Comments on: The electronic scratch in Ableton Live 8.

By: Books & Backpacks

Books & Backpacks — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:48:32 +0000

Traditional Scratching with records offers a reference point, physical application, and set of operations which are well defined and understood. This template for using a delay mode effect to emulate “Scratching” starts with something completely different (delay effect), touches on another (Scratching), and opens up a whole new realm of possibilities (?).

Scratching is pretty much “Done like Disco”. It is “Whack like a sack of Crack”. One downside of evolved software applications (ie ANYDAW v8.12) is that they often become so modular and sophisticated that any reference to a traditional physical piece of hardware or to a single linear method of operation are long gone.

Think of how many Artists use Live in different ways. Now think of how Artists use(d) 4-track casette tape multitrack recorders. Now Google that shit if you’re under 30 to see what a cassette multitrack recorder is.

My point is this. I love that this presents an easily understood Jump Off Point in addition to offering a whole new set of manoevres and operations which can be taken so much further.

I know TLDR and get your own blog, DROP THE NEEDLE.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:01:23 +0000

I think fake scratching is generally a Bad Idea, scratching being a spontaneous performance-based technique, but tools that fake scratching can be very interesting nonetheless. The scratch simulator in FL Studio is a good example, offering a very intuitive 2D interface for manipulating sample playback, with the caveat that the ‘needle’ never leaves the ‘record’, i.e. you can’t skip from one part of the sample to the other – it can do decent scratches if you apply yourself, but it can also help you warp your samples in unique ways that otherwise might not have occurred to you because you wouldn’t have the ‘limitation’ of the needle model.

By: lindsay

lindsay — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:45:43 +0000

Fabfilter Timeless is fun for this sort of thing.
Only as an “effect” though, of course.
Anyone use it?

By: JB

JB — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:14:14 +0000

I started making music as a scratch dj.

Now I produce electro and scratching to me is the most cliché t5hing you can add to a production, especially fake scratching!