23

CHAPTER
1
English

23

English
CHAPTER
5
SynChron izaTion
At most of today’s dance clubs and events, the DJ will mix the songs together using a
technique called beat- matching. The goal is to fade the volumes betwee n two songs while
keeping them perfectl y 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 t he individual songs they have in their collection. Proper execution
of this technique requires t he mastery of two tasks: matchi ng tempo and matching phase.

Automatic Tempo and Phase Detection

As mentioned before, tempo is the measurement of speed of a song expressed as BP M.
Torq automatically determines the tempo of a son g when you load it onto a Deck, so
matching tempos is as sim ple as moving the Speed slider on a Deck until t he 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 son g 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 mome nt, or in-phase with each other. Phase re fers to the star ting point within
a cycle. In te rms of music, it refer s to where the beats are located in a song, such as the
downbeat of a measu re. When beat-matching song s, you’ll normally want the dow nbeats
of both songs aligned with each other. When aligned properly, the beats of b oth songs
will blend together into one larger beat . If the songs are misaligned 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 wrec k” and is something that should be avoided at all time s).
Torq’s Scrolling Waveforms will help you match the phases of t he two songs. Not only
can you visually align the tran sients in the waveforms, you can also use the Phase Grid for
automatic synchronizat ion.

Phase Grid Manipulations

Torq also places a Phase Grid over the Scrolling Waveforms to help you see where t he
beats are , even dur ing a breakdow n or rhyt hmless intro of a song. In order for Torq’s
automatic synchroniz ation to work, the Phase Gr id will need to be aligned prop erly with
the mu sic. With the Ph ase Grids of both songs aligned properly, Torq will be able to
sync the two songs together wit hout creating train wrecks. Torq will atte mpt to place
the Ph ase Grid in the proper locat ion during song analysis . If Torq positions the Grid
incorrectly, it will be up to you to re- align it to the proper beat.