Dub Mixing Tips on an Analog Desk

Dub mixing on an analog desk gives you the ability to experiment with your sounds by adding effects and bringing individual sounds in and out of the mix. Because its on an analog desk and you're doing everything by hand, you are basically performing and are improvising your mix, which helps you to be very creative. Using Dubkasm's Dub Tips videos on YouTube, I'll be sharing a few tips and techniques when dub mixing on an analog desk.

Using Aux Sends

Aux sends is a great way to be able to use your effects with your tracks as you're able to mess around with the amount of wet/dry signals and get really creative. Patch your FX pedals or other FX devices to their own auxiliary channel (eg. Reverb -> Aux 1, Delay -> Aux 2, etc.) and make sure the instrument channels (where the instruments are coming from) gets sent to those auxiliary sends, so you're then able to effect those instruments. The more auxiliary sends you have, the better, as you're able to use more effects, but using one or two effect is still a good start. Some of the common effects used in dub mixing are spring reverbs, delays, and phasers but there are no boundaries as to what effects you need to use. Once you've patched your effects and sent your channels to them, use the auxiliary pan pot to apply any amount of the selected effect to the instrument channel.

Creating Feedback using FX

Feedback, alongside other effects such as spring reverb and delay, is also an important characteristic in dub and is used quite a lot. Yes, feedback is bad and it can wreck devices and your ear drums but dub is known for breaking rules so in this case, feedback is allowed. With creating feedback, a creative tip is to use your effects, and send them back into themselves. First, you send an instrument channel to an effect using aux sends, then send that aux send into a new channel of the desk. I've drawn a really bad and summarised diagram but it it helps me visually and hope it helps you too.

This setup of the aux return gives you a whole new channel strip to use, and this way, you're able to EQ that return, as well as send that effect to any other effect using aux sends on that channel.

So for example, send an instrument channel to a spring reverb, then send that to a new channel which will now become the spring reverb channel. (Say the spring reverb was on Aux 1), now on that new spring reverb channel, use Aux 1 to basically "reverb the reverb" (dubkasm, 2016), which will then create feedback for that effect.

Adding Reverb to Bass

Another rule that Dub tends to break is adding reverb to bass. Normally, bass doesn't need reverb because of its low frequencies, it tends to fill up an entire space. In dub, its very common to use the spring reverb effect on bass as it adds a warm sound to it, and if a large amount of the reverb is used, you can get different results such as a distorted, bark-y kind of bass. So don't be afraid to use that reverb's aux pan pot. Experiment and use any amount of reverb to your bass as you can get some really interesting tones that can make your mix sound unique.

Reamping Your Old FX Pedal

Guitar FX pedals are used commonly for external effects processing in dub. Old FX pedals that are only used for electric guitars can't really cooperate with analog nor digital consoles but there is a way to be able to still use them and it's by using reamping. By using a reamp box (passive DI), run the output of your old FX pedal into your reamp box, then run the output of the reamp box into a channel of the desk. This way, you're able to use those unique sounds from your old FX pedal and by having the effect coming through a channel on the desk, you're able to then use EQ as well as the other effects using the aux sends.

Those were a few tips and techniques on dub mixing on an analog desk. I hope to save up and buy myself a desk as well as some pedals to start mixing dub, as it looks really intriguing to be able to experiment with all your sounds and to see what results you come up with.

Bibiography

[dubkasm]. (2016, Oct 24). Dubkasm Dub Tips 01 - Aux Send Basics. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYOwK2slAP0

[dubkasm]. (2016, Oct 24). Dubkasm Dub Tips 02 - FX Feedback Loops. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLtAfrE0Yfo&t=28s&list=PLqsT6FGa18z8nLeNlZxthaU-3tmv_0mD6&index=3

[dubkasm]. (2016, Oct 24). Dubkasm Dub Tips 09 - Reamping FX Pedal. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/C0JtyJBviPs

[dubkasm]. (2016, Oct 24). Dubkasm Dub Tips 05 - Verbing the Bass. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NREffPGqSrI&index=5&list=PLqsT6FGa18z8nLeNlZxthaU-3tmv_0mD6