Torq User Guide » Chapter 1 69Torq User Guide » Chapter 13 69
Strobe
Just about anyone who has been to a d ance club in the last 20 years has experienc ed a strobe light. Those are the super-
bright lights that  ash really quickly. They have the effect of m aking everyone look like they’re in “stop motion”— the ash
is so fast that you can’t see movement anymore .
Torq’s Strobe effect will create a si milar stop-motion effec t, but it will do it to audio. The Strobe will essentially mute and
unmute the audio at a rat e that you can control. The rate can be as slow as one bar (2 beats unmute d followed by 2 beats
muted) or as fast as 1/64- note.
< Enable Button
Turns the Strobe effect on and off.
< Mix Knob and Routing Button
Because t he Strobe ef fect is d esigned to m ute the audio from a Deck, it needs to be used as an Insert effect.
Therefore, the Routing But ton will be set to Insert mode whenever you load t his effect.
The Mix knob wil l control the Dry/Wet mix of the effect. In use , this will control the de pth of the Strobe effec t.
Since the Strobe effect is mutin g the signal that passes through it, setting the Mix k nob 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 the Strobe.
< 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).
< Tweak Button
Activating this button rever ses the behavior of the Strobe— what was normally muted will be unmuted and
vice versa.
Reverse
Reversing the playback dire ction of a song can be a fun pa rty gimmick (you and your frie nds can look for hidden message s
“backmasked” in the song). H owever, 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). Th e 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 opposit e 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 nd that playback is now two
bars before the chorus when you re sume normal playback.
Torq overcomes these s hortcomings by implementing reversed playback as an effect r ather than as a function of t he
Deck. By doing so, you can reverse playback insta ntaneously—there is no lag due to the turntable changing directio ns.
Furthermore, since this is an effect, the song on the De ck will continue to play normally (the waveform will continue to
scroll in the forward direct ion) thus keeping the play position correct as you switch t he Reverse effect on and off.
< Enable Button
When using the Reverse effec t, this button is always on and cann ot be turned off.
< Mix Knob and Routing Button
The Mix knob has no funct ion. The effect is routed as an Insert e ffect by default.
< Parameter Knob
The Parameter knob h as no function.
< Parameter Button
This button will turn the Reverse on and off. This but ton is momentary, meaning you have to keep holding it while
the song plays backwards . When you release the button, normal pl ayback will resume.