Torq User Guide » Chapter 1 32Torq User Guide » Chapter 6 32
BPM Matching
So how does one go about doing a DJ set with only one t urntable? It is a little diffe rent than doing it in Standard mode,
primarily due to the f act that you must use Torq’s on-screen Speed sliders t o match tempos as opposed to using t he pitch
sliders on your turntable or C D 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 p layback speed of the song changes, just as if you’d moved the pitch slider on the actual
turntable or CD player.
The reason fo r requiring the use of the on-screen controls lies in the fact that external control can be toggled back and
forth between t he Decks at will. Any time you do this, you’ll want the Decks to kee p their previous tempos. If the tempo
of a Deck changed when swap ping external control, the mix would suddenl y fall wildly out of sync.
Therefore, the speed of the Con trol Vinyl or Control CD must remai n constant—Torq will scale the playback rat e as
appropriate based on the set ting of the Decks’ Speed sliders. If you chang e the speed of the control source, you’ll nd that
the Decks suddenly cha nge speed any time you toggle external cont rol.
There is, however, one unique advantage to t his setup: you can make use of Torq’s automatic be at-matching! Instead of
manually moving the on-scre en Speed slider with the mouse or MIDI Control , you can simply click the Deck’s Sync button
and it’s Speed sl ider will be moved to mat ch the tempo of the other Deck. Click th e Sync button again to turn it off, and
the Deck will re main at the proper speed w aiting for the external control signal to begin. A ll you have to do then is s tart
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 fa ster.
Runout Protection
Since there is only ab out 12 minutes of usable control signal on each side of the Control Vinyls or on each track of the CD,
it is possibl e that the song you are controlling could exceed the length of control signal available on the re cord or CD. This is
extremely com mon when using Relative mode sin ce the needle or CD position could be half way through when you start the
next track.
In order to prevent t he music from stopping abru ptly if the control signal runs out on the record or C D, Torq features Runout
Protection which essentially disab les 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 lett ing the song on the Deck continue to play. You will
be able to take the needle off the record and place it bac k at the beginning without Torq stopping the music (the same is true for
the CD—you can ju mp back to the beginning of the track wi thout stopping the music). Once Torq reads a few seconds of signal
from the new location, it will re -engage external control agai n allowing you to scratch and manipulate like normal.
Note: If you are currently in Absolute mode when the last 30 seconds of control signal are reached, Torq will automatically switch the Deck
into Relative mode when it engages t he Runout Protection. The Deck will remai n in Relative mode a fter you reset the r ecord or CD, thus
preventing the music from jumpi ng to an unexpected location when ext ernal control is enabled again.
MIDI Control
While the Torq Control Vinyl and Cont rol CDs offer a great way to control song playback on the Decks, there are still
plenty of other fe atures in Torq that would surely feel good under t he ngertips. For that purpose, Torq provide s the
option of MIDI control for nearly every but ton, knob, and slider on the inte rface. Since MIDI is a common prot ocol
shared between all t ypes of musical gear, you can use almost anything c apable of generating MIDI note or CC m essages to
control Torq—they do not need to be specialized DJ controllers. This w ill offer you a way to experiment with different
control me thods when DJing, such as usi ng an M -Audio Trigger Finger to control samp les or an Evolution UC-33e to
control effects.