Turntablism
Tweak scratch
A tweak scratch is performed with the motor off, so the record only moves when your hand moves it. Without a platter pulling underneath, the sound follows the hand exactly and can be pushed into rhythmic patterns.
In practice
Motor off, and the record does exactly what your hand does. It is the cleanest way to hear your own timing.
Cue a sound with a clear attack, stop the motor, and work the record back and forth against the crossfader as you would any other scratch. Because there is no return force, you can dwell inside a sound and shape it in ways a running platter will not allow. When you switch the motor back on, whatever felt uneven with it off was your hand rather than the deck — which is exactly the diagnostic you want when a pattern is not sitting right.
Motor off
The defining condition
No return
Why control is total
Diagnostic
What it is best for
Where these come from: Standard tweak-scratch technique — established practice, not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see the family it belongs to.
Why it matters
It is the one scratch where the deck stops fighting you. Every other technique is a negotiation between your hand and a turning platter; with the motor off the record is inert, so tiny movements produce clean, controllable pitch and rhythm.
That makes it a genuinely useful practice tool as well as a technique. Working a pattern with the motor off isolates what your hand is doing from what the platter is doing, which is the fastest way to find out which of the two is causing a scratch to sound uneven.
Frequently asked
Does the motor have to be off for a tweak scratch?+
That is the definition of it. With the motor running the platter pulls the record back, which removes the total control that makes the technique what it is.
Is a tweak scratch useful in a set?+
Occasionally as an effect, though switching the motor off mid-set is rarely practical. Its main value is as a practice tool for isolating your hand’s timing.
Does it damage the record or stylus?+
No more than any other scratch, provided tracking force is set properly. The stylus is doing the same job; only the platter’s behaviour has changed.
Related terms
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.
Drag scratch
A drag is a scratch performed deliberately slowly, pulling the record at well under playing speed so the sound stretches downward in pitch. The fader usually stays open throughout.
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.
Turntable
A turntable spins a record at a constant speed while a stylus tracks its groove. A DJ turntable adds a pitch fader, high torque so it reaches speed instantly, and a platter you can hold and release.
Explore: Transition techniques · Scratch · Baby scratch · All DJ terms