to an output buffer Once the output buffer is filled the audio is sent back to Torq This process while extremely fast can still manifest itself as a perceived lag in response time And as you can see this phenomenon is beyond the control of Torq the latency is created by the plug in not Torq If you find that a VST plug in you re using is creating latency you can try to find a similar sounding plug in with minimal latency or simply try to play ahead and anticipate the latency While some other programs feature Plug in Delay Compensation such a system would not work with Torq because the program is entirely real time the music and effects are not preset or programmed Selecting Effects To begin using a VST you ll need to select one from the list of available VSTs I Click on the top window in the VST section of the Effect Rack A pop up menu will appear showing all valid VSTs in the selected VST folder see Plug in Preferences 2 Click on the name of a VST It will be loaded immediately and the VST s graphic interface will open and float over the Torq interface 3 To close the window click the close icon in the window s title bar or click the Wrench icon in the Effect Rack 4 To open the same VST interface again click the Wrench icon again Note At the top of the VST drop down menu list you will see a blank plug in as an option If you select i
129. t cause distortion Torq User Guide Chapter 7 36 Sampler Controls This section provides an overview of the controls within the Sampler Record Sample Button Samples can be categorized into two groups one shot samples and loops One shot samples are sounds that play once when you trigger them and are not automatically synchronized to your mix Loops are samples that will play repeatedly when the end of the sample is reached playback will return to the beginning Torq will play these loops in sync with the Master Tempo allowing you to use multiple loops from different sources all at once The method in which you use the Sampler s Record button will determine whether you record a loop or one shot sample m Recording One Shot Samples Press the Pre Fader Listen PFL button in the Mixer to indicate the desired source of the sample The button will light up 2 Press the circular RECORD button in the sample cell you want to record to The button will turn red to indicate that Torq is recording 3 When the Record button is pressed again the button will turn off and the recording will stop The sample is now ready to play m Recording Looped Samples To record a loop instead of a one shot press and hold SHIFT while clicking on the Record button Instead of beginning recording immediately recording will wait for the downbeat determined via the phase information of the source Deck The Record button will be yellow
130. t no VST will be loaded into the Slot any current VST will be unloaded Torg User Guide Chapter 13 Assigning Controls It s fun to tweak effects using knobs and buttons VST effects are no exception However before you start messing with the Tweak knob and button you ll need to assign a function to them Unlike Torq s 10 built in effects the VST Effect you choose to use will probably have more than two parameters to play with You can always adjust these parameters within the VST Effect s editor window To gain MIDI control however you must assign one of the VST Effect s parameter to the Tweak knob or button which you can control via MIDI It s a two part process as outlined below I Load a VST Effect Its editor window will pop up when loaded 2 Right click on the Tweak knob in Torq s interface It will turn red indicating that it standing by for assignment 3 Using the mouse move a control in the VST Effect s editor window This could be a knob slider or button 4 When you move the control Torq will catch it and assign it to the Tweak knob Moving the Tweak knob will now operate the assigned VST parameter 5 To assign a MIDI control to the Tweak knob follow the usual procedure of right clicking then moving your desired MIDI control 6 Once complete the MIDI control will operate the VST parameter 7 The same procedure above can be used for assigning a VST parameter to the Tweak button Note When runni
131. taneously With each channel that is added to the Cue mix the overall Cue bus volume will be attenuated by 3dB in order to keep it from clipping Torq User Guide Chapter 15 82 Schaffel Mode Schaffel is German for shuffle which has become a popular form of dance music based on a triplet rhythm as opposed to a straight 4 4 rhythm When this mode is activated any of the effects or parameters that quantize their values will include triplets in their quantizing options Take the Strobe effect for example The Parameter knob changes the rate of the Strobe effect Normally this would select rates of 1 2 1 4 1 8 1 16 and 1 32 With Schaffel engaged the knob would quantize to 1 2 IA 1 8 1 8T 1 16T and 1 32T The T after the number stands for Triplet Note Selecting a triplet quantization will give the effect or parameter a shuffled or funky feel QuickLoop Size This option affects how the QuickLoop buttons behave When this preference is set to Bar your loops will be established in lengths of musical bars When this preference is set to Beat your loops will be established in lengths of musical beats Search iPod with Database When this preference is set to Yes any connected iPods will have their music libraries incorporated into the Database for instant searching If this option is off you will have to specifically select the iPod Library in the Browser to view its contents Search
132. the headphones He s listening to the next song he s going to play using PFL or Headphone Cueing That s how the DJ can hear if he s matched the tempo of the current song It s also how he locates the perfect place to start the track In Torq the PFL system includes three controls the Cue Volume fader the Cue Split button and the Cue Source knob Volume Control The Cue Volume fader simply adjusts the volume of the signal sent to the audio interface This can be used for volume control if the volume control of your audio interface is hard to access or does not exist Split Button and Source Knob The Cue Split button simply labeled Split in the user interface determines the behavior of the Cue Source knob which you hear in the headphones When the Split button is off the Cue Source knob will blend between the PFL audio signal which only you can hear and the Main Mix which your audience can hear Since the knob can blend between these two sources you can preview what your mix will sound like lt can be a good way to check that your tracks are aligned properly and at the right volumes When you click the Split button to turn it on the sound in the headphones will change What you ll be hearing is the sound of the left Deck in the left side of your headphones while the right Deck is in the right side of your headphones It s as if you had somehow placed your head inside the mixer between the two channels and can now hear
133. ting button is set to Send the Mix knob will control the amount of audio from the Deck to feed into the Delay When the knob is fully counterclockwise no signal will be sent into the Delay so you will not hear any echoes As you begin to turn up the Mix knob you ll begin to hear the echoes from the Delay If you turn the Mix knob up past its 12 o clock position the delayed or echoed audio will become louder than the original audio from the Deck When the Routing button is set to Insert turning up the Mix knob will cause the output of the Delay effect to replace the sound from the Deck This is a subtle difference that won t be noticeable until you do one of the following When you turn the Mix knob beyond its 12 o clock position the sound from the Deck will begin to fade away leaving only the sound of the Delay 2 If you quickly turn the Mix knob back to 0 you will cut off any remaining echoes before they can be heard The Delay effect will load with the Routing button set to Send mode since this is the typical routing for a Delay Torq User Guide Chapter 13 65 m Tweak Knob In the case of the Delay effect the Tweak knob will control the Feedback amount As described earlier feedback is when the output of the Delay effect is sent back to the input again The result is a repeated echo since you are essentially echoing the echoes When fully counterclockwise feedback will be disabled 2 When the knob is t
134. tions Furthermore since this is an effect the song on the Deck will continue to play normally the waveform will continue to scroll in the forward direction thus keeping the play position correct as you switch the Reverse effect on and off m Enable Button When using the Reverse effect this button is always on and cannot be turned off m Mix Knob and Routing Button The Mix knob has no function The effect is routed as an Insert effect by default m Parameter Knob The Parameter knob has no function m Parameter Button This button will turn the Reverse on and off This button is momentary meaning you have to keep holding it while the song plays backwards When you release the button normal playback will resume Torg User Guide Chapter 13 Brake As mentioned above turntables don t respond instantly to changes in speed or direction When you press Stop on a turntable it takes a moment for the turntable to slow down and reach a complete stop This is due the weight and momentum of the turntable two factors that don t exist in the virtual world of Torq Still some DJs like the sound of a turntable slowing down to a stop and creating that sound is the purpose of Torq s Brake effect Like the Reverse effect above the Brake effect does not actually stop the playback of the song on the Deck Instead it just simulates the sound of the song slowing down while the song continues to play normally as seen by the scrolling waveform Be
135. to a file as you play You can then burn the results onto a CD or convert them to MP3 for podcasts RECORD SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Windows Minimum System Requirements Recommended System Specifications OS Windows XP SP2 OS Windows XP SP2 CPU Pentium III 933 MHz CPU Pentium IV 2 GHz or greater RAM 256 MB RAM GB USB One available port for use by USB One available port for use by approved approved M Audio Hardware Device M Audio Hardware Device Hard drive 7200RPM or faster Mac Minimum System Requirements Mac OS X 10 4 6 CPU G4 1 25 GHz RAM 512 MB USB One available port for use by approved M Audio Hardware Device Recommended System Specifications Laptop Desktop OS Mac OS X 10 4 7 OS Mac OS X 10 4 7 CPU Mac Intel Core Duo 1 83 GHz or greater CPU Dual G5 2 GHz RAM GB RAM GB USB One available port for use by approved USB One available port for use by M Audio Hardware Device approved M Audio Hardware Device Hard drive 7200RPM or faster Hard drive 7200RPM or faster Minimum System Requirements reflect the ability to run Torq using a basic feature set Some advanced or intensive features will require increased system specifications Mac G4 User Known Issues e Mac G4 users are strongly advised to pre analyze all audio files prior to use in Torq e Mac G4 users may experience limited or no usage of VST plug ins momentary lapses in GUI refreshes e Mac G4 us
136. u know which mode to use with a particular effect When using Torq s built in effects the Routing button will automatically be set to the proper mode when you load the effect Of course part of creativity involves breaking the rules so do experiment with the opposite routing and check out the results When using VST effects it will be up to you to set the Routing to the proper mode Traditionally Reverbs and Delays are used as Send effects Distortions Phasers Flangers and Filters will normally be used as Inserts Again experimentation is key so try both modes to compare the results Tweak Knob Effects are fun because you can alter their qualities while you use them such as changing the length of a Reverb or Delay or to change the intensity of a Phaser or Flanger To keep things simple and easy to manage Torq provides one knob the Tweak knob for parameter control on each effect Because effects alter audio in different ways the function of this knob will change depending on which effect is loaded in the slot These functions are listed in the Built In Effect reference in this manual Tweak Button The Tweak button works in the same way as the Tweak knob it will toggle the state of a parameter in the selected effect Like the Tweak knob the exact function of the Tweak button will depend on which effect you re using The functions are listed in the Built In Effect reference Saving Effect Racks When you start getting deeper into
137. u with the following options m Load Sample Choosing this option will open a standard dialog box Use this dialog to navigate to your hard drive and locate a sample If you load a sample into a slot that already has a sample loaded the current sample will be immediately replaced E Save Sample Choosing this option opens a standard Save dialog box Use this dialog to name the current sample and save it to a specific location The new name will also be displayed in the Sample Name window Note This option will be unavailable grayed out if the sample slot is empty m Rename Sample Once you ve recorded a sample you can rename it from the generic SampleXXX naming format automatically applied to new samples Simply click this option in the menu and type in a new name for the sample The file on your hard drive will be renamed to match Note This option will be unavailable grayed out if the sample slot is empty m Unload Sample Choosing this option will remove the current sample from the sampler m Load Sample Bank This option will allow you to load a bank of 16 samples into the Sampler using only one action Choosing this option opens a standard dialog box that looks only for tsb Torq Sample Bank files Browse your hard drive and select a tsb file Torq will read this file and load the required sample files into the appropriate slots It will then set the playback parameters for each sample Note This operation will r
138. udging and scratching Refer to the product s user guide to learn if each turntable platter is capable of sending out both MIDI note and CC information Ifso assign each turntable s MIDI note and CC commands to the corresponding Main Waveform Display in Torq this is done using the MIDI Learn feature described in the MIDI Preferences section of this guide lf your turntable can only send out MIDI CC information but not MIDI note data i e the turntable is not touch sensitive then you will only be able to control nudging Assign the turntable s MIDI CC output to control the corresponding Main Waveform Display in Torq again this is done using the MIDI Learn feature described in the MIDI Preferences section of this guide 3 Torq will immediately assign the button as a Shift key for use within the program 78 Torg User Guide Chapter 15 79 MIDI Devices This list shows all MIDI devices currently recognized by Torq Each device is listed by name and is followed by a box which selects the device as being On or Off If you wish to use a device as a controller for Torq click the drop down menu and select On to activate it Leave any controller you do not wish to use with Torq set to Off External Control Tab This preference tab holds the options pertaining to external vinyl and CD control as well as the option for enabling AMPutate mode External Control When set to Yes this option enables exte
139. ur stylus cartridge is too low this can also result in high Error Index readings Try replacing your stylus cartridge with one of the recommended models at the end of this manual for a higher output level Torg User Guide Chapter 6 30 Standard Mode When you enable External Control Torq will be in Standard mode In this mode one control source is assigned to each Deck You will need two sources 2 turntables 2 CD players or one of each in order to control the two Decks in Torq This is just like using traditional hardware to DJ When using Standard mode you have two control styles to choose from Absolute mode and Relative mode which are explained below Absolute Mode This is the default control style when in Standard mode and is indicated by the gt lt icon on what was previously the Play Pause button on the Decks Absolute mode means that Torq will be following the position of the external control source This is most apparent when using the Control Vinyls you can lift the needle and place it in different locations on the record and Torq s Decks will follow this position If you place the needle at the beginning of the record or rewind the Control CD back to the beginning of a track the song in the Deck will also jump back to the beginning This mode is obviously the mode that will recreate the sensation of using CDs and Vinyl with the greatest detail You will be able to control playback position from your turnta
140. urned up to three quarters of the maximum 96 on a scale of 0 to 127 the feedback will be 100 i e the delay will never fade away 3 When the knob is turned past three quarters 96 the feedback will be increased beyond 100 allowing the delay to get louder with each time it is repeated E Tweak Button Use this button to change the Delay time of the effect The Delay s time will be set to match the rate at which you tap this button Furthermore this button will blink at the rate of the current delay time The maximum delay time is two bars and the minimum time is 1 l6 note 1 16 of a bar The operation of this button is governed by a few rules l Torq will determine the tempo within only two taps This allows you to change the delay time very quickly even while the Delay is already active 2 Since Torq knows the tempo of the song playing on the Deck the delay time you tap using the Tweak button will automatically be adjusted to match a note value at the current tempo For example if the song BPM is 120 and you tap a tempo that is read as 122 BPM the delay time will be set to 120 BPM quarter note delay If you tap a tempo that is read as 158 BPM the delay tempo will be rounded up to 160 which is a dotted eighth Reverb Reverb is the phenomenon in which sound bounces off the walls within a room creating hundreds thousands of echoes that cannot be individually identified by the human ear The total result of all these echo
141. verified the setting here you can continue diagnosing your problem Velocity and Position When the external control system is operating properly it provides three vital pieces of information to Torq s Decks the speed and direction of the Control Vinyl or Control CD as well as the current position on the record or CD The Velocity display shows a number that indicates both speed and direction at the same time When the Velocity is 0 the record or CD is stopped or the needle has been lifted off the record If the number is 1 0 that means the vinyl record is running forward at normal speed when using the Torq Control Vinyls this refers to 33 1 3 RPM playback on the turntable When the number is 1 0 it means the record or CD is running backwards at normal speed 33 1 3 RPM As you manipulate the record or CD by hand or with their pitch adjusters you ll see the Velocity display change immediately to reflect the movements The Position display shows a number that Torq uses to calculate the playback position for the audio file loaded into the Deck When the record or CD is playing forward this number will increase it will decrease if the record or CD is playing backwards You ll also notice that this number will jump whenever you lift the needle off the record and place it in another location known as a needle drop This is what allows Torq to play back a song just as if it was pressed right into the Control Vinyl or Control CD m R
142. ware to control nearly any feature within the application The Control Vinyl and Control CD system works by using vinyl records and compact discs imprinted with special control signals You ll play these control signals on your turntables and or CD players and feed that signal into any professional audio interface that has four inputs with phono preamplifiers on each input if you are using turntables such as the M Audio Conectiv Torq will listen to those audio signals and will use the encoded information to control the playback of the Decks Enabling VinyI CD Control Connect the outputs of your first turntable or CD player to inputs 1 2 of your audio interface If the interface has a Line Phono input selector switch be sure to set it to Phono if using turntables or Line if using CD players or turntables with built in preamps GROUND INPUTB INPUTA ao OUTPUTB OUTPUTA Line Phono Turntable or CD Player 2 Connect the outputs of your second turntable or CD player to inputs 3 4 of your audio interface Again you ll need to set its input selector switch as described above Using Torq with only one turntable or CD player The connection diagram on this page assumes you have a traditional DJ setup two CD players or turntables However Torq has a special AMPutate Mode that allows you to control both decks using only one turntable or CD player This mode is described later
143. will then have a choice of clicking one of the following buttons Ignore Clicking this button will allow the Playlist to load however all missing songs will be displayed in red in the File List window Auto scan Clicking this button will cause Torq to search all hard drives connected to your computer in an attempt to find the missing file s If a file is found with the same name but in a different location another dialog box will appear with the following message Would you like to use this file for name of missing file By choosing Yes Torq will use the file and automatically assume that the rest of the missing files will also be in this same folder Once found these files will automatically be loaded If the other missing files are not in this location Torq will continue searching the computer until another file is found 2 Choosing No will allow the search to continue for another possible file in a different location 3 If the search completes without finding the proper file a dialog box will appear with the following message Cannot find name of missing file When you click OK Torq will display the file in red in the File List indicating that the song cannot be played If there are other files to search for the search process will continue Manual Clicking this button will open a standard operating system dialog box that will allow you to manually search for the audio file on your hard
144. wing procedure Using the Browser or Database locate the song you d like to add to the Playlist 2 Right click CTRL click on Mac the song name and select Add to Playlist from the pop up menu 3 The song will be added to the bottom of the Playlist m Removing Songs from a Playlist You can remove songs from a Playlist as follows I Right click CTRL click on Mac the song in the Playlist you wish to delete 2 Select Remove from Playlist from the pop up menu 3 Torq will remove the song from the Playlist but the song will remain in the Torq Database it will not be deleted from your computer m Reordering Songs in a Playlist The order in which your songs are displayed in the Playlist can be changed Click and drag the song up or down in the list 2 If you drag the song on top of another existing song releasing the mouse button will cause the song to be inserted above the song in the list m Activating a Playlist When you select a Playlist Torq runs a quick scan of your computer s drives to ensure all the audio files referenced by the Playlist are present on the computer If Torq cannot locate one or more of the songs from the Playlist possibly because the drive containing the song is no longer connected to the computer or the source file has been deleted a pop up dialog will appear with the following message Cannot find one or more of the files used in this Playlist What would you like to do You
145. ww m audio jp 33 0 1 72 72 90 52 Site Web www m audio fr 070521_TorqUniv_UG_ENO1
146. y values raise the Power Threshold another 5dB 6 Eventually you ll reach a point where the Velocity stays at 0 00 This is the optimal setting for the Power Threshold 7 Please note that if you re in a noisy environment that does not have good physical isolation of the turntables to prevent external vibrations from being picked up by the stylus you may need to raise the Power Threshold setting a little higher to filter out the additional noise in the room Error Index If you ve checked your audio cable connections and have also replaced your turntable s needles yet still experience problems take a look at the Error Index displays These displays will be showing a number typically between 0 15 and 1 50 which is perfectly normal If the number is above 2 0 it will turn red indicating that there is too much noise in the audio signal for Torq to properly track position and velocity Try cleaning the record using a high quality vinyl cleaning system Too much dirt on the record can cause errors in the tracking process A high Error Index can also be caused by wear and tear on the Control Vinyl Each time a record is played it is slightly damaged especially if the tracking weight of the needle is very heavy After repeated use the control signal may become distorted and unreadable Simply flip over the Control Vinyl to the second side or purchase a replacement record from the M Audio Webstore www m audio com If the output level of yo

M-Audio Torq DJ Equipment User Manual

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