It may have been a less fluid form of mixing, but he also experimented with the likes of tape rewinding and slowing up vocals.
Allegedly it was recorded at Dynamics and mixed by Carlton Lee. Whichever LP came first they paved the way for many, many more and heralded the golden age of Dub and its evolution. Looking for more? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Search uDiscover Music. Format: UK English. Click to comment. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Recent collaborations between artists of the U.
Also, Record labels such as Blood and Fire have released several albums that showcase the producers and artists like Bunny Lee, King Tubby, U-Roy, Tappa Zukie, Dillinger, and others who helped forge the dub and deejay sound. As new musical ideas have developed in Jamaica and the world, dub reggae itself no longer enjoys the popularity it had in Jamaica during its heyday.
However, it has been an extremely powerful influence on modern music, and will likely continue to be so well into the future. It could be argued that dub was one of the most revolutionary styles of music of the century; it was certainly the first to fully embrace the idea that artistic success could be achieved by rearranging prerecorded music.
Tragically, the man ultimately responsible for introducing to the world the idea of the dub remix no longer survives to witness the incredible music that has resulted. King Tubby was murdered outside of his home in Though his innovation and influence is immeasurable, his untimely death was an incredible loss to the world music community.
The defining characteristic of dub music is the use of the mixing board as if it were a musical instrument. The difference, however, is that the power of the mixer lies in its ability to remove and rearrange sound rather than add to it. In the full mix, all of the different components of the rhythm and vocals add together to form a certain sound.
In the dub remix, the engineer strips the whole thing down to the essential rhythm foundation, bringing this out as the focus of attention. The rest is then rearranged and remixed to emphasize certain components at certain times.
By taking out the vocals and emphasizing the rhythm, the focus of the music shifts from conscious awareness and cerebral stimulation. Instead, it centers around the resonant quality of the rhythm, and the emphasis lies in the emotions that it conjures in the listener and the body movements induced by it.
However, by constantly reshuffling the various instruments and vocals of the whole mix, the mind remains occupied as different aspects of the music are constantly being pointed out to the listener. A good dub is one that takes out what is unnecessary but keeps what is necessary such that the emphasis remains on the rhythm, but does not allow it to dominate to the extent that it gets repetitive. In dub, empty space is as important as substance; balancing the two in a creative and interesting way is the key to a good mix.
An essay by Luke Ehrlich on dub expresses this idea well:. To understand how this is accomplished, one must understand how the recording process works. During the initial recording of a song, the different components are recorded onto a multi-track tape. How many tracks that are available - usually two, four, or eight, though recorders with more do exist - determine to what extent the music can be divided.
For a four track recording, for instance, the four tracks might be divided up into vocals, drums and bass, rhythm guitar and organ, and lead guitar. Today four tracks are rather limiting, but part of the genius of early dub engineers, like Scratch and Tubby, was in how they were able to use such primitive equipment to achieve more complex sounds than their equipment would otherwise allow. Nevertheless, this division of the different components of the music gives the mixing engineer the raw material to create a dub mix.
In dub, however, the engineer does quite the opposite. The different components are radically remixed, emphasizing some and ignoring others. Sound effects such as reverb, echo, and phase shifter are used extensively. Equalization levels are tweaked in a variety of ways during the mix, creating sounds as if the music was being cut through with a knife.
Numerous other techniques have been tried in the world of dub, including random sounds like beeps, gunshots, telephones ringing, or the characteristic thunderclap sound caused by hitting the spring reverb unit of an amplifier. Engineers can accomplish these tricks by mixing the dub over several times, but the disadvantage to this method is the loss of sound quality by going through several generations of tape. If the dub engineer has fast enough hands or has a creative assistant, then the resulting dub is not only of superior sound quality, but has an improvisational spirit to it as well Erhlich p.
In this way, the dub engineer truly does play his board as a musical instrument. Although it would be impossible to explain all of the techniques used it dub music, there are quite a few that are commonly used. The most basic dubs, just a step up from version, will take out most of the vocals and perhaps add reverb on some of the drumbeats. Shifting abruptly between more higher end sounds, such as the vocals, and the lower end sounds of the bass is a frequently used technique in basic dub mixing.
This sudden shift in the type of sound in the mix can have a very powerful effect on the listener, as the parts of the body and mind that are stimulated by these sounds are quite different. Cutting out sounds at a certain point, throwing them into echo, and using that to accentuate the rhythm is a common practice as well.
These are just a few techniques used by most dub engineers. To illustrate these as well as other aspects of the sound of dub music, a collection of various dub recordings has been assembled on a cassette tape to supplement this essay. Most of them were produced during the mid to late s, when dub was at its creative peak in Jamaica, being mixed primarily by the dub engineers discussed in this essay.
The following is a discussion of the dubs found on this tape. The artist credited with each track is typically the dub engineer who mixed it, though in some cases it will be the artist who composed or wrote the track.
Also taken from Arkology , this is a good example of how the same riddim is used to make three different tunes, as well as being prime examples of the Black Ark sound. The first is the simple vocal mix, the second being the dub version. The mixing on the dub is fairly basic, playing heavily off the constant sound of the hi hat to accentuate the riddim. The third is a bit slower than the first two, with a slightly different drumbeat, but it is basically the same riddim.
It also features toast-style vocals by Junior Dread. Here, the drums and bass hold up the rhythm, while snippets of vocals and guitar make brief appearances only to be echoed back out again.
Notice the heavily echoed frequency test tone that emerges toward the end of the mix. Also from Dub Gone Crazy , this dub is notable for its use of bringing in the first line of vocals as acapella, then echoing them out as the drum and bass rhythm is faded back into the mix. This is a common technique used to begin a dub mix. Also from Dub Gone Crazy. This is an interesting recording because of how the vocal mix transitions smoothly into the dub. At the end of the vocal mix, Tubby throws the last guitar strum into an echo loop as the drums and bass continue to hold together the rhythm, and the song goes right into the dub.
From the album of the same name. Particularly effective in this mix is how he abruptly stops the rhythm during the pause in the groove and then uses his equalizer effect to wind back up to the groove again. From Super Ape , this is a thick sounding and almost frightening dub that seems to echo almost everything, giving the listener the feeling of being in a huge cavernous space.
The thunderclap sound effect from hitting the reverb unit can be heard in this dub as well. A beautiful and relatively simple dub, this tune features a lovely flute solo accompanied by an uplifting rhythm section. Billboard Pro Subscribe Sign In. Top Artists. Top Charts. Hot Songs. Billboard Top Videos. Classic dub has specifically recognisable musical elements that define it: delay echo , reverb, bandpass filtering EQ and an emphasis on the drum and the bass being upfront in the mix.
Prior to , the unique combination of stripped-down drums and bass, delay with feedback and sweeping, high-pass EQ filtering is largely absent. As is so often the case, technological innovation within recording studios played the crucial role in the development of the classic dub sound. This marked year zero for dub. A search through the minefield of multiple issues, inaccurate release dates or label credits unearths crucial archaeological date markers. Prior to these studio-created dub experiments by King Tubby, the closest approximation of the mystical aura of dub was attained through an innovative choice of instruments and arrangements.
The dub mix would be performed live. There were no automated consoles available at this time.
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