The Technics SL-1200s light up red when manually clicked to ‘On’, while a single button depression causes each heavy circular platter – the so-called wheels of steel – to splutter almost instantaneously into 33 or 45 RPM. Next, the two earth wires are attached to the mixing console with a violent bzzzzt, while emitting a miniscule, nerve-awakening shock to the fingertips.

Every male headphone, microphone or turntable input also buzzes briefly when inserted unceremoniously into its female socket or jack. Both the amp and mixer – the pre-amplification middlemen – audibly pop when switched on, before emitting a satisfying, low-level hum, like the bass tone of some distant generator. In turn, the loudspeakers too are connected umbilically by their spindly insulated copper stereo cables to the maternal amplifier or musical mothership, awaiting sonic lift-off.

From DJ Francis Grasso to Grandmaster Flash, Time Out art critic Ossian Ward looks at the work of sound artist and occasional disc jockey Haroon Mirza from a turntablist’s perspective.įirst, two phono leads attach the turntables to the central mixer via red and black connectors.

Turntable scratching sound effects