Techniques on Creating Dub Sounds

Dub has been a genre that I've been a fan of since I was young and have only started producing just this year. Because I didn't know how to produce the unique dub effects that I wanted, I relied on samples from Splice or only did a basic setting of a delay or spring reverb. After making a dub track and doing further research, I've now learnt new techniques to create dub sounds so that I'm able to experiment on my own terms, instead of being stuck with already made settings and pre-sets that come with samples. I'll be talking about a few techniques I'm familiar with such as creating a dub snare sound, vocal effects, and a few dub mixing techniques. I'll be using an Avid article about Creating Classic Dub Sounds written by Supa Dups, as well as some methods I use to help explain how to create these unique sounds.

What is Dub?

So following from my first blog post about the dub track I made, dub involves rearranging elements within an existing recording through the isolation of individual instrumental tracks with the addition of various effects to create a new work." (Meschino, 2017). There aren't really any rules with this genre so you're able to get very creative and basically, the desk (or DAW) becomes a musical instrument and when you mix dub "you are the driving force and you are expected to perform," as the desk (or DAW) becomes a musical instrument. (Terrano, 2007).

On the B sides of most Jamaican 45s, it will say "Version", and it's "a simple instrumental remix of the A-side that may include a few scraps of the vocals." (Davis and Simon, 1982). Versions were made to test for sound levels and later, it becomes popular and Jamaicans developed a taste for these instrumentals. DJs then would take these recordings to rap over the rhythms, (Davis and Simon, 1982) and may people credit dub as being one of the foundations for early rap music, (Cercone, 2017). Without dub, rap wouldn't have been a world leading form of popular culture and many other genres such as jungle, house, garage, and grime would have never taken off, (Katz, 2014).

One of the masters of dub production, King Tubby, then turned versions into what we know as today as "dub". His technique consists of stripping a track to its core, then bringing it back together and using parts of the vocal tracks. Then all sorts of effects are applied such as reverb, phaser, delays and echo, which are the elements that makes a dub track identifiable. An example of King Tubby taking track and turning them into dub tracks are found in The Sound of Channel One: King Tubby Connection album.

The Dub Snare

From the Avid article, using sends to different reverbs is a useful method to create that snare shot reverberant sound. Using sends will also give you the ability to control the wet and dry signals and is great to be creative and automate the amounts you want of each signal throughout the track. The types of reverb that Supa Dups uses to send his snare is through a spring reverb and a room reverb. (Dups, 2015). The spring reverb helps to create the unique spring-y shot sound, while the room reverb adds more room sound as well as adding sustain and character. Some of these snare sounds can be heard in these tracks below. Eek a Mouse's "Wa-Do-Dem"'s snare is less reverb-affected than Billy Boyo's "Zim Zim" but it they both show that there is no wrong amount of effect you can add:

Wa-Do-Dem - Eek a Mouse

Zim Zim - Billy Boyo

Vocal Effects

The vocals is an important element in dub music. Because dub is basically an instrumental remix of an already existing reggae track, only small vocal samples or a couple of lines of a vocal track are used for a dub track, but what is important is how the vocals are effected. On a dub track I made earlier, I grabbed short reggae vocal samples from Splice and just placed them in different places of the entire track. This will make the vocals sound like they are being muted and unmuted. I then sent my vocals through an aux into a delay plugin and automated the amount of wet and dry signal while recording. From the Avid article, Supa Dups sends his vocals through to a filter delay which places it in the same space as his snares and also sends it through to his own custom-made delay, which is fed by the vocal, snare and other instruments, (Dups, 2015).

Source: avidblogs.com

Creating a Dub Delay

I've yet to learn more about making my own delays but Supa Dups' article on Avid talks through about how he creates his own. His process is "creating an aux send called Dub Delay and inserting a 7-band EQ, with a band-pass-style filter set up to roll off the lows up to 800Hz and the highs down to 5 or 6 kHz." (Dups, 2015). He then adds the Mod Delay III plugin syncing dotted 8th notes to the tempo of the track, keeping the feedback set to 0 (as he creates his own feedback separately). He then adds a compressor to prevent clipping of any feedback and sets it to a level to where he thinks suits the entire track. Here's a screenshot of Supa Dups setup of his Dub Delay below.

Source: avidblogs.com

Muting

Muting can be a really creative technique for bringing elements in and out of a track and helps you to experiment on the go without following a structured arrangement. From a Sound on Sound article on Dub Mixing written by Andrea Terrano, she uses mutes while cycling through an 8-bar loop of a song to bring elements in and out of the arrangement, (Terrano, 2007). This muting technique is the same as automating your sends in DAWs. An example of muting applied to some vocals can be seen in the picture below, as well as an Augustus Pablo track which heavily relies on the muting technique.

Source: avidblogs.com

King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo

Anyway, these are a few production techniques in dub that I've learnt! I'm still learning more ways to create different sounds as well as to improve on my techniques, and when I do have more knowledge and continue to produce dub tracks, I'll be able focus more on experimenting and being able to create my own sound. Dub is a genre that I recommend all artists to get a feel of producing as it helps with creativity and can be really fun to experiment with.

Bibliography

Cercone, S. (2017). What is "Dub" music anyway? (Reggae). Retrieved from http://stason.org/TULARC/music-genres/reggae-dub/3-What-is-Dub-music-anyway-Reggae.html

Davis, S. and Simon, P. (1982). Reggae International. New York: Rogner & Bernhard ; [Oslo]. Retrieved from http://stason.org/TULARC/music-genres/reggae-dub/3-What-is-Dub-music-anyway-Reggae.html

Katz, D. (2014). Dubbing Is A Must: A Beginner's Guite To Jamaica's Most Influential Genre. Retrieved from http://www.factmag.com/2014/04/16/dubbing-is-a-must-a-beginners-guide-to-jamaicas-most-influential-genre/

Dups, S. (2015). Get Riddim! Creating Classic Dub Sounds in Pro Tools Using Avid Plugins. Retrieved from http://www.avidblogs.com/create-classic-dub-sounds-in-pro-tools-with-avid-plug-ins/

Terrano, A. (2007). Dub Mixing. Retrieved from https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/dub-mixing