DJzone DJ Magazine

Resident DJ Alex Graham Rocks Crowds with Final Scratch and Laptop

Hollywood, FL, October 25, 2003—When the 2003 Lollapalooza tour hit the road this summer, so did Stanton's Final Scratch system. According to the tour's resident DJ Alex Graham, the Final Scratch system "creates a synergy between the convenience of digital and the preferred feel of vinyl." This allowed him to bring a vast library of music needed for the tour while being able to spin using his turntables and laptop computer. According to Graham, "With Final Scratch, you can have your cake and eat it to."

Graham was a natural choice for the Lollapalooza DJ gig, having been the touring DJ for Lollapalooza organizer and Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell since 2001. The 26-year-old DJ from New York City has played clubs, festivals, underground events and concerts throughout the U.S. and other parts of the world for 10 years, but the Lollapalooza tour was certainly one of his crowning moments. "I DJ'd the main stage of the festival throughout the day whenever a band wasn't playing," says Graham. "I was on tour for all 29 cities, and played for crowds that numbered in excess of 15,000."

Graham found the Stanton Final Scratch system to be the perfect choice for his Lollapalooza gig, allowing him to bring massive amounts of music along without having to carry crates of records and CDs. "Final Scratch was the heart of my entire DJ booth," says Graham. "Although I did have a pair of [CD players] at my disposal, I rarely used them. I found the combination of Final Scratch with my PowerBook G4 to be far more preferable." The number one reason Graham cites is that, for him, the Final Scratch interface is truer to the feel of spinning actual vinyl than playing CDs.

Graham prefers Final Scratch for many other reasons as well. "Final Scratch allows me to be spontaneous and change my mind about a selection in a matter of seconds. No fumbling for CDs, no changing records." Graham also likes the waveform display in Final Scratch, which gives him visual cues about a track that just aren't possible with vinyl or CD. "There are also some cool tricks with Final Scratch," says Graham, "like being able to assign the same track to both Final Scratch records and then phase them or beat-juggle them." Of course he also likes being able to haul an entire CD-quality music library on a laptop. "In a matter of seconds you can sort your entire collection and then type a keyword to do a search. This is so much easier than digging through a huge crate of records or flipping through CDs."

During the tour, Graham used Final Scratch to play a wide range of music and samples—from house, techno and breaks to hip-hop, drum 'n' bass and even an occasional rock record. Since the tour had a wireless network running, Graham was able to download new tracks and samples in between sets and have them loaded and ready to play from Final Scratch by the time he went on again. "Final Scratch conveniently combines form, function, versatility and style," says Graham. "It is the most impressive DJ technology I have used to date."