Live Scratcher by Andrew Norris

Realistic Scratching Sounds in Ableton Live

Experience the art of DJ scratching with Live Scratcher for Ableton Live. This intuitive tool allows you to create authentic scratch sounds without the need for a turntable and mixer. Emulating the techniques of a scratch DJ, Live Scratcher controls the playhead position and sound activation with MIDI, offering flexibility and precision.With classic scratch sounds included and customizable LFO shapes, you can unleash your creativity and explore various scratch techniques. Plus, features like 'humanize' and 'drag' add natural variation to your scratches for a realistic touch.

Additional information

MaxforLive

Audio Devices

Ableton Live Compatibility

Ableton Live 11 Standard with MaxforLive, Ableton Live 11 Suite, Ableton Live 12 Standard with MaxforLive, Ableton Live 12 Suite

Min. Requirements

Ableton Live 11 Standard with MaxforLive Installed or Ableton Live 11 Suite, Live 12 Standard with MaxforLive or Live 12 Suite is required to load the provided Live Set

OS

Mac, Windows

7 reviews for Live Scratcher by Andrew Norris

  1. DJ CAPON

    Excellent, intuitive tool with so many scratchy possibilities streamlined! Only issue is that the example Live Set file mentioned in the manual doesn’t seem to be included but the tool is easy enough to work out after some time.

  2. Darren E Cowley (Admin)

    The live set provided is for Live 12 as detailed on the product page.

  3. DJ CAPON

    Ignore me, I was looking for a Live Project rather than inside the pack itself, all working now! Already having tons of fun, cheers!

  4. David Louca

    Great bit of kit. Simple to use. Works well!

  5. Murph Enriquez

    OMG!!!! This is amazing. I can finally scratch my hip-hop beats. Such a great bit of kit, very intuitive to use. It’s wickedy-wickedy-wicked – Five stars

  6. Sic

    Very cool tool. I´m feeling like being Jazzy Jeff already. Super fun when assigned to a midi controller. Recommend!

  7. Marc

    Loads of fun to be had with this tool. Nice work

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Product reviews

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6 reviews

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7 reviews for Live Scratcher by Andrew Norris

  1. DJ CAPON

    Excellent, intuitive tool with so many scratchy possibilities streamlined! Only issue is that the example Live Set file mentioned in the manual doesn’t seem to be included but the tool is easy enough to work out after some time.

  2. Darren E Cowley (Admin)

    The live set provided is for Live 12 as detailed on the product page.

  3. DJ CAPON

    Ignore me, I was looking for a Live Project rather than inside the pack itself, all working now! Already having tons of fun, cheers!

  4. David Louca

    Great bit of kit. Simple to use. Works well!

  5. Murph Enriquez

    OMG!!!! This is amazing. I can finally scratch my hip-hop beats. Such a great bit of kit, very intuitive to use. It’s wickedy-wickedy-wicked – Five stars

  6. Sic

    Very cool tool. I´m feeling like being Jazzy Jeff already. Super fun when assigned to a midi controller. Recommend!

  7. Marc

    Loads of fun to be had with this tool. Nice work

Add a review

Live Scratcher by Andrew Norris

Realistic Scratching Sounds in Ableton Live

Live Scratcher is a Max for Live instrument for creating similar sounds to those a turntablist would make using a turntable and mixer.

This is achieved by simply moving, or ideally automating, the position of a playhead across a sample. At the same time, any MIDI notes received on C3 or above will ‘cut’ the sound in as the playhead moves back and forth.

Using a combination of the two in a MIDI clip can create anything from a simple Baby Scratch to a complicated, polyrhythmic Transformer!

The key to getting it to sound as authentic as possible is to create subtle variations in the note length and timing, as well as variations in the playhead movement itself. No scratch DJ, even the likes of DJ Qbert or DJ Premier, who are renowned for being very technically precise, will ever move the turntable to exactly the same positions each time. Much like any musician, it’s the slight imperfections that give the performance a ‘human’ feel. Similarly, creating note patterns and turntable / playhead movements with slight variations will help give you a much more ‘natural’ sound.

The device is split into 4 main areas:

Sample Area – for sample selection / playback
LFO Area – for automating the playhead movement
Audio Input – for recording from any other Live track into the device
Presets – for storing parameter settings

Let’s look at each of these in turn to see what they do.

SAMPLE AREA

Here you can choose from the built-in samples (the classic ‘Ahhh’ and ‘Fresssh’ sounds), or load up to four of your own custom samples by dropping each one over a ‘User’ slot.

If you’re using a custom sample, try to keep sample length at around 1 second. Make sure you’re leaving a small section of silence too just before and just after the sample. This helps create a sharper ‘attack’ when the playhead passes over the start / end.

You can either play the playhead ‘live’ with the mouse, by using Push, or by using Ableton’s MIDI Mapping Mode to map it to an external MIDI controller. And then tapping out a rhythm on note C3 or above.

Or you can prepare and automate the whole thing in a MIDI clip. Move the playhead using Ableton Live’s automation envelopes to control the ‘Turntable’ parameter in either Session or Arrangement View. Then enter notes in the clip to trigger the sound on / off at rhythmical intervals.

LFO AREA

You can also choose to automate the playhead using the built-in LFO. Here, the playhead is locked to the LFO and you set the rate, depth, offset, phase, etc. – all the controls you would typically find in any LFO device – to fine tune the playhead’s movement.

You can choose from 3 typical LFO shapes (similar to the movements a turntablist would typically make): Sine, Ramp and Triangle, but you can also create your own LFO shape using the breakpoint editor. Custom shapes (especially curvy ones!) can help the movements sound more natural.

AUDIO INPUT AREA

Here you can record clips from any other of Ableton Live’s tracks directly into one of the four User Sample Slots.

PRESET AREA

The settings for all parameters in Live Scratcher (except for ‘Turntable’ and ‘Preset Select’) can be stored as ‘snapshots’ in the Preset area. Here you store and recall your own presets. Any presets you store are saved along with your project.

Presets can be recalled by either clicking, by using the ‘Preset’ parameter in clip automation, or with MIDI notes C-2 through to B2 (60 notes in total to cover each of the available preset slots). This enables you to very easily switch LFO settings live or via automation.

Check out the example project (Live 12 required) to help get you started. This has a collection of pre-made MIDI clips, all with different note patterns and playhead automation to give you an idea of what it’s possible to do.

Please refer to the user manual for a more detailed explanation of each of the device’s parameters.

INSTALLATION
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