![]() ![]() Just click the arrow, get the beats match, and seamlessly start to bring in your new track. This means mixing genres like house, breaks, trance, techno, rap, hip-hop, even rock is incredibly easy. Clicking this arrow will instantly beatmatch that song to the one currently playing on your other side. M-Audio has a little arrow on each side where the music’s info is displayed. You don’t go mixing Bruce Springsteen into Britney Spears, right? You have to mix and blend the two songs together to create a whole new, original track where the beats are matched up and the songs sound alike. If I play some house music with a BPM of 140 and a basic 4/4 beat, I’m going to want to find a similar song to match up with that tempo and time signature. Let me explain for a second what beatmatching is. There’s even a record button for saving your mixes! Though you can’t control your files exactly like vinyl, there’s some other tricks M-Audio has up it’s sleeve… After this, if you’re a good enough DJ, you can take care of the rest. All you need to do to start playing music is to just drag your MP3 to Side A or Side B and hit play. You have your levels, playback controls, waveforms, effects, faders, and your music library. Looking at the UI, you’ll see plenty of familiar controls. It’ll even scan your iPod if it’s hooked up. I have over 90GB of music in iTunes alone (only about 2GB of that are videos) and Torq LE does a fine job browsing through my collection as long as I’m not running a ton of programs. It’s incredibly intelligent and can handle pretty massive libraries. This way, when you start the program up, all your music is right there, including playlists. Once you run Torq LE, the DJ software, it scans your hard disk looking for MP3s and checks out iTunes to see what you have configured there. Hooking up everything and installing it all is about as painless as it gets, but then again, I am using Mac OS X on a G5 iMac. Those on a budget should seriously consider the Torq Mixlab system. All for less than the cost of just one Technics 1200 turntable. The package itself only costs $129.99 and comes with the Torq LE software, a USB cable, and the XSession Pro MIDI interface that resembles a basic mixer. I played with the Torq Mixlab setup at CES and after only spending 5 minutes with it, I was impressed. Basically what I’m trying to convey to you is that I know what the hell I’m talking about. With CD DJing, I know it’s much easier but still, you can’t really see what’s going on like you can with vinyl. With this setup, I was able to DJ pretty well but beatmatching was truly a pain in the ass. I never used CD-based turntables, only two Technics 1200 MKIIs, an Apple G4 Powerbook, and a Rane mixer. I’ve DJ’d at clubs, parties, dances, and coffeehouses. I’m not an idiot when it comes to DJing by any means. After spending just a few days with M-Audio’s Torq Mixlab Digital DJ System, I’m officially declaring that any other form of DJing is obsolete. From the infamous Technics 1200s to Numark’s iPod DJ system, the technique of holding the attention of a dance floor required precise musical knowledge, expert mixing skills, and a sixth-sense of beatmatching. DJing has most certainly evolved over the years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |