April 9, 2007

On Trial: M-Audio’s Torq Conectiv

Most music product companies don’t know this, but hip-hop DJs aren’t that hard to please. Amidst the current explosion of DJ Performance software programs hitting the streets, someone needs to clear the smoke. The now beefing Stanton and NI brought us into this era with their partnership on FinalScratch. Then, Serato and Rane effectively killed the game with Scratch Live. Still, we were fiending for something new…then M-Audio entered the ring with Torq Conectiv.

INTERFACE

With Torq, M-Audio took what’s been done and flipped it. Though the interface will probably strike most “back-to-basics” DJs one as being a bit of an overkill, the feel is utilitarian. You have your corresponding decks with their respective play controls, cue sections, and CDJ/Vinyl control. Sort of in the vein of Traktor, Torq includes a fully featured mixer for internal use in case you’re rocking the party sans external hardware, which features 3-band EQ with full-kill and a crossfader.

An important advantage to digital DJing is being able to see the waveform of the track you’re working with. In the old days we had to rely on a bright sticker to mark our records and keep track of where we were when backspinning, juggling. etc. In Torq, the waveforms are run horizontally on top of one another, which is not only a practical way to visualize your tracks, but it also helps when beat-matching with the auto-BPM markers by making sure they line up.

PERFORMANCE

When you’re working with programs like Torq, one of the main concerns is latency. You want your DJ program to respond instantaneously to how you’re maneuvering your records. We tested Torq out on Powerbook G4 with a 1.25 MHz processor speed and 1 Gig of RAM, which is slightly above minimum requirements and got a pretty good response.

We put a record through every trial you could think of from scribble marathons to rocking old scratch routines with The Turntablist’s famous Super Duck Breaks (if you don’t have two copies, get to Fat Beats pronto!). Overall, so far so good—Torq should please even the most brutal turntablist technician.

FEATURES THAT POP

One big thing Torq brings to the table that hasn’t been done before is the ability to incorporate VST effects into the mix. While this might be a feature that is more geared towards techno DJs and will probably have grown folks scratching their heads, if you want to be more versatile in the mix, incorporating effects will help out a lot and Torq lets you do it.

You know it wouldn’t be an M-Audio product if they didn’t allow you to take one of many of their funky gadgets (or just about any MIDI controller for that matter) to use in conjunction with Torq. Any way you can assign it, the MIDI controller can do it from activating and manipulating parameters on your VSTs to triggering a sample.

Another dope feature is their 16-bank sampler deck. This is really cool for you fools who are sick of popping a break record on an extra deck just to scratch some freaky sounds in the middle of a mix. Now, you can store your “Ahhh” and “Fresshhh” in these little sample banks and activate them on the fly.

THE FINAL VERDICT

Overall, Torq beats the competition in a lot of categories, our favorite of which is the price point—the full package with control vinyl and CDs streets for $299.95. If you’re looking for a premium but low-cost option to spin your digital music files, Torq is it. Additionally, Torq is a cross-platform application so whether you’re rolling with a PC or a Mac, you’re good. For more info visit www.torq-dj.com.

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