Setup

The first time you open Fusor Studio it has no record of your rig: which virtual MIDI bus to talk over, which DJ app is listening, or which two decks you mix between. Guided Setup asks for all of it, one screen at a time, and each screen carries its own instructions.

This page covers what those screens do not say: what Fusor Studio writes to disk on a first run, what each answer commits you to, and the capture step that happens back in the player after the wizard closes.

The examples name Traktor, the app whose setup is documented end to end. Where behavior differs by app, it says so.

Before you start

Two things need to exist first, and neither is Fusor Studio's job:

• A virtual MIDI bus, created and running. See Installation → Set up the MIDI bus.
• Your DJ app open, with the Fusor Studio mapping imported. See Installation → Import the mapping file for your DJ app, and Traktor Pro Setup for Traktor's own settings. Two of the screens below talk to your DJ app while you are on them, so open it before you start.

1. Launch Fusor Studio

The player window opens: a compact strip that floats above your other windows.

Two things happen behind it that no screen mentions. Fusor Studio creates your library folder at Documents/Fusor/, which is where everything you author lives (see Installation). And because no DJ application is configured yet, the Settings window opens on its own, on the Guided Setup tab.

If Settings did not open, because you have run Fusor Studio before, open it yourself: App menu at the top-left of the player, Settings... (or Ctrl+,), then the Guided Setup tab. The wizard is re-runnable at any time, and a screen you leave untouched keeps its current setting.

2. Where your work is saved

The first screen, Where your work is saved, confirms the library folder and offers the example files. Next moves on without touching either.

The folder. If the path sits inside OneDrive, Dropbox or a similar synced folder, Fusor Studio says so in an orange note. Syncing a library between machines is a reasonable way to back it up, and two consequences catch people out at a gig: a file your cloud service is keeping online-only is not there when you have no connection, and editing the same fusor on two machines can leave a conflicted copy behind. On Windows this can happen without you choosing it, because Windows can redirect the whole Documents folder into OneDrive.

The example files. Fusor Studio ships with example fusors and actions, and the tutorials use them. Press Add Example Files to copy them into the folder above.

Nothing is copied unless you press that button. Fusor Studio never writes examples into your library on its own, at startup or when the library root changes. Two things follow. Pressing the button again adds only what is missing, so a file you deleted on purpose stays gone until you ask for it back. And it never overwrites: if you have edited one of the examples, your version is the one that stays.

The same button appears in Settings → General under Example Files, and in the Fusors list while that list is empty.

3. Create your MIDI bus, then select it

Two screens. Create your MIDI bus is instructions only, and it repeats the loopMIDI steps from Installation. If your bus already exists, click Next.

Select the bus you created has one dropdown, Fusor MIDI Bus, and a Rescan button. Rescan re-enumerates MIDI ports live, so a bus you created a minute ago appears without restarting anything. A bus has to appear as both a MIDI input and a MIDI output to be offered at all.

One bus carries both directions. Fusor Studio sends on MIDI channels 1–8 and receives telemetry back on channels 9–16 over that same port.

4. Select your DJ application, then choose your decks

Select your DJ application has one dropdown, and that answer decides which control mapping Fusor Studio uses and how it reads your control positions. Choosing an app also starts a control state capture immediately, which is why your DJ app needs to be open before you pick it.

Traktor is the exception. It answers a state request by reporting the position of every control at once, which can produce a brief audio glitch, so the request waits behind a Capture button in the player rather than firing here. Step 7 is where you press it.

Choose your decks names the pair Fusor Studio automates between, and the choice stands for every transition until you change it. Left deck and Right deck are physical positions, as in which side of your crossfader they sit on. Which one is outgoing and which is incoming changes over a set, and Fusor Studio derives that itself.

5. Hardware controllers

Hardware controllers asks two yes/no questions. Answering no to both is a valid answer, and each switch you turn on adds one screen to the sequence:

• I mix on a controller in <your app> adds The controller you mix on. It is advisory. Your physical fader stays where you left it while Fusor Studio moves the same fader in your DJ app, so the next time you touch it the app jumps to the physical position and fights the transition. The fix is soft takeover (some apps call it pickup mode) in your DJ app's own controller mapping, not a Fusor Studio setting. For Traktor, see Traktor Pro Setup.
• I use a separate controller to drive Fusor adds The controller that drives Fusor. It reports what Fusor Studio can currently see and points you at the Input Mapping tab if no profile is active. Binding a controller is a job of its own and it is optional. Finish setup first, then see Hardware Controller.

Using one controller for both jobs is untested, and there is no supported path for it today.

6. Test connection & tempo direction

Test connection & tempo direction is the only screen that proves two-way communication works, and it proves it by moving the tempo fader in your DJ app. You will hear it, so make sure that is safe before you press Start Test.

Fusor Studio moves the fader and asks whether the tempo increased or decreased. Your answer is the calibration: tempo faders are wired in either direction depending on the app and the mapping, and there is no way to read which from the outside, so Fusor Studio moves yours and asks. Answer from what you heard.

A failure turns the button into Try Again and names what to check: the bus is connected, and the DJ app is running and sending telemetry.

Click Finish. Settings closes.

7. Capture your control state

This step happens back in the player, after the wizard. Where the transport controls normally sit, a panel offers to capture control state from DJ software to detect deck roles, with a yellow caution that it may cause brief audio glitch, and a Capture State button.

Capture is what lets you arm. Until it succeeds the status line carries an orange UNCAPTURED prefix and the arm control is refused.

1. Make sure your DJ app is open, with tracks loaded on your deck pair.
2. Click Capture State.
3. On Traktor the app reports its control positions, the panel disappears, and the normal player controls return.

On every app except Traktor, one more panel appears first, headed Set <your app> controls to baseline?. Those apps cannot dump their state on request, so Fusor Studio establishes a known state by writing baseline values instead. That moves live controls, so it asks first every time. The panel repeats your Left deck / Right deck choice, with an Always use this layout checkbox that saves it. OK proceeds. Skip declines, and the choice is taken at its word: the panels go away and the normal player returns, with Arm on screen but greyed. Hovering it says why, and how to get out of it — run Capture from Settings when you are ready. Nothing will arm or start until you do.

If capture fails

The panel returns headed Capture failed, reporting no response from your DJ app, and offers two ways forward:

• Retry — start the app, or fix the return path, and try again.
• Blind Mode — carry on without telemetry. Fusor Studio keeps sending and stops listening, which costs you Manual Run Mode, Tempo Ramp, snapshot restore and manual takeover.

Running blind is a judgement about your rig, and it is off again at every launch. What each mode costs is in Blind Mode; the failure codes are in Status Messages.

What you should have now

• A player window whose status line reads Unarmed, with no UNCAPTURED prefix and no BLIND prefix.
• A green telemetry light at the far right of the status line, meaning your DJ app has been heard from.
• A library folder at Documents/Fusor/, holding the example fusors and actions if you took them in step 2. You can add them later from Settings → General.

If the status line still carries UNCAPTURED, go back to step 7. If it reads BLIND, you chose Blind Mode; turn it off from the App menu.

About licensing

Nothing on this page depends on whether you have a licence. Setup, capture, loading and running fusors, and authoring actions all work in Fusor Studio before you licence it. What a licence unlocks is covered in Licensing.

Where to next

• Playback in Demo — load a fusor and run it.
• Installation — the reference version of the bus, mapping-file and library settings this wizard sets.
• Traktor Pro Setup — soft takeover, tempo-fader range and telemetry on the Traktor side.