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Control Digital Audio With Turntables

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-that-scratching-is-making-me-itch dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Harmony Central has a NAMM article about FinalScratch which is a digital audio controller technology for Linux/BeOS, so DJ's can play digital audio and keep the tactile control of the turntable. Some interesting technology there, and a further push for digital audio." Another one for CowboyNeal's birthday list.

5 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. This isn't really new ... by Monkelectric · · Score: 3, Informative
    Heres directions on how to build your own with a turntable and a mouse ... Although rightfully the professional one has better features ...

    I have to take issue with one thing in the harmony central article ... it says the records contain a time code. What do you do when you break these special records? ...

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

  2. Richie Hawtin by hummer · · Score: 5, Informative

    I believe Richie Hawtin has been using Final scratch for the last year or so. Furthermore, his latest CD "DE9: Closer to the Edit" is supposed to be largely mixed with it.

    hummer

  3. Richie Hawton and Final Scratch by bdavenport · · Score: 5, Informative

    it appears that Stanton Inc. is releasing Final Scratch. their site has some good info directly from Richie about using it.

    --
    /* Half alive and half dead too, work is for suckers and the sucker is you. - "Half-life" by Local H*/
  4. terminatorX by AirLace · · Score: 4, Informative

    terminatorX can do this kind of thing:


    terminatorX is a realtime audio synthesizer that allows you to "scratch" on digitally sampled audio data (*.wav, *.au, *.mp3, etc.) the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records. It features multiple turntables, realtime effects (buit-in as well as LADSPA plugin effects), a sequencer and an easy-to-use gtk+ GUI.


    There's a tutorial which explains how to take advantage of the support for a second mouse attached to the serial port which can be plugged into a dead turntable and controls the software, allowing users to make scratches with a real turntable for that hiphop look'n'feel. Check it out, it's a great project.

  5. Scratching's just part of it by Kennu · · Score: 3, Informative
    They always forget that scratching is just one little part of the experience of playing vinyl on a turntable.

    I have to admit that this sounds like a good attempt though. The timecoded dummy records allow for new tricks that haven't been possible with simpler emulations.

    But you have to remember that the complete vinyl experience consists of all the little stuff like

    browsing your records physically in the box, checking out the covers etc.

    flipping records with your bare hands instead of grabbing the mouse and fiddling with GUI displays

    having that little extra snap, crackle & pop in the sound

    letting people actually see what you are playing, since the record's always visible on the turntable

    etc.

    All these little things are what really contribute to the overall feeling that you get with turntables, it's not just the scratching interface. And you know, sometimes it's actually the slight inconvenience or difficulty of doing something that makes it feel cool. When you change it and make it easier, you also change the overall feeling and your emulation is not successful.

    So, I believe that if you go digital, it's possible to come up with much better interfaces for DJ'ing than simple turntable emulation. If a GUI is going to be your primary interface (for finding the tracks you want to play etc), you should leverage the GUI and find the most natural interfaces there.

    After all, scratching and pitch mixing are just 'hacks' applied to the original turntable device, which was designed for much simpler use. The possibilities of a computer with a GUI are endless and should not be limited to just these traditional ideas.