Hey folks!
Welcome to Day 3 of 30 Days of Scratching. Great to see some new faces getting in on the action and recording your own videos and audio yesterday. For a full overview and instructions please visit 30 Days of Scratching Day 1.
Day 3
Beat used: Pete Rock and C.L Smooth – In The House instrumental.
Scratch Record Used: Best Of Skratchy Seal: 10 Years Of Superseal.
Background Info
I’m a big fan of Pete Rock beats, the drums and samples are just so awesome and funky to scratch over.
I have looped up the beginning section of the instrumental as the chorus has vocals which would clash with the scratching.
I used Serato Scratch Live to record and play the beat and used a real scratch record for the samples.
Reflections On Todays Video
- I used a different camera angle and lens today (a nifty 50 – 50mm) that lets in lots of light. The area of focus was my hand on the fader.
- I am learning more each day about my camera and how to get the best out of it.
- Todays lesson – make sure you charge your camera battery! – I always seem to overlook this as I get carried away thinking about the scratching. As the battery was running out, I was in a slight rush to capture the best cuts and samples that I could, whilst all the time watching that red light blink at me. The battery is now on charge and I must make it a habit to charge overnight or as soon as I finish shooting. It’s the little things hey!
- It was great to cut to a slower beat than yesterday. This beat is about 94 bpm
- I enjoyed using a few different samples. “Ahhh” is the classic sample, but I am aware that it might get a bit repetitive, that’s why I aim to mix it up a little.
- You can see me doing the Slow Autobahn Scratch at the end – this is a scratch I am still learning and working on.
- The pilot light on my Technics is broken and it is a bit tricky to see the tracks on the record and memorise which samples I want to cut. The tracks were really close together.
- I’m getting better and more efficient at recording – organisation of my creative space is key – I tidy everything up the night before so I am fresh for the morning. A morning routine seems to be forming around this. I get up, have a cuppa tea, shower, do some yoga, eat some breakfast then get down to recording. I usually have everything shot, edited and uploaded by midday GMT / UK time.
- The only decisions I have to make is what beat, what samples and what angle to shoot at.
- I used an LED light as it’s quite grey and overcast here in the UK today.
- It has been great to get comments and links to all of you scratching, please keep them coming, it’s not too late to join in, even if you make 1 more recording that you would normally.
- Feel free to ask me any questions.
- I really want a purple Serato control record next! Actually one of every colour would be awesome!
Official 30 Days Of Scratching Playlist
You can see all of the videos here: 30 Days Of Scratching YouTube Playlist
Your Turn!
If you would like to join me in this challenge throughout October / November, post links to your own practice videos in the comments below. Tag your videos on social networks with #studioscratches and #30DaysOfScratching. You don’t have to do the full 30 days so feel free to dip in and out posting your videos where you want to, but it would be super awesome to have you along as company for the full 30 days! Who knows where you might end up!
If you have a beat suggestion or want to send me cool beats to use in this challenge, please email me via the contact page.
If you have any questions please let me know.
See you tomorrow!
Happy Scratching! 😀
– Emma Short-E