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User Guide
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Torq MixLab User Guide Table of Contents Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 WELCOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 EXTERNAL CONTROL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Torq MixLab User Guide Table of Contents Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 PREFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Audio Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Audio Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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3 WELCOME Chapter ongratulations on your purchase of M-Audio’s MixLab DJ system! M-Audio is an C industry-leader in professional music products for computer-based musicians and DJs. What you hold in your hands is a piece of that heritage—a piece of the very products used daily by professionals around the world. With the MixLab DJ package, you will DJ using your collection of audio files on your computer. You can even record the results and burn them onto CD, or copy them onto a me
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Torq MixLab User Guide » Chapter 1 4 TORQ LE OVERVIEW orq LE is a software extrapolation and extension of tried-and-true DJ tools and techniques for your Mac OS X or T Windows XP computer. Torq is not bound by the limits of hardware—it embraces the technology of today’s most advanced audio production applications and integrates with them in a fashion that makes you part of the music. Exercising this level of control upon your collection of songs is a task that has many facet
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Torq MixLab User Guide » Chapter 1 5 Decks DJing begins with music, so you will get to know Torq’s Decks very well. A Deck is what Torq LE uses to play back a single digital music file and is analogous to the turntable or CD player used by DJs. The Deck allows you to play a track, change its speed and its key, as well as rearrange it by looping and jumping to new locations within the song. Torq is equipped with two of these Decks—one on each side of the screen. Main Wavef
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Torq MixLab User Guide » Chapter 1 6 PFL/Headphone Cue DJs commonly listen to a track on their headphones without letting their audience hear it. This allows them to match the tempo of the new song to the current one, along with finding the correct starting position for the song. Torq LE will allow you to monitor either Deck on headphones, and also features a stereo headphone split normally reserved for high-quality DJ mixers. Browser/Database There is a third ingredient to
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7 7 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS C Ch ha ap pt te er r Windows: Minimum System Requirements Recommended System Specifications OS: Windows XP (SP2) OS: Windows XP (SP2) CPU: Pentium III 933 MHz CPU: Pentium IV 2 GHz (or greater) RAM: 256 MB RAM: 1 GB 2 1 USB: One available port USB: One available port (for use with X-Session Pro) (for use with X-Session Pro) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . 7 Hard drive: 7200RPM or faster Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Mac
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 2 8 8 INSTALLATION Connect X-Session Pro first! X-Session Pro must be connected to your computer for Torq LE to launch. To install Torq LE on Windows XP: To install Torq LE on Mac OS X: 1. Insert the Torq MixLab CD-ROM 1. Insert the Torq MixLab CD-ROM into your into your computer. The computer computer. should automatically display an 2. A CD-ROM icon will appear on your desk
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9 9 DECKS C Ch ha ap pt te er r hen DJing, everything begins with the Decks. The Decks will play the music W that you’ll mix and effect using all the tools in Torq LE. Traditionally, a DJ’s decks will be turntables or CD players. Therefore, the Decks in Torq have been designed to emulate both turntables and CD players, as well as offering a special hybrid mode only possible with software. 3 1 Displays Each Deck has various informational displays throughout the interface. T
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 1 10 0 Time Elapsed This is the current location of the song, marked by the yellow Current Position Marker in the Overview Waveform Display. The Time Elapsed is expressed in hours/minutes/seconds/frames (30 fps). When the Current Position Marker is at the beginning of the song, the Time Elapsed will be 0:0:0.0. Time Remain This field indicates how much time is left before the song ends. At
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 1 11 1 Cue The Cue button will establish a primary Cue Point within a song. A Cue Point is a reference position within the track that you can jump to instantly, rather than having to seek through the track to find it. Typically, a DJ will set the Cue Point where the beat begins in a song. It is visible (in red) within the Waveform Display. The Cue button abides by the following rules: 1.
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 12 12 Deck Mode In order for Torq LE to feel familiar to all types of DJs, the Decks can be operated in one of three different modes. < Vinyl Mode Vinyl Mode will make the Deck behave as if it was a turntable. This means: 1. Pressing Play/Pause to pause playback will cause audio to stop, just like pressing stop on a turntable. 2. Clicking and dragging on the Scrolling Waveform will h
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 13 13 < Loop In/Out Looping an entire song doesn’t have much benefit for a DJ, so Torq allows you to move the Loop Markers by using the Loop In and Loop Out buttons: 1. Load a song into a Deck and press Play. The song will begin to play. 2. When playback reaches the beginning of the section you want to loop, click the Loop In button. This will place a Loop In Marker at the Current
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 1 14 4 » QuickLoop Size Preference As mentioned above, the default loop lengths for the four QuickLoop buttons are one bar, two bars, four bars, and eight bars. The QuickLoop Size preference allows you to change the QuickLoop buttons to beat values instead of bar values: 1. Open the Torq LE Preferences menu and click on the Behaviors tab. 2. Click the arrow next to QuickLoop
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 1 15 5 < Slider Range By default, the range of the Speed Adjuster is +/- 8%. That means that if you move the slider to either of its extremes, you’ll only get an 8% change in the speed of the song. To the left of the Speed Adjuster is a display showing the current range setting for the slider: You can change the range of the Speed Adjuster by clicking on this range display. Each time
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 1 16 6 » Manual Tempo As mentioned above, Torq LE can determine the tempo of most dance music. Some music, however, is too complex or not repetitive enough for Torq to detect the tempo with precision. Fortunately, you can help Torq to determine the proper tempo through a number of different methods. The appropriate method will be based on the type of tempo correction you’re trying to
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 1 17 7 < MIDI Slider/Knob Control MIDI control of the Key Adjust is different from other controls in Torq. You can assign a knob or slider to the Key Adjust, or you can assign keys on your MIDI keyboard—the behavior of the Key Adjust is dependent on your control method. 1. Make sure that your X-Session Pro has been properly installed and is configured to work with Torq LE. Please s
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 1 18 8 < MIDI Keyboard Control 1. If you have an additional MIDI controller keyboard attached, make sure that it has been properly installed and is configured to work with Torq LE. Please see chapter 6 for more information about configuring your X-Session Pro or additional MIDI keyboards to control Torq. 2. R ight-click (CTRL-click, Mac) on the Key Display. It will turn red indicatin
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T Torq MixLab User Guide orq MixLab User Guide » » Chapter 1 Chapter 3 1 19 9 Offset Buttons Sometimes when mixing two songs together, you may find that the beats are aligned with each other, yet the two songs are still out of phase. This is most obvious when one song is offset by one beat, causing the snare drums of the tracks to be out of alignment. The Offset buttons can be used to correct this. Pressing these buttons will make the Current Song Position ju
