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M-Audio Torq/Conectiv DJ Early Adopters Share Tips and Reviews

by Peter Kirn

DJ Monday continues … CDM reader Corporation shares a number of tips, resources, and reviews of the new M-Audio DJ solution, involving the Conectiv hardware and Torq software. The basic downsides: bad documentation, and hardware that may not work for everyone. But on the upside, M-Audio has a solution that, at a fraction of the price of some of its competitors, will let you do some serious digital warping of vinyl both in terms of processing timecode off records and adding VST effects.

If you are thinking of early-adopting Torq and Conectiv, you’ve got some good resources and tips from fellow users:
The Unofficial Torq DJ Forum

Informal review/discussion at ScratchLIVE.net forum

Review on Pro DJ Forums

Video

User guide PDF

M-Audio Conectiv Product Page

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  • http://mememiner.com Wallace Winfrey

    It's worth mentioning that the CD/vinyl timecode technology is provided by MsPinky. As a long-time user of the Pink Vinyl, I'm very happy to see a performance-oriented hardware package built around this technology. The PCDJ folks have been using some custom MsPinky vinyl for a few years, but their software is not what I would call performance-oriented.

    I was talking with MsPinky's main developer, and he said the partnership with M-Audio provided major improvements to the vinyl tracking technology. I always thought it was pretty good to begin with, but he says that he feels it's on par with Serato Scratch from a performance standpoint. Given that the Torq suite is much cheaper than Serato Scratch, this is good news indeed.

  • http://www.createdigitalmusic.com Peter Kirn

    Really? That's terrific. (I didn't mention it because I didn't know; I'll admit!)

    When you say the vinyl tracking is improved in Torq, will that translate to others using Ms Pinky, as well? (For instance, via VST in Ableton and such?)

  • Gene

    The problem (at least for me) is the fact that M-Audio is forcing customers to use their crap interface and also using it as an excuse to charge significantly more than they could for the software alone. I would purchase Torq tomorrow if I could use it with an interface I already have…

    Gene

  • http://www.corporation.tk corporation

    apperently one can use any audio interface they would like – but the conectiv hardware acts as a security dongle, so you have to keep it connected.

    supposedly m-audio will release a standalone version for a demo download – so if they do that, it's possible…

    things i dont like about the program – the database takes way too long to load at the opening of the program.. about 15minutes with 30000+ songs.. plus analysing overviews for each song takes a looooong time if you have lots of files like myself.

    the vinyl control is right on however. i'm currently trying to get my modded dm2 to work with it, but with my single 1200mk2 deck – torq rocks.

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  • http://mememiner.com Wallace Winfrey

    <blockquote cite="Peter Kirn">When you say the vinyl tracking is improved in Torq, will that translate to others using Ms Pinky, as well? (For instance, via VST in Ableton and such?)

    Since the bulk of the improvements took place in the tracking code, and because Torq is built on top of the MsPinky SDK, it means that other apps that are built on top, such as the Max/MSP objects, the BinkyToy, etc. will benefit. Unfortunately though, it's my understanding that the DJDecks folks decided to forego use of the MsPinky SDK for their MsPinky vinyl support, so it's unknown whether or not the v4 vinyl will see significant performance improvement in DJDecks. Not that I care anyway — Torq looks like the perfect cross-platform DJ app for me. Bummer about the long load times though.

  • http://www.corporation.tk corporation

    let me update…

    30 minutes for a database of 30000+ songs.

    timed it on my watch…

  • http://xfader.com Regend

    I got to beta test this during one of the builds and i really liked the feature that allows effects to be loaded for the individual tracks as well as support for VST's (a lot of which i find out about through CDM) For the price this product is Serato Killer for mixing and effects alone.

    My only concern is that when I tested this product there was a bit of lag in response with the time coded vinyl. Especially when doing doubles and juggling.

    DJ Revolution went on to test one of the final builds and he found a fast skratching bug…if you know Revolution you know his skracthing ability is almost unhuman. The software choked when he bashed away at it. He's now endorsing it and from recent tests that others have conducted it looks like this bug is fixed. I thought Arturia were the ones releasing the builds…but comments here say it's based on Ms. Pinky SDK??? I'll have to find out about this as well…I dont' know if I can make the switch…Serato works rock solid and beautifully on my PIII 900mhz with 256 of RAM.

    peace!

  • http://www.MassiveAudio.net Scooby Carolan

    Just bought it today.

    WAY IN LOVE!

    Too much to post, completely overwhelmed.

    For the price, and features/benefits, I'm glad i waited for Serato & FS to come out an do their thing. M-Audio picks up the ball and runs.

  • Mark "Hamzter&q

    Wow! amazing… but since it is half the cost of Serato is this is the Torq worthy of the competition for the price? Plus DJ Jazzy Jeff and Roc Raida uses Serato…

    Any comments…

  • Dan

    There is a cool torq video from Namm up here

    http://www.gearwire.com/m-audio-torq.html

    just thought I'd mention

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  • DJ Judah

    Is there a way to have all your songs analyzed at one time. I am having to do it one at a time

    Thanks

  • http://none jake

    What would you say is better for djing…torq or ableton live 6, email your response – jakes1eyedcat@yahoo.com

  • Tekmatic

    Corporation — The long loading time issue has been addressed in recent updates. Grab them from M-audio's website.

    Jake — The did you know Torq can slave off of Ableton with Rewire?

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  • http://djstayinschool.com in School

    Hey all you early adopters, can you shed a little light on Torq's reliability? Have any of you been using it at gigs consistently? If so, how has it behaved and… more importantly do you trust it?

    Sorry if I'm a little off topic.

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  • SWANN

    TORQ AIN'T KNOW JOKE! IT'S BETTER THEN THE OTHER DON'T NEED TO GIVE NO NAMES.I CAN CUT MIX SCRACTH LOOP EASY TO MAKE FILES FOR MUSIC

    I LOVE IT AND YOU CAN PUT A CD IN YOUR PC AND

    CUT ON TWO TURN TABLES WITH OUT DOWN LOADING

    THE CD, TORQ IS THE BEST. HANDS DOWN.

  • ArtemisCowgrrl

    Regarding corporation's comments above… yeah: takes a looong-ass time to load the database or my full iTunes library into the browser. Does anyone know of a way to allocate more memory to the program (in the hopes of speeding of the load time)? My laptop (PC) is pretty damn powerful, and even when Torq is chugging away trying to load the database, it's only taking up about 15-20% of the available CPU power. I'd be happy to let it hog 50%+ of my CPU to get the database loaded faster. Ideas??

  • http://myspace.com/vlson vlson

    hows torq work without a cd player or deck, im looking to just using a midi controller.
    decent implementation?

  • Truthseeker

    Hi..Does anyone happen to know if You are able to use the "vinyl conectiv" option with the "torq xponent" option without having to purchase anymore hardware other than the vinyl conectiv records…say, if I want to use a laptop and just the xponent for small gigs and connect my turtables for more official gigs…I'm hoping torq xponent comes with an interface with some i/o for turtables or other external devices..???

  • scott

    Hey ArtemisCowgrrl

    Press ctrl+alt+delete

    click the "processes tab" of the window

    find your program's process

    right click on the process

    go to set priority

    set the priority to high….

    i think that should work….

    there is a way to set processes to have certain priorities automatically, however, everytime yhou start them up. I'm not sure how to do this, but it's probably worth investigating beause i know that i've done it before. Probably worth googling.

  • Dei Warne

    If anybody knows why when asked, salesmen always tell me that Connectiv cannot be used as a standalone mixer connected to Laptop?

    I just want to use the Connectiv for headphone and mic connected to my computer so I can mix MP3's using the knobs!

    If this can be done seems to be a mystery to them.

    I see the diagram "standalone digital DJ rig", so does it work that easily?

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