writing dub.

Red five said:
any one help me out on the rhythm arrangements and how to get that rubbery bass sound found in scientist, king tubby etc?

i hope someone can help cos writing psy is getting boring.

Dude. You need a bass guitar for that really. Although I'm sure there are emulations that could be used.

I reckon we should have a tune writing weekend sometime soon anyway. I'll give you a bell. Could do with a change of scenery.

:Smile3:
 
jamez_23 said:
Dude. You need a bass guitar for that really. Although I'm sure there are emulations that could be used.

I reckon we should have a tune writing weekend sometime soon anyway. I'll give you a bell. Could do with a change of scenery.

:Smile3:

me mate ed writes dub without bass guitars etc...
 
yeah - I'm sure it can be done.

I'll make some enquiries. Ady's mate Mike (he did the RAM dub tune) writes lots of dubby stuff. I'll find out what he uses for the bass.
 
I can remember a certain compiler of a series of psy dub compilations telling me a few years back that he always recomended just nicking an old dub bassline and bassing the track round that. I'll leave the ethical considerations to you, but most jamaican musicians tended to be on an hourly rate anyway...
 
I don't know either of the two artists you've mentioned (sorry don't buy or listen to nearly enough Dub. Anyone with older releases using this sound?) but you can come up with very realistic bass guitar emulations with FM7 if that is the sound you are after (?). I'd go so far as to say that this is my first port of call for sub bass. People think it is cold because it is digital. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
 
i find strongly pitchbended basses in albino2 work great. plus subtle filter swells give it a great touch.
 
oooo!!!a dub thread...big up...i can help i think Mr 5...

Roots stuff like you mentioned is bass guitar, but you can come close.
any synth will do really but ones that sound good and analogu-ish are better than digital ones: think Moog software, minimonsta, trilogy (actually has a reggae bass instrument).
with the dub bass its all about the processing. get out your analyser and eq according to the harmonic spikes..then if you have it, the waves RBASS tuned to the main keys fundemental will get those subs nice and *rubbery*...add some analogue compression and your good.
TBH, most dub bass patches are really simple, usually not much more than a sine wave or a heavily filtered saw. you may want to play with the filter envelope to emulate some higher harmonic content you find in real bass, but most heavy dub that uses real bass is heavily filterd into a sine-like wave anyway. one trick of mine is to double a real bass with a sine wave.

for riddim, think swung grooves and shuffles and randomness...depending how human you want the groove...another trick of mine to emulate a real drummer is to randomly automate the main tempo track, so the groove never really stays at one bpm, like a real drummer. ...and you know how every reggae song starts with a drum fill?..one word Recycle...

hope that helps
 
very interesting, hadn't thought of how easily cheeky breaks could be ripped from reggae, not of course that I'd ever cheekily rip breaks from anything.

Not sure I agree with you about the prefering analogue to digital at all. FM7 is incredible at bass guitar emultion, and it has a quality filter, I think Eno is reknowed at getting it to squelch even more then a Moog (possibly SoS article, possibly involving Ott. Not sure). It is horses for courses though. You can get great results from either, and I guess Trilogy beats both hands down on realism stakes.
 
Speakafreaka said:
very interesting, hadn't thought of how easily cheeky breaks could be ripped from reggae, not of course that I'd ever cheekily rip breaks from anything.

Not sure I agree with you about the prefering analogue to digital at all. FM7 is incredible at bass guitar emultion, and it has a quality filter, I think Eno is reknowed at getting it to squelch even more then a Moog (possibly SoS article, possibly involving Ott. Not sure). It is horses for courses though. You can get great results from either, and I guess Trilogy beats both hands down on realism stakes.

no arguement..FM7 rocks fo bass no doubt.
my point is more that the roots producers Red 5 mentioned process there bass to sound more subby and less "twangy"....they are mafe to sound more like a sine wave than a bass guitar, and trilogy and minimoog/minimonsta just have a real phatness to em...but agian its more about eqing, tuning and compression.

and on the recyling of reggae drum intro's: its soley to extract single drum hits which can then be reprogrammed into a new beat...you get that authentic live roots drum kit that you simply cannot buy. load those hits into your drum box and your off!...also Tubby and Scientist usually grouped drums into sub mixes and then compressed and eqd the whole kit together....
 
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