M-Audio Conectiv & Torq released

[dj_soo]

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...ctiv-main.html

Check the video demo here: http://www.skratchworx.com/news/comments.php4?id=501



Basically, it's M-Audio's version of SSL or Final Scratch comign in at 1/2 the price with tons more features.

Check out the video demo in that Skratchworx link. Basically, it does everything SSL and FS2 does but also allows Rewiring into Cubase, ProTools, ABleton or Logic so you can essentially sync your vinyl-controlled beats with clips and loops in your music program.

You can attach a Midi controller into the soundcard and utilize the controller to use the on-board effects in the program. Essentially turns any midi controller into an FX module.

Tons more neat features are described in that demo video (hot scratch sample cues, compatability with 3rd party software like VSTs, etc.)

All this for 1/2 the price of SSL or FS2.

I'm a little wary about it right now cause word is it's an incredible system hog and most v1 products tend to be buggy as all hell, but I'm hoping this will do well. I tend to trust M-Audio better than say, Numark or Stanton, and at the very least, some real competition might drive down the price of SSL so I can get that for cheaper :). Also, all tests and reveiws have been done by straight mix edm DJs so there's been no reports on how the latencey is for scratching/juggling.

Still, if this gets some good reviews over the next several months, might actually consider this instead of Serato... Should be here in Canada in the next couple of weeks...

official copy


Conectiv, developed by M-Audio’s SynchroScience division, is the world’s first bus-powered 4 x 4 USB audio interface designed for DJs who perform and produce tracks with a laptop. Together, Conectiv and the included Torq software form the ultimate DJ tool—high-fidelity audio, all the right kinds of I/O (including dual phono preamps), and the ability to mix, beat-match and cue digital files with ease. Use them as a completely digital solution and leave the heavy stacks of vinyl or bulky wallets of CDs at home—or process your vinyl and CDs on the fly. You can even create a hybrid digital/vinyl DJ rig by using Conectiv and Torq with specially encoded control vinyl discs or CDs. Torq supports popular formats such as MP3, WAV, WMA and AAC files and is configured to automatically work with Conectiv—no messy set-ups. And unlike most digital DJ systems, Conectiv works with other third-party software as well.

Feature list:

4 x 4 USB 1.1 audio interface with 16-bit/48kHz fidelity
4 RCA inputs configurable for line-level or phono signals
4 RCA line outputs with + 10dBV peak output level
2 mix knobs for blending between the audio input and computer output
¼” TRS headphone output with volume control
crossfadable cue source with headphone split function
¼” TS microphone input (dynamic mics only)
USB bus-powered
Torq DJ software included for Mac and PC
Torq supports popular formats such as MP3, AIFF, WAV, WMA and AAC
Core Audio and ASIO compatible

[slim pickins]

ill probably get this but i want to hear some feedback first.

Amazing potential , we'll see if it can live up to it.

[Jonny Dubbs]

sweet!!! i was going to upgrade from FS 1.5 to SSL.. but maybe ill wait and check the reviews for this first

[b0ld]

FUCK YA..... going to be getting mine.... Already got the trigger finger... !!!!

[matéo]

i dunno bout this one.

[dj_soo]

^ why? Of all the me-too alternatives coming out, this one seems the most viable with the best company behind it. Sure Serato is the standard, but this opens up the possibilities for music creation (rather than just a digital solution for mixing records).

Personally for me, if the real-world tests come back positive, i'll probably go this solution just for price alone. I'm not looking to replace my vinyl with SSL or go straight digital, I just want to only have to bring one crate of records and my laptop to a gig rather than 2-3 crates. Also, the thought of having an FX processor built into the program (that will work with my regular vinyl) is just the icing on the cake...

Just depends on the latency, stability, and sound quality reports. Cause honestly, I'm really not too impressed with SSL's sound processor...

[b0ld]

the level of re-sampling and the effects along with vst and rewire support for this product is what sells for me.... And the fact that you can use other midi controllers to trigger these fx's and shit on the fly while doing a set amazes me

[nabs]

very interesting. i may have to get my hands on this.

[matéo]

I have no complaints with serato. If there are limitations I haven't gotten to that point yet. The effects are cool but I have a djm 909. My little hp could hardly handle a program like cubase and this dj one. Thats why I dunno.

[dj_soo]

^ ah so the reason is cause you already have a pimp setup.

i thought you sold that 909?

[beedub]

First review has been posted by someone named nem0nic on the Traktor forums - he likes it so far but has not had time for full testing. Says the CPU load is low:

http://www.native-instruments.com/fo...ad.php?t=40041

[dj_soo]

another review - again, just initial thoughts posted by some guy named Semuta on Skratchworx

I have been using FS2 since it initially came out, and for the most part (since I’m an EDM DJ) it’s done a good job. I was always pissed that for all that I paid for Traktor3, it never worked as advertised with the vinyl, so I have only used FS2 for all this time. Since I’m not a scratch DJ, I won’t be able to give a definitive opinion about that aspect of the application, but I will try to give as much info as possible.

Things to note: I am using a g4 powerbook at 1.5ghz and 2gb of memory, so this may answer some of the questions on this thread.

So, here’s my take on this thing. I got it from JRR shop next day. I picked it up yesterday (Wednesday) and took it home, set it up, and so far:

THIS WILL BE TAKING THE PLACE OF FS.

THINGS THAT ARE GOOD:

The Cue accuracy is far better than FS in both absolute as well as relative mode. I can finally, at least rudimentarily, drop the beat and scratch it back in with confidence. The scratch sound sounds good to me, but I am no tablist, so I’m sure someone more qualified will post up shortly about that aspect.

The Library management looks like something I can get used to (not as good as FS).

The Beat detection so far seems to be pretty good (it’s analyzing my collection as we speak), but it really seemed spot on (it does halve the bpm quite a bit, but it doesn’t really mess up the beat grid. And you can select to double the bpm when necessary).

The sound card setup with the software was very simple and easy, very little messing around required, though overall, the soundcard seems a bit on the cheap side. I will probably get it set up to use my scratchamp, as it has more I/O and that’s always good.

I really like the playlist management in this thing. It starts a new session playlist everytime you start the software, so on those faded evenings that I throw down a magical set in my living room, I can go back and remember what I did. I think the playlist handling is going to really do wonders for designing my sets…

THINGS THAT ARE NOT SO GOOD:

There is no needle dropping in relative mode. I am really used to being able to needle drop in relative, but with this I have to go to the interface and click to the part of the song that I want to move to. I could get accustomed to this, but it really shouldn’t be a big deal for the timecode engine to do a timeout on the signal when the needle goes up, and cue to an absolute position on drop, then back to relative mode.

The interface is very very slow (of course this is related to my computer speed I’m sure). I’m sure that once my collection’s analyzed it won’t be so bad, as it won’t be chugging to analyze files while underway. (The caveat to this is that functions that are slow to respond to mouse click, “set loop”, etc, respond very well to keyboard assignments)

THINGS I REALLY DON’T LIKE:

There are a couple of ways to attach a turntable to this thing, full external control (2 decks, the way I play) and one armed (amputate) mode, where you can have 1 deck take turns. This would be fine, except that if you are in full external mode, you can’t disable vinyl control of the software, and make use of the transport controls directly. This only works in single armed mode. I really hate this, as my method for dealing with tracks with traktor is to set a short loop, beatmatch, THEN engage vinyl control and I’m off and running.

No bulk id3tag editing in the browser. Very irritating, especially as it looks like I will have a serious case of bpm halving when the analysis is done. I am really going to want to select 2 hundred files, and say double, or define a bpm range... As it is, I’ll just have to correct it as I play through one by one…

There is no preview player in the collection manager…. This sucks. When you’re staring at 60 files, and you know 3 of them are good next choices, and you know to within 20 which they are, it’s nice to be able to preview instead of loading a track to a deck, load a track to a deck, load a track to a deck, load a track to a deck, etc… plus, when you’re in a mix, both decks going, and trying to pick the next track, it makes a huge difference.



FINAL THOUGHTS:

In general, I’m really impressed. I wish they had made the soundcard 6 in 6 out instead, even if it does mean that it would cost another 50 bucks. Although the interface sort of smacked of virtualdj or something when looking at the pics, now that I’ve used it, it feels very solid, and so far it has not crashed, which is saying a lot more than Native Instruments ever deserved particularly on a version 1 product. I can also say that however the software designers did it, they have managed to optimize the timecode and playback engine so that whatever else is going on, analyzing a track, browsing the web, whatever, the music must play. Even when the interface gets really glitchy, the music never dropped or misbehaved and the vinyl control continued to work well. (as much as my limited testing can reveal)

My collection should be analyzed sometime in the next couple of days, and I have a desert party to play near flagstaff, Arizona this weekend, so I’ll follow this up sometime next week if there are issues I haven’t seen yet.

[dj_soo]

i'm wondering if my G4 1.33 w/ 768 meg RAM can handle at least the basic operations (i.e. 2 tunes off control discs + rudimentary FX)

[b0ld]

tom lee has it....

http://www.tomleemusic.ca/main/multi...208&inv=119630

[dj_soo]

System Requirements are in -I might be able to handle this with a major RAM upgrade, but i'd like some more real-world reviews.

So far, it sounds like it's more stable on Mac than PC...

OS: Windows
CPU: Pentium III 933MHz
RAM: 256MB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows
CPU: Pentium IV 2GHz or greater
RAM: 1GB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Hard drive: 7200 RPM or faster
*Minimum system requirements reflect the ability to run Torq using a basic feature set. Some advanced or intensive operations and features may be limited by these hardware configurations.



Mac OS X 10.4.6
CPU: G4** 1.25GHz
RAM: 512MB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Recommended System Requirements
Mac Laptop
OS: Mac OS X 10.4.7
CPU: Mac/Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz or greater
RAM: 1GB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Hard drive: 7200 RPM or faster
Mac Desktop
OS: Mac OS X 10.4.7
CPU: Dual G5 2GHz
RAM: 1GB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Hard drive: 7200 RPM or faster

[matéo]

Nah dude, It actually was in warranty service for a couple months and I just got it back. Was going to sell it until it started acting funny on me.

btw I peeped one of your earplug mixes on Scratchlive.net the bigger download didn't work. Impressive stuff! I'll make sure to hit that thread up next time I'm around those parts.

[dj_soo]

I have mixes up on scratchlive.net?

news to me :).

You can check out all my stuff here though: http://www.woodnsoo.com/mixes.htm

:D

[nabs]

Originally Posted by dj_soo

System Requirements are in -I might be able to handle this with a major RAM upgrade, but i'd like some more real-world reviews.

So far, it sounds like it's more stable on Mac than PC...

OS: Windows
CPU: Pentium III 933MHz
RAM: 256MB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows
CPU: Pentium IV 2GHz or greater
RAM: 1GB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Hard drive: 7200 RPM or faster
*Minimum system requirements reflect the ability to run Torq using a basic feature set. Some advanced or intensive operations and features may be limited by these hardware configurations.



Mac OS X 10.4.6
CPU: G4** 1.25GHz
RAM: 512MB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Recommended System Requirements
Mac Laptop
OS: Mac OS X 10.4.7
CPU: Mac/Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz or greater
RAM: 1GB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Hard drive: 7200 RPM or faster
Mac Desktop
OS: Mac OS X 10.4.7
CPU: Dual G5 2GHz
RAM: 1GB
USB: One available port (for use by approved SynchroScience hardware device)
Hard drive: 7200 RPM or faster

dont all mac laptops have only 5400RPM HDD's. does this mean it wont work on my laptop?

[dj_soo]

no clue - that's why i'm waiting on more early-adopter feedback. You can always get an external firewire or usb HD at 7200 rpm... Chances are it will work fine but they just want their bases covered in case people complain about performance.

Wonder what the return policy for L&M or Tome Lee would be so I could just test it. .

[nabs]

hmm....

ya i do have an external. but i wouldnt wanna carry it around to shows with me, carrying my laptop is much easier. but ya its prolly so they have a safe zone sorta thing. those are high requirements tho. im gonna go check it out as well at Tom Lee maybe after school today.

[matéo]

Originally Posted by dj_soo

I have mixes up on scratchlive.net?

news to me :).

You can check out all my stuff here though: http://www.woodnsoo.com/mixes.htm

:D

My bad! that was the ztrip forum i meant!

[nabs]

Originally Posted by b0ld

tom lee has it....

http://www.tomleemusic.ca/main/multi...208&inv=119630

thats an awsome price.

[Akeel]

this is the route i'm planning on going...putting this with a nuo4 would be a really great combination, but i'm waiting for more feedback still...

[Filo]

after watching the video.... Stanton and Rane are going to have to step up their products becasue this one will blow them away.

Someone buy this so we can find out how buggy it is

[dj_soo]

Originally Posted by Filo

Someone buy this so we can find out how buggy it is

preferably someone with the exact same computer specs as mine to see if i need a new computer :P