OK. I am a big fan of DJ Tech Tools, as most digital DJ's are. No disrespect to the purists because that is of course my roots, but the capabilities of Digital DJ'ing, combined with the fact that I am a geek at heart, seriously piques my interest.
That being said, I am going to get into my software of choice, Torq. I am saddened by recent news that AVID is letting go of their Torq division, but I do understand. AVID is a production powerhouse, being the progenitors of ProTools and all that. But that is what made Torq so special. When AVID purchased M-Audio (creators of Torq DJ) back in 2004, it was widely believed that something special was about to happen... and it did. AVID's ProTools team completely redesigned Torq into a standalone DJ, production powerhouse; adding to it 2 additional decks, 4 effects sections per deck, a VST section per deck and an 18 bay sampler section.
(Quick Note, as much as I was saddened, I was equally elated by the news the Numark and Akai have pruchased and plan to continue supporting Torq. Read about it here.)
As great as this all sounds, this was but the tip of the iceberg. Because beneath the new exterior and added functions was something amazing. The ability to completely customize the software to your OWN personal taste.
I'm talking skin designs, midi programming that rivals Traktor, and the ability to increase the amount of samplers up to 99... Are you kidding me. I almost started to drool! I immediately began to picture hovering over a 100 button Monome controller with my Xponent and TTX's on the side and loving it.
Yeah, I think Torq had something pretty amazing going on. And I still champion it to this day. As a matter of fact, as of this writing, I am about halfway through programming the Xponent to give it access to more of Torq's features. I will have a full write up on the in's and out's of how it was done and what it can do soon. For starters, you can check out my post on the Torq DJ website which has the first version of the XML file and the instructions on what to do with it.
I hope you've enjoyed this little write up of mine and I hope to be able to deliver more info to you soon.
Peace.
