M-Audio Torq 1.5 User Manual Download

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Table of Contents

Chapter 9

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Browser/Database

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Browser Pane

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Database

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

File List

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Editing Fields

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Loading Songs into the Decks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Unloading Songs from the Decks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Sorting the List

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Searching the List

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Playlists

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Session Playlist

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

iTunes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

iPods

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Drives

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Audio CDs

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Chapter 10

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Mixer

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Mixer Architecture

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Channels

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Gain/Mute

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

EQ/Kills

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

PFL/Headphone Cue

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Channel Volume Faders

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Line Input Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Crossfader

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Chapter 11

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

PFL/Headphone Cue

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Volume Control

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Split Button and Source Knob

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Chapter 12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Master Output

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Volume Control

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Level Meter and Limiter

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Master Recorder

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Filename

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Setting the Record Level

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Recording

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Chapter 13

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Controls

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Effect Slot

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Enable Button

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Mix Knob

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Routing Button

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Tweak Knob

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Tweak Button

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Saving Effect Racks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Loading Effect Racks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Bypassing the Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Clearing all Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Built-In Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Delay

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Reverb

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Flanger

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Phaser

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Dual-Filter

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Distortion

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Strobe

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Reverse

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Brake

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Repeat

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

VST Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Latency

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Selecting Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Assigning Controls

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

VST Crash Guard

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

VST Preset Management

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Chapter 14

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

ReWire

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Global Tempo

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Audio Routing

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Chapter 15

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Preferences

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Audio Tab

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Torq Engine

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Timestretching Quality

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Auto Gain

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Audio Interface

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Sample Rate

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Buffer Size

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Mixer Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

MIDI Tab

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Auto-Detect M-Audio Devices ([On]/Off)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

MIDI Soft Takeover

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Scratch Sensitivity

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Nudge Sensitivity

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Crossfader Curve Control

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

MIDI SHIFT Key

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Instant Doubles

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

MIDI Clock

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

MIDI Devices

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

External Control Tab

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

External Control

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

AMPutate Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Lead In

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Skip Protection

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Plug-ins Tab

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

System VST Plug-in Directory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Custom VST Plug-in Directory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Torq 1.5 User Guide

Summary of Contents for Torq 1.5

Page 1: ...user guide 1 5 ...

Page 2: ... Detection 28 Phase Grid Manipulations 28 Adjusting with the Mouse 29 Adjusting with Nudge Buttons 29 Adjusting with Offset Buttons 29 Sync Button 30 Locked Sync 30 Momentary Sync 30 Global Tempo 30 Global Tempo LEDs 31 Global Tempo Metronome 31 Using a Deck as a Tempo Master 31 Chapter 6 32 External Control 32 Enabling Vinyl CD Control 32 External Control Calibration 34 Control Type 34 Velocity a...

Page 3: ...68 Tweak Knob 68 Tweak Button 69 Saving Effect Racks 69 Loading Effect Racks 69 Bypassing the Effects 69 Clearing all Effects 69 Built In Effects 70 Delay 70 Reverb 71 Flanger 72 Phaser 72 Dual Filter 73 Distortion 74 Strobe 75 Reverse 75 Brake 76 Repeat 76 VST Effects 77 Latency 77 Selecting Effects 77 Assigning Controls 78 VST Crash Guard 78 VST Preset Management 78 Chapter 14 79 ReWire 79 Globa...

Page 4: ...Track 93 Cue Exclusivity 93 Schaffel Mode 93 Sync Mode 93 Loop Cue Quantize 94 Loop Out Mode 94 QuickLoop Size 94 QuickLoop Mode 94 Beat Detection Style 95 Beat Detection Limits 95 Sample Counter 95 Chapter 16 96 Appendix 96 Preset Key Assignments 96 Global Key Commands 96 Ortofon 96 Shure 96 Stanton 96 Windows Key Commands 96 Mac Key Commands 96 ...

Page 5: ...software TORQ OVERVIEW Torq is a software extrapolation and extension of tried and true DJ tools and techniques for your Mac OS X Windows XP or Vista 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 fashion that makes you part of the music Exercising this level of control upon your c...

Page 6: ...thin the song Torq is equipped with two of these Decks one on each side of the screen 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 co...

Page 7: ...ear 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 preview music from the Browser and also features a stereo headphone split normally reserved for high quality DJ mixers Browser Database There is a third ingredient to DJing and that s music lots of music...

Page 8: ... bass drums and sound effects Torq has a 16 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 c...

Page 9: ... port for use by approved M Audio Hardware Device System Disk 7200RPM or faster Secondary Dedicated Audio Hard Drive 7200RPM or faster Windows Experience Index of 4 2 or better Mac 2 Minimum System Requirements 1 OS Mac OS X 10 4 11 CPU G4 1 67 GHz RAM 512 MB USB One available port for use by approved M Audio Hardware Device Recommended System Specifications Laptop OS Mac OS X 10 5 5 CPU Mac Intel...

Page 10: ... shortcuts in the Windows Start menu If you are not familiar with this leave the default selection and choose Next 9 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 10 Confirm your install settings and choose Install 11 Torq will begin installing its process indicated by a Wind...

Page 11: ...r 2 Your serial number is on a printed card included in boxed versions of Torq or was sent to you electronically for on line upgrades If you have not purchased a serial number click the Buy button and Torq will point your default web browser to the M Audio Webstore 3 Type your serial number into the dialog box and click OK 4 Torq is now unlocked and ready to use ...

Page 12: ... 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 the Song Name above this field will be empty if there is no entry in the Artist category of the file 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 expres...

Page 13: ...Jing 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 creating a live remix of the song The Torq Decks accomplish these t...

Page 14: ...ere are a few different ways to set QuickCue Points but all methods deliver the same results 1 Click the 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 QuickCue will be visible in the Overview Waveform display 2 Hold the Shift key while clicking one of the QuickCue buttons Ag...

Page 15: ...the Scrolling Waveform to move the start location you ll hear the repeating audio slice change as you do this Press the Cue button to set the Cue Point to this location and the repeating audio slice will stop 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 wil...

Page 16: ...click the Loop Out button This will place a Loop Out Marker at the Now Line which will also snap to the nearest 16th note this behavior can be changed in the Preferences 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 4 When you re finished looping this section ...

Page 17: ... beat two beats four beats and eight beats in size Changing QuickLoop Lengths Along with being able to capture loops of a specific size the QuickLoop buttons also allow you to change the size of the loops after they have been made Torq has two methods for changing QuickLoop lengths which are selected from the Preferences 1 Open the Torq Preferences menu and click on the Behaviors tab 2 Locate the ...

Page 18: ...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 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 ran...

Page 19: ...t to analyze a trip hop track Torq will give you the wrong tempo You can then change the music type and re analyze the song if needed 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 match the tempos of the two songs just by matching the BPM values ...

Page 20: ...n 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 This will also clear any Tempo Anchors if any have been created Tap Tempo cannot be used if there are Tempo Anchors in a song BPM Entry If you happen to know the BPM of the song you can manually enter it into the BPM display thus overriding the tempo ...

Page 21: ... 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 1 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...

Page 22: ... of synchronizing the beat and BPM of one Deck to the other or the Global 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 Global Tempo Furthermore when you press Play Torq will align the song to the phase of the other Deck or Global Tempo Essentially the Synced Deck will be slaved to the other Deck which would be the master Sync ...

Page 23: ...n 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 corre...

Page 24: ...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...

Page 25: ...ill 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 Phase Grid Torq superimposes a Phase Grid over the Scrolli...

Page 26: ... 1 Play the song 2 Use the Tap Tempo feature to determine the approximate tempo while the song plays This is very important since this will get the Phase Grid close to the proper position leaving only minor edits for you to do later 3 Stop the song and rewind back to the beginning 4 Hold SHIFT and drag the Phase Grid so that the downbeat the thicker line is aligned with the first visible beat of t...

Page 27: ... adjust any of the Tempo Anchors that need it 2 Use fewer Tempo Anchors While you could surely turn every single grid line into a Tempo Anchor this is usually not necessary Often long sections of a song will have a consistent tempo In these cases it s usually enough to place a Tempo Anchor at the beginning and another at the end of that section All the grid lines will distribute themselves evenly ...

Page 28: ...le 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...

Page 29: ...e 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 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 misaligned or out of phase it w...

Page 30: ...sting with the Mouse 1 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 of...

Page 31: ...em 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 Global Tempo Using the Sync button as described above ...

Page 32: ... LEDs you will hear a metronome sound in your headphones This will allow you to hear the position of the Global Tempo Though the sound of the Metronome can be heard in the headphones it will not be recorded into the Sampler Using a Deck as a Tempo Master Because songs can contain tempo changes Tempo Anchors it is now possible to have the Global Tempo follow a Deck To do this hold SHIFT while engag...

Page 33: ... 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 Vinyl CD Control 1 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 turntab...

Page 34: ...ick the Control Input B drop down menu and choose input 3 input 4 7 Now click the External Control tab Note An additional tab appears on the right side of the 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 abou...

Page 35: ...urers 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 s...

Page 36: ... 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 r...

Page 37: ... 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 turntables 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 dire...

Page 38: ...u 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 5 Close the Preferences 6 Load a track onto Deck A and click the Vinyl button located right below the QuickCue buttons 7 Deck A will...

Page 39: ... 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 ...

Page 40: ...ple MIDI Learn scheme to make assigning controls on your MIDI controllers a breeze 1 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 inte...

Page 41: ...our 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 The EQ will jump to 0 Press X again and the ...

Page 42: ...le 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 ...

Page 43: ... 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 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 rec...

Page 44: ...p 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 Global Tempo if the Global Tempo button is activated When deactivated the sample will be triggered as a one shot This means the sample will play only once when t...

Page 45: ...ble grayed out if the sample slot is empty Unload Sample Choosing this option will remove the current sample from the sampler 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 f...

Page 46: ...he 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 1 and the Fresh sample in...

Page 47: ...ts 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 the ...

Page 48: ...meters 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 Deck s Key setting will be updated by the Snapshot alon...

Page 49: ...lent 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 ...

Page 50: ...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 It allows you to navigate drives folders and playlists through an easy to use file str...

Page 51: ... 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 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 automat...

Page 52: ...atabase 2 Click on one of the folders The File List will be updated to only show the songs contained in that specific folder 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 remove them or you can locate the original folders on your hard drives to remove them To remove folders di...

Page 53: ...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 TQD 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 musi...

Page 54: ...F and WAV formats or does not have the proper text filled in Here the actual name of the file as it exists on your hard drive will be shown Searching the List The simplest method for searching is to type a keyword or keywords into the Search field above the Database Browser 1 Click the Database heading in the Browser pane to select it 2 Click in the Search field and type in your search term s Term...

Page 55: ... the term Lover into the Ignore field will return the following list Artist 4 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 Your Lover has been removed from the list 4 Note Reference to artists and bands is for informational purposes only and does not imply an endorsement or sponsorship of...

Page 56: ...on it you can duplicate or copy it for future modification 1 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 usin...

Page 57: ...oper 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 th...

Page 58: ... 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 Renam...

Page 59: ... 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 Playlists iTunes also supports the creation and editing of playlists but they are a different format from the m3u format used by Torq...

Page 60: ...tire 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 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 list...

Page 61: ...anding 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 throughout this User Manual Channels When audio from...

Page 62: ...solating 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 get...

Page 63: ...king 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...

Page 64: ...e using either of the following Adjusting with the Mouse 1 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 Equ...

Page 65: ...beled 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 It can be a good way to check ...

Page 66: ...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 Output which will keep the Main Outputs from clipping Whenever the yellow circle located at the right edge of the ...

Page 67: ...wn 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 se...

Page 68: ...ware 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 which you ll choose 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 ...

Page 69: ...ready playing Therefore think of Insert Effects as replacing your sound while Send Effects add to your sound Each time you click the Routing Button it will toggle its state between Insert and Send When loading an effect Torq will automatically set the Routing Button to the mode most appropriate for the effect i e the Reverb will be loaded in Send mode while the Dual Filter will be loaded in Insert...

Page 70: ...e it and click OK The file will be saved as a preset containing all information regarding the Effect Rack configuration 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 1 Click the Load Rack button A standard dialog box will appear 2 Browse to the location on your hard drive in whi...

Page 71: ...f the following 1 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 Tweak Knob Use thi...

Page 72: ...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 th...

Page 73: ... 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 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 F...

Page 74: ...er on and off 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 Tweak Button The Tweak button is used to set the...

Page 75: ...f 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 Tweak Knob When set to Overdrive mode the Tweak knob will increase the vol...

Page 76: ...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 censor 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 turnta...

Page 77: ...d as an Insert effect Tweak Knob This knob will set the Brake time As you turn this knob clockwise the Brake time will become longer 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 tri...

Page 78: ...dio 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...

Page 79: ...om view To bring the VST Effect back to the front click on the Wrench icon in the VST Effect slot or click the effect s Taskbar Dock icon 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 an...

Page 80: ...e with any ReWire host application such as Pro Tools or Ableton Live To begin a ReWire session 1 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...

Page 81: ...l 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 1 and 2 carry the signal from Deck A ...

Page 82: ...ected 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 Altho...

Page 83: ...etter suited for making more drastic changes to pitch and key and yields very few audio artifacts This is the preferred algorithm if you have a fast computer Auto Gain When this preference is set to Yes Torq will automatically set the Gain Knob to a position that brings the volume of a song up to 0dB RMS whenever a new one is loaded onto a Deck This will ensure that the volumes of your tracks are ...

Page 84: ...ize 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 t...

Page 85: ...t pair for use as the Line Input for Channel B of the Mixer Control Input A Click to access the drop down menu and select the stereo input to which your left turntable or CD player is connected This is also the Control Input used by AMPutate mode Control Input B Click to access the drop down menu and select the stereo input to which your right turntable or CD player is connected External Mixer Dec...

Page 86: ...an move to a new location when matching tempos When this happens the position of the controls on your MIDI controller will no longer match those on screen The MIDI Soft Takeover preference determines what will happen when you move one of these MIDI controls When MIDI Soft Takeover is Off Torq s on screen controls will immediately jump to match the location of the MIDI control as soon as you move i...

Page 87: ... 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 1 Press the button labeled Learn to activate it The button will turn red 2 Push a button or key on your MIDI controller The MIDI Shift Key button will turn green 3 Torq will immediately assign the button as a Shift key for use within the program Instant Doub...

Page 88: ...ck is received 4 Enable transmission of MIDI Clock in your external device Please refer to the product s user manual for the proper method of doing this 5 Start the external device possibly by pressing Play or Run 6 Torq s Global Tempo will change to match the tempo of the external device The Global Tempo LEDs will also chase in time with the external device Setting up MBC Output To slave an exter...

Page 89: ...ternal sequencer to Torq and you re ready to go Swapping DJs If you re in the middle of a Torq set and another Torq DJ is ready to play after you you can transmit your Global Tempo to that DJ allowing him to sync up everything on his computer to yours thus allowing for automatic beat matched transitions between DJs If you re the first DJ set your computer to output MBC and set your last track as t...

Page 90: ...eptionally heavy or if you scratch in the same place a lot the grooves in the record can be eaten away thus tarnishing the sound quality This frequently happens at the beginning of records and is something DJs call cue burn With traditional records cue burn was something to pay attention to because it didn t sound very good When using control records like the Torq Vinyls cue burn becomes a serious...

Page 91: ...ithin that time you ll never hear the music stop Be aware that this feature has its limits If the record player is bumped such that the tonearm bounces completely off the record the music will stop Note Skip Protection can be turned on and off from Torq s Toolbar Simply click the Skip Protection button to toggle the feature Control Calibration The settings within this preference are used to config...

Page 92: ... the drop down menu 2 Torq will now use the VST plug ins found at the path listed in the window just below Custom VST Plug in Directory 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 ...

Page 93: ...h 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 applied 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 Search iTunes Library with Database If you happen to have a copy of Apple iTunes installed ...

Page 94: ...raight 16th note 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 1 4 1 8 1 8T 1 16T and 1 32T Th...

Page 95: ...op lengths 1 16 bar 1 8 bar 1 4 bar 1 2 bar 1 bar 2 bars 4 bars 8 bars 16 bars etc 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 QuickLoop Mode This preference determines the behavior of the...

Page 96: ...acy of Torq s beat detection For example if you have House selected here and attempt to analyze a group of Drum Bass tracks the analysis will return the incorrect tempo it will be too slow Set this preference to Drum Bass then re analyze the affected files Those files will now be analyzed with the proper tempo Beat Detection Limits You can further fine tune the beat detection by setting your own u...

Page 97: ... Tab Toggle Browser and Snapshot views Shift 7 Set QuickCue 2 on Deck B 1 QuickCue 1 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 SHIFT F1 Unload Deck A 5 QuickCue 5 on Deck A SHIFT F2 Unload Deck B 6 QuickCue 1 on Deck B SHIFT SET Clear all QuickCues on a Deck 7 Qui...

Page 98: ... 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 2008 Avid Technology Inc All rights reserved Product features specifications system requirements and availability are subject to change with...

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