Torq - Is it any good?

[Steve]

How does it compare with Serato? I read that it his more features, but isn't as stable. Is that true? Someone who owns it or has used it, break it down for me please.

[Steve]

For anyone interested, here's a response I got from a guy in SkratchLounge: -

 

Its good (imo). I've used it for a few months now and I am happy. From a pure scratching perspective I cannot find any major fault (altough some report the vinyl is skippy - not on my setup). Other keep obsessing about latency and which is better and this and that. Hands down, Torq is good enough that I have yet to feel any lag when performing any scratch, and I tried my hardest to "break it". On paper, SSL might out spec it, but this is irrelevant to me when the differences in paper spec do not seem to impact its performance in the real world.

 

The software interface is still pretty new so it lacks a few of the polished conveniences that creep their way into version 3 and version 4 releases (1.02 just came out...), however it well though out and has many kick-ass features such as MIDI controller integration, multiple sampler banks, decent built-in effects and VST plugin support and a well implemented looping section.

 

SSL/FS/Torq seem to have become one of those things that people evangelize and consequently shit on all the others, so you'll prolly hear many peeps dis it (esp compared to SSL) but I can honestly say I have found no major flaw. You can read my more detailed review here:

http://remixmag.com/performance/dj_gear/re..._torq_conectiv/

 

Factor in the price, and I think you can't go wrong

I think I might buy it, cos it's only £210 and seems a pretty good alternative to Serato/FS.

[Deft]

Yeah I'd be interested to see if it's any cop. It is mega cheap like you say. The vinyl emu should be o.k. based on what people say about Ms.Pinky. They'll probably send us one in 2 years time.

[3D]

I think I might buy it, cos it's only £210 and seems a pretty good alternative to Serato/FS.

 

 

Thanks for putting that up steve, I looked at mrs pinky for a while.

Good to see cheaper alternatives.

[Hertzworth]

I have and I'm happy with it. I haven't had any issues and it's perfect for what I need it for. I've even used it at a couple gigs already without any issues. I don't let it manage my whole database I just drag in the files I want to use with it. The only complaint I have is that it writes a little .tqr file which includes BPM and Waveform information and whatnot into the same directory of where the audio file is located. Hopefully they'll change this with future software updates and just throw all these little tqr files into a database directory rather than it polluting a crap load of folders with these tiny files. Other than that though I no complaints. The vinyl is nice and thin and the latency non evident. You can use a trigger finger or somekind of midi controller to control FX's such as tap tempo delay, phase, flanger and etc... Its Cool

[Liam]

I'm sorely tempted, having always been priced out of the Serato end of the market.

[Liam]

OK Hertzworth do you mind me asking a couple of questions? I haven't even read that much about it yet but I'm already pretty much sold... I was ready to drop cash on a soundcard, build some preamps and do everything myself, but this looks perfect.

 

How well do you find VST effects run when mixing? Is it easy to run your effects loop as well, or is it all going to be limited to prefader effects and master out effects? It'd be nice to not have to work around it too much.

 

What kinda spec are you running? How do you find VST effects perform when using it? My laptop is getting on a bit, old P4-M 1.8Ghz; 512MB of 400mhz RAM; definately can't afford to upgrade though so fingers crossed it's up to the task. I got an old AthXP 1700+ clocked up to 2Ghz I wouldn't mind using it with sometimes too. Both are sitting just below Maudio's recommended spec but I keep Windows pretty lean

[x2k]

Torq certainly looks quite good to me but before I think about buying anything like that I need a fucking laptop...anyone offering a freebie?

[MrDee]

i've just been having a little read up on it too

you can get it for £199 at most places now with

the timecode vinyl

just phoned my local m-audio dealer tho and they

dont have it yet..............

 

revolution using torq..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcz476u-Di0...ted&search=

[alkatrazz]

I just helped my buddy install it on his mac... i thought it was ok compared to serato. ive had serato for a while and comparing them side by side you can definitely see the difference especially after using it, then again that could give me a bias. I think of it as a jack of all trades a master of none, BUT.. it works well. although ive heard its had problems on macs and i think i was observing those when he was using it. Its not as intuitive as well, for me that is. Like serato i set up w/out reading the manual, i had to look for a manual on maudios website so i could get the thing to work. I say if your looking for an alternative to serato for the price its definitely worth it.

[Guest petesasqwax]

i've just been having a little read up on it too

you can get it for £199 at most places now with the timecode vinyl

 

word - i'm getting mine in the next couple of weeks. it seems to do exactly what serato etc. do except that it appears you can also use it as a soundcard as well... plus, i'm not gonna lie, as far as m-audio goes i'm 100% on the nutsac - it'll be arriving the same tame as protools m-powered and possibly a pair of studiophiles...

[TBearOne8III]

i just picked up one last night for $250. a co-worker of mine knows the store manager of the guitar center by my house. the guy gave me a little hook up. not as big as i would like, but better than what he was gonna do for serato. he could only get me the serato for $510. so i had to pass, gotta make my funds stretch as far as they can go. thinking about picking up some extra ram for my computer. im already at 512 but a gig would be nice. anyway, i havent opened up the torq box yet so i cant comment. but i gots me one, and slap happy exited about it too.

[mattnice]

on ebay buy it now at £179.99 plus £10 postage

 

link

[MrDee]

i just bought serato this weekend instead

but a mate is after torq and i probably would

have bougt it too if i hadnt had enough for

serato

[Pand Malone]

Wha.. cheaper than Serrato???

 

Wanksock'll be hating on you fools.

 

 

hahahahaha!!

 

 

oh and found torg at this price an'all>>>> http://www.decks.co.uk/products/digital_dj...nectiv_vinyl_cd

 

I'm gonna invest in one very soon as i've got quite a few residency's coming up. Shall let everyone know what i think of it when the time come's.

[Steve]

I've just ordered it from decks.co.uk. It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow, so I'll post up some thoughts on it when I've had chance to test it.

[decisive]

just having a browse through the demos on the site and it looks fucking brilliant mate, i wonder whether scratchlive will become the technics of the dvs world, ie the old faithful, or whether it will indeed get pushed to the wayside by the new kids on the block... what i'm saying is if torq can prove 100% stable then i'll be *sorely* tempted to trade ssl in. all that extra stuff you can do looks like the absolute nuts.

[TBearOne8III]

i've used it for maybe 2 hours straight at a time. for about maybe 5 days. so after 10 hours of use, i havent had a stablility problem. im runing windows xp by the way. a friend of mine who has an older mac ibook (2001 or 2002), he said that torq crashed on him a few times. im not sure if this is an compatibility issue with macs or if its just the luck of the draw. besides that, it worked great for what i need it for.

[TBearOne8III]

here is my quick review that i emailed my friend about torq

 

 

this by all means is not a full review. i'll probally never use all the features of torq. i found some time to record. i get up at 5 every morning wheather im going to work or not. usually on the weekends i'll go back to sleep after i feed the dogs. but i quickly realized that this is the only free time i have. since avery usually wakes up around 8:30 or 9:00, this gives me a few hours to work. so anyway, i got all of the music recorded, with the exeception of some instrumentals to talk over. about 90% of it was done with torq.

 

responsiveness and sound quality:

 

if it wasnt for the fact that i didnt constantly dig, pull, and put away records. i wouldnt even know that i was playing mp3's. i didnt hear any digitalness (i know thats not a word) at all. from quick scratches to back spins to hittin that start/stop button. all sounds very natural. all responds very natural. my only problem was, some of my files were bad rips. so they had glitches in them. i just had to re-rip the songs from the cd. and i had one situation that might not be an mp3 problem. i used a stevie song and then went into another song that sampled stevie. the original was on wax. crisp highs, big warm sound. the mp3 wasnt so dynamic. but that could just be quality of the song itself and not cuz its an mp3. i gonna try to eq them so they're about the same.

 

sampler, vsti's, looper, effects:

 

didnt use them. cant tell you shit about them.

 

 

beefs:

 

i had this high pitched noise issue. it came thru the headphones and thru the outs. ended up having to buy 4 ground loop isolators. $16 each at radio shack. not sure if every user has this problem but it is common on the torq forum.

 

the software writes a file for every song you use. it has the waveform and bpms. thats cool, but it writes the file in the same folder that your music is in. and it takes a while to dig thru all your music to find that right song. my remedy. you can add songs to a playlist first. and then just work off of the playlist folder. or, what i did. i created a seperate folder just for this mix. copied and pasted the songs that i was gonna use. this works great for doing a planned set, but im not sure how quickly you can go thru all the folders if your playing out. now the cool thing about that extra file that torq writes is. once youve used that song. if you go back to it, it loads almost instantaneously. new songs takes some time. not a whole lot though. i would hate to be in a situation where your trying to blend into one of those 2 minute madlib songs. but then again, that could be cuz im only working with 512mb of ram. 1 gig is recommended. and im not on the fastest processor out.

 

last beef. when the connectiv box is hooked up, it acts as the primary soundcard. so if you play back whatever you just recorded it comes out thru your mixer and not your computer speakers. but, there is a headphone jack on the connectiv box. i had to remember to mute the mixer channels and plug my headphones into the box. and also, the connective box will not act as your primary incoming soundcard. so you have to make sure your regular soundcard is still setup for recording.

 

i think thats everything for now. of course i havent used serato or final scratch so i dont have anything to compare this to. but i'll still recommend torq.

[decisive]

scratchlive has crashed once on me in about 500 hours use, probably about 2000 of being turned on and having audio going through it, and that was when i did something stupid, i think i was unplugging a second monitor at the same time as switching usb ports and it all got a bit much for it. i wouldn't have the balls to use anything that had even a hint of instability anywhere except my house, but if it was safe enough to use then being able to take a midi controller along and truly perform with the sampler and effects etc rather than just play records at a gig would be infuckingcredible.

[Steve]

It arrived this morning. I'm using it on a modest Athlon 1600+ with a gig of RAM and it works fine. I had it set up and running in a few minutes, and the scratch emulation sounds good. Good enough for me to forget I wasn't using real vinyl anyway.

[arkei]

Can't wait for mine to arrive. Ordered it yesterday.

[mattnice]

must fight it,sounds very good though.

[Pand Malone]

I'm defo getting one! Settled!

[Steve]

If you get it, set it to analyse all of your music and leave it to do its thing, cos it takes ages (on my PC at least). It creates a tqd file for each audio file with certain information in it. Once the tqd files exist, you can load tracks into Torq in the blink of an eye. You can also set the tqd files so they're hidden, cos they're kind of annoying.

 

Another tip - You can make the BPM scanning work a little better by doing this: -

 

Find the TorqEngine.prefs file here: -

 

C:\Documents and Settings\(your user here)\Application Data\M-Audio\Torq

 

Open it with Notepad and change the following lines: -

 

minBeatDetectionBPM:**

maxBeatDetectionBPM:**

bpmDetectionVariance:2

 

** The values you use for min and max beat detection depend on what kind of music you play and how varied the BPMs are. The max BPM is set to 180 by default, which is too high for me. If you lower it, you're less likely to get the problem where Torq reports a file as being twice the BPM it actually is.