The Sounding Object

distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled " GNU Free Documentation License ". To scratch means to drag a vinyl record forwards and backwards against the needle on an ordinary turntable along the grooves, not across, though it might sound like it. This way of producing sounds has during the last two decades made the turntable become a popular instrument for both solo and ensemble playing in different musical styles, still mostly in the hip-hop style where Disk Jockeys (DJs) first started to scratch. However, all musical genres seem to be able to adopt the turntables into their instrumental setups. Composers in traditions like rock, metal, pop, disco, jazz, experimental music, film music, contemporary music and numerous others have been experimenting with DJs the past years. Experimental DJs and most hip-hop DJs now frequently call 221 222 The Sounding Object themselves " turntablists " , and the music style of scratching and extensive cut-and-paste mixing is called " turntablism ". These terms, derived from the word turntable, are now generally accepted. It is also generally accepted that a turn-tablist is a musician and that the turntable is to be considered an instrument. The acoustics of scratching has been barely studied until now. On the other end the business market of DJs equipment is quite large. It is therefore interesting to study the phenomenon of turntablism from a scientific point of view. In this chapter three experiments are presented. Aim of these experiments is to model scratching based on analysis of an experienced performer. For this purpose scratching as an expressive musical playing-style is looked at from different views. Experiment 1 investigates the musical fundamentals of scratching , and explains the most common playing-techniques in more detail. Experiment 2 investigates a real performance with aid of sensors on the equipment in order to understand what kinds of problems and parameter variation a model will need to deal with. Experiment 3 investigates what happens to the record that is being scratched, as it is apparent that some heavy damage will be done to the vinyl and this can therefore affect the sound quality. All the experiments shared part of the equipment …