| NickNack "Soundcraftsman Volume One" 12inch and CD |
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Explanation | Instructions | Tracklisting | Music Theory Explanation: This record is designed to be used as a tool for playing your turntable as a musical instrument (it is also available on CD for use with CDJ units). Up until this point the turntable has largely been thought of as a percussive instrument (or in some cases, not an instrument at all). Obviously, neither is true. The turntable can easily be manipulated to play percussion and melodies as long as the appropriate tool/record is available. Below is an explanation of what makes this record such a valuable tool for you, the turntable musician… Video Demo Songs and Snippets From Soundcraftsman  1) Laid out in whole note key signatures. When playing a melodic instrument in a band setting you play chords and/or notes according to a key signature. This key signature provides a tonal framework for the piece of music that all melodic instruments follow. Any musician in the band can then choose from a specific group of notes that "go together" because they are rooted in the same key. There are a total of 12 key signatures in music. The Soundcraftsman record only has 6 keys, b/c your turntable has a pitch control that can get you the other 6. On the industry standard Technics 1200 turntable, shifting the pitch to +/-6% is equavalent to about a half step change. Therefore, I have included only the 6 whole note keys (C, D, E, F#, G#, A#) for you to start with. 2 ) Several sounds to choose from. In each of the 6 key signatures, there are 6 instruments to choose from. Piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Mellotron flute, Hammond B3 organ, Moog organ, Yamaha CS80 bass/synth. You can now play any note and simple chords in any of these instruments in all 12 key signatures. Side B has even more sounds to choose from. There are lots of melody lines played by musicians that you can chop up and rearrange yourself. Everything from flutes to electric guitar. 3) Pentatonic scales. The scales are pentatonic (5 notes), because I felt like it was necessary to limit the number of notes so that they could all comfortably fit within 1 revolution of the record. The scales repeat 6 times. The first 2 times is the scale in ascending order so you can tune your instrument to the root note (ie: the first note of the scale). Then, the note order and quantization (timing) changes with each repeat. You will never find the same timing or note order on any instrument in any of the key signatures, b/c it is all 100% random. This offers you tremendous help, b/c now you won’t be forced to push the record around to get the notes you want. I have seen some ideas out there that provide scales with multiple octaves on vinyl only in ascending order (ex: C, C#, D, D#, E,F, F#, G, G#,A, A#, B). This is nice in theory, but it's too difficult to get from say B to E, b/c the notes are 3/4 of a record revolution apart from each other. This is why I have varied the note order on each scale on each revolution. Besides, it's isn't very likely that you would play all the notes anyway. Which is why I chose the pentatonic scale. More info on this can be found in the "Music Theory" section. 4) 2-5-1 triad chord progression. The chords are triad (comprised of 3 notes), because these are the most simple chords. They tend to work in a wide range of musical situations. All chords are played in a progression. I have chosen the popular 2-5-1 chord progression. The chords are going to be less popular, so they only repeat once and are in the format, major then relative minor. For more details on chords and chord progressions, check out the "Music Theory" section. 5) Lots of traditional scratches. Don’t worry, this record still has traditional scratches like csshh, freshhhh, skipless drums, vocal phrases and many more (most are skipless). 6) CD version has bonus tracks. The CD version has 22 bonus tracks (breakbeats, original songs and even popular instrumentals) that you can easily loop using almost any CDJ unit. A final note…I realize that not everything will be perfectly laid out on this record. The idea is to offer you a well rounded scratch tool. If you have an idea or suggestion, then I want to hear it. This is the beginning of a new and exciting era in tools for the turntable musician. www.crowdcontrolrecords.com |