One of Torq’s greatest features is the ability to use external sources to control the playback of your song files.  This lets you use the Torq Control Vinyl or Torq Control CD's to provide the same method of DJing as traditional turntables and/or CD decks.

The Control Vinyl and Control CD system works by using vinyl records and compact discs imprinted with special control signals. You’ll play these control signals on your turntables and/or CD players and feed that signal into any professional audio interface that has four inputs (2 stereo pairs, with phono preamplifiers on each input if you are using turntables) such as the M-Audio Conectiv. Torq will listen to those audio signals and will use the encoded information to control the playback of the Decks.

This guide will show you how to assign external CD or Vinyl control to the decks in Torq.  Even if you only have 1 CD player or turntable you can still have external control over all 4 decks in Torq.


Configuring the Preferences

See this guide for making the necessary software settings and hardware connections for your audio interface.

After you've configured your device on the Audio Tab of Torq's preferences, click the External Tab.  For each Control Input you will be using, select one of the supported control types from the Control Type dropdown (e.g. Torq Vinyl or Torq CD).



Routing Control Inputs to a Deck

The Deck Mode pop-up menu allows you to select the control input where the external CD Player or Turntable is connected that you wish to control the deck.  When using Conectiv for example, your left turntable would be connected to Input A, and in Torq's audio preferences, Inputs 1/2 would be selected for Control Input 1.  Your right turntable would be connected to Input B, and in Torq's audio preferences, Inputs 3/4 would be selected for Control Input 2.

For Decks A and B, click to select Control Input 1 from the Deck Mode pop-up:



Note: Vinyl, CDJ, and Hybrid modes have no effect when using external CD/Vinyl control.  Refer to this FAQ for more information about Torq's Deck Modes

For Decks C and D, click to select Control Input 2 from the Deck Mode pop-up:



If you have 4 external decks to use to control Torq, and an audio interface with 4 stereo inputs, you would assign Control Inputs 1-4 to a different input pair in Torq's audio preferences, and you should assign Control Inputs 1-4 to Decks A-D respectively.

This new method of assigning external control to the decks replaces AMPutate mode from Torq 1.x.  To control all 4 decks from your single turntable or CD player, configure Control Input 1 in Torq's audio preferences to receive signal from the input on your audio interface where the device is connected.  Then select Control Input 1 in the Deck Mode pop-up on Decks A-D.


Assigning External Control to a Deck

Now that you have configured the preferences and Deck Modes, you can turn external control on for a deck by pressing the External Control Button located to the left of each Deck Mode pop-up menu:



With this, the appearnce of the play button will change, becoming two buttons.  The top button, labeled ABS offers two different modes, affecting the behavior of the Control Vinyl or Control CD and song playback.  In its default state the ABS button switches the deck to Absolute Mode, while pressing this button activates Relative Mode.