Torq User Guide » Chapter 1 29Torq User Guide » Chapter 6 29< 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 a s the control source plays. If this n umber 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 t o poor stereo separation i n the turntable’s needle or pre amp. This is especially com mon with
very old needles. To x this, purcha se a replaceme nt vinyl record, replace your stylus, or purchase one of the
recommended styli/car tridges listed at the end of this manual .
< Erratic Velocity Values
A turntable is a very sensitive piece of equipm ent. It can take the smallest vibrations and amplif y them into audible
sound. That’s what’s happening w hen you play a record—the grooves in the record v ibrate the stylus as they play
and those vibrations are translated to audio. The pro blem with turntables, t hough, is that they cannot di stinguish
between what is an intentional vibration caused by the moving grooves in the record and an unintentional vibration
picked up through t he body of the turntable . For example, if you k ick the table the turn table is on, that “thu mp”
will be transferred throu gh the turntable up through the needle and t ranslated into sound.
What this means, in t erms of the External Control system, is that vibrations a nd other unintent ional 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 th e records.
In order to help minimize this problem, Torq has a se tting called “Power Threshold” with variou s 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 thi s level properly:
1. Open the External Control Prefe rences and enable External Control.
2. Place the needle of your turntable on the Con trol Vinyl, but leave the turntable stopped .
3. Lower the Power Threshold to -40 and look at the Velocit y value for the deck.
4. If the Velocity is s howing random values even though the turntable is stopped, that me ans the Power
Threshold is too low—Torq is picking up noise and inter preting it as a control signal.
5. Increase the Power Thre shold by 5dB and look at the Velocity va lue again. If you still see random Velocit y
values, raise the Power Thresho ld another 5dB.
6. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where the Velocity s tays 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 p revent external vibrations from being picked up by t he stylus), you may need to raise t he Power
Threshold setting a lit tle higher to lter out the additional noise i n 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 t he Error Index displays. Th ese displays will be showing a number typically bet ween 0.15 and 1.50, which is
perfectly norm al. 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 clea ning the record using a h igh quality vinyl clea ning system. Too much
dirt on the record can cause er rors in the tracking process.
A high E rror Index can also be caused by wear and te ar on the Con trol Vinyl. Each time a record is played, it is slightly
damaged, espe cially if the track ing weight of the need le is very heavy. Af ter repeated use, t he control signal may be come
distorted and unreadable . Simply ip over the Control Vinyl to the second side or purchase a replacement record from the
M-Audio Webstore (www.m- audio.com).
If the outp ut level of your styl us/cartridge is too l ow, this can also result in high Error Index readings. Try replacing your
stylus/cartridge w ith one of the recommended models at the end of t his manual for a higher output level.