What is hamster and regular style and which should I use?
"Hamster" style means scratching with the crossfader reversed, so when you move the fader to the left, the right turntable comes on and vice versa. Some people find this a more natural way to scratch (me included). The main thing is to choose a style that you prefer and stick to it. Switching between styles at the beginning will only slow up your progress. Don't be influenced by the style other people use, for example, just because QBert scratches hamster it doesn't mean you should.

What records do I scratch with?
Scratching takes years to master. If you want to become good, you'll be doing LOTS of practice. Every time you perform a scratch on a certain sample, you're wearing it away. It's essential not to practice with your treasured vinyl collection! Get yourself a couple of battle records to practice with and when they wear away, get some more. I'd recommend SuperSeal, because it has some common sounds and fresh arranged so they're skipless.

What are "skipless" records?
Imagine you stuck a little label on your record at the 12 o'clock mark. When you play the record, the label will go round and pass the same point every so often. Skipless records work by having the same sample at exactly the same point spread over several rotations. This means that if the needle skips forwards or backwards a couple of grooves, it'll land in exactly the same spot on the same sample. When you start out, you might be a little heavy handed and the needle skipping can be very frustrating. Buying battle records that have skipless sections is one way to get around this.

What scratches should I learn first?
Nearly all scratches are based on simple foundation scratches. It's important to start with the very basic scratches first. A lot of DJs will try and learn crabs and 2-clicks before they learn anything else simply because to them they sound impressive. That's not the best way to learn. If you wanted to learn how to play a guitar, you wouldn't pick one up and try playing a Hendrix solo - you'd start by playing single notes and work from there - scratching is no different. If you want the beat I used for the examples, It was a free loop made by DJ Toadstyle. Once you have it, you can loop it up using the Focus Looper I posted, or in the program of your choice.

What are the foundation scratches?
Baby - The baby scratch is the first scratch anyone should learn. All you're doing is moving the record back and forth in time with the music. There are various ways to perform it. Here's a little file with some examples:

• Marches - Marches are a combination of babies and forwards. This is the first combo you'll learn. As with all scratches, you're aiming to have solid record control and get a clean and even sound. Here's an example using combinations of forwards and some of the different baby scratches mentioned above
• Drags - A drag can be performed either forwards or backwards. What you're doing is slowing the record down rather than letting the sample play at it's regular speed.
• Tips - A tip is like a really short baby. All you're doing is moving the record back and forth over a short distance to catch just the start of the sound
• Stabs - Stabs are a little like forwards except you're only catching the very start of the sound. You can also change the pitch of the sound by pushing the record forwards at different speeds.
• Chirps - The record movement of a chirp is the same as a baby. If you've practiced your baby scratches so they're nice and clean then give chirps a try. Start with the fader open, then move the record forwards. As soon as you hear the sound start to play, close the fader, but continue moving the record as if you were doing a baby. As you move the record backwards, just before you get to the start of the sample again, open the fader. What you're doing is using the fader to cut away a large portion of the sample. This gives a crisp, defined sound.
• Tears - There are many different tear combinations. An easy one to learn first is the 1 forward, 2 back tear
• Transforms - A transform is a technique, not a specific scratch. The fader starts closed and ends closed. What you're basically doing is snapping the fader on and off to chop up a sound. Transforms can be done over the top of other scratches including babies and tears to add more definition to the sound.
• Dicing - Transforming over the top of tears is called dicing. There's two ways to speed up something like dicing. First off you can do the exact same record movement, but just do it faster. That will speed up the pitch of the sound too obviously. The other way is to do the tear over a shorter distance which means you can move the record slower. The fader movement is the same either way.

Next >>