Vinyl character

Out of the box ScratchCraft plays samples cleanly, with no added noise. This page covers the optional record character you can add in the Feel window, and the playback quality options that decide how a sample sounds when it’s scratched fast or slow.

All of these are Feel options: they apply at once, are saved with the project, and are not part of session states.

Record sounds

The Sound group adds the noises of a real turntable. Each is off by default.

Option	Range/choices	Default	What it does
Vinyl noise	0 to 100 %	0 %	Crackle and a faint hiss from the record’s surface.
Motor rumble	0 to 100 %	0 %	A low rumble while a deck’s motor runs.
Needle drop	On / off	Off	A soft thump when a new sample lands on a deck.

Vinyl noise

The crackle belongs to the record, not to time: each click sits at a fixed place in the groove. Scratch back and you hear the same clicks backwards; stop the record and it goes quiet. The clicks get wider as the record slows, and the hiss rises and falls with the playing speed, so the noise moves with your hand like it does on vinyl.

Motor rumble

A very low rumble that follows the motor’s speed. It fades as a deck brakes and stops when the motor does.

Needle drop

A short, low thump with a click whenever a sample is loaded onto a deck. Crops, reverses and Key changes don’t trigger it, since the record hasn’t changed. If the deck’s channel is closed, you won’t hear it.

The noises are part of each deck’s own sound, before its fader, so a crossfader cut closes them along with the record. They apply to deck samples only; pads playing their own sample off the decks don’t get them.

Playback quality

When you scratch, a sample is played at constantly changing speeds, forwards and backwards. The Reader group, further down the Feel window, decides how ScratchCraft reads the sample between its stored points.

Quality	What it sounds like
High (sinc)	The default. Clean, clear highs on fast scratches and big pitch changes.
Standard (cubic)	A lighter read, at about half the processing cost of High and a little less accurate in the top frequencies. The Light CPU preset uses it.
Linear	A simple read that adds grit and roughness. Mixxx uses this kind of read while scratching.

High is light enough for normal use. Try Standard if you’re running many instances or a slower computer, and Linear if you want a dirtier sound.

Anti-aliasing

When a record is pushed faster than normal speed, its high frequencies rise above what digital audio can hold. Left alone, they fold back down as harsh, unrelated tones: that’s aliasing. Anti-aliasing (on by default) gently filters the sample as it speeds up, so fast scratches stay clean, the way they lose their top end naturally on vinyl. It keeps working smoothly up to very fast scratches.

Option	Range/choices	Default	What it does
Anti-aliasing	On / off	On	Off keeps every high but lets them fold back as aliasing, for a harsher, grittier scratch, like many hardware samplers and raw software readers.
Filter onset	0 to 1 octave	0	Moves the start of the filtering above normal speed. At 0.5 octave it starts at about 1.4x speed. Higher keeps fast scratches brighter, with a little aliasing.
Slow-speed fade	0x to 0.5x	0 (off)	Below this speed the record fades towards silence, like a cartridge that puts out less as the groove slows. It softens direction changes and slow drags.

Pads playing one-shots follow the anti-aliasing options too.

Mixer drive

For warmth on the whole output, the Output group’s Mixer drive (0 to 12 dB, off by default) adds soft clipping to the master, like pushing a hot mixer channel. It rounds peaks and thickens the sound without ever going over full scale.