SinisterArtsScratchCraft

Early access · VST3 & Standalone

ScratchCraft

Design, trigger and perform turntable scratches inside your DAW.

ScratchCraft's Mix view: two deck strips with waveforms above two gold turntables and a crossfader.

The idea

Every scratch is two signals.

Where the record is, and how open the fader is. ScratchCraft records, edits and plays scratches as exactly those two lines, so a baby, a transform or a flare is something you can draw, trigger from a pad or perform by hand, and move freely between all three.

A two-bar phrase of baby, transform, chirp and flare scratches, drawn as a record position curve above a fader lane. BabyTransformChirpFlareRecord positionFader

Three modes, one engine

Draw it. Trigger it. Perform it.

Draw a scratch, note by note.

Two lanes on a tempo grid: one for where the record is, one for the fader. Drag nodes, snap to the beat, audition in time with the song, or start from a generated technique.

Read the Shape docs →
The Shape editor with a tear scratch drawn on the position lane and an open fader lane below.

Fire scratches from 32 pads.

Put shapes, one-shots, deck loads and utility actions on pads, then play them from a MIDI controller with quantize, velocity, choke groups and Gate or Latch release.

Read the Rack docs →
Rack mode with the shape list, a 4 by 4 grid of pads and the pad inspector.

Scratch live on two decks.

Grab a platter with the mouse or a jog wheel, cut with the crossfader or the keyboard, and record what you play straight into a new shape.

Read the Mix docs →
The Mix view with two gold turntables, the deck strips and a crossfader.

Two decks

Real decks, not a sample player.

Each deck has a motor with its own torque, a zoomable waveform with snapping cue and end markers, and a beat grid detected from the sample.

  • Sync Loop restarts on the beat or beat-matches the sample to your song's tempo.
  • Sync this deck finds the best-sounding 1 to 8 bar loop and sets it up in one click.
  • Key shifts pitch by ±12 semitones without changing speed, or keeps the key while you change tempo.
  • Capture records 1 to 16 bars from any track through the sidechain.
Learn more in the docs →
Deck A and Deck B strips with waveforms, cue and end markers, Speed, Torque and Gain knobs, and Sync Loop buttons.

Performance rack

32 pads, four ways to play.

  • Shape pads scratch a shape on a deck. One-shots play a sample straight, mono, poly or on a hidden third platter.
  • Load pads swap a deck's sample. Utility pads run up to four actions: brake, cut, sync, capture, FX and more.
  • Trigger, Gate or Latch, with Cut, Brake, To end or Ease back release.
  • Quantize down to 1/32 triplets, velocity, choke groups and per-pad pitch and level.
Learn more in the docs →
A 4 by 4 grid of pads with shape, one-shot and utility pads, next to the pad inspector.

Technique generator

Classic techniques, generated in time.

Pick a technique, the clicks, the division and the length, and ScratchCraft draws it for you, ready to edit, assign to a pad or chain into a phrase.

  • Baby
  • Chirp
  • Transform
  • Flare
  • Orbit
  • Crab
  • Tear
  • Scribble
  • Forward
  • Backward
  • Stab

Shapes measure travel in seconds by default, so a chirp stays on its word at any tempo.

Learn more in the docs →
The shape list and editor showing a scratch curve over a fader lane.

Mixer & effects

A DJ mixer and an FX rack on every deck.

  • Three-band DJ EQ with kills, plus highpass and lowpass filters in 12 dB, 24 dB or Ladder.
  • Eleven effects per deck: EQ, Drive, Crusher, Compressor, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Trans Gate, Auto-Pan, Tape Echo and Reverb.
  • The rack sits after the fader, so echo and reverb tails keep ringing after a cut.
  • Tempo-synced LFOs, gate steps and echo times lock to your song.
Learn more in the docs →
The Effects tab with a rack of eleven units per deck and the EQ and Trans Gate faceplates.
The mixer drawer: low, mid and high EQ, highpass and lowpass filters with resonance and type for each deck.

MIDI control

Made for your controller.

Click MIDI Learn, click a control, move your hardware. ScratchCraft works out whether it's a knob, a fader, an encoder, a jog wheel or a button, and how it encodes its values.

  • Jog wheels with touch, in Vinyl, Nudge or Auto mode.
  • Pick-up takeover, ranges, inversion and 14-bit controls.
  • Every knob, fader and switch is also a host parameter for automation.
Learn more in the docs →
SourceTargetMode
CC 1CrossfaderAbsolute
CC 16Deck A · JogRelative · offset 64
CC 17Deck B · JogRelative · offset 64
Pitch wheelDeck B · Scratch±0.25 s · anchored
C1 – G3Pads 1 – 32Notes

Default mappings · edit them all in MIDI Map

Feel

Tune how the records respond.

Brake and slipmat times, crossfader cut-in and Fast Cut width, hand smoothing, spinning grabs, vinyl noise, motor rumble and needle drops. Start from a preset like Battle, Vintage vinyl or Mixxx-style and adjust from there.

Learn more in the docs →
The Feel window with hand-back, platter, crossfader, gesture, sound and torque options.
2Decks with motor, sync & key
32Performance pads in two banks
11Effects per deck
3Modes: Shape, Rack and Mix

Platforms

In your DAW, on its own, and soon on tablets.

Early access

Get ScratchCraft.

Download the Windows build, follow development on GitHub, or read the docs before you start.

Read the documentation →