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PROFESSOR: All right.
So, welcome back.
Today we continue our
look at musical interfaces
by examining the turntable
and its various contemporary
formations and a
variety of controllers.
What we're going to do
is look at a little bit
of the history of the
development of turntablism.
We're going to talk about some
of the technologies involved
including turntables proper, DJ
mixers, look at a few scratch
techniques.
We'll cover a little bit about
the development of hip hop
extending back through
the Jamaican sound system
tradition from which it seems
it came on to early hip hop
innovators coming out of
the South Bronx in New York
and onto a bit of contemporary
turntable practice.
At the end I'll sort of argue
that what we see now going on
is sort of an abstraction
of the turntable interface,
extracting and abstracting
out the key control interface
components of the turntable, and
we'll see some examples of that
as we move forward.
A brief reminder, remember
Thursday your Sonic systems
projects.
We're going to bring
those in next week.
Some prototype, some draft,
sketches, circuits, code,
pictures, ideas,
bring something in.
Be prepared to
show us something.
We'll spend about five to
10 minutes on each person.
So have something to share.
And that's the next
thing coming up.
I have almost all of your drafts
in for the for the case study
paper.
Now that you've
turned that in, try
not to stop thinking about it.
Continue thinking about it.
We'll get a little bit
of time away from it,
but continue to
do your research.
I'll get you guys comments back,
hopefully within a week or so,
and that'll give you more to
work on as we move forward.
Questions?
Comments?
One of your listenings for
today was a track by People
Under the Stairs.
This is the hip hop
group out of Los Angeles
who speak about the
folklore of hip hop.
Let's listen to a little bit of
this track to remind ourselves.
[MUSIC - PEOPLE UNDER THE
 STAIRS, "STAY HOME."]
In case you didn't catch
all those lyrics there,
a couple things to point out.
What they're doing is
talking about the folklore
of the foundations of hip hop.
It turns out that
it's not really
folklore in that it's
colored by imagination.
It's actually part
of the real history
of the development of hip hop.
They describe 40
days in the studio,
struck water from ADATs
on top of a mountain made
of milk crates.
Going on, people who still
live in the folklore of DJ Cool
Herc, Bam Grand Wizard Theodore.
We're going to talk
about all those guys
as we move forward today.
We're going to use
this as a way to frame
our discussion of the
development of hip hop.
Before any punk with a
keyboard could do it,
yo Apache was the and
every B-Boy knew it.
We're going to
look at Apache, one
of the most famous breaks
of all turntable breaks.
And finally, yo
it's number one rap,
I'd rather hear an eight-o-eight
hand clap than that.
We already know what
that's a reference to,
the famous
eight-o-eight hand clap.
So before we go on,
let's review our history
of the turntable
of the phonograph.
Remember 1877, Edison
comes out with his cylinder
based recording mechanism.
1887, Berliner releases
his disc based gramophone.
The disc ultimately wins
out primarily because
of-- why, why did
the disk win out?
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: Because you
could record more, and then
because it was horizontal versus
vertical wedges, or edges,
whatever.
Basically it made
it so that amplitude
wasn't really affected as much.
PROFESSOR: Well there's a
little bit more regularity
in doing the transverse rather
than the lateral cut, right?
But--
AUDIENCE: Isn't it easier to
encode larger amplitude swings
with less amplification.
PROFESSOR: Right.
We can regulate the
amplitude more better
and the cutting of the record,
but more importantly, we
can make copies.
We can press copies super
easily of this flat disc
and sell those
pre-recorded copies.
That's probably the number one
reason why the disc won out,
because it was
easier to reproduce.
And we talked about that
as sort of a flattening
of the dimensions of
the recording medium
from three dimensions
on a cylinder
to two dimensions on a disc.
By 1948 Columbia releases
the 33 and the third.
That's the large format LP, and
that gets back pretty much up
to where we've talked about the
phonograph in the gramophone
so far.
1969 Technics releases the
SP-10, the first direct drive
turntable.
This direct drive
mechanism turns out
to be a fairly important
technical feature.
Previous turntables had
used a belt mechanism.
And the belt, while effective,
tended to wear out over time
and slow down.
The rate wasn't
always as constant
and posed some other
technical problems.
With this direct
drive turntable,
the performance of the turntable
was a little bit more rigorous
and could handle a little
bit more abuse, namely,
the kind of abuse we see
with contemporary practice.
1969, Technics releases a less
expensive model, the SP-1100.
1972 they release the SL-1200.
And it's this
turntable that really
defines the modern
turntable practice.
If you go find a DJ
somewhere, and you
look at their turntables,
probably six to eight out of 10
will be using this turntable
or some variation of it.
Now they have the SL-1220
and SL-1260, et cetera.
But the SL-12 is still
the leading model
and, in fact, you'll hear
hip hop artists refer
to the SL-12 as the
turntable of choice.
This model allows you to select
different rotation speeds
depending if you have a 78
or 45 or a 33 and a third.
And it has this nice
variable speed adjustment
slider here on the right.
Why would you want to smoothly
vary the speed of playback?
Slow things down,
speed things up.
AUDIENCE: Skip ahead
to the next track.
PROFESSOR: Fast forward,
well, yeah, you could do that.
OK, that's one approach.
Yeah you always just grab
the needle and throw it over.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: If you're playing
two at the same time,
if you want to get them
to be about the same pitch
or if you want them to
be about the same speed,
you can always just
adjust one smoothly.
PROFESSOR: That's right.
By adjusting the rotation
speed here and changing
the rotation speed-- go ahead?
AUDIENCE: I was wondering
if that was their intent
or if it was actually
intended to just
be able to adjust for
fluctuations in line frequency?
Because, you know,
you may need to do
that if you need it to go
exactly 33 and a third.
PROFESSOR: I think
with the direct drive
motor and the
modern design, they
were able to pretty regularly
get the speed that they wanted.
So I think the
motivation, maybe,
and certainly the
most common use
is to match beats,
to match tempo.
So that you could slow
down a track a little bit
and move into another
track and match the beats,
align the beats, which leads
to the whole practice of beat
matching which used to
be done manually by ear
but is more often done
with software now.
AUDIENCE: Were people
doing that in '69
when this turntable came out?
PROFESSOR: Not '69 but
the late '70s, early '80s.
AUDIENCE: What's the
response to that ability
or was the ability a
response to a desire?
PROFESSOR: I'm not sure.
That's a good thing to look at.
This is a modern, this
isn't the 72 model.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a
great question to ask
and something to look at.
Now combined with the modern
SL style of turntable,
DJs often add a slip
mat, and this slip mat
is really the, sort of, secret
ingredient to modern turntable
technique.
It's simply a
circle of felt that
goes under the record
that permits the record
to spin independently
of the platter.
Now this allows us to
do a number of things
with our record.
The so-called baby scratch is
the most basic scratch-- oops,
this is the
transformers-- either way,
we're going to look at a couple
scratches that don't require
using the mixer, that
just employ manipulating
the disc on the platter.
And this is only possible
because of the felt of the slip
mat, or at least, more possible.
So this is the transformer--
oh, sorry, this is a bad clip.
This is not what I wanted.
Sorry.
Let's go to the phases,
maybe this is it.
There we go.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
DJ QBERT: OK, phrases are
just the same thing as lasers,
but you're holding the record.
PROFESSOR: [GIGGLING]
So here he's
showing a technique
where he's just
adjusting the
rotation of the disc.
He's not doing anything
with the mixer.
He's just using the
ability for the disc
to turn independently
of the platter.
Let me pull up the
baby, this is the one
I was going to show before.
There we go.
DJ QBERT: So the first
scratch you're going to learn
is the baby scratch.
It's basically the
easiest scratch to do.
You don't need a fader.
You just move the
record back and forth.
There was a deal in 1975,
and this is how it sounds.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR: So a very
simple scratch, again,
just being able to manipulate
the movement of the record
on the platter
allows us to do this.
There's this other one here
called the waves-- hopefully
I have the right
link here-- which
adjusts the rotation in
a quick and slow fashion.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
DJ QBERT: [INAUDIBLE]
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR: What's
interesting about that
is the movement
of his hand looks
like it's mapping the cutoff
frequency of a low pass
filter which is
kind of interesting.
I don't think it's the
movement of his hand
that's making this
technique effective.
It's really adjusting
the playback speed
in a smooth fashion
up and down that
makes this technique effective.
Questions?
AUDIENCE: What's on the record?
PROFESSOR: In that example?
DJs like him and
others sometimes
use battle records or records
that are configured with things
really good for scratching.
In that case, it sounded sort
of like a vocal sample, somebody
saying something, which often
gives those good white noise
sounds.
We'll hear more examples
of that in a little bit.
Now the DJ mixer is one of
the other really important
components of the
turntable's set up.
And particularly,
the cross fader.
The cross fader and the toggle
switches found on a modern DJ
mixer allow the turntablist
to apply variable amplitude
envelopes to the sound.
We've already looked
at the development
of modular synthesizers.
We can think of the cross
fader and the toggle switches,
the cross fader located here
and the toggle switches located
here, as various ways of
applying amplitude envelopes
to the sound the DJ is
capturing from the disc.
Now there's a wide
range of other tools
available on the DJ mixer.
Another important
one is the ability
to listen to more sources
than are being played.
This is often described
as the queueing
of the record or
the queue input.
What this allows the DJ
to do is play one record
and then play another
record and listen
to that record in
their headphones
before they play it
out to the audience.
This leads to the sort
of stereotypical DJ
pose of having one cup of a
headphone ear on their head
while doing something.
They're queuing up
the next record.
They're listening to the next
record which may be a record
or may be a digital audio file
or may be some other source,
they're playing an
existing record,
listening to another
record, adjusting
where the records going to play,
maybe adjusting the playback
speed, and doing that
all in the headphones
before they send that out to
the main mix to the house.
So the ability to queue
up another channel
before sending it out is a
critical feature of DJ mixers.
Now some modern DJ mixers
have a wide variety
of different effects.
Some have delay, some have
reverb, some have samplers,
some have various
other technologies.
For instance, this Mackie d.2
features an optical cross fader
which is advertised as never
changing its performance.
The cross fader always
performs the same way
because there's no friction.
There's other designs
that are using
magnetic technologies
for the cross faders.
This Numark DXM09 has some
beat synchronized affects
so it allows you
to set the tempo
and then echos and
delays and other effects
are synchronized to the beat
which is a pretty nice feature.
This Numark 5000FX features
an integrated sampler
which allows you to, while
you're playing something,
simply trigger a record,
sample something,
and then play it back either
in reverse or forward later on,
which as you
imagine, could offer
some nice creative techniques.
We already saw
another example where
DJs work with something
like an MPC sampler.
So seeing a turntable next
to an MPC is not uncommon.
Some DJs might work
with an external sampler
next to their turntable,
but we do see some cases
where the sampler is
integrated into the mixer.
This device is very cool.
It seems to have
been discontinued,
but this Vestax QFO
has a single turntable
with a mixer built it.
This provides a DJ to do a
solo set without a mixer.
It has the essential
functionality
of the cross fader of a mixer
built into the turntable
so that with just this
and an MP3 player,
you can put down
a background track
and then scratch over this
and have your cross fader.
Now working with the
turntable and the mixer
is how most of the
turntable techniques
that we of have come about.
I showed you guys some examples,
the baby and the waves,
that don't use the mixer.
These examples use the mixer to
create the various scratching
techniques.
So this is the one I
accidentally brought up before.
This is a transformer.
As you might expect,
this is named
for making the type
of transforming sound.
So there we're basically taking
a noise source from the record
and then applying a
variable amplitude envelope
to that noise source in
a rhythmic fashion which
provides that very nice
quasi transformers sound.
Or maybe they use it for
the real transformers,
I'm not sure.
The chirp, another technique,
check this one out,
that makes use of
the cross faders.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
DJ QBERT: OK, this next scratch
is called a chirp scratch which
was made popular by Jazzy Jeff
on a song called Magnificent.
Jazzy Jeff made a whistle
sound like a bird.
Anyway, this scratch is kind of
tricky so you let a sound play,
and you've got to turn it off
right when it plays and just
move your hand backward
in, like, a mirror fashion.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR: Can anybody summarise
what that technique is there?
We'll listen to it a little bit
more then you can try again.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
DJ QBERT: And then turn
it off and take it back.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
AUDIENCE: It seems like it's
basically amplitude modulation
or modulating the amplitude
with a really high attack.
PROFESSOR: Well the
attack is gradual.
You can see that the
attack of the amplitude
is gradual, right?
You can see him feeding it in.
Anybody else want to
take a stab at describing
what this technique is?
AUDIENCE: Without
saying what he just did?
PROFESSOR: Yeah.
It basically links
amplitude and pitch.
So amplitude is faded in
as the record is sped up,
and then amplitude is faded
out as a record is slowed down.
So those two
parameters are linked,
and that allows him to create
this distinctive sound.
Right?
So amplitude and the change
in playback speed are linked.
Ever hear that before?
Of course, DJ Qbert's
quite good at this.
The crab gives us
an example of some
of the really crazy
extended techniques that
develop using the cross fader.
If you've ever seen a
Flamenco guitarist use
all their fingers, this
should remind you of this.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
DJ QBERT: Where I
use two fingers,
and instead of
using two fingers,
why don't you use five fingers.?
So instead of the
tapping like a twiddle,
it's slide your
fingers across kind
of like snapping my fingers.
PROFESSOR: Easy, right?
DJ QBERT: And it was actually
called the [INAUDIBLE] scratch
because me and him [INAUDIBLE]
PROFESSOR: OK, it
goes on a little long.
DJ QBERT: This is
the crab scratch.
PROFESSOR: Right?
You guys can go home
and do that now, right?
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
You just use your
thumb as a spring.
But that's a great
example of how
the DJ mixer and particularly
the cross fader combined
with the variable
playback of the turntable
really provides a wide
range of different sounds.
Again, we can think of it
as having variable playback
speed and some frequency
modulation from the turntable.
And we can think of the mixer
as providing a way for us
to play envelopes and
do amplitude modulation
to our sounds.
Questions?
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: The design of
like two disc turntables
with the cross
fader was something
just for queueing and
playing for parties,
and they made it spinning later?
PROFESSOR: The
original cross fader?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
PROFESSOR: Yeah.
It came out of,
I think, the need
to want to have two records
and have continuous music.
AUDIENCE: But they
had these kinds
of things in radio
stations long before--
PROFESSOR: Yeah,
we're going to get
to some examples of why
that came about in a bit.
So when we look at the
development of hip hop,
and we look at the
development of turntablism,
it's essential for
us to look back
to the foundations in
Jamaican sound systems.
Many of the modern practices
of turntablism, of DJ culture,
come out of the
Jamaican traditions.
You may not know that in
the '50s and into the '60s,
the Jamaicans
developed a wide range
of different musical
practices and developed
a very large and robust
recording studio system where
there were numerous
studios, there
were numerous independent
Jamaican releases, not only of
reggae, but a wide variety
of other musical genres.
The genres that we are
concerned about come out
of a tradition from these
things called sound systems.
Now you may think
of a sound system
as a sort of boom
box or something
you buy at the store, that's
essentially what these were.
But, at the time in
Jamaica, not everybody
had access to turntables
or amplifiers and speakers,
so those that did
started to hold parties.
And they would have a
sound system, a turntable,
and speakers, and
amplifier, and would
use these as community
record players.
People would get together and
dance, have fun, have a party,
and this really led to the
culture of the person who
ran the sound system being in
charge of providing the music,
being in charge of
running the party,
being in charge of
selecting the music.
The DJs even began to be known
as selectors because they would
select the music being played.
Clement Dodd, aka
Coxsone, was credited
with the invention of
this sound system concept.
In the 1950s, he established
a sound system called
the downbeat sound
system, and he later on
went to open Studio One
in Kingston in 1963.
So we have this sort
of mixture of somebody
who starts off sort of as
a performer, as kind of
like a party organizer,
then moving into the studio
and becoming a producer and
a studio engineer working
with people like Bob
Marley and others.
Now the Jamaican
recording industry
was very active in the 1960s.
They would often release
b-sides of 45 RPM singles.
These b-sides, very often,
were instrumental versions
of the a-side track.
And these b-sides
offered an opportunity
for people to remix
and experiment
with these instrumental tracks.
Two types of experimentation
went on with these b-sides.
One involved manipulating
the sound on these records
and producing remixes and, what
we later began to call, dub.
Another practice that
came out of these b-sides
was vocalizations, spoken word
over these instrumental tracks.
And many credit the development
of the spoken word traditions,
often called toasting, as one
of the foundations of modern hip
hop.
So musicians such
as King Tubby would
take either these instrumental
b-sides or four channel source
tracks and remix them.
And using basic
studio processors
available at the time,
things like reverbs,
echo machines, and
the like, often things
as simple as variable low
pass and high pass filters,
they would remix tunes
and often manipulate
the vocals, manipulate
the instruments,
in a way that created
these instrumental
tunes that we know as dub.
One of the pieces we listened
to for today's class,
"555 Dub Street,"
is a collaboration
between Augustus
Pablo and King Tubby.
Pablo was known
for his performance
on-- what instrument
was that in this piece?
Is it up there?
The melodica, an instrument
where you blow air
into a small little
keyboard that
allows you to control the
amplitude with your mouth
and change pitch
with your fingers.
Augustus Pablo performed
on the melodica
on produced whole recordings.
And in this track, King Tubby
comes in and sort of remixed
and modifies this track
on top of all of that.
Let's listen to a
little bit of this.
[MUSIC - AUGUSTUS PABLO, "555
 DUB STREET"]
PROFESSOR: OK, right there,
what did we just hear there?
AUDIENCE: That's the melodica.
PROFESSOR: Yeah that's
the melodica entrance,
but did the melodica
sound normal?
What was going on?
AUDIENCE: Some feedback.
PROFESSOR: A feedback,
a delay, there's
a delay that has a high
feedback level that's making it
you hear an initial
sound, and then it
continues into a
constant texture.
Let's listen to that again.
That's probably one of the
most signature sounds of dug.
First we have a beat, of course,
but then this use of delay
and echo to smear a sound.
Let's listen to that again.
[MUSIC - AUGUSTUS PABLO, "555
 DUB STREET"]
PROFESSOR: Right there.
What we just heard
there can be done
with basic studio equipment.
You need a delay unit.
You need some faders.
You send the signal to the
delay unit with a high feedback.
It starts to feedback and
produce that continuous sound.
And then he dropped the source
signal the rest of the beat
so we got that very nice gesture
where we had the feedback going
on of the melodica and
then beat drops out,
the beat comes back in, a little
anticipation and response.
Let's hear that again.
[MUSIC - AUGUSTUS PABLO, "555
 DUB STREET"]
PROFESSOR: What did we just
hear on the high hats there?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
PROFESSOR: Yeah.
Yeah.
Moving the filters.
Maybe a peak notch or parametric
filter or a low or high pass
filter with a high resonance
moving across the high hats
to create that change in timbre,
another very common technique.
[MUSIC - AUGUSTUS PABLO, "555
 DUB STREET"]
PROFESSOR: So dub exploited
these relatively simple
techniques of cutting
in and out of parts
using feedback and delay, using
variable filters to create
really interesting
instrumental music.
That was one tradition
that came out
of the Jamaican sound systems.
Another is this focus on
taking an instrumental track
and doing something over
that instrumental track.
In the sound system tradition,
the leaders of the sound system
would want to encourage
people at their party
to have a good time
and often would
start toasting or shouting
out to the audience
as the music was playing.
Often these toasts
would be rhythmitized
chants of some sort.
And as I said
before, many people
credit this as a key
development to the existence
of American hip hop.
But more than the sound
system the key person
that's often looked
to as connecting
Jamaican sound system
traditions to American hip hop
is DJ Kool Herc, Clive Campbell.
If we think back to the
People Under the Stairs track
we started with,
people who still
live in the folklore of DJ
Kool Herc, the first person
they mention.
Herc moved to the Bronx from
Jamaica in the late '60s
and really transplanted
this sound system concept.
He began throwing parties
in the South Bronx.
He worked with an
MC, Coke La Rock who
would do some of the
toasting and began
experimenting with using
two turntables each
with the same recorded material.
This led him to
develop a technique
that he called the merry
go round which allowed him
to cut back and
forth between two
excerpts from the
same record and extend
the music for the
sake of dancing,
for the sake of the party.
In an excellent interview
with Terry Gross from 2005,
he describes this technique
and the development
of his practice in
detail better than I can.
So let's listen to a
little bit of this.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
TERRY GROSS: You're such an
interesting figure in hip hop.
Everyone who was
there in the beginning
seems to agree that
you started it all.
But because you never
recorded, in some ways
you're more of a cult
figure than a star.
KOOL HERC: That's why it
got to be called exclusive.
So you can tell everybody
because [INAUDIBLE]
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR: So what
do you guys think?
Impressions, ideas, surprises?
AUDIENCE: He looks
like Ludacris.
PROFESSOR: Yeah,
ha ha, that's true.
AUDIENCE: He really
feels responsible.
PROFESSOR: Say again?
AUDIENCE: He really feels
responsible for keeping
people happy.
PROFESSOR: That's right.
Yeah his attitude
about what's supposed
to go on at these
meetings, at these parties
is different than we think of
many hip hop or DJ performers
these days.
It's not about himself--
well, it is, you see the pride
he has-- but it's also
about, well, he's a shepherd.
This idea that he's really
concerned about getting people
to have a good time.
His attention to his audience
is what led to his interest
in the merry go
round in the breaks.
What is he talking about there,
this merry go around technique?
Ideas?
And these breaks, first of
all, what are these breaks?
AUDIENCE: What he was
saying is that people have
their favorite parts of
the songs that they were
able to dance to and that have
a little special move and a way
to do that special
move, and so he just
figured why not repeat it over
and over again so you can get
people back on the dance
floor, play their special move.
PROFESSOR: That's
right the breaks would
be the instrumental break
in a tune, a place where
the vocals would drop out,
and the rhythm section
would come forward.
These would generally be
relatively short, 4, 8,
16 bars, relatively short parts
where the rhythm section would
come forward, and these would
have a little bit more energy.
And Herc realized that this
inspired people dance more.
So he developed a technique
to extend the breaks.
His technique was to use two
copies of the same record,
and then while one was playing,
he could spin the other back
and play the other and switch
back and forth between two
records with the same
material and extend the break.
He called this the merry
go round technique.
This led to a whole
attention to these breaks,
and he mentions a very important
one called Apache which is also
mentioned by our
friends the People
Under the Stairs in their track.
So let's look at this.
The link for the whole
interview is there.
It's really a great interview.
So, Apache, every b-boy knew it.
Apache, probably the most
famous break of all breaks.
It has a long and
complicated history.
A study of the history of
Apache was done by an author
by the name Matos called,
"All Roads Lead to Apache."
You can find the
complete article here.
The history of this
tune is complex
and comes from various sources.
In 1960 there were two
versions of this tune, Apache,
that don't bear much relation to
what we think of now as Apache,
but we can hear a
little bit of these.
[MUSIC - BERT WEEDON, "APACHE"]
PROFESSOR: Ever hear
that melody before?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
PROFESSOR: So that was one
version by Bert Weedon.
Cliff Richard and the
Shadows did another version
closely related to that version.
AUDIENCE: Do you think
that's closer to rockabilly
or closer to like Jamaican?
[MUSIC - CLIFF RICHARD AND THE
 SHADOWS, "APACHE"]
PROFESSOR: It's hard
to describe what it is.
It's hard to say what it is.
But you'll see where it gets
into hip hop in a second.
So here we hear the same melody,
slightly different rhythm
section.
Now those were the sort
of foundations of Apache.
It was the incredible bongo band
with their album, "Bongo Rock"
that provided the break that
excited people like Herc
and so many others later on.
You'll hear the same melody
there from the 1960 tunes,
but here he adds this
bongo rhythm section
that caught a lot of
people's attention.
[MUSIC - INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND,
 "APACHE"]
PROFESSOR: It's the same melody.
But that opening bongo
rhythm is the thing
that excited people so much.
So shortly after
the Sugarhill Gang
produces, the first to
put this in something
more like a hip hop context.
[MUSIC - SUGARHILL GANG,
 "APACHE"]
PROFESSOR: There's the melody.
AUDIENCE: It's like
two minutes like that.
PROFESSOR: Yeah.
Now, of course, a
whole study could
be done not only on the
evolution of this tune,
but the distant and complex
associations and references
to ideas about Native
American culture which
are irrelevant in
this discussion.
But we are just focusing
on this one peculiar bongo
rhythm which comes
back again and again.
Future sound of London,
not a hip hop group,
use it in this example.
Here it's a little sped up
[MUSIC - FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON,
 "WE HAVE EXPLOSIVES"]
PROFESSOR: And there's some
other things going on there.
And A very clear example
from 2002 by The Roots
which starts off right with
that Apache bongo rhythm.
[MUSIC - THE ROOTS, "THOUGHT @
 WORK"]
PROFESSOR: So the
Incredible Bongo Band,
one of the most popular
breaks there is.
Another popular break is often
referred to as the amen break.
This again was nicely
taken into a single context
by the study of someone,
this one was this guy named,
Harrison, this idea of
studying the history of a break
as looking at the lineage of
either a sample or a break,
I think, is a really interesting
approach to studying music.
He produced this little audio
documentary called, "Can I
Get An Amen" where he
looks at this 4 bar
drum solo from this group
called, The Winstons, that
was found on a track on
the b-side, a relatively
unknown tune that
sounded like this.
[MUSIC - THE WINSTONS, "AMEN
 BROTHER"]
So there we can
really clearly hear
the break, the part where
the brass section drops out
and the rhythm
section steps forward.
Does that beat sound
familiar to anybody?
Ever hear something like that?
Maybe all over the place.
The Nate Harrison
documentary nicely
describes the different
ways that this was used,
not only how it was used
in its original form,
but how was chopped up,
sold, and commodified
in various sampler
libraries and other tools
that people bought
and rearranged.
Some quick examples
of this beat.
Different artists use
this in different ways.
Some of the
connections he suggest
are maybe a little
bit more distant.
Like the idea of
this beat, I think,
is used sometimes as much
as the original beat,
but we can hear a
little bit of this
in "Straight Outta
Compton" by N.W.A.
[MUSIC - N.W.A., "STRAIGHT OUTTA
 COMPTON"]
PROFESSOR: We can hear a bit
of the first bar of that beat.
Mantronix, "King of the Beats."
[MUSIC - MANTRONIX, "KING OF THE
 BEATS"]
PROFESSOR: Shy FX.
[MUSIC - SHY FX, "ORIGINAL
 NATTAH"]
PROFESSOR: Here we see that
Amen break start to be cut up
and rearranged a little bit.
That's also very popular.
[MUSIC - L DOUBLE & YOUNGBLOOD,
 "NEW STYLE"]
PROFESSOR: Now
Harrison goes as far
to suggest that that beat led
to whole genres of music that
use that style of beat
which gets a little bit more
of a distant
connection, but I think
there's something to be
said for that approach.
Harrison also points
out that this sample was
sold in sample packs and
available commercially
which leads to all sorts
of interesting questions
about copyright and has this
nice example from a Jeep
commercial in California that
uses this beat to suggest-- I
don't know-- the rugged
freedom of driving your Jeep
to go skiing or something.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK, JEEP
 COMMERCIAL]
PROFESSOR: Hear it in
the background there?
Ha ha.
AUDIENCE: Driving
straight outta Compton?
PROFESSOR: Ha ha.
Now back to the People
Under the Stairs.
People who still live in the
folklore of DJ Kool Herc.
We talked about Herc.
Bam is a reference
to Africa Bambaataa.
We talked about Africa
Bambaataa earlier.
Grand Wizard Theodore
is often credited
for inventing the scratch.
And whether or not this
is true is hard to say,
but the story goes, he was
hanging out in his basement
listening to a record, and his
mom yelled, hey Grand Wizard!
I'm sure that's
not what she said.
Theodore!
Turn that music down.
So he grabbed the
record and thus was
invented the baby scratch.
And that's what they say how
the scratch was invented.
Of course, Grand Wizard
Theodore extended this technique
with various variations
of that scratch
and made it into a
rhythmic technique.
Now Grandmaster
Flash provides us
with some really
excellent examples
of scratching techniques.
He was known for extending
numerous techniques,
for developing his
own electronics.
He built some basic
electronics, and some
say that he invented, or at
least refined, the cross fader
itself.
He, like many
turntablists, came up
with names for his techniques.
He describes something
called the quick mix theory,
or sometimes called a back spin
technique, which is actually
very similar to Herc's
merry go around.
He also describes techniques
such as the punch phase where
he would drop in
and out of a record
to sort of grab
one sample from it.
His well known
composition, "Adventures
of Grandmaster Flash
on the Wheels of Steel"
was one of our listenings
for this class.
Let's listen to a little
bit of that to remind us.
[MUSIC - GRANDMASTER FLASH, "THE
ADVENTURES OF GRANDMASTER FLASH
ON THE WHEELS OF STEEL"]
PROFESSOR: So
we've already heard
him switch between three
or four different records.
He was also dropping in and
out doing that punch phase
technique.
I think that was
the queen example.
In another interview
with Terry Gross,
Grandmaster Flash
narrates his techniques
as he listens to this
tune which provides us
with a really great view
into what he was doing here.
Let's listen to this.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
GRANDMASTER FLASH: Punch phase.
[INAUDIBLE] Punch phase.
Punch phase.
[INAUDIBLE] To
Apache with a rub.
PROFESSOR: Apache again.
GRANDMASTER FLASH: Cutting
it up, cutting it up.
Knocking it in.
Punch phase.
[INAUDIBLE] Cutting
into the rhythm.
[INAUDIBLE] times.
[INAUDIBLE] the rhythm
against the queen.
Good times flashing in.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR: So there
he's gone around
in a sort of circle starting
with that good times tune,
taking a little trip on
these different tunes,
coming back to where he started.
And this would all
have been done live.
So not only was he
manipulating his turntables,
he would also be changing
records, queueing up
the records to just
the right spot,
and of course having the timing
and skill to execute this
all without flaw.
AUDIENCE: I was going
to ask what exactly it
means to queue up a
record, but I guess
it's just to just
the right spot.
PROFESSOR: Yeah.
Well if we have a mixer,
and we have headphones,
we can listen ahead and get
the record at the right place.
But with the development
of the art of turntablism,
these DJs would start to
know their records so well,
that they would simply be
able to see the groove.
Herc was talking about being
able to see the difference
in the grooves to know
exactly where to put
the needle in the right
spot at the right time.
AUDIENCE: So it's usually like
two turntables, one that's
playing the current record
and one to queue up the--
PROFESSOR: Often.
Some DJs may even
use more than two.
But with techniques such as the
merry go round and the like,
the idea of having two
turntables, I think,
becomes really widespread.
Other questions?
Now we start to see the DJ
take on the role of a soloist.
That Grandmaster Flash, "On
the Wheels of Steel" was 1981,
but that didn't completely
spread this idea of the DJ
as a soloist.
And it's with Herbie
Hancock's tune, "Rockit,"
with DJ grand mixer
DST that we start
to see the turntablist start to
take on the role of a soloist.
This tune, "Rockit," was
tremendously popular,
one, because it's a good tune.
Two, it has excellent
scratching and very prominent
soloistic scratching.
And three, had an
outrageous video which had,
well, I'll just show it to you.
Let's just look at this.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[MUSIC - HERBIE HANCOCK,
 "ROCKIT"]
PROFESSOR: No, thanks.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR: Now you could
write for a whole essay
on this video.
What are some interesting
things going on here?
Anything you see off
the top of your head?
AUDIENCE: Rhythmically
he had the visual rhythm
along with the acoustic.
PROFESSOR: Yeah.
Visual rhythm.
I think that's one
of the key things,
is that the movement of
the automaton, if you will,
the mannequins and the like,
is synchronized to the rhythm
and some of the cutting
of the turntable which
sort of visualizes what's going
on in the turntable in a way
that people can grasp.
Other things going on in this?
Do you see any humans?
AUDIENCE: Well through the TV.
PROFESSOR: Through
the TV, right.
The only human you
see is Herbie Hancock
in the distance on black and
white TV, sort of, removed.
And you have these
mannequins, these androids,
sort of, taking over.
You have this sort of
removal of the human which
could be interpreted in a
wide range of different--
and he's vocoded also.
You can see that he
has a little-- it's
going to be hard to find his
picture-- there's his hands.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
PROFESSOR: You see that
he's got a little mic on.
I encourage you to
watch the whole video.
It's great.
That video did a lot
to popularize the DJ
and to allow people
to start to think
of the turntable as
a solo instrument.
Some people have
tried to transcribe
what a turntablist
does, and this
has led to something, an attempt
to this, called the Turntablist
Transcription Method.
This group has produced some
transcriptions of famous DJ
tunes which allow us to see
a little bit about what's
going on.
[MUSIC - HERBIE HANCOCK,
 "ROCKIT"]
PROFESSOR: Here we can see
a transcription of the solo
from that very
tune, from "Rockit".
We can hear a little bit of the
turntable solo in that tune.
Let me see if I
can find it here.
So the way this works,
it shows the name
of the sample on the left.
So we can see that he's cutting,
scratching over the word fresh.
And these lines represent
changes in pitch
that happen over time.
So time is represented
on the x-axis.
The y-axis is
showing the time it
takes to move the sample
over that duration.
Let's look at a little bit.
[MUSIC - HERBIE HANCOCK,
 "ROCKIT"]
PROFESSOR: So, pretty cool, huh?
Now the traditional criteria
we use to evaluate music
often use ideas about a motific
development, presentations
of themes and variation,
repetition, contrast,
and forward movement.
Do we see any of those
things in this solo here?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
PROFESSOR: Like what?
AUDIENCE: You had motifs in
dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
PROFESSOR: Right, which is an
elaboration of the drum rhythm,
but it's like another
motific thing.
And we can see quite
clearly transcribed here
that it comes at the beginning
of each of the four bar groups.
So we have a very
clear structure
with an opening motif, a little
bit of variation at the end.
Good.
What other motifs or
ideas repeat in this tune,
in this solo?
We see this little repeated
rub come back again and again
in different places.
Finally, at the end, and
then in the closing phrase,
we have some nice
variation where
the expectations that have
been established so far,
this opening motif,
is cut up and broken
which creates a little
suspense, a little expectation
for the final
resolution at the end.
This is all done with a
turntable and with scratching.
There are some more
transcriptions here
all of which are very cool.
There is also a bit of
Grandmaster Flash On the Wheels
of Steel.
We can look at this
briefly to see a little bit
about how this works.
In that last example, we
were transcribing cases
where there was only
one sample being used.
He was scratching over
basically one word.
Here they're trying to show
the use of different sources,
and we can see that he's
going back and forth
between different sound sources
in the transcription here.
[MUSIC - GRANDMASTER FLASH, "THE
ADVENTURES OF GRANDMASTER FLASH
ON THE WHEELS OF STEEL"]
PROFESSOR: There's
our old friend Apache.
AUDIENCE: What's the point of
transcribing the drumbeat even
though they came off of samples?
PROFESSOR: Yeah,
that's a good question.
I think it's
something to look at.
AUDIENCE: Let's listen to
that gargley piece at the end.
Is that going to be--
PROFESSOR: So what he's
scratching here though
is good time.
So you see this very clearly
so that the transition
to the good times becomes very
clear where he's giving you
a little taste of
it ahead of time.
Yeah, there's more here.
There's some other
transcriptions on that website.
I encourage you to check it out.
It's a very nice
approach and really
helps you see a lot of
different things going on.
There are many ways
in which the turntable
are used in
contemporary practice.
We're going to look
at two in particular.
The first is probably
the most common
where the turntable is used
in hip hop in combination
or in alternation with
the drums and the vocals
as a sort of rhythmic
element, as a sort of counter
interjection between the vocals
and between the rhythm section.
Sometimes we see
the turntable take
on a special role in
the chorus of a song,
whereas in a rock or
other popular context
the chorus would be filled
by a big sing along.
In a hip hop track,
the chorus might simply
be the DJ scratching
or manipulating
some sort of refrain.
Let's listen to a little bit
of Eric B. and Rakim's "I Ain't
No Joke."
[MUSIC - ERIC B. & RAKIM, "I
 AIN'T NO JOKE"]
PROFESSOR: So how is the
turntable used there?
Did you hear the turntable?
AUDIENCE: Yeah, it's sort of
like a secondary track, but.
The drumbeat's probably
running on a turntable too.
PROFESSOR: Right, we have
the main beat probably
on a turntable, but
the scratching here
is the key thing.
[MUSIC - ERIC B. & RAKIM, "I
 AIN'T NO JOKE"]
PROFESSOR: Right there.
Right there.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
PROFESSOR: What's that?
AUDIENCE: I imagine
the horns [INAUDIBLE]
sample is spinning over?
PROFESSOR: They could.
Yeah.
That's a good idea.
Maybe the horn cut
right there, but how's
it been used in the
larger musical context?
Did you have an idea?
AUDIENCE: I agree with
[INAUDIBLE] point.
He gives you a little
bit of that sample.
PROFESSOR: Right so
it's sort of a preview
like we saw with the
Grandmaster Flash track.
Other ideas?
AUDIENCE: It's sort of
like he's said something,
it's like it's a response
to what he's saying.
PROFESSOR: Yeah it's
sort of a response,
and it's filling this
gap after the verse
before it comes down to the
downbeat of the next phrase.
So it's sort of a
little rhythmic tension
to push you at the
end of the phrase
into the downbeat
of the next phrase.
[MUSIC - ERIC B. & RAKIM, "I
 AIN'T NO JOKE"]
PROFESSOR: He's getting in
right where the vocals drop away
with these little scratches.
Now let's listen to the chorus.
So that's so weird.
That's the weirdest thing.
So we hear there the
chorus being taken
or by this role of scratching.
Instead of, again, the sort
of big unified singing portion
we typically associate with
the chorus, we have the chorus
replaced by DJ scratching.
Now for an example of some of
the most modern techniques,
I had you guys listen
to DJ Babu, DJ Qbert,
DJs [? Mellow ?], a group
called D-Styles doing a tune
from 2002 called
"Felonius Funk".
Let's listen to a
little bit of this.
[MUSIC - D-STYLES, "FELONIUS
 FUNK"]
PROFESSOR: So we heard
there probably two DJs each
taking solo breaks.
This is a solo DJ
tune, and they're
treating this sort
of as a jazz context.
There's a rhythm section
going on, a rhythm, a beat,
and they're each taking
solos over this beat.
Can you generalize
about the techniques,
or what musically is going
on in those passages there?
AUDIENCE: Are they
cutting up the main beat?
PROFESSOR: The main beat
seems pretty constant.
It seems like they probably
have one DJ probably playing
the beat, and then they're
cutting up other things.
What are they using as
their scratch material?
AUDIENCE: Some vocal words.
PROFESSOR: Some sort of
vocal word, that's right.
And how was it
musically deployed?
Did you guys notice
what's going on?
Does it sound unified?
Does it sound musical?
Do here a phrase?
Does it sound like a solo?
Did it have coherence,
or did it sound
like it was wandering just
scratching and revving
over the place?
AUDIENCE: You heard
the repetition
and some special motifs
going back and forth,
so it definitely had
some musical qualities.
PROFESSOR: Yeah.
Anybody else hear anything
in particular in this?
I think this is a really great
example because in many ways
it shows what we've seen
many times in our look
at music and technology.
It shows an attention to
an economy of resources.
Using a small bit of
something and extending it out
and manipulating it
in a variety of ways.
The opening solo here.
[MUSIC - D-STYLES, "FELONIUS
 FUNK"]
PROFESSOR: After this
little part here.
This whole passage from here
to the end of this phrase
is all one phrase,
someone saying, oh my god.
So it's a woman
saying, oh my god,
and the DJ is
scratching that one
phrase for this entire passage.
And in a way it's
sort of a game.
You start to hear the words come
out until finally at the end
you hear it very clearly.
[MUSIC - D-STYLES, "FELONIUS
 FUNK"]
PROFESSOR: The
[? goddess ?] transformed
into the melodic passage, yeah.
So three words used as a sonic
and motific source, carefully
deployed, built
upon, and extended
to create what, I think,
is a very coherent solo.
We hear in the next solo--
[MUSIC - D-STYLES, "FELONIUS
 FUNK"]
PROFESSOR: What is the
phrase being cut up here?
Say what.
[MUSIC - D-STYLES, "FELONIUS
 FUNK"]
PROFESSOR: Everybody
hear it now, say what.
Again this economy
of resources, this
using a small bit of
material as a source
for an extended
composition is something
you've seen time and time
again, in many of the works
that we've looked at.
Think of Hugh Le
Caine's "Dripsody"
a composition that
used one sample,
one taped piece of
sound as a source
for the entire composition.
Think of the rigorous
application of tape techniques
by Cage or others.
This idea of using a small bit
of material and extending it
is so common in the
tradition of music and one
then we see here employed
on the turntable.
Now the last thing
we're going to look at
is what I consider the sort of
abstraction of the turntable,
pulling out the most essential
feature of the turntable.
And as we talked about
in the beginning,
the most essential features
seem to be the ability
to control the speed of a
rotating disc that combined
with a mixer and a cross fader.
But this idea of a
rotating disk that
somehow gives a useful interface
for controlling musical time.
One reason the rotating disc
is useful for controlling
musical time is because
it has momentum.
When you have a
rotating disc, there's
a very tactile connection,
and you gradually
can speed it up or slow it down.
It has a sense of
momentum because it's
going so that it takes
force to slow it down.
And if you let go it
gradually speeds up.
That issue of momentum of
rotation tied to musical time
is very important.
It's not found on a
digital audio file.
We can start and stop
a digital audio file.
There is no momentum to the
playback of digital audio,
unless of course we build
models that incorporate that.
So various approaches
have been proposed
to keep this rotating disc, this
rotating platter, available.
This Technics SL
D7-1200, this device
seems to be
discontinued, allowed
you to enter a CD into this slot
here and control its play back
with the rotating disk.
This is very much like
the SL-1200 turntable.
It's the exact same
platter, but the platter,
notice there's no tone arm,
there's no record needle,
the platter is controlling,
exclusively, the playback
of the content found on a disc.
Another approach, this
one by TASCAM, the TTM 1
uses a little component
to ride on the disc
and track its motion.
That tracked motion of
the rotation of the disk,
again, incorporating any
changes in playback speed
by the operator, is used to
provide a control signal that
works only with their
proprietary CD players found
here.
But this allows you
to use the turntable
as a controller for the playback
of stored digital audio.
AUDIENCE: It looks like the
most expensive possible way
to do that.
PROFESSOR: Expensive, well,
and also probably error
prone, right?
Because you could
imagine the contact here
may not be very reliable.
This wheel might slip.
They still make this product.
The approach that has found
the most widespread use
goes under various names.
It's now owned by the
Rane Corporations.
It's called Serato Scratch.
There's various
versions of this,
but the way that
this system works
is you use your
conventional turntables
that you've invested
hundreds of dollars in.
You use your mixer which you've
already invested a lot of money
in.
But instead of playing records
that have music on them,
you play records that have
a specially encoded control
signal.
This control signal
is tracked out
of the output of the
turntables by the computer.
The control signal is
formatted in a way such
that variations in
playback speed which
may result by you changing the
playback speed with the slider
or by scratching are
captured by the computer
and can be applied to
any digital audio file.
So this allows you to
use your old turntables
as control surface for
digital audio files stored
on your computer in any format.
This literally lets
you scratch your MP3s.
AUDIENCE: Do you think that
still has the problem of wear?
Old discs wear out and then you
still have to buy more records.
PROFESSOR: Yes.
But I think it's more
probably more accurate,
and these control records
are relatively inexpensive
and probably last as
long as any record does.
So it may not be
a major concern.
AUDIENCE: Do you
know of anyone who's
used the degradation of
these control devices.
PROFESSOR: I don't.
But that's a really
interesting thing to look at.
I don't also know exactly how
the control signal is encoded.
We could imagine
a couple of ways.
It could be some sort of
binary spacing of clicks
that it looks at, how close
the clicks get together.
They might try another
approach, but it's
interesting to think about
how that system works.
The control software
for this is fantastic.
It not only shows
you the waveforms
coming through which makes
it easy to beat match
by matching up the
lines here, and it
lets you queue up other songs
for each virtual turntable
and do a lot of
other fun things.
If you go to guitar center,
go to the DJ section,
you can try this out,
it's quite a bit of fun.
Now that's expensive
because you still
have to have real
turntables, and a lot of DJs
really like this
approach because they
can use their
existing turntables.
Furthermore, if they
want to combine a vinyl
disc on one turntable and a
digital audio file on another,
they can mix and match with
the Serato Scratch system
Other sort of hybrid systems
are things like this Numark NS-7
which combines-- notice these
are 78 size disc-- which
combines this.
Notice there's also
no tone arm here.
So this device provides
an integrated control
where you can
control the playback
speed with these discs.
The mixer and other
tools are built in,
but again, it's all
controlling digital audio
stored on the computer.
Here, presumably, the actual
movement of the platter
is what is used to
control the playback
speed of the digital audio.
But this, again,
is another approach
of abstracting out this
essential feature of momentum
based playback model.
So I like to look at what
we've looked at here as sort
of trajectory from
first coercion.
Taking a device that
was not intended
to be used as a
soloistic instrument
and refining the
number of techniques
out of this process of
coercion and then, now
that that's sort of
solidified, what would the term
be that Biker might
give to that sort
of the scratching techniques?
Sort of reach a
sense of closure,
we see a sort of
next stage where
now the essential
features of the turntable
are being abstracted,
pulled out, and made
into a number of
devices that provide
similar control but a
totally different playback
mechanism that is
reading digital audio off
of a computer or
other stored data.
Ideas?
Can you imagine other types
of momentum based controllers
we might have if we imagine
what the next stage.
Will people continue to
use things like Serato
with conventional
turntables, or might we
imagine other
interfaces that will
allow DJs to do what
they've done for the last 30
or 40 years but in
alternative ways?
AUDIENCE: Like surface
tables that you
could sort of show
images and work off that.
PROFESSOR: That's true.
I mean, we do see this interest
in touch screens and the like,
and you could
visualize the screen.
But I think the
problem there would
be that you don't have momentum,
you can't feel the speed,
and I think that's a
very important feature
of turntablism.
And I think that's
something that's
retained in the abstractions
that we see there.
I think that really illustrates
a good point because there's
something in the contact,
in that sense of momentum
of having to physically
spinning disc,
that seems to be really
important to turntable
practice.
AUDIENCE: Do all of those
actually rotate though?
I know some of the
CD DJ interfaces
don't actually rotate.
PROFESSOR: Some don't rotate.
There are some
that don't rotate.
They just give you a big
button that you can move,
but it doesn't seem like DJs
are really attracted to those.
The ones that DJs
seem to be attracted
are the ones that actually
represent playback time
in some sort of
rotational sense.
Other ideas?
AUDIENCE: What about DJ Hero?
PROFESSOR: DJ Hero,
how does that work?
AUDIENCE: It's one
turntable, a cross fader,
the turntable has
buttons on it, and you
scratch like the
two outer buttons
you hold down while scratching.
And that's how you can--
PROFESSOR: Do you have to move
the cross fader to succeed?
Do you have to--
AUDIENCE: Move the cross
fader into the three positions
or whatever.
But the weird thing with the
scratching is it doesn't spin
or anything.
It's a lightweight
turntable hand.
It's hard to press a
button and scratch a thing
at the same time.
PROFESSOR: That's great.
Well you can all play DJ Hero
or just go to guitar center
and tryout Serato Scratch.
It's really fun.
Great, I'll see
you guys next time.
