Flare (scratch)

Flare is a type of scratch used by turntablists. It is made from a combination of moving the record on the turntable by hand and quick movement of the crossfader.The flare was invented by its namesake, DJ Flare, in 1991, but was further developed by DJ Q-Bert.

Technique

This scratch technique is much like the transform in some ways, only instead of starting with the sound that you are cutting up off, you start with the sound on and concentrate on cutting the sound into pieces by bouncing the fader off the cut out side of the fader slot to make the sound cut out and then back in a split second. Each time the DJ bounces the fader off the side of the fader slot it makes a distinct clicking noise. For this reason, flares are named according to clicks. A simple one click forward flare would be a forward scratch starting with the sound on as you bounce/click the fader against the side once extremely quickly in the middle of the forward stroke creating two distinct sounds in one stroke of your record hand and ending with the fader open. In the same manner, 2 clicks, 3 clicks, and even more clicks (if you're fast enough) can be performed to do different types of flares. The discovery and development of the flare scratch was instrumental in elevating this art form to the level of speed and technical scratching that we are so used to seeing today.

References

* [http://dj.wikia.com/wiki/Scratching#Flare Flare scratch at DJ Techniques wiki]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3aJqqTOGA0 Dj Qbert demonstrates the original flare]