Start-with-Incoming (deep dive)

The toolbar toggle that controls how an Auto Run Mode transition starts is summarized in Transport Controls. This page covers when to use each path, what changes during the transition, and how the choice interacts with Tempo Ramp and Blind Mode.

Auto Run Mode has two start triggers:

• Press Play (the default). There is no arm step: the Arm button shows PLAY, and the transition starts when you press it. The incoming deck's state is not consulted.
• Start-with-Incoming (the opt-in). Toggle the chain-link icon in the toolbar's transition group. Now the transition starts when the Fusor player receives telemetry that the incoming deck has started playing.

Both paths produce a transition running in Auto Run Mode. They differ only in what starts it.

When to use each path

Press Play (default)

Use this when you want to choose the start moment yourself:

• You want to start the transition at a specific musical bar rather than the moment the deck begins playing.
• You want to start the transition before the incoming deck is playing (see Tempo Ramp interaction below for the Traktor consequence).
• You want to start the incoming deck early and beatmatch by ear, then trigger the transition when the mix is ready.
• You want full control over the start.

This is the default because it works with or without telemetry and starts a transition only when you press Play.

Start-with-Incoming

Turn the opt-in on when you want a hands-free start as soon as the incoming deck starts playing:

• Every transition is to begin exactly when the incoming track does.
• The incoming track is already cued and the transition should fire on its first beat.
• You are stacking transitions back to back and do not want to reach for Play between them.

The toggle only takes effect with an app that broadcasts deck-playing telemetry.

The chain-link toggle

Start-with-Incoming has its own icon in the toolbar transition group: a two-link chain sitting between the Run Mode switch and the Tempo Ramp toggle (rising-trend icon). The icon reads as "the transition is linked to the incoming deck."

Hovering the toggle shows a tooltip naming the current state. The toggle also has several states in which it can't be clicked at all (mid-run, in Blind Mode, and when the incoming deck is already playing), and there the tooltip explains why. Those conditions are tabulated in Transport Controls.

Clicking the toggle on also auto-arms the Fusor player. Clicking it off disarms, so the common case is a single click.

Clicking the toggle from Manual Run Mode

In Manual Run Mode, clicking the toggle switches to Auto Run Mode and arms the Fusor player in one click. The tooltip in that state reads:

Start-with-Incoming: switch to Auto Run Mode and arm.

That is the fast path from scrubbing manually to armed and waiting for the incoming deck.

Session-level, persistent across transitions

Start-with-Incoming is a session-level preference. Once you turn it on, it stays on for every subsequent transition. The Fusor player returns to unarmed after each transition, but the opt-in stays active.

Two things clear it: clicking the toggle off, and switching the Run Mode switch to Manual. The opt-in is an Auto Run Mode setting, so switching to Manual clears it.

Turning Blind Mode on and off does not clear it. The toggle is disabled while Blind Mode is on, but the Fusor player remembers the setting underneath; turn Blind Mode off and the opt-in takes effect again.

The setting does not persist across app restarts. Each new session begins with the opt-in off (press-Play default).

What changes between the two paths

The Arm / Play button

With press-Play (default) and the Fusor player loaded but not running, the Arm button shows PLAY, and pressing it starts the transition. The label and Play icon are gray until the outgoing deck is playing, then yellow. In Blind Mode they do not wait for the outgoing deck.

With Start-with-Incoming on and the Fusor player armed, the Arm button shows the solid dot (yellow when armed, low-contrast when not). Pressing it disarms; the transition itself starts when telemetry confirms the incoming deck has begun playing.

The status line

Press-Play: once the outgoing deck is playing, the status line reads "Armed: Press Play to start".

Start-with-Incoming, armed: the status line reads "Armed: starts with incoming deck" while the Fusor player waits for the incoming deck to start playing.

Pause and resume

Press-Play runs can pause and resume freely regardless of the incoming deck's state. Press Pause mid-transition to hold; press Play again to resume. The resume does not need telemetry.

Start-with-Incoming runs require the incoming deck to be playing to resume from a paused state. If you pause a transition that started this way and then stop the incoming deck, resume waits for the incoming deck to come back.

Tempo Ramp interaction (Traktor only)

The setup sequence needs the outgoing deck playing, and a transition cannot start at all until that deck is playing. So by the time a run begins, under either start trigger, the tempo ramp is already set up.

The tempo ramp is not a reason to choose one start trigger over the other.

There is one case where the ramp is set up mid-transition: the outgoing deck stops and restarts while the run is under way. Setup runs again from the point the deck comes back, and the Fusor player warns you, because a ramp that begins part-way through can produce an audible pitch shift. The ramp still runs, so the decks stay tempo-matched.

How the run ends

Neither start path changes how a transition finishes. Both wait at 100% for the outgoing deck to stop, both offer the End button as the way to commit early, and both swap roles on completion. That whole sequence is described once, in Completion and role swap.

Blind Mode and Start-with-Incoming

Blind Mode leaves press-Play as the only path. The opt-in needs telemetry that the incoming deck has started playing, and Blind Mode runs without telemetry, so the toggle is disabled. See Session-level, persistent across transitions for what that does to your setting.

The press-Play default needs no special case: the button shows PLAY, press it, and the transition starts without waiting for the outgoing deck. See Blind Mode for the full picture of what changes when telemetry isn't flowing.

Four things to know

• The fastest way to start an Auto Run Mode transition is to press the PLAY button. That is the default and it needs no toggles.
• Turning Start-with-Incoming on once keeps every following transition hands-free until you toggle it off.
• A yellow Tempo Ramp button means setup has not finished yet. Hover it to see what it is waiting on; it is not a sign that anything went wrong.
• Choosing between press-Play and Start-with-Incoming changes when the transition starts. The fusor itself, the role assignment, and everything downstream are unchanged.