Buying a cart when you don't have money.

I want to learn how to do some basic scratching to add to beats so I'm pretty set on buying a Concorde.

Right now I have some standard Audio Technica cart on my turntable which the guy had on it when I bought it.

Would it be okay to use a Concorde blue for scratching and then just switching to the other regular reloop headshell with the other cart on it for listening or sampling? Or is that just retarded?

That would be fine.

I would always suggest having different Cartridges and Stylus for scratching, mixing, and sampling/listening due to the weight setup and the damage the Stylus goes through when scratching, juggling.

CharlesRandolph wrote:That would be fine.

I would always suggest having different Cartridges and Stylus for scratching, mixing, and sampling/listening due to the weight setup and the damage the Stylus goes through when scratching, juggling.

And on their site it says that the tracking range is 2 - 5 g and the recommended is 4g. This might be a stupid question but is 2g or 3g "too little" to the point where something might go wrong?

Scrawny wrote:And on their site it says that the tracking range is 2 - 5 g and the recommended is 4g. This might be a stupid question but is 2g or 3g "too little" to the point where something might go wrong?

If the set too low the needle may not stay down and will tend to fly out of the grooves and damage the record. If you put to much force you'll end up cutting into the record grooves and wearing down the needle faster. Everyone has a different preference, but since you're just starting go with the 4 gram recommendation.

CharlesRandolph wrote:

Scrawny wrote:And on their site it says that the tracking range is 2 - 5 g and the recommended is 4g. This might be a stupid question but is 2g or 3g "too little" to the point where something might go wrong?

If the set too low the needle may not stay down and will tend to fly out of the grooves and damage the record. If you put to much force you'll end up cutting into the record grooves and wearing down the needle faster. Everyone has a different preference, but since you're just starting go with the 4 gram recommendation.

I understand. Thanks.

Yeah, start with 4g, and practice controlling your scratch speed.

Effectively the amount of grams is a factor of how much friction you can apply until you get a needle skip... and this will be something you'll want to have speed control over because the faster you scratch and the more you rock the tables, the more likely it is to bounce the needle.

So you'll find that once you've got decent speed control, have the table on a sturdy and stable base... then you can drop the weighting down... which will reduce the wear on the needle/record, but increases your chance of bouncing the needle. Practice enough, and you'll have a good sense for where you want it.

On the other hand, if money is not an option... you can buy as many replacement needles and records as you need... then yeah... make it heavy and go to town.

NearTao wrote:Yeah, start with 4g, and practice controlling your scratch speed.

Effectively the amount of grams is a factor of how much friction you can apply until you get a needle skip... and this will be something you'll want to have speed control over because the faster you scratch and the more you rock the tables, the more likely it is to bounce the needle.

So you'll find that once you've got decent speed control, have the table on a sturdy and stable base... then you can drop the weighting down... which will reduce the wear on the needle/record, but increases your chance of bouncing the needle. Practice enough, and you'll have a good sense for where you want it.

On the other hand, if money is not an option... you can buy as many replacement needles and records as you need... then yeah... make it heavy and go to town.

Thanks. Do you think accapellas from maxi singles are good to practice on when starting out or should I try to find some scratch records? Though that's definitely easier said than done.

Scrawny wrote:
Thanks. Do you think accapellas from maxi singles are good to practice on when starting out or should I try to find some scratch records? Though that's definitely easier said than done.

You can scratch just about anything... as long at it isn't silence (and even then you can sometimes get something)... If you want to make records say funny things accapellas are great... plus with practice you can sample content that'll sound like drum hits like kicks, snare, etc... or suddenly make weird chorus sounds...

Seriously, this is a space where I'd say "always record", and then snip out what you think sounds cool... you'll be making new kits, scratch packs, and other fun stuff to work with in no time.

NearTao wrote:

Scrawny wrote:
Thanks. Do you think accapellas from maxi singles are good to practice on when starting out or should I try to find some scratch records? Though that's definitely easier said than done.

You can scratch just about anything... as long at it isn't silence (and even then you can sometimes get something)... If you want to make records say funny things accapellas are great... plus with practice you can sample content that'll sound like drum hits like kicks, snare, etc... or suddenly make weird chorus sounds...

Seriously, this is a space where I'd say "always record", and then snip out what you think sounds cool... you'll be making new kits, scratch packs, and other fun stuff to work with in no time.

You mean like scratching to a drum loop and recording the entire time I'm practicing to tape or something and then sampling it to incorporate it into a beat?

Super high level example...

But you can take somebody saying a hard b word like "both" and scratch on the buh part... play around with the speed and your fader technic and you can try and get a bassy kick drum...

Or find a hard s with a lot of sibilance, you can scratch it to make a high hat or sometimes snare sound.

These all depend on the speed you scratch at, or changing the playback speed that you move the record... working the fader... playing with EQ... etc.

NearTao wrote:Super high level example...

But you can take somebody saying a hard b word like "both" and scratch on the buh part... play around with the speed and your fader technic and you can try and get a bassy kick drum...

Or find a hard s with a lot of sibilance, you can scratch it to make a high hat or sometimes snare sound.

These all depend on the speed you scratch at, or changing the playback speed that you move the record... working the fader... playing with EQ... etc.

Alright lol bit unrelated but thanks.

Scrawny wrote:I want to learn how to do some basic scratching to add to beats so I'm pretty set on buying a Concorde.

Right now I have some standard Audio Technica cart on my turntable which the guy had on it when I bought it.

Would it be okay to use a Concorde blue for scratching and then just switching to the other regular reloop headshell with the other cart on it for listening or sampling? Or is that just retarded?

I don't know which Audio Technica cartridges you have, but AT3600 (also called AT91 etc.) is pretty great for DJing. I used to use Stanton 500, but they folded and it became hard to get genuine styli for them. I replaced them with AT3600 and I'm pretty happy with it. ATN3600L can take 3gram tracking force! It's cheap and great performer!

@ Scrawny, What turntable and mixer combination do you have?

CharlesRandolph wrote:@ Scrawny, What turntable and mixer combination do you have?

Reloop rp6000 Mk6 ltd. and Numark M2.

I'm aware that the latter isn't too great but I hastily bought it when I got the MPC.

I figure it'll still work okay though?

Scrawny wrote:Reloop rp6000 Mk6 ltd. and Numark M2.

I'm aware that the latter isn't too great but I hastily bought it when I got the MPC.

I figure it'll still work okay though?

The Numark M2 is perfectly fine as scratch mixer. I'm not into the space ship mixers with thousands of buttons. EQ, Volume, Crossfader, Crossfader slope, and Cross fader switch. The only thing I suggest with the M2 is change the fader with innofader Pro 2.