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Turntable Tabs (aka TTT)


Vekked

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I've been sitting on this idea for a minute since I started playing guitar and obviously make use of tabs a lot, and I realized we don't *quite* have the same thing for scratching. Sure we have TTM/Scratch Notation, but it's not easy to convey without graphics, and it's closer to musical staff notation in that it can contain nearly perfect information about a scratch when drawn correctly. So I've been thinking about text-based scratch tabs as a quicker/more practical solution for people who can't or don't want to draw graphical scratch notation pics. (Disclaimer, obviously I didn't invent this and I know we've all tried to notate scratch with text at some point, I'm just trying to standardize it a bit). Here's what I got:

Record Forward: >
Record Backward: <
Click: |
Forward Tear: >)
Backward Tear: (<

That's it. It's read top to bottom with the beginning of the sample being on the left, and the end of the sample being on the right. Here are some basic scratches in TTT:

Baby Scratch
>
<

Chirp
>|
<

Stab
|>|

1 click flare orbit
>|>
<|<

Clover tear
>)>
<(<

1 click flare orbit over a clover tear
>)|>
<|(<

Simple Record Position and Timing

Simple record position and timing info can be provided by spaces/formatting. For example, a set of four "walking" 1 click flares on the forwards could be formatted like this:
>|>
<
>|>
<
>|>
<
>|>

 

 

Multiple ">" or "<" can be used to help more accurately scale the distance that the record moves better.

 

2 click flare forwards, no clicks back:

>|>|>

<<<

 

As opposed to:
>|>|>

<

 

The Test

Alright that's basically it. But this is the real test because unless it can convey scratches. Name the following (obviously these assume you know the scratch to begin with lol):

1.
>|

|<
>

|<
>|

<

2.
|>

|<

>|>

|<

>|>

|<<|<<

3.

>)|>|

<

>|

<|(<

 

Answers:

 

 

1. Boomerang 2. Autobahn 3. Prism



Final Notes:

 

Before anyone even mentions it, OF COURSE this is inferior to TTM and scratch notation in every way as far as conveying information EXCEPT for the speed and practicality of using it. You can text a technique or combo to someone on your phone with this, or write it on facebook or whatever, without needing a pen and paper or having to open any additional software. It's not meant to convey perfect information, just like guitar tabs indicate very little about HOW to play the notes/chords in a song, they just indicate where to put your fingers and very roughly when to do it, as opposed to musical notation which can teach you an entire song as it's meant to be played without having ever heard it. Also, I wouldn't doubt that someone has actually done this before but if they have it hasn't caught on enough for me to notice people using it at all so sorry if that's the case. Shouts to Raedawn for inventing TTM and Chile for pushing it to the next level and making practical use of it, and whoever else pushed scratch notation further in some way (A-Trak, Rob Swift, Alexander Sonnenfeld etc).

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First possible oversight:

Someone mentioned having an indicator for starting position at the beginning of a scratching. So if:

Open = o

Closed = c

 

Stab

c->|

Chirp
o->|

<--

 

But I wouldn't wanna add anything that's redundant either, if it's not completely necessary. Such as in guitar tabs you assume that each string is tuned to a certain note, so usually the string's open note values aren't indicated.

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Guest broke

Vek I see where you're coming from with this. TTM seems (IMO) to be the best way to do it, but sometimes you might be restricted to just text. TTT works to convey the basics, but (as you said) it does have its limitations.

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Vek I see where you're coming from with this. TTM seems (IMO) to be the best way to do it, but sometimes you might be restricted to just text. TTT works to convey the basics, but (as you said) it does have its limitations.

Yup it's kind of nice to be able to convey it in ASCII. Another thing Pete brought up, which is a sentiment I share, when you're drawing TTM for someone by hand if you have chicken scratch penmanship it's less than ideal haha. It would be nice to just type it and show someone.

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Guest rasteri

I really like the idea.

My only suggestion for clarity/simplicity would be rather than having direction conveyed with a dash and a pointy bracket, how about just pointy brackets, i.e.

Chirp
>>|
<<

Boomerang
>>|
|<<
>>
|<<
>>|
<<

Also I'm not sure that notation for open/closed starts is really necessary, couldn't you just use the | character to denote closed and just have nothing for open, eg :

Stab
|>>|

Chirp
 >>|
 <<
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Nice on rasteri!! Having just the point bracket does look cleaner, good call!! I'll change the OP now.

And yea I initially didn't think denoting a starting fader position was necessary for the same reason, but someone else felt that if there was nothing at the beginning it didn't make it clear that it was. But I'm also a fan of less = more for this.

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I actually used to do this with my first laptop.
I eventually started my own TTM notebook / diary, but for conveying things online with out drawing a ttm with a program or MS paint it was really nice.
I can't remember how I coded it (I'll try and see if I can find the file), but I remember using a up and down to resemble TTM.
It was a bit of work to make but it was easy for me to understand.

/\
/ \
/ \ triple click flare. This isn't exactly how it was as I remember using something besides spaces to notate clicks and some sort of underscore or another symbol to notate tears.
/\.
/\,/' \,
/\,/' \, 9 note autobanh

I also remember that certain fonts made it more legible / comparable to ttm.

concerning open and closed starts. I would usually put a final click on the the end but wouldn't put a click in the beginning, since I knew that the click at the end is also the start.

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Guest rasteri

I wonder if maybe clicks should extend to the next line down to avoid weird spacing, i.e. I reckon...

Swing Flare
|>
|<
|>|
|<|
 
Crescent Flare
>|>|
<|<|

...probably looks better than

Swing Flare
|>
|<
|>|
|<
 
Crescent Flare
>|>|
<|<

And the way you think of it in your head is that you only do a click if the arrow is facing towards it.

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I wonder if maybe clicks should extend to the next line down to avoid weird spacing, i.e. I reckon...

Swing Flare
|>
|<
|>|
|<|
 
Crescent Flare
>|>|
<|<|

...probably looks better than

Swing Flare
|>
|<
|>|
|<
 
Crescent Flare
>|>|
<|<

And the way you think of it in your head is that you only do a click if the arrow is facing towards it.

Nice ones again rasteri! The swing flare one definitely suits the scratch more, I feel like |>| and |<| are more representative of a single closed click as you do in the swing flare.

 

In my head I'm reading the tabs sort of as each line indicating a "step" of the scratch, so for crescent flare:

Line 1 = segment 1 of the scratch:

>|>|

 

Line 2 = segment 2 of the scratch:

<|<

 

So for writing crescent flares I kind of prefer the first method because the second half is like doing a 1 click flare on the reverse, but I prefer the method you suggested for swing flares because when you execute it, it is more like 2 transforms than 2 open fader clicks. Thoughts?

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Guest broke

The problem is, this method doesn't instantly convey the number clicks at a glance. Maybe it would once you got used to reading it.

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Also, you could eliminate the need for tear symbols by using a new line to imply a break in the record movement :

Clover Tear
>
 >
 <
<

(sorry for the multiple posts)

 

Updated pastebin with the multi-line tears and clicks : http://pastebin.com/8m9y3ki4

I'm leaning towards the tear symbol myself, I like 1 line per change of direction in record movement, I think it's a bit more intuitive to read.

 

But these are really good ideas, and it depends what other people think/like, it's not really up to me since hopefully it's not just me using it lol.

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The problem is, this method doesn't instantly convey the number clicks at a glance. Maybe it would once you got used to reading it.

 

Word, could just write the total number of clicks at the beginning of the pattern, similar to a tempo marking or time signature.

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Guest rasteri

Yeah the tear symbol definitely makes it easier to read than the multi-line stuff.

 

It makes the spacing inconsistent though, like if you imagine your "1 click flare orbit over a clover tear" but with only a click and no tear on the backwards movement :

 

>)|>
<|<<

>)|>
<<|<
You can't put the reverse click exactly in the middle of the line anymore, you have to use one of the offsets above, instead of :

 

>|
 |>
 |<
<|
Which is admittedly harder to read but has more accurate spacing.

 

That might not seem like a huge deal but if you keep the spacing consistent it would be possible to make a program that converted TTT to TTM (maybe I'll make that an afternoon project sometime). Or hell, even a plugin for serato/traktor that actually did the scratches, like those programs that will play guitar tabs for you.

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Guest rasteri

It's also be nice to get timing accurately defined,

 

You'd have to specify a "time signature", to define how long each line is to last for.

 

Blank lines could denote that the previous line is to take more than one note to complete (maybe with the click still carried down for clarity)

 

For example here's a "3-notes-forward 1-note-back" 16th-note transform pattern (repeated 4 times to make a bar) :

16/16

|>|>|>|
      |
      |
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
      |
      |
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
      |
      |
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
      |
      |
|<<<<<|
EDIT: Actually no, that wouldn't work - there would be no distinction between a line where you're supposed to extend the previous one and a line where you're just supposed to do nothing.

 

Maybe there should be a new character that means "extend the previous line over this one", perhaps use a dash or something :

16/16

|>|>|>|
-
-
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
-
-
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
-
-
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
-
-
|<<<<<|
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Yeah the tear symbol definitely makes it easier to read than the multi-line stuff.

 

It makes the spacing inconsistent though, like if you imagine your "1 click flare orbit over a clover tear" but with only a click and no tear on the backwards movement :

 

>)|>
<|<<

>)|>
<<|<
You can't put the reverse click exactly in the middle of the line anymore, you have to use one of the offsets above, instead of :

 

>|
 |>
 |<
<|
Which is admittedly harder to read but has more accurate spacing.

 

That might not seem like a huge deal but if you keep the spacing consistent it would be possible to make a program that converted TTT to TTM (maybe I'll make that an afternoon project sometime). Or hell, even a plugin for serato/traktor that actually did the scratches, like those programs that will play guitar tabs for you.

 

 

 

Mmm good point, for the spacing issue I was thinking to use actual spaces, such as:

 

>)|>

<|(<

 

I actually had that written in the original post because the spacing issue was happening a lot more using "->" than just ">", but I took it out when I switched it all to how you suggested because it fixed all of the spacing issues I had as well haha.

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It's also be nice to get timing accurately defined,

 

You'd have to specify a "time signature", to define how long each line is to last for.

 

Blank lines could denote that the previous line is to take more than one note to complete (maybe with the click still carried down for clarity)

 

For example here's a "3-notes-forward 1-note-back" 16th-note transform pattern (repeated 4 times to make a bar) :

16/16

|>|>|>|
      |
      |
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
      |
      |
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
      |
      |
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
      |
      |
|<<<<<|
EDIT: Actually no, that wouldn't work - there would be no distinction between a line where you're supposed to extend the previous one and a line where you're just supposed to do nothing.

 

Maybe there should be a new character that means "extend the previous line over this one", perhaps use a dash or something :

16/16

|>|>|>|
-
-
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
-
-
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
-
-
|<<<<<|
|>|>|>|
-
-
|<<<<<|

Ugh this one's a tough one, good call. There should be a way of signifying note length, even if it's just relative to the other notes in the scratch. Multiple arrows in a row worked in my 2 click fwd/no clicks back example because the backwards note is longer and it looks longer visually, but if you do the identical scratch where each part is a 1/8 note, then it wouldn't look the same... maybe something like:

 

 

|>|>|>|

| <|

 

|>|>|>|

|<----|

 

|>|>|>|

|< |

 

I dunno, this is a hard one!

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Guest broke

Why can't one of you talented beauties just make some kind of program for idiots like me to make traditional scratch notation instead of having to use paint? :)

 

Didn't johnny1move do exactly that? I tried using it, but it was easier to use Paint IMO

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