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New notation symbols: Half Clicks


chile

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New notation symbols: Half clicks

I recently created a new notation symbol for helping to describe closed fader scratches. Before its introduction I’ll attempt to describe the reasons as to why I thought a new symbol was necessary.

A click symbol in TTM symbolises 2 rapid motions of the fader; a motion toward closing the fader and a motion toward reopening the fader. These two motions can be easily mistaken for one because for example, a 1 click flare has 2 clicks so we may think that there are two motions involved on the fader side when in fact there are four (open to closed, closed to open; open to closed, closed to open) it’s just these movements are done very quickly and can feel like a single fluid motion.

If you’re repeating a closed fader scratch consecutively with itself, there is a click at each point the scratch pattern is repeated. This click is created because the scratch starts closed then opens to do the pattern, and then ends closed at the point it began. There is a motion toward opening and a motion toward closing; 2 halves of a click. This particular click is a little problematic to notate accurately using the traditional notation symbols as you may discover below:

fig. 1 - In this example the awkward click appears at the end of each pattern. The issue with the dot in this position is that a dot symbolizes a click and as mentioned earlier a click has two motions (to close and to open again). But here there isn’t a need to open the fader again with the scratch at its end point unless you ignore that the pattern is isolated and try to view it as looping back with itself.



fig. 2 - In this example the dot appears at the beginning of the pattern. The same problem described above applies to the placement of the click in this position; that a click describes two motions, and placing it at the beginning isn’t accurate because there’s only one fader motion at the beginning to move from a closed position to an open one.



fig. 3 - In this example I placed a click at the beginning and end points of each pattern. As well as containing all the inaccuracies stated above, the pattern notated in this manner also gives the impression of there being 4 clicks to each pattern when really it should be clear that there are only 3.

I previously experimented with using a simple symbol to get around this issue that you may have seen; if not then below is an example:



fig. 4 - Now if you understand that the C symbol means closed then I guess it passes as usable. The points where these symbols are placed denote the beginning and end points of a closed fader scratch although they don’t directly hint the implied click when repeating the pattern continually with itself.

The new revised symbols better attempt to describe that when looped, the scratch has a click created by combining the beginning and end points together. The 2 motions of a click are visually shown in the new symbols by means of splitting a dot into two segments as shown below:



fig. 5 - The first symbol at the beginning of each pattern denotes a movement from a closed position to an open one. If a black dot symbolises a fader click in its entirety, then it follows that its centre point must be the part where the sound has been cut out, while the left and right gradients of the circle denote motions to close and open the fader. The right half of a dot is used at the beginning because the notation reads from left to right; from the centre closed position of the dot to the open position where the scratch begins. Similarly, the left half of a click symbol is used at the end of each pattern to denote a motion from an open to a closed position.

The visual queue presented from having two halves of a dot present at each end of the pattern add more information about how the scratch should be practiced sequentially and also imply that when looped, those two halves become a whole dot or a click, creating 3 clicks in all. Using half click symbols also marks a loop point hinting that the pattern needs to be viewed in terms of a cycle of movements; the end is the beginning is the end etc. Basically a closed fader scratch starts with the end of a dot, and the end of a closed fader scratch ends with the start of a dot so when they loop theres a click.

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sorry it was a bit long winded I just wanted to do a thorough job of explaining it before i use it in the next tutorial.

 

nothing happened to just scratching.. its still there. post a phile beech!

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  • 2 years later...

thats brilliant .... would be great to collect a load in one place and make a ttm practise book.. maybe ttm the ether ?

 

Does such a thing exist? I'm getting back into scratching again and will be trying to learn stuff in a more constructive manner instead of just jamming for fun. I need some links to TTM for beginners that I would ideally be able to print off please. Any ideas are welcome.

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I started keeping my own book after this thread and went through a few sites collecting interesting ttm. Johnny 1 move half made a scratch wiki , the links somewhere on this site , don't think google index it anymore.

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  • 2 months later...

hi jam, sorry i accidently deleted the pictures a while back from facebook and it caused them to disappear on here. i've editted the post to add some drawn out examples to make it a little more understandable. I'll be writing an article on half clicks at some point and itll be shorter than that post and with nicer looking notation, but for now hopefully that helps communicate what i was writing about

 

frost youre best off experimenting with notating stuff based on what you read in TTM v1 eng pdf (just ignore the notation for the chirp as its wrong). That's what I learned with. Its not a complicated language really if you're just after notating cuts.. With the record motion curves symbols, click symbols, half clicks and open fader symbols you can notate pretty much every cut with enough accuracy for it to serve its purpose as a memory aid.

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sorry it was a bit long winded I just wanted to do a thorough job of explaining it before i use it in the next tutorial.

 

nothing happened to just scratching.. its still there. post a phile beech!

its my new years resolution :)

 

 

you wrote this 3 new years ago jimmy.. a file didn't get posted.. :(!

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hi jam, sorry i accidently deleted the pictures a while back from facebook and it caused them to disappear on here. i've editted the post to add some drawn out examples to make it a little more understandable. I'll be writing an article on half clicks at some point and itll be shorter than that post and with nicer looking notation, but for now hopefully that helps communicate what i was writing about

 

frost youre best off experimenting with notating stuff based on what you read in TTM v1 eng pdf (just ignore the notation for the chirp as its wrong). That's what I learned with. Its not a complicated language really if you're just after notating cuts.. With the record motion curves symbols, click symbols, half clicks and open fader symbols you can notate pretty much every cut with enough accuracy for it to serve its purpose as a memory aid.

 

Thanks chile, i'lltry that.

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