Turntablism
Scratch
A scratch is a sound made by moving a record back and forth under the needle while the crossfader or channel fader cuts it in and out. The hand sets the pitch; the fader sets the rhythm.
In practice
Every named scratch is two hands doing different things — the record sets pitch, the fader sets rhythm.
Start with the fader out of it entirely: a baby scratch is the record hand alone, and until that is in time nothing built on top of it will be. Then add the fader one motion at a time — silence the return and you have a forward scratch, clip both ends and you have a chirp, stab it repeatedly over a slow record and you have a transformer. Set the crossfader curve as sharp as it goes before any of this; a curve that fades across its travel makes clean cuts physically impossible and is the single most common reason a scratch sounds muddy on unfamiliar gear. Practise over a loop rather than a whole record, so you hear the phrase rather than the track.
Record hand
Sets the pitch
Fader hand
Sets the rhythm
Sharp curve
Set this first
Where these come from: Technique convention, not catalog figures — our analysis reads finished recordings and cannot see a hand on a record. For what we can measure, see the one thing this catalog can measure about cutting.
Why it matters
Every named scratch below is a combination of two independent patterns — what the record hand is doing and what the fader hand is doing at the same time. Learn to hear them separately and the whole vocabulary stops being a list of tricks and becomes a grammar.
It is also the reason a turntablist cares about parts of a rig nobody else notices. Slip speed, fader curve, fader tension and which side of the crossfader a deck is assigned to all change what a scratch feels like before they change what it sounds like.
Frequently asked
How do you learn to scratch?+
Baby scratch first, with the fader open and nothing else moving, until it sits in time. Every other scratch is that motion with a fader pattern laid over it.
Do you need turntables to scratch?+
No. A jog wheel in vinyl mode or a controller with a scratch-capable platter will do it, and timecode vinyl gives you a real record over a digital file.
What crossfader curve is best for scratching?+
The sharpest available, so the channel reaches full volume within a few millimetres of travel. A gentle curve is for blending and makes cuts sound smeared.
Related terms
Baby scratch
The baby scratch is the first one anyone learns: push the record forward and pull it back in time with the beat, fader open throughout. No fader work at all — only the hand.
Forward scratch
A forward scratch is a baby scratch with the return silenced: push the record forward with the fader open, then close the fader before pulling it back. Only the forward half is heard.
Crossfader
The crossfader is the horizontal fader that blends between two channels. At one end you hear only the left assignment, at the other only the right, and a curve control sets how abruptly the handover happens in between.
Slipmat
A slipmat is a felt disc between the turntable platter and the record. It lets the platter keep spinning while you hold, drag or pull back the record itself, which is what makes cueing and scratching possible.
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