It sets the stage for telling the tale of what Grandmaster Flash, in real life, referred to as the "quick mix theory," a trick that allowed him to repeat the same part of a record in a potentially endless loop on two turntables. It turns out the crayon was used to mark the vinyl so he could calculate a formula on the spinning record.
"4bf = 6rc = loop. The get down part," Flash tells me over the phone in a recent conversation relaying his shorthand theoretical approach to the turntables. "So for every four bars of music, you have to spin that record six times backwards so we arrive at the top of the break to repeat it. All these are computations that I've written down decades ago. But trying to say this 10 years ago, people thought I was some kind of madman. And I'm alright being a madman, it's OK."Grandmaster flash demonstration vid
Can I be real one last time? Quick Mix Theory: 4 bars forward = 6 Counter Clockwise Rotations. This is only partially true. During the 70's, almost all music was consistently around 100 BPMs. Today, that is clearly not true. Most sets I DJ are from 60-145 BPM. The number of times you rewind (spin the record back, counter clockwise) is directly related to the TEMPO of the track. I don' t think flash new that in the 70's.
https://ecoechoinvasives.blogspot.com/2018/03/west-african-sumerian-connections-as-32.htmlAs I previously blogged citing this Ph.D. Thesis (link)
The 3:2 Relationship As the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics
Followed up with this 2012 Ph.D. thesis
My analysis proceeds from the hypothesis that musics emerging from the transatlantic slave trade with significant Yoruba influence share common traits including what has come to be called "clave." Ruth M. Stone links observations of the musical role of clave-type patterns to the geographical origins of the patterns in West Africa, and emphasizes that this pattern-as-concept was brought to the Americas with the transatlantic slave trade.
I refer to this as clave direction. Clave direction is a concept and a rhythmic-regulative principle. It is analogous to the key of a piece of music, but instead of governing tonality, it governs fine-scale local timing (mostly without regard to pitch (6)).
So now onto Grandmaster Flash rediscovering this ancient advanced acoustic alchemy secret!
Turntabilism, 1973
Grandmaster Flash
Hip-Hop Pioneer
Community room of Kool Herc’s building, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, New York City
The DJs at the time were picking up the arm and dropping it down exactly on the break of the song. But I was dancing, and I noticed everybody’s head was bobbing at the same time, and then suddenly everyone’s heads would go into disarray, and then come back together again. I found this to be very strange. From that moment, I decided to come up with a science that would allow me to have full control to manually edit the beat. I came up with the science called the Quick Mix theory. It consisted of me having to do something that DJs at the time never did: placing my fingertips on the vinyl. I was ridiculed for a long time. I was told that I ruined needles, ruined styluses, ruined records, and also that placing my fingers on the vinyl was something DJs never did because I’d make the record filthy. But I knew that I had to do it to have full control over the vinyl.
Quik Mix Theory, the turntable breakthrough that started it all: 4 bf = 6 rc = loop. Four bars forward equaled six rotations counterclockwise equaled a loop.
It took him nearly three years to perfect the formula, he said, but when he did, people thought it was magic. To him, it was more like the map of the human genome.“This is my math and my science,” he said. “I’m actually readjusting time. I’m taking this break, it’s 10 seconds, I’m making it 10 minutes, you don’t know when it’s beginning or ending.”
“This was the birth of rap,” he said, only partly overstating the case. “So this Quik Mix Theory caused the whole culture. It’s scary to think about sometimes. But that’s what it did.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/nyregion/grandmaster-flash-netflix-series-the-get-down-brings-attention-to-the-hip-hop-pioneer.html
Backspin Technique ("Quick-Mix Theory") a.k.a. Beat Juggling:
Hip hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash performs at UPAC in ...
100 bpm 1970s disco musicNov 6, 2019 - Flash invented the Quick Mix Theory, featuring techniques like the "double-back," "back-door," "back-spin" and "phasing."
Analog demonstration by Grandmaster Flash vid
333/4 BARS=83 Frequency per bar of 4 beats (per measure of music) as the conversion of Time by Grandmaster Flash - the inventor of Rap music DJ science = 20 hertz per beat as one third of the counterspin as the torque.
4/4 time with a tempo marking of q = 60 (bpm) . This one is simple, there are sixty quarter notes per minute, and four quarter notes per measure... it is typical for a quarter note to denote one beat, sometimes different values get one beat.So 33.3 rpm x 6 counterspins =200 bpm
One of the most important elements, Karageorghis found, is a song's tempo, which should be between 120 and 140 beats per minute, or BPM.That pace coincides with the range of most commercial dance music, and many rock songs are near that range,
How to beat match with two turntables - vid using a pitch slider
How to Beat Match on Vinyl - by ear - using the SAME turntable torque of Grandmaster Flash
It's great to see Carlos looping by back spinning the records. it's all button pushing nowadays. DJs learning the art should begin by mastering looping the old-fashioned way by actually spinning the records back to the point of the origin of the loop. Once they have that skill locked down, they can push buttons all they want. We did this the old fashioned way and even know how many rotations back you need to go depending on the tempo of the track and the number of bars. With that skill, you can catch the beat wherever you want, without having to set any cue points in advance.This will make you more spontaneous and creative.
So this is typically called The Needle Drop:
The needle drop is a technique used in hip hop deejaying. The DJ sets a record spinning, then drops the stylus on the turntable at the exact point where he wants playback to begin without previously cuing up the record.[1] Since there is no time wasted in cuing, the needle drop allows faster movements by the DJ. The needle drop method was developed in the 1970s by Grand Wizzard Theodore at around the same time that he and Grandmaster Flash were pioneering scratching.[1]As Grandmaster Flash reveals - he actually TAUGHT this to Grand Wizzard Theodore.
A DJ usually drops a song on THE ONE which is the first beat in a bar of music.So we know from James Brown soul music - that the key focus is the "ONE" - as James Brown repeatedly told his new young bass player. So what does the ONE really mean? GrandMaster Flash similarly had to teach his first prodigy - a kid who needed a milk crate!! - that the ONE is the conversion of Time to Frequency via a noncommutative phase syncopation:
Backspin technique (or quick-mix theory)
So Grandmaster Flash reveals that only a Turntable that has a strong enough torque of a quarter Turn rotation then enables a proper conversion - otherwise the FREQUENCY change (via the doppler effect of Time being crunched) is too slow and too great.
DJ Rob Swift explains:
This requires the use your ears to differentiate the music you’re hearing come out of the loudspeakers from the music you’re cuing up in your headphones. Once the Break ends on the turntable playing through the loudspeakers, move the mixer’s fader over to the opposite turntable (the turntable you’ve cued the beginning of that same break to) and cut the Break in. Thus, extending or looping that Break section. In order to do this, you must be able to count bars – assess if the Break is 4 bars, 8 bars, 12 bars, etc. When cuing up the Break, keep in mind it’s easier to backspin the record opposed to picking up the needle (“needle dropping” – invented by Grandwizzard Theodore) hoping you’ll place the needle back on to the part of the vinyl where the beginning of the Break starts. The best Djs can actually incorporate both techniques. In other words, pick up the needle, drop it as close to the Break as possible, then spin the record back or forward a rotation or two, if needed, to get to the beginning of the Break.
Now keep in mind catching the Break required you to possess two identical copies of a song for each turntable. In the case of one of the more popular Breaks that existed, "Take Me To Mardi Gras" (Bob James), the Break started at the beginning. I’d hear only 10 seconds of it play before my brother would “Catch The Beat” or should I say, start the song over again on the alternate turntable. Grandmaster Flash is the DJ we all credit for inventing this style of manipulating records.
What I grew up calling “Catching The Beat” Flash actually coins the “Quick Mix Theory“ . That is, manually extending or looping the Break section of a song. This key DJ skill has been lost over the years. DJs today much rather scratch "Ahhh" on a portable turntable while the same looper plays over and over and over. In the clubs, I'm seeing a new generation of DJs cue up a song and simply let it play for a few minutes, then mix in the next track. I've even witnessed some walk away from their sets and carry on full conversations with other club goers. It's as if over time, the disconnection between music and the art of playing music has grown so far apart that subsequently, the fine art of rockin' a crowd has been diluted. But I digress.https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves/Lesson-4/Mathematics-of-Standing-Waves
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