Anyone know about the M-Audio Torq Xponent?

I once had a room mate with some turntables and Torq digital vinyls. I didn’t really like the Vinyl stuff but I still had some fun with the gear. I also had a friend with Serato Scratch. I compared both systems to each other. I really have to say that I liked Torq more than Serato. Serato was too old-school compared to Torq which was brand new at that time.

Now with Digital, I have no experience with either of them. But I heard that Serato is still very old-school and is more likely used by guys that switch from digtital vinyl or even normal vinyl to Digital. M-audio hardware is usually really good. I just don’t know how they transferred to Digital in terms of the software. I guess it has more features than Serato Itch, but that’s just speculation.

I personally bought a Traktor Kontrol S2 which of course includes the software Traktor. I can only recommend it in every possible way. If you can afford it at the current deal, buy it. I payed 380€ which is a killer deal because it is not just a controller. It is also a state of the art sound card and contains the most expensive version of Traktor 2. The deal will be over in a few days though.

for $199? with that kind of features you can’t do better Phil. It killed the Mixtrack Pro in price and features. Yet I don’t know why it hasn’t reached a very popular level.
Is there anything better at that price point of less than $200?

I had a Torq Xponent but switched to Traktor. I actually liked the Torq system, and in some ways the software is better than Traktor. But . . . .

1. It may soon be discontinued (as others have said), looooooong times between updates.
2. “Nobody” uses it. Other systems might be used in the club. (Not that D-Jam is a nobody . . . .)
3. Cheap Plastic Construction. For me, my Torq hardware failed twice. The first time was under warranty. The second time, I realized it was time to switch products.
4. Cue points and Track info are stored in separate proprietary .tqd files. So if you ever decide to switch systems you’ll have to re-cue your library as I’m doing now (sigh).
5. Torq is the only software I know of that supports elastic beatgridding. However, I discovered a lot of bugs with this feature. I posted about this on the Torq forums a year or two ago and was invited to write up a bug report, but then I ran into problem #3.

So, If you’re just starting out I’d look at other systems.