Hardware & signal path
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.
In practice
A mat that grabs is a worn or damp mat — replace it before you adjust anything on the deck.
Slip speed is adjustable from underneath: a sheet of wax paper or a purpose-made slip sheet between the mat and the platter makes it faster, and stacking felt makes it slower. Keep both decks the same, because muscle memory for a backspin does not survive one platter behaving differently from the other. Bear in mind that thickness changes the height of the record and therefore the arm’s tracking angle, so a much thicker mat is a tonearm adjustment as well as a feel change.
Wax paper
Makes it faster
Matched pair
Both decks the same
Height changes tracking
What thickness costs
Where these come from: Turntable setup practice, not catalog figures — our analysis reads recordings and knows nothing about the deck. For what we can measure, see the record most often on top of it.
Why it matters
Without it, holding the record fights the motor. The felt decouples the two so the platter runs at speed underneath while your hand decides what the record does, and the track resumes at pitch the moment you let go.
How much it slips is a setup choice rather than a fixed property. A slower mat gives control for long cueing; a faster one is what scratching wants, and the difference is often a sheet of paper.
Frequently asked
What does a slipmat do?+
It lets the record move independently of the platter. The platter keeps turning at speed while you hold or pull the record, and the track returns to pitch as soon as you release it.
Can you use a rubber mat instead?+
Only if you never hold the record. A rubber mat grips deliberately — it is right for listening and wrong for cueing, because holding the record then fights the motor.
How do you make a slipmat slip more?+
Put something slick underneath it — wax paper or a slip sheet between the mat and the platter. Adding felt does the opposite and slows it down.
Related terms
Timecode vinyl
Timecode vinyl is a record pressed with a control signal instead of music. DVS software reads that signal to work out where the needle sits and how fast the platter is turning, then plays a digital track to match.
DVS
A DVS — digital vinyl system — plays software tracks from real turntables or CD decks. A control record carries a timecode signal, an interface digitises it, and the software follows the position and speed of the platter.
Needle drop
A needle drop is starting a track at a chosen point with no blend at all — dropping straight in on a downbeat, named for placing a stylus onto a moving record.
Slip mode
Slip mode keeps the track running silently underneath whatever you are doing to it. When you release a loop, a scratch or a reverse, playback jumps to where the record would have been if you had never touched it.
Explore: Mixing guides · Slip mode · BPM tapper · All DJ terms