In music, a technique whereby vinyl records are manually moved back and forth under/across a phonograph cartridge. The resulting sound produced can vary between backwards or forwards playback of the material on the record, or, if done quickly enough, a scratching sound, hence the term. “Scratching,”as it has become known, has in many ways defined certain musical styles such as Hip-Hop, Rap, and others, but has also made its way to some extent into most styles of popular music.
Scratch also refers to a data or recording medium that may be used temporarily. A scratch disk, for example, is a drive volume or partition that can be used by some programs as a place to temporarily store data during certain operations. Scratch tracks (see WFTD Scratch Vocal) are temporary tracks that are often used to provide a reference to musicians in a song during recording.