Setup

Before its first run, Fusor Studio needs three settings: which virtual MIDI bus to use, which DJ application it sends to, and which two decks you mix between. Guided Setup collects them one screen at a time, and each screen gives its own instructions.

This page ends with what Fusor Studio does before it is licensed, and how to activate the 14-day Free Trial that the rest of the tutorials assume.

On a first run it opens on its own. To run it again later, click the gear icon (Ctrl+, on Windows, Cmd+, on the Mac) and choose the Guided Setup tab. A screen you leave untouched keeps its current setting.

Open your DJ application before you start, with the Fusor Studio mapping imported. Several of the screens reference it while you are on them. See Connect Your DJ App and, for Traktor's own settings, Traktor Pro Setup.

Guided Setup walks you through:

• Where your work is saved
• Create your MIDI bus
• Select the bus you created
• Select your DJ application
• Choose your decks
• How many decks do you mix on?
• DJ app, the essentials one control at a time
• The controller you mix on
• Your DJ controller
• DJ controller, the essentials one control at a time
• Fusor controller, one function at a time
• That's the essentials
• Test connection & tempo direction

On the Mac, the two bus screens are one, Fusor Studio is built in: Fusor Studio provides its own MIDI connection, so there is no bus to create or select.

Each of the three walks (DJ app, DJ controller, Fusor controller) opens with a short screen that names it and says what it's for; click Start to begin. Every step of a walk shows its name at the top. The DJ controller walk appears only once you've chosen a DJ controller. With none, the Fusor controller screen lets you choose a controller to run the Fusor player from; its steps follow once you pick one, and without one you click Next.

Your library and the example files

Everything you author is saved in your library folder. The first Guided Setup screen suggests Documents/Fusor/. Click Use this folder or Next to keep it, or Browse... to choose another. Settings has the same choice under Settings → General → Library folder.

If that path sits inside OneDrive, Dropbox or a similar synced folder, the screen attempts to detect it and say so. Syncing a library between machines is a reasonable way to back it up, with two potential consequences: 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 tutorials use example fusors and actions, which Fusor Studio downloads from fusorstudio.com, so this step needs an internet connection. Until the folder is set, Example files reads Choose a library folder first. Once it is set, the list of what is available appears. Click Install all, or tick the ones you want and click Install selected. A collection or pack installs together with the fusors and actions in it.

Nothing is installed until you choose it, including at startup and when the library folder changes. Installing never replaces a file you already have: if you have edited one of the examples, your version is the one that stays. A file you deleted on purpose stays gone until you install it again.

With no connection, the list reads Could not reach the Fusor Studio website to get the examples. Check your internet connection. Click Retry once you are online. The same list is in Settings → General under Example Files, and the Fusors list offers Install all while it is empty.

Example versions

Only examples have version numbers. An example fusor or action shows its version after its name, as v1, v2 and so on. A fusor or action with no number is your own. When you edit an example, it becomes your own and its number goes.

Once a day at launch, Fusor Studio checks fusorstudio.com for new examples and newer versions. The check installs nothing, and it does not run while a transition is running. When something can be installed, the General tab in Settings shows a count. A newer version installs next to the one you have and does not replace it. Anything you built on the older version stays on it until you switch it; see Example versions in the lists. To stop the daily check, disable Check for new examples at launch in Settings → General.

Capture your control state

Guided Setup ends with Finish and Settings closes. Back in the Fusor player, a panel offers to capture your DJ application's control state: press Capture State. Capture is what lets you start a transition: until it succeeds the status line shows an orange UNCAPTURED prefix and the arm/play control is refused.

If capture fails, the Fusor player switches to Blind Mode by itself: it keeps sending and ignores what the DJ app reports, which disables Manual and Mixed Run Mode, Tempo Ramp, snapshot restore and manual takeover. The status line reads BLIND instead of UNCAPTURED, and the arm/play control works again. The first time the player receives MIDI from your DJ app, the player leaves Blind Mode by itself and captures again. What Blind Mode disables is in Blind Mode; the failure codes are in Status Messages.

What Lite does

Until you activate a license, Fusor Studio runs as Fusor Studio Lite. Lite loads and runs any fusor as many times as you like, keeps session edits, and writes and runs actions the same way a licensed copy does, with three limits:

Lite is a good way to look around, and to study a fusor someone else wrote. The full boundary is in Licensing.

Activate your Free Trial

The tutorials are written for a licensed copy of Fusor Studio. Most of them run transitions by hand, which Lite does not offer. If you don't own a license yet, a Free Trial gives you the full application for 14 days.

The 14 days start when you claim the trial, not when you install Fusor Studio. You can finish Setup now, and claim the trial when you have time to work through the tutorials.

Each account can have one Free Trial, and so can each computer: a computer that has already run a Free Trial, on any account, cannot run another.

1. Make an account, if you don't already have one

Fusor Studio downloads without an account, but a Free Trial needs one. On the Fusor Studio website, click Sign In, then Create one under No account?. Fill in Name, Email and Password, and click Create Account. Open the confirmation email to finish.

If you already have an account, sign in to the website and go on to step 2.

2. Claim the trial

On your account page on the website, click Start Free Trial, then Confirm and Start Trial.

3. Sign in from Fusor Studio

Activation is a sign-in. There is no license key: Fusor Studio emails you a one-time code, and you type it back. You need an internet connection for this step.

1. Click the gear icon and choose the License tab, the last one in the list. It reads Fusor Studio Unlicensed (Lite).
2. Type the email address on your account into Email address, and click Send Code.
3. Open the email, copy the code into Code from the email, and click Sign In.

The Account block now shows the address you signed in with, this computer's name, and the date the license was last confirmed. Above it, an orange line reads Your license has changed. Restart Fusor Studio to apply it. The Fusor Studio line still reads Unlicensed (Lite) until you restart, because Fusor Studio reads its license once, at startup.

If the code is wrong or has expired, a red box reads That code did not work. Type it again, or send a new one. Click Send a New Code for another.

4. Restart Fusor Studio

Quit Fusor Studio and open it again, then go back to Settings → License. The Fusor Studio line reads Licensed (Free Trial), with the date the trial ends under it.

If the trial ends before you finish the tutorials, Fusor Studio returns to Lite at its next start. From then on, the steps that use Manual or Mixed Run Mode, a length other than 16 bars, or a change to a fusor are refused until you buy a license.

Every state of the License tab, signing out, and the key icon that appears when a license needs attention are in Settings → License.

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 telemetry is arriving from your DJ app.
• A library folder, Documents/Fusor/ unless you chose another, holding the example fusors and actions if you installed them. You can install them later from Settings → General.
• A License tab reading Licensed (Free Trial), or Licensed if you own a license. You can also leave this until you are ready to start the tutorials.
• Show tooltips on, in Settings → General. It is on by default, and the tutorials assume it.

If the status line still shows UNCAPTURED, press Connect and sync (Resync when the light is green) on Settings → Connection. If it reads BLIND, the Fusor player is in Blind Mode, because you turned it on or because capture failed. Turn it off with the Blind Mode switch in Settings → Connection, in the DJ app card. After a failed capture you can also touch a control in your DJ app: when the player receives that MIDI, it leaves Blind Mode by itself.

Where to next

• Channel Fader: the first rung. Load a fusor and run a transition by hand.
• Connect Your DJ App: importing the mapping file for your DJ app, and what Guided Setup covers.
• Traktor Pro Setup: soft takeover, tempo-fader range and telemetry on the Traktor side.