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View Full Version : Scratching Effects/ Manipulating Scratch on BELT Drive Tables



DGrindM.M.
03-02-2012, 10:11 AM
Me and some friends were talking and wondering if anyone knew of some Tricks or Ways of Mixing Sets on BELT Drive Tables (Numark) with that scratch sound or manipulating it with other Club Tags & Effects???

ampnation
03-02-2012, 12:36 PM
Lurking because I'm just curious what difference the drive type actually makes on scratching... thought that's what slipmats were for, so it didn't affect the actual platter motion.

Sigma
03-02-2012, 12:44 PM
Belt drives are pretty much useless for scratching. The problem is lack of torque. The platter will slow down due to you pushing down on the record and moving it backwards as well as forwards, so when you let go of the record it can slur as the platter takes a short amount of time to get back up to full speed.

All you can really do is develop as light a touch as you can and use a really slippery slipmat. You can compensate for the lack of torque to some degree by giving the record a push, but once you get into that habit it'll mess you up when you're using direct drive turntables and it'll take a while to break out of it.

DJ Riddims
03-03-2012, 06:10 PM
Sigma is right. I have the Stanton T.50, an extremely entry level turntable. I had no intentions of scratching, its main purpose was to import some records. I decided I wanted to learn how to scratch so I purchased Super Seal (record that has famous scratching sounds), put a piece of wax paper under the slipmat and began practicing. It took me quite a while to develop a light enough touch to compensate for the lack of torque. I also developed the habit of giving the record a slight push at the end of the scratch. That slight push would really screw me up when scratching on my tabletop cd player where torque is not an issue.

To answer your question, you can do a quite a few basic scratches on a belt driven turntable (baby scratch, pull-backs, forwards). Watch some scratching videos and try to find a way to replicate the scratch, that is what I did. Be warned this will most likely lead to you giving the record a slight push at the end of the scratch which will cause problems when you move on to better gear.

DGrindM.M.
03-13-2012, 12:06 PM
Thanx Riddims & Sigma ,Alot of information was just taken in... My next buy is deff. Gonna Be Direct Drive Tables ...

Sigma
03-13-2012, 12:35 PM
Thanx Riddims & Sigma ,Alot of information was just taken in... My next buy is deff. Gonna Be Direct Drive Tables ...
No worries man.

Another thing to bear in mind is that not all direct drive turntables are created equal. Many years ago, a friend of mine upgraded from belt drives to direct drives and I went round to his house to have a go and he'd bought cheap direct drives that barely had any more pulling power than the belt drives they were replacing.

Technics 1200s have 1.5 Kgf/cm of torque and I would say that's a good baseline. If you go with high end decks from any manufacturer, they will have at least that amount of torque with some decks having WAY more (mine have 4.5 Kgf/cm for instance). 1200s are absolutely fine for scratching - obviously, as DJs have used them for years - but once you start going lower than that in terms of torque, you may end up in the same situation you're in with your belt drives, so just be wary.