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In the age before DJWORX, we were skratchworx, and in that time the Scratchophone appeared, and continues to be developed to this day. Thierry Alari is the mastermind behind what is essentially a turntable and mixer in a custom drum, that allows for fully mobile scratching. After a number of iterations, the Scratchophone v2 is alive, and a new video shows it off.
The Scratchophone is about as boutique as the DJ world gets. Yes, you can customise your gear, but this is a completely hand made custom job, and was an all-in-one DJ unit before all-in-one controllers had even hit the market. As the video shows, the Scratchophone is a Numark TT500 turntable and either Numark M1 or Stanton SMX1 mixers pulled apart and put back together again along with speakers and an Innofader into a single custom drum. It still needs power of course as putting a battery inside capable of powering it for any length of time just isn’t practical.
Here’s the thing — you’ve really got to want one. The base price is just about $3K, and that’s before adding in 2 colour cases, decals, a Vestax VMC02 mixer upgrade or a flightcase, which can take the price up to nearer $3.8K. That said, it’s meant to be exclusive, and you can rest assured that you’re joining a very select club. I’d do it in a heartbeat if I had that kind of cash spare, but I fear it would become an expensive ornament, much like the QFO when I had that.
I must applaud Thierry’s continuing efforts though. The Scratchophone is a stunning testament to his vision, and against the odds of the torrent of controllers has continued to develop and evolve his dream into a true objet d’art worthy of being exhibited, let alone played with. Good work sir!
Thanks a lot Mark for your article. I’m here, ready to answer any question about it.
Any suggestion will be highly appreciated. —Thierry
Is it made for dual hands? IE, left handed or right handed…
Yes, it is designed to be ambidextrous, those 2 boxes are swapable in a minute (butterfly screws inside) for lefty or righty people.
i can finally scratch in bongo circles!
something tells me you would lose most of your acceleration as the force meant to push and pull the record would instead push and pull the whole device. It would be cool to see it in action though.
Absolutely …that’s why high torque drive is mandatory. I made test with 1,7kg torque (like SL1200), inertia effect is here when walking and spinning with the instrument. Scratchophone weights about 7 kg, associated with a 5kg torque drive = no more inertia effects … To see it in action, check scratchophone website videos.
About the Tonearm : Does this 3k$ turntable plays records ? Until recently, answer was NO !! Crazy ! First time I saw the QFO, I said, excellent BUT it is not portable. Because of the tonearm. Vestax could NOT release a turntable that couldn’t play records. I made it because I had nothing to loose. At contrario, It push me to open a new door : freedom. Playing records is a secondary need, I solve it quickly by re-using the original tonearm. So, in a table config., yes, you can play records now.
Check pics on scratchophone website // workshop menu.
I can remember seeing screens of this or something resembling this on the scrachworx from a number of years ago. I thought it was being put together by qbert and the thud rumble gang. What does surprise me are the internal speakers, wouldn’t this cause bass feedback issues becasue of the needle picking up vibrations?
Internal speakers: yes, there is a physical limit, feedback appears at max volume (12w pc type spk)… but clean sound is loud enough to cover acoustic instruments. If you want more juice, just unplug speakers and connect to any external sound system.
I do believe Tone Locs DJ had this idea first in the video wild thing.LOL