We are currently living a rebirth of scratching. The whole turntablism scene stayed dormant and underground for almost a decade and has recently resurfaced thanks to the new wave of portable turntables, faders and social media.

A bit of history

Portable turntables are not a new thing and even hip hop aficionados have been using them for years to digg records.

Classic Fischer-Price toy turntable for kids from from the 70s

There have been a few attempts to create an all in one solution for scratching “on the go” but stayed in a very niche market.

The mythical Vestax QFO designed by Q-Bert himself

Vestax’s collaboration with Q-bert gave birth to the QFO. An impressive hybrid between a turntable and a mixer. QFO’s were great but heavy, expensive and needed an external power supply. There were only 500 produced and now collectors are willing to pay thousands of $ for them on Ebay.

The Scratchophone on the other hand tried to even integrate batteries and speakers in an all in one custom solution based on gutted Numark turntables and Vestax mixers. You would use a wear it like a percussion instrument and walk around on stage (the freaky tonearm would avoid the needle from skipping). The result is interesting but weird looking, heavy and expensive.

Behold the Scratchophone!

Enter #portablism

I can remember a DJ Q-Bert video of him scratching on the beach inside of his Land Rover using his QFO enjoying the waves. It was a stark image that created a fantasy in my head of me having this experience once. I am really glad that I can now do that for a fraction of the cost.

Around 2014 portable faders like the now popular Raiden Fader started appearing alongside the japanese Frisk Fader with the promise of simplifying the scratch setup and allow you to cut on the go on a budget.

I remember first noticing the Frisk Fader and trying to order one on their site but it was all in Japanese and super confusing. Thankfully I jumped on the prototype bandwagon for the Raiden Fader and never looked back since.

I got myself a Vestax HandyTrax, some 7 inch scratch records and taped the Raiden Fader on it. Oh man it was cool! I loved the simplicity of the setup and the toy like appearance. I felt like going back to my old setup of shitty turntables and mixer that I learned to scratch on back in the year 2000.

I found this new toy a perfect excuse to get out of my rusty period for scratching. I would now get back from work chill on the couch and cut it up fresh and relax. Before that I wasn’t always in the mood of standing up and scratching on my complicated professional DJ setup (turning on everything and then off again for just a few minutes of cuts wasn’t very apealing to my laziness). Now the excuses are gone! Just pick it up and cut.