Scratching?
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Thread: Scratching?

  1. #1

    Default Scratching?

    Id like some advice, ive been lurking youtube and watched a couple of videos but most of them left me just as confused. I already downloaded drum loops but as for the scratching, do i need to the download specific scratch smaples or do i just pick any random song? how important is closing and opening the fader? I have a ns6 so the platters arent a problem

  2. #2
    Tech Guru
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    there's a really good scratching thread in the vinyl forum.

    The fader is very important. Many scratches are mostly fader movements. Check out that thread, some of the guys document their learning process and what sites/vids they recommend.
    SSL - DJM 800 - Technic 1200's - X1 - ITCH - NS6 - VCI-300

  3. #3
    Tech Mentor DJSigma's Avatar
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    I wrote a beginner's guide to scratching here that you might find useful, although unfortunately the audio files that were originally part of the guide were lost when DJF went down: -

    http://www.djforums.com/forums/showt...ching-(repost)

    Hopefully the DJTT guys don't mind me linking to DJF.

    As for what samples/records to use, you can use anything you like! Here's a digital scratch record that a friend of mine made that you might find useful to get you started: -

    http://www.mediafire.com/?x7s44ygyxle4fdd

    Opening and closing the fader is very important. Scratching is made up from two things - the record movement, and opening/closing the fader which triggers bursts of sound, or in the case of some scratches like flares, inserts gaps into the sound.

    The best thing to do when you start out is this: -

    1. Start with the basics. Baby scratches. Forwards. Drags. Marches. Chirps. Those kinds of scratches. Don't try and skip ahead to all the fancy cuts that DJs are doing nowadays. If you read my guide, it breaks down each scratch in words so that you can understand the concept of what's going on. If that's no help, or you need more help, there's plenty of tutorials on YouTube. What you don't want to do is just move the platter around and open/close the fader randomly - I've heard n00b scratch DJs doing that and it just sounds awful - be focussed, as all of the crazy scratches you hear the top scratch DJs do are based on combinations of set techniques, so it's those techniques you need to learn, starting with the core basics.

    2. Pick a stock sample like ahhhhhhhhhhhh or fresh. Pick a beat that's slow-medium paced that you feel comfortable with. Then get down to the business of practicing, because it's all about muscle memory and repeating the same thing over and over until you have it down.

    So in short, start with the simplest scratches, make sure you understand how they are performed, then practice them until you can do them.

    A lot of people use beat loopers for beats. These are usually stand-alone programs for Windows (although you can find some for OS X too). All they do is allow you to click a button to play a beat, then that beat will play endlessly. It means you can just set a beat going and scratch. There's a bunch of them you can download here: -

    http://yourlooper.com/
    Last edited by DJSigma; 11-03-2012 at 08:25 PM.

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