Torq 1.5 User Guide Chapter 1 17Torq 1.5 User Guide Chapter 3 17
Speed Slider
Torq’s Decks are each equipped with a Speed
Adjust slider for the purpose of beat-mat ching
songs. This slider behaves just like the pitch
adjusters found on DJ turntables and C D players.
As you move this slider, the neighboring ADJ
display will show how much the song’s speed is
being altered (expressed as a percent where 0%
is the original speed of the song) and the B PM
display will change to show the new tempo of the
song.
For those not familiar with these contro ls, your
first impression may be that the slider is work ing
backward since the speed of the song will
increase as you move the slider down on screen.
However, this is the proper behavior for pitch
controls found on DJ turntables and CD pl ayers.
It makes sense if you consider the following:
The pitch adjust slider on a turntable is m ounted flat on the surface of the turnta ble’s housing. Therefore, when you use
the slider, you either push it away from you or pull it towards you. When a song i s going too fast, you push the slider
away from yourself, just as if you put out your hand in a “slow down” motion. I f you need the song to go faster, you pull
the slider toward you, similar to how you would gesture tow ards yourself if you wanted someone to move quickly. Aft er
a few hours of practice, this “backw ard” response will feel natural.
< Slider Range
By default, the range of the Speed Adjuste r is +/- 8%. That means that if you move the slider to eithe r of its
extremes, you’ll only get an 8% change in th e speed of the song. To the left of the Speed Adjuster is a dis play
showing the current range setting for t he slider:
You can change the range of the Speed Adjuster by clicking on thi s range display. Each time you click, the range
will advance to the next highest set ting. The order is: 8%, 10%, 20%, 50% , then 100%. When you click the displ ay
again, the range will “wrap around ” back to 8%. You’ll only need to increase the range whe n you’re trying to
match two songs with very diffe rent tempos, or when you want to perfor m an extreme speed change as a special
effect (especially effect ive when the range is set to 100%).
Most experienced DJs will simply match the tem pos of two songs by hand using the Speed Adjust slid er, which
is a perfectly acceptable me thod of matching songs (indeed, this is the w ay it’s been done for decades). Since it
requires a lot of practice to hear when one so ng is playing faster or slower than another, those new to DJing w ill
benefit from some of the extra feature s built into Torq. Such features include automatic beat de tection, BPM
displays, scrolling waveform displays, and aut omatic synchronization.