Skip to content

Mapping Strategies in DJ Scratching

Kjetil F. Hansen, and Roberto Bresin

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

For 30 years Disc Jockeys have been expressing their musical ideas with scratching. Unlike many other popular instruments, the equipment used for scratching is not built as one single unit, and it was not intended to be a musical instrument. This paper gives an overview of how DJs use their turntable, vinyl record and audio mixer in junction to produce scratch music. Their gestural input to the instrument is explained by looking at the mapping principles between the controller parameters and the audio output parameters. Implications are discussed for the design of new interfaces with examples of recent innovations and experiments in the field.

Citation

Kjetil F. Hansen, and Roberto Bresin. 2006. Mapping Strategies in DJ Scratching. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1176921 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry


@inproceedings{nime2006_Hansen,
author = {Hansen, Kjetil F. and Bresin, Roberto},
title = {Mapping Strategies in DJ Scratching},
pages = {188--191},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
year = {2006},
address = {Paris, France},
issn = {2220-4806},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1176921},
url = {https://nime.org/proceedings/2006/nime2006_188.pdf},
keywords = {controllers,dj,instrument mapping,scratching,virtual},
abstract = {For 30 years Disc Jockeys have been expressing their musical ideas with scratching. Unlike many other popular instruments, the equipment used for scratching is not built as one single unit, and it was not intended to be a musical instrument. This paper gives an overview of how DJs use their turntable, vinyl record and audio mixer in junction to produce scratch music. Their gestural input to the instrument is explained by looking at the mapping principles between the controller parameters and the audio output parameters. Implications are discussed for the design of new interfaces with examples of recent innovations and experiments in the field.}
}