“That’s Not Real Scratching, It’s An Insult…”

Here we go again… with people seemingly having lots of fun scratching down graffiti-ridden alleyways and halfway up mountains on portable turntables (“portablism”, dontcha know), Numark has rushed out a new take on its PT01 portable deck, with a “scratch switch” built in to let DJs cut in/out from a backing track fed in via a phone or similar.

Seems the fun police are having none of that, though. Over on our Facebook Page, at least one purist has got himself mighty riled over this perceived latest assault on the art of DJing.

“This is an insult to the DJs that have the skillz … fake scratching for people that are not DJs…” he spurted.

You’re probably yawning already – we certainly were.

But quite apart from the fact that buying a plastic portable turntable with a cute switch to save you having to hack in a crossfader isn’t going to automatically make you a scratch DJ, we did particularly like some of the analogies in the replies as to why this viewpoint is, well, a little bit silly. Here are a few that stood out:

“A digital camera is an insult to every photographer who learnt with film…”

“An iPad is an insult to everybody who likes to crush actual candy…”

…and our personal favourite:

“Lighters are an insult to real men who have been rubbing sticks together for thousands of years…”

What we think

Look the truth is, anything that makes DJing more fun, brings it to a wider audience, or gets people’s attention who otherwise may have walked right on by, is 100% fine. Real pros need never fear amateurs. There’s room for serious skills and a bit of fun in what we do – and the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

People sometimes seem far more concerned with throwing stones at others rather than just getting on with doing their thing, and it for some reason seems to particularly affect DJing – so thanks to our audience for – as usual – gently shooting down the argument, and making us laugh at the same time. 🙂

• Want to get your hands on some free scratch sounds? Grab our exclusive scratch pack of free sounds and practice beats here.

What do you think? Is this turntable an insult to DJing, or helping to introduce scratching to a whole new group of people? Was it “great in ’88” and everything since is rubbish, or do some people have particularly rose-tinted glasses on? Should DJing be allowed to develop? As always, your views very much appreciated…