*Record crackling*
Narator: A turntable is an abstraction of the earth- a constant cycle rotating steadily in one direction, and the records- the life that inhabits the earth; they have endings, and once one record ends, the next one is played. The music may end, but the facilitation doesn’t. Analog sound may be connected to the earth more than we think about when using analog instruments. Whilst digital developments in sound distribution may be the path of the future, the A side of this audio paper demonstrates and provides an argument for why vinyl culture will have a much greater historical and cultural impact.
As a turntablist DJ, I view my artform as storytelling, using records to evoke and heal feelings within those listening, grounding the sound in one type of music whilst creating an abstractified journey with the sound design of the selection; this presentation of music which I liken to the electronic empowerment of the turntable. Turntables, like much analog equipment, are connected to the mixer or amplifier through RCA cables. {explain small science behind RCA cables in terms of earth wire, unbalanced etc} {link this to the way in which i present music}. {quick demonstration of a set I would do}. To achieve this feeling of grounding and journey within my sets, I value the importance of crate digging- arguably the main practice keeping vinyl culture alive today. A lifelong practice which {insert name of interviewee} thinks of as {insert extract of interview describing crate digging} {continuation of extracts from the interview}
As is immediately obvious to any reader, this frist draft at a script is a clear failure. It starts off promising, with a “stage direction” being given immediately, showing that there is life and thought going into the journey of the audio. However, with the topic of the audio paper being completely centred around turntablism, it was really the only sound effect that was reasonable to be inserted. It felt futile, only writing this once, and / or having it feature in the audio paper only once. Regardless, the opening of the script is still strong- written somewhat poetically, it allows the reader to feel the same adoration for turntablism as I, giving them a deeper interest into the topic.
However, great adoration of the topic doesn’t equal great execution of education on said topic. The first problem I stumbled into was that I couldn’t find research to justify my points. I searched endlessly for an article or academic explanation of the science behind RCA cables, what each component means and carries. Because of this, I wasn’t able to make the metaphorical link between the art and the technical set up of turntablism. It also greatly disheartened me from trying to look for the science behind earthing wires. The second great barrier I came accross was that I wasn’t able to insert a demonstartion of a set I would do, as the quality of recording was far too poor- it would seem as thought the connection on my needles for the turntables don’t pick up effectively whilst recording, though they seem fine to be used live. Whilst a solution around this would be to book a studio to carry out the recording, most commercial studios don’t have turntables, and the ones that do were booked too far ahead and would hinder the process of completing the audio paper. The final problem that occured is that I couldn’t find an interviewee in the time I thought I would be able to. The turntablists I am in contact with who would have provided wisdom on this topic were far too busy touring / gigging / just working. Most people don’t have time to be interviewed for merely a university project.
However, just because I cannot find acadmeic texts to support knowledge that I already have, doesn’t mean I cannot include it to some degree. It may be hard to justify my topic because of this, which will push me to use emotive language and tone when delivering the audio paper.