Thursday, 25 July 2013
Friday, 24 May 2013
Dub/Techno Influenced Ableton Tutorials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1EGiUT0MQ0&feature=related Producing dub techno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PF2TQ3s5FuY
Creating dub style sounds like brendon moeller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nCPnGnuzWs Ableton Tutorial - How To Produce Dub Music - Drums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PF2TQ3s5FuY
Creating dub style sounds like brendon moeller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nCPnGnuzWs Ableton Tutorial - How To Produce Dub Music - Drums
Ableton Live Tutorial part 3/5 - The Dub Delay
Ableton Tutorial - Reverb - Dub FX
bleton Tutorial - Feedback Soundscapes
Dubbing out in Ableton Live!
How to Make a Dub Siren in Ableton Live
bleton Live tutorial - Ambient Dub techno in 12 minutes
How to Make Dub Techno Chords
Producing Dub Techno
oise Drone - Dub Techno Experiments with Ableton Live
An Investigation Into The Early Work of Dub Pioneer King Tubby, His Use of Spatial Effects, The Creation of Audiotopias and The Resulting Impact on Modern Electronic Dance Music
Rob Harrison Leeds Metropolitan University (2013)
Abstract
This paper compares the
production techniques of dub pioneer King Tubby, focusing on his use of spatial
effects to create new soundscapes or audiotopias, with the production
techniques and use of spatial effects in electronic dance music. A brief
history of dub is covered along with an examination of the devices used to create
spatial effects, and their uses in dub. An analysis of Roots Of Dub by Tubby is
made focusing on the creative use of spatial effects and mixing technique. The
creation of audiotopias or temporary aural spaces created through music is
discussed and related to how this is achieved in both dub and EDM, by comparing
productions by King Tubby and UK EDM artist Shackleton. Dub influences in EDM
are covered and an analysis of a dub techno track by Basic Chanel is compared
to the analysed Tubby track. Finally the author concludes by summing up the fact that the creative misuse of space and spatial
effects to create the main points of interest in the track, are the
characteristic sound of dub, and how this technique has been utilised by a new generation of EDM producers, to construct
new sounds and genres while echoing 1970's dub.
Key Words
King Tubby, Electronic Dance Music, EDM, Spatial, Effects,
Space, Reverb, Delay, Audiotopia
Introduction
This paper aims to examine the
creative use of spatial effects by dub pioneer King Tubby and how these effects
such as reverb, delays, filtering and mix techniques have been used to create
audiotopias, which are temporary aural spaces created through music. This paper
will then go on to look at how the use of these spatial effects and the
creation of dub soundscapes or audiotopias, has influenced the production
techniques of modern electronic dance music or EDM.
"In 1976, Melody Maker
published an article by music critic Richard Williams entitled “The Sound of
Surprise.” Williams’ essay was a short but prescient description of the
still-shockingly-new phenomenon of dub reggae. Williams prophetically noted
that “there are possibilities inherent in this aberrant form which could
perhaps resonate throughout other musics in the years to come” (145). (Williams
1976 quoted in Baker 2009 pg.5). This statement demonstrates that from the beginnings
of early dub an interest was taken in its innovative production techniques and
how these techniques could possibly influence future music. EDM is a good
example of a genre that has taken influences from dub's use of space and
spatial effects and used it to create new sonic spaces, soundscapes or
audiotopias.
This paper will focus on the
influence of dub in electronic dance music or EDM. The term electronic dance
music covers a wide range of music, including genres such as techno, breaks, house,
drum & bass and trance, and other more current sub genres which even more
directly reference dub such as dubstep and bass. Although fans are aware of the
characteristics of these separate genres of music, they are viewed in the same
overall category. (Butler 2006). "As EDM has become more and more diverse,
however, these terms have come to refer to specific genres. Another word
"electronica" has been widely used in mainstream journalism since
1997" (Butler 2006 pg.33) to describe this wider view of EDM. It is also
worth noting that the use of the term EDM in this paper is not used to describe
the commercial sub genre of electronic music which is currently popular in North
America, that is being labelled EDM.
Although the term EDM implies this type of
music will be specifically club music produced for dancing this is not always
the case. Butler (2006) describes that while some genres migrate away from the
dance floor they still display their relatedness to EDM traditions, while other
musics develop and manipulate the conventions of EDM so much they are not
suitable for dancing or are specifically produced for not dancing.
Methodology
The research area will be broken
down into the following sections; What is Dub Reggae? A Definition and Brief
History, Spatial Effects and Their Uses in Dub, The Creation of Impossible and Mystical
Spaces or Audiotopias, Dub Influences in Electronic Music and new offshoot genres
will also be looked at. By investigating how these
new genres of EDM make creative use of auditory space through the use of effects
such as reverb, delay, filtering and the creative use of mixing and sound
staging a greater understanding of the influence that dub has had on modern
electronic music will be gained.
Investigation will be made into
how space is created in dub tracks through creative mixing techniques such as
the muting of instruments and the use of effects in their place. This in turn
brings the use of the effect to the foreground of the listener's attention,
creating the characteristic reverberant echoic sound of dub. This technique has
now become a staple procedure in the creation of EDM and comparisons will be
drawn through analysing tracks from both genres. Analysis of specific tracks
from each genre will be made and an examination of the spatial qualities of each
track will be reviewed so comparisons can be made. The specific uses of spatial
effects in dub such as reverb and delay will be investigated so common settings
such as delay times that create characteristic dub sounds can be identified in
modern productions. Investigation will be made into dub production techniques
and what new possibilities these techniques open up with the use of new
technology. An examination will take place of how these effects devices were
originally created to emulate real spaces, and how and where they have been misused
creatively.
By breaking the subject down into
these areas it is hoped that a greater appreciation of how these types of
effects are used within each genre is gained, which will result in the ability
to define dub influences in certain areas of electronic music.
Definition and a
History of Dub
Dub originated in Jamaica in The
1960’s and consisted initially of instrumental “versions” of reggae tracks
containing what was described as the "riddim" or just bass and drums.
Ehrlich (1982 p. 106) defines dub as "a kaleidoscopic montage which takes
sounds originally intended as interlocking parts of another arrangement and
using them as raw material, converts them into new and different sounds; then,
in its own rhythm and format, it continually reshuffles these new sounds into
unusual juxtapositions." The development of the genre dub took place when
the engineer would take an instrumental version of a track to the next level,
using the effects such as echo, reverb and delay along with filtering and
mixing techniques such as dropping certain tracks in and out of the mix to
change the whole sound and texture of the riddim. Some of the original pioneers
of the dub sound included King Tubby, Rudolf "Ruddy" Redwood and Lee
Scratch Perry and his band The Upsetters. “Ruddy played a key role in the
initial development of dub, as he was the first to make a public performance of
what would become known as a "version" - the instrumental mix of a
song without the vocals.” (Bush unknown)
There were many travelling
outdoor sound systems in Jamaica in the 1960's. One of the biggest sound
systems of this time period was owned by Ruddy in Spanish Town. Known as
Ruddy’s Supreme Ruler of Sound, he had one of the most impressive selections of
music, as he had a long relationship with Duke Reid, one of Jamaica’s leading
producers of the time. Ruddy had access to a number of exclusive recordings
from Duke’s Treasure Isle Studio, giving him an edge over other sound system
operators (Barrow and Dalton 1997, p. 200).
The development of the genre dub
took place when the engineer would take an instrumental version of a track to
the next level, using the effects such as echo, reverb and delay to change the
whole sound and texture of the riddim. Historically echo and reverb effects had
been used to put the musical parts of a track in a space, creating a realistic acoustic
environment for the recorded music to exist in. This created an extra dimension
of realism around the music as "reverberation and delay simply are sonic
attributes of physical space." (Doyle 2005 pg.14). The use of reverberant or echoic sonics can
suggest an array of different spaces such as wide open landscapes, deserted
streets late at night, dark subterranean spaces, or grand mountains and
canyons. (Doyle 2005). Dub artists took
the devices used to suggest these real spaces and creatively misused them by
performing live "dub" mixes in the studio where they would use the
effects as instruments in a musical fashion, bringing the studio, effects and
producer to the front of the stage.
“This was the turning point in
which dub emerged as a unique and characteristic branch of music itself, and
can be credited almost entirely to the contributions of a mixing engineer known
as King Tubby.” (Bush). King Tubby ran his own sound system in Kingston at the
time called Tubby’s Hometown Hi Fi. Tubby, who was experienced in electronics
through his background in TV repairs customised his mixing desk at his studio
in the ghetto district Waterhouse in Kingston, adding faders which allowed him
to add or subtract the various elements of the tracks smoothly. He also created
his own effects units by modifying tape machines to create delays, and hitting
spring reverb units which created the characteristic thunderclap sound used in
dub. “Tubby’s innovations behind the mixing board introduced to Jamaica the
idea of the mixing engineer playing a creative role in the music.” (Bush
unknown).
Spatial Effects and Techniques and Their Uses in Dub
In order to investigate how the
spatial effects used in dub have influenced other genres first we must define
what effects are used to create the illusion of space and how they have been
used in dub. Reverberation is the most common effect used to create space.
Izhaki (2012 pg.405) describes reverb in the following way, “In nature, reverb
is observed mostly within enclosed spaces, such as rooms. Reverbs are easier to
understand if we imagine an impulse sound, like a hand clap, emitted from a
sound source in an empty room. Such a sound will propagate in a spherical
fashion and for simplicity we should regard it as travelling in all directions.
The emitted sound will travel in a direct path to a listener (or a microphone)
followed by reflections that bounced from the walls, floor and ceiling. These
will be gradually followed by denser reflections that have bounced many times
from many surfaces. As sound both diminishes when travelling through air and
being absorbed by surface materials, the reflections will slowly decay in
amplitude...In mixing, we use reverb emulators, either hardware units or
software plug-ins, to simulate this natural phenomenon.” Figure 1 below shows the decay of
reverberation over time.
A characteristic dub reverb sound
is the spring reverb. The spring reverb works by using the physical movement of
a spring to generate the reflections which creates a metallic shimmering sound
more suited to creating musical reverberant tail effects than creating
realistic sonic spaces. These shimmering metallic effects could then be
filtered and edited during the performance of a dub mix changing their sonic
properties in real time creating new musical effects. “Reverberation does much
to define what we perceive as timbre, volume and sound colouration, and largely
determines our perceptions of directionality and nearness.” (Doyle 2004 pg.3).
These perceptions of timbre and sound colour could now be modified through the
use of effects to produce new sounds and spaces by dub artists, "echo and
reverb effects changed (in some cases at least) from being a covertly used
producer's technique to an increasingly emphasised, featured gimmick.” (Doyle
2004 pg.9)
Delay is another common effect
used to create space in audio recordings. Delays also happen naturally in
nature when a sound is reflected off a hard surface and the reflection is heard
milliseconds after the initial sound. A reverberant field is made up of many
tiny delays reflected off surfaces in an enclosed environment. Sound and space
are inherently linked as when an object is sounded in an environment, the sound travels outward
from the object bouncing off all
surfaces (or not in an open space) thus imparting the spatial properties of the
location onto the timbre of the sound. "It is almost impossible to hear a
sound without instinctively seeking the source of the sound - where the sound
is coming from, who or what has produced that sound." (McCombe 2001 pg.2)
Hodgson (2010 pg.124) states “the
simple delay line is the building block of all delay processing techniques.”
Then continues to describe how audio signals are fed into a delay line where
the signal is split and a copy is stored for a certain amount of time before
being passed to the output after the direct signal. All delay units and plug-in
effects have 3 basic settings which are the delay time or the amount of time
between the input signal and the copy arriving at the output. The mix setting
which adjusts the balance between the input signal and the delayed copy, and
the feedback which controls the amount of the delayed signal which is routed
back to the input.
Roots Of Dub (1976) by King Tubby
provides many excellent examples of the creative misuse of reverb and delay
devices. This is achieved through not using these types of effects to place a
sound in a convincing acoustic space but using them in a creative manor to compose
additional musical content. This technique could be achieved by manipulating
the controls on the unit during the dub mix and changing delay times or
feedback mix controls for example.
The initial snare hits at 0:02
are soaked in a cavernous reverb conveying the effect of an immeasurable space.
Baker (2009 pg.27) describes Tubby's reverb technique in the following way
"Tubby’s percussive use of reverb “widens” the track, giving the listener
an impression of deep canyons and limitless plains." The sax which comes
in at 0:04 is accented at the end of each phrase with a 1/4 note or possibly
dotted 1/4 offbeat delay which provides an alternate rhythm. As the sax part
ends at 0.19 the delay lines expand with the use of feedback, EQ and pushing them
up in the mix, they then take over from the original instrument part becoming
the centre of attention. This technique differs from previous uses of reverb
and delay as it is not covertly used as producer's technique to place a sound
in an acoustic environment but as an emphasised, featured, characteristic of
the music.
Between 0:30 and 0:37 we hear the
wet dry mix of the snare reverb being adjusted between each hit in the phrase
giving a dry punch to some and leaving other hits hanging in Tubby's fabricated,
unnatural space. Throughout the track we hear the fragmented remains of the
guitar skank, occasionally breaking out through the mix, each time only to
disappear, leaving a trail of delays behind. Again the delay is around a 1/4
note and is arrhythmic to the rest of the track providing a counterpoint off
beat rhythm. The fact that the delay times are roughly the same on each
instrument would suggest they are used on a return channel and the send control
of each track is being manipulated when a sound is sent to the delay effect.
At 1:08-1:15 we hear only the wet
reverb signal from the snare without any dry hits which is in turn filtered
rhythmically creating a strange whooshing sound far removed from an actual
snare hit, this technique is a trademark King Tubby sound. At around 2:36 after
a hypnotic groove has been set up by the drums, bass, hammond and finally
guitar on the top of the mix, the hammond and guitar are removed, again leaving
only the arrhythmic delay line from the last guitar note. This technique
creates a counterpoint rhythmic morendo switching the focus from the groove
previously set. At 3:12 in the dying seconds of the outro we hear the sax delay
level brought right up and filtered.
Through the examples presented in
this track it is easy to see that the use of reverb and delay have not been
employed to create a natural sounding space but rather as instruments in their
own right, still creating space, but an other worldly space used for musical
effect. These techniques are performed by the producer or engineer during the
dub mix and are specific studio techniques which would not have been heard
before during live performances of the original tracks. This is one of dub's
innovations, bringing an extra area of creativity into the studio at the mix
stage and giving control of the sound and overall feel of the production to the
engineer or producer of the track.
From the analysis of the use of
spatial effects in this track we can see that the acoustic properties of the
space created are not intended to portray a real world environment but instead
are used as sound colours and rhythms in their own right. The delay lines and
reverb are accentuated with additional mixing and processing putting them on
display at the front of the mix as if King Tubby is the front man of the band,
although this performance was completed in the studio using the mixing desk and
effects as instruments.
Another aspect of the use of
space is creative sound staging. Moylan (2008) states "the sound stage is
the singular area occupied by all of the sound sources of the music, as an
aggregate or group. It has an apparent
physical size of width and depth that are defined at the level of the
individual sound source: (1) the dimension of width is defined by the furthest
right and left sound (lateral localization) and (2) the dimension of depth is
defined by the most distant sound source and the closest sound source."
Using Roots Of Dub as an example
again and taking into account Moylan's ideas on the sound stage the mix can be
described as follows. The kick is panned to the centre and is also roughly in
the middle of the mix as it is not too prominent. The snare is also panned to
the centre, but moves back and forth in the mix as it is faded in and out for
effect. The snare delays seem to skirt around the back of the mix and out wide
to the edges. The hats are panned out wide left with a short delay panned right
giving a widening effect. The bass is also in the centre and is locked to the
kick creating the groove and also seems to take up a large space in the centre
of the mix. The skank or chops of the hammond and guitar are also panned to the
centre but the elements are switched back and forth as they are faded, muted
and filtered in and out on the mix. The sax is up front as a lead instrument
with its delays seeming to skirt around the front of the mix to the wide edges
and back which seems to be a similar effect used with the guitar delays. The
barely audible vocals make a brief appearance panned to the left of the sound
stage
.
Here we can see that the
unnatural movement of the delay feedback and tails build up in the mix after
the initial impact or note which has sounded them. This is used as a creative
device in dub were the original instrument is removed leaving the effect tail
making a specific point of the audience listening to the effects rather than
them being almost invisible but creating a natural space for the music to exist
in. This phenomenon can be attributed to the fact that the engineer is the
artist in dub and his instruments are his studio, mixing desk and effects. Here
is a major connection in how dub has influenced EDM, most EDM producers work solely
in the box using effects and software instruments to create their music. These
ideas and techniques were pioneered by dub artists in 1960's and 70's.
Zagorski-Thomas (2010) takes this
idea of the sound stage further to functional staging stating, “functional
staging is a concept building on the idea of phonographic staging ...The
staging of sounds in the record production process is considered to be
functional if the reason for their particular placement or treatment is related
to the practicalities of audience reception rather than to aesthetics.”
(Zagorski-Thomas 2010 pg.1). This can be related to the fact that dub was
originally created to be played on the PA systems of the travelling sound
systems in Jamaica and how much of EDM is designed for playback over club
systems. These factors force certain choices to be made such as the main rhythm
sections, kick, bass and snares all to be panned centre leaving space on the
wide edges for effects, a technique seen often in EDM.
The creation of
impossible and mystical spaces
Doyle (2004) discusses harnessing
the echo stating that this allows the mystical properties of reverberant sound
to be “harnessed” and used by producers through the development of technology.
Dub artists with a strong connection to the Rastafarian religion were looking
to create this connection with “the other” or to create something new and
unheard before which could give them the edge in a "sound clash"
between two competing sound systems. "Doyle’s assertion that natural
reverberant spaces can possess sacred qualities has particular implications for
Jamaica’s Rastafarians, whose belief in the “ital” (natural) stresses
humanity’s spiritual connection to the earth." (Baker 2009 pg.23). “In the ancient world there were deep linkages between reverberant
space and the sacred or magical.” (Bates 2007 pg.2). Doyle (2004 pg.43)
states there is “an integral and enduring connection between what might be
called “reverberancy” and the sacred.” Since ancient times reverberant spaces
have been thought to have had mystical, sacred or religious properties.
Churches and cathedrals are designed to be reverberant and amplify the voice,
while sacred caves served as some of the first natural religious spaces.
Baker (2009) uses “Josh Kun’s
theories about “audiotopias” (temporary aural spaces created through music)” to
describe dub’s soundscapes created with the use of echo and reverb effects. “In
order to study how sonic spaces create “new maps” that allow an individual to
analyze their current social predicament. These “new maps,” therefore, engender
a “remapping” of reality, a reconstitutive process that parallels dub’s
emphasis on modification and alteration.” (Baker 2009 pg.ii). The use of
reverberation and delay effects along with creative mixing and soundstage
techniques combined an extra spatial dimension creating strange dub soundscapes
that had not been heard before and with an emphasis on the rhythm section, this
has become the characteristic dub sound. "Dub artists utilized reverb to
construct sonic spaces that sounded as if they were free of human impediment
and therefore full of possibility." Baker (2009 pg.26).
Baker then goes on to describe
how dub’s audiotopias can be described as natural which is problematic as these
alternate spaces which are created, serve to remove the listener from the
everyday, therefore cannot be described as natural. Also Baker contradicts
himself with this statement by talking about giving the listener an impression
of deep canyons and limitless plains. The spaces created through the creative
use of effects in dub were never meant to be natural, with the help of the
previously mentioned effects Dub artists were able to create impossible
soundscapes or audiotopia’s which do not relate to any real world acoustic
spaces.
EDM has pushed the idea of
audiotopias to new limits from where dub left off, this is primarily due to
advances in technology. With the ever expanding computer power which is accessible
to today's producers and the myriad of hardware and software products available
for creating innovative visionary, spatial auditory vistas that can be real or
imaginary, the creation of space in recorded music or sound design has never
had so many varying options. Convolution reverbs for example now offer the
possibility of taking impulse response data from any space imaginable and
applying them to a sound. A convolution reverb samples the acoustics of real
spaces, usually by setting up a microphone in the acoustic environment then
emitting a short pulse of sound such as the crack of a snare or a gunshot. The
microphone would pick up the initial sound along with the acoustic response of
the room, this data can then be loaded into a software program and applied to
incoming sounds in order to simulate the acoustics of the sampled space.
Music For The Quiet Hour (2012) by
Shackleton is a single experimental/bass composition spread over five parts and
60 minutes. Shackleton is a UK bass and dubstep artist who produces dark
brooding minimal compositions which are experimental and focus on creating
weird immersive sonic landscapes. Music For The Quiet Hour is a journey through
strange sonic landscapes far removed from the dance floor but still holding on
to the extreme experimental edge of the UK bass and dubstep genre where
Shackleton made his name. Shackleton's dub influences are easy to spot in his
work with a minimal production ethic, heavy bass and emphasis on spatial
effects. Shackleton's previous album was also titled Soundboy's Gravestone Gets
Desecrated By Vandals, this takes clear influence from the King Tubby track
Soundboy Massacre.
During Part 4 of Music For The
Quiet Hour at 3:39 a strange vocal appears with stuttered repeating rhythmic
delays which have no bearing to any real world echo giving the vocal a strange
machine like quality. The delay line begins to bounce around the stereo field
in an almost random fashion creating a disorientating ambience against the low
frequency drone texture in the background. At 6:00 a high frequency canopy
appears submerged in a glass like reverb almost giving the feeling that you are
entering an ice cave. The spoken vocal that enters at 6:51 as accented by an
1/8 note metallic rhythmic delay at the end of the last word in the phrase
which provides a rhythmic pulse leading you into the next phrase. Baker 2009 (pg.41) describes
this technique as a "Dub’s rhythmic decentring," then goes on to
state (this) "can be read as simply another example of the genre’s
emphasis on fragmentation. Dub’s echoic alternate rhythms are never fully
established, after all. They do not overtake the rhythmic foreground but
instead remain within the song’s defining background, influencing the
listener’s awareness of sonic space. They are incomplete, offering only a hint
at the possibilities offered by the audiotopia." (Baker 2009 pg.41).
A metallic sounding reverb floats
behind the vocals and stuttering claps weaving in and out of the mix almost as
if it is used like a pad. Shackleton's whole Music For The Quiet Hour
composition is an excellent example of how the creation of imaginary spaces can
be pushed to its visionary pictorial limits through the use of new technology. Each
new sound which emerges has a new delay or reverberant effect, and these
effects are not applied in a hap hazard way but are crafted and shaped to
create an other worldly audiotopia.
Dub Influences in EDM
Through the creative miss-use of
studio equipment and effects dub producers have cut themselves a niche as a new
class of artist where the producer was the main focus rather than the band.
This is where the lasting influence of dub can be seen over all electronic
music. As stated earlier dubs main focus is on the bass and drums or “riddim.”
This characteristic of boosting the rhythm section of a track can be seen in
most genres of modern electronic music such as hip-hop, house, techno,
jungle/drum n bass, breaks, dub step and electronica. New technology such as
digital reverbs and delays enable today’s electronic artists to create
impossible spaces through the use of algorithms such as convolution reverbs. The
majority of modern electronic music employs the use of impossible acoustic
spaces for the effect of trying to create something new and unheard before.
This can be traced directly back to the original dub artists even if the modern
artist would not cite dub as an influence on their music.
Some areas of house and techno (and indeed other forms of EDM) discount
any influence from dub and instead only look to their origins in Chicago,
Detroit and the late 1980's to early 1990's acid house coming from the UK.
While it is the prerogative of any producer to state his or her own influences,
a wider perspective view of music as a whole shows that some of the areas of
innovation that were started by dub eventually made their way through the ears
and culture of many countries and certain things happening around the world can
come together into a wider cultural pot of knowledge. Taking this into account
the production practices of every EDM producer cannot be directly traced back
to dub but the production techniques discussed in this paper can be seen
throughout many genres of music proving dub has had a wide and long lasting
influence.
Butler (2006 pg.46) discusses how
jungle/drum & bass was a significant development of the 1990's stating that it "combines accelerated
drum patters ("breakbeats") sampled from percussion only sections
("breaks") of old funk records with half tempo bass lines influenced
by reggae." A good example of dub influence in drum & bass is Marcus
Intalex's Emergency Dub, along with the obvious offbeat dub skank chords on
beats 2 and 4 and dub influenced bass line, arrhythmic delays float in and out
of the mix again providing a counterpoint off beat rhythm in much the same
pattern as King Tubby's. At around 2:57 during the break down the dub chords
are panned slightly left while their short delay is panned hard right and
processed with distortion. This gives the effect of the sound moving across the
stereo field while still separating the delay effect from the dry sound.
The explosion of the dubstep sound
around the world in the last decade has in turn seen dub influences across the
board in EDM. The minimalist sound of dub and focus on rhythm section of the
track fits perfectly into the techno production ethic. Many techno dj's have
started to incorporate dub, dubstep and dub influenced music into their dj sets,
which has in turn influenced techno production. An example of this could be Ricardo
Villalobos who was routinely including The Rope Tightens by Shackleton during
his gigs and was soon asked to remix Blood On My Hands also by Shackleton, this
promptly connected the two once separate genres by delivering a dark dub techno
mix. This connection, although not new' sparked new interest in dub sounds
through the techno scene.
Basic Chanel are credited with
the creation of dub techno in the early 1990's and listening to their early
productions it is easy to pick out their dub influence. Quadrant Dub and e2e4
Basic Reshape by Basic Chanel both have a stripped back, bass heavy, minimal
sound and are washed in delay and reverb. The opening of e2e4 Basic Reshape
features a heavy 4/4 kick drum pattern, a deep arpeggiated bass line and
strange metallic percussive hits that jump around the stereo field with short
delays that bounce back and forth between the speakers. At 0.22 a high
frequency synth squelch appears in an erratic pattern with a high pass filter
making short sweeps giving the sound more movement. This synth squelch is
treated with a 1/4 note offbeat delay although the erratic pattern of notes
produces broken disorientating delay lines which bounce around the stereo field
combining with the metallic hits. At 0.50 faint reverberant chords are heard
with another arrhythmic delay that has a slightly slower delay time giving them
a distant lazy feel. At 1.01 the synth squelch subtly builds in high frequency
energy giving the delay lines an insect like quality. The reverb level and
decay time are turned up on the metallic percussive hits creating a short high
frequency canopy at 1.17. From 1.29 the frequency of the reverb on the distant
chord begins to be modulated creating a washing in and out texture while the
delays start to bounce between the speakers gaining intensity. Throughout the
rest of the track while the stark minimal instrumentation does not change apart
from the occasional glitch or points of granular sound, the reverb and delay
settings are constantly modulated which produces a shifting, morphing alien
soundscape that could be a sound track to a sci-fi film. This modulation of the
effects through the track provides the main focus against the minimal groove
supplied by the kick and bass. Here we can draw direct comparisons with the
production techniques of King Tubby where the focus is also on using the
manipulation of the spatial effects to provide interest against a hypnotic
groove. There is now a cross pollination between techno and bass/dubstep where
artists mainly producing dubstep or bass are now experimenting with techno sounds
creating a strong connection between genres.
Conclusion
Radio 1 reggae and dub dj Don
Letts describes dub as "a head trip" going on to state "it’s
instinctive, but hard to visualise. It’s ethereal. But what I always liked
about it was that there is enough space in the music to put yourself in the
mix.” (Moskowitz). The space in dub is created by the muting and fading in and
out of the instruments and the creative use of spatial effects such as reverb
and delay which provides the main focus against the groove. An alien sounscape
is constructed for the bass and drums to exist in who provide a hypnotic beat
able to transport the listener into the new world of the audiotopia. These
spaces or audiotopias which are created, are the main characteristic of dub where the engineer or producer is
the artist and the focus is on their performance in the studio rather than the
band.
Through the analysis of the King
Tubby and Basic Chanel tracks we can see similarities in their production
techniques and overall feel and vibe, where the use of spatial effects as
instruments creates the main points of interest in the track, rather than the
conventional use of these devices to create realistic spaces. EDM has first
taken the focus of the rhythm section enabling a steady beat for dancing but
along with this has also take the dub
production ethic to create extra musical content, and alternate spaces, through
the misuse of spatial effects. These characteristics of dub production can be
seen over all genres of EDM and with the dissemination of the dubstep sound
around the world a new interest in dub sounds and production techniques has
been ignited proving that possibilities inherent in dub reggae do resonate
throughout other forms of music, and will do for years to come.
References and
Bibliography
Baker. J. (2009) Natural audiotopias: The construction of
sonic space in dub reggae. Scholar Commons, University of South Florida.
(Accessed 21/09/12)
http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2841&context=etd
Barrow. S. and Dalton. P. (1997) Reggae: The Rough Guide.
Rough Guides Ltd. London
Bates. M. (2007) The Representation of Space in Audio and
Audiovisual Works. ARP Conference Paper (Accessed 12/10/2012)
http://www.artofrecordproduction.com/content/view/104/95/
Bush. J. (unknown) Dub Revolution: The Story of Jamaican Dub
Reggae and Its Legacy. (Accessed 27/10/12)
http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/bush.html
Butler. M. (2006) Unlocking The Groove. Rhythm, Meter, and
Musical Design in EDM. Indiana University Press
Camilleri. L. (2010) Shaping sounds, shaping spaces. Popular
Music, 29, pp 199-211
Campbell. M. & Greated. C. (1987) The Musician’s Guide
to Acoustics. Oxford University Press
Case. A. (2007) Sound FX: Unlocking The Creative Potential
Of Recording Studio Effects
Doyle. P. (2004) From 'My Blue Heaven' to 'Race with the
Devil': echo, reverb and (dis)ordered space in early popular music recording.
Popular Music, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan., 2004), pp. 31-49. Cambridge University
Press.
Doyle. P. (2005) Echo & Reverb: Fabricating Space in
Popular Music Recording 1900-1960. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown.
Doyle. P. (2004) From 'My Blue Heaven' to 'Race with the
Devil': echo, reverb and (dis)ordered space in early popular music recording. Popular
Music, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan., 2004), pp. 31-49. Cambridge University Press.
Ehrlich. L. (1982) X-Ray Music and The Reggae Arrangement.
Davis, Stephen and Simon, Peter. Reggae International. R and B. New York.
Hodgson. J. (2010) Understanding Records: A Field Guide to
Recording Practice. Continuum International Publishing, New York.
Izhaki. R. (2012) Mixing Audio: Concepts Practices and
Tools. 2nd Edition. Focal Press
www.magicmess.co.uk/electronics/spring.php (Accessed
27/10/12)
McCombe. C. (2001) Imagining space through sound. UK and
Ireland Soundscape Community Conference: Sound Practice, 16-20 Feb, Dartington,
Devon, UK. Available here: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/295/1/Mccombe_imagining.PDF
Moylan. W. (2007) Understanding and Crafting the Mix. Focal
Press
.
Moylan. W. (2008) Considering Space in Music. (Accessed
21/09/12)
http://www.artofrecordproduction.com/content/view/180/109/
Moskowitz. G. (Unknown) THE ENTICING THUMP OF "DUB ECHOES"
(Accessed 01/04/13) http://moreintelligentlife.co.uk/blog/dub-fest-east-london
Pierce. L. (2010) Gateways to Geekery: Dub. (Accessed
10/12/12) http://www.avclub.com/articles/dub,37601/
Zagorski-Thomas. S. (2010). The stadium in your bedroom:
functional staging, authenticity and the audience led aesthetic in record
production. Popular Music, 29, pp 251-266.
Discography
Basic Chanel - e2e4 Basic Reshape (1995) Basic Chanel.
Germany
Available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEwLPXDlEyE
King Tubby - Roots Of Dub. The Roots Of Dub LP (1976)
Total Sounds. Jamaica.
Available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWEvskcyGtU
Marcus Intalex - Emergency Dub (forthcoming 2013) Soul:r
(Fabric). UK.
Available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cGg6aodWPU
Shackleton - Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos mix)
Skull Disco. UK.
Available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQr6m2l2J-Y
Shackleton - Music For The Quiet Hour (2012) Woe To The
Septic Heart! UK.
Part 4 available here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrfy09_shackleton-music-for-the-quiet-hour-part-four_music#.UZyL5rU3t8E
Shackleton - The Rope Tightens (2008) Skull Disco. UK
Available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4A_3FpACxc
Dub Influences in EDM
Through the creative miss-use of
studio equipment and effects dub producers have cut themselves a niche as a new
class of artist where the producer was the main focus rather than the band.
This is where the lasting influence of dub can be seen over all electronic
music. As stated earlier dubs main focus is on the bass and drums or “riddim.”
This characteristic of boosting the rhythm section of a track can be seen in
most genres of modern electronic music such as hip-hop, house, techno,
jungle/drum n bass, breaks, dub step and electronica. New technology such as
digital reverbs and delays enable today’s electronic artists to create
impossible spaces through the use of algorithms such as convolution reverbs. The
majority of modern electronic music employs the use of impossible acoustic
spaces for the effect of trying to create something new and unheard before.
This can be traced directly back to the original dub artists even if the modern
artist would not cite dub as an influence on their music.
Some areas of house and techno (and indeed other forms of EDM) discount
any influence from dub and instead only look to their origins in Chicago,
Detroit and the late 1980's to early 1990's acid house coming from the UK.
While it is the prerogative of any producer to state his or her own influences,
a wider perspective view of music as a whole shows that some of the areas of
innovation that were started by dub eventually made their way through the ears
and culture of many countries and certain things happening around the world can
come together into a wider cultural pot of knowledge. Taking this into account
the production practices of every EDM producer cannot be directly traced back
to dub but the production techniques discussed in this paper can be seen
throughout many genres of music proving dub has had a wide and long lasting
influence.
Butler (2006 pg.46) discusses how
jungle/drum & bass was a significant development of the 1990's stating that it "combines accelerated
drum patters ("breakbeats") sampled from percussion only sections
("breaks") of old funk records with half tempo bass lines influenced
by reggae." A good example of dub influence in drum & bass is Marcus
Intalex's Emergency Dub, along with the obvious offbeat dub skank chords on
beats 2 and 4 and dub influenced bass line, arrhythmic delays float in and out
of the mix again providing a counterpoint off beat rhythm in much the same
pattern as King Tubby's. At around 2:57 during the break down the dub chords
are panned slightly left while their short delay is panned hard right and
processed with distortion. This gives the effect of the sound moving across the
stereo field while still separating the delay effect from the dry sound.
The explosion of the dubstep sound
around the world in the last decade has in turn seen dub influences across the
board in EDM. The minimalist sound of dub and focus on rhythm section of the
track fits perfectly into the techno production ethic. Many techno dj's have
started to incorporate dub, dubstep and dub influenced music into their dj sets,
which has in turn influenced techno production. An example of this could be Ricardo
Villalobos who was routinely including The Rope Tightens by Shackleton during
his gigs and was soon asked to remix Blood On My Hands also by Shackleton, this
promptly connected the two once separate genres by delivering a dark dub techno
mix. This connection, although not new' sparked new interest in dub sounds
through the techno scene.
References and Bibliography
Butler. M. (2006) Unlocking The Groove. Rhythm, Meter, and
Musical Design in EDM. Indiana University Press
Monday, 7 January 2013
From 'My Blue Heaven' to 'Race with the Devil': echo, reverb and (dis)ordered space in early popular music recording. Doyle. P. (2004)
Written by Peter Doyle (2004) Popular Music, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan., 2004), pp. 31-49.
Cambridge University Press.
Useful Quotes;
Useful Quotes;
Doyle (2004)
discusses that fact that echoes have a mystical quality then analyses various
recordings from the period of 1920 through to the 1950’s looking at the use of
spatial effects.
“Reverberation
does much to define what we perceive as timbre, volume and sound colouration,
and largely determines our perceptions of directionality and nearness.” (Doyle
2004 pg.3)
“Recordings
became capable of picking up room ambience, of carrying, in other words,
significant sonic information about the spaces in which they were made. Of this
last point, Gelatt says:... the 'atmosphere' surrounding music in the concert
hall could now be simulated on records. Musicians were no longer forced to work
... directly before a recording horn but could play in spacious studios with
proper reverberation characteristics.”
(Gelatt 1977, p . 223)
“Increasingly
during the late 1940s and early 1950s, some producers and musicians began to
use echo effects to render unfixed, or (at least in part) anti-linear, self-consciously
weird and/or futuristic spaces. And certain of the older style pictorially
anchored spatial recordings during this period began to display an increasingly
exaggerated pictorial field, as echo and reverb effects changed (in some cases
at least) from being a covertly used producer's technique to an increasingly
emphasised, featured gimmick.” (Doyle 2004 pg.9)
“Les Paul
arguably did more than any other single operator in the recording industry to
break the 'authenticity nexus' between the actual performance and the final
recorded product, and some of his most arresting devices involved deliberate spatial
plays.” (Doyle 2004 pg.10)
Spatial Effects and Their Uses in Dub
In order to investigate how the spatial effects used in dub
have influenced other genre first we must define what effects are used to
create the illusion of space and how they have been used in dub.
Reverberation is the most commonly used effect used to
create space. Izhaki (2012 pg.405) describes reverb in the following way,
“In nature, reverb is observed mostly within enclosed spaces, such as
rooms. Reverbs are easier to understand if we imagine an impulse sound, like a
hand clap, emitted from a sound source in an empty room. Such a sound will
propagate in a spherical fashion and for simplicity we should regard it as
travelling in all directions. The emitted sound will travel in a direct path to
a listener (or a microphone) followed by reflections that bounced from the
walls, floor and ceiling. These will be gradually followed by denser
reflections that have bounced many times from many surfaces. As sound both
diminishes when travelling through air and being absorbed by surface materials,
the reflections will slowly decay in amplitude. Reverb is the collective name
given to the sound created by bounced reflections from room boundaries (which
we consider to be the main reverb contributors, although in a room there might
be many surfaces). In mixing, we use reverb emulators, either hardware units or
software plugins, to simulate this natural phenomenon.”
“Each time a waveform reflects
some energy is absorbed by the surface and each time a waveform is diffused the
energy is divided among the reflections and so over time the amplitude of
reverberation decays until it is inaudible. As sound takes time to travel
around a room (344meters per second at room temperature) each reflection
arrives at the listener later than the last reflection and so the reverberation
is audible for a longer period of time than the direct original sound. Diagram
1 below shows the decay of reverberation overtime.” (http://www.magicmess.co.uk/electronics/spring.php)
The amount of reverb in
a space is dependent on the volume of the room but also the rate at which sound
is absorbed by walls and other surfaces.
Wallace Sabine did some
pioneering research in this area and came up with a formula that relates the
quality of a room’s acoustic with the size of the room, and the amount of sound
absorption surfaces present.
His formula calculates
the reverberation time which is defined by the time taken (in seconds) for a
sound to drop by 60 decibels.
RT60 = 0.161(V/Sa)
V is the volume of the
room in cubic meters. This is divided by the total absorption of the room
expressed in Sabines which is calculated by the sum of all the surface areas in
the room multiplied by the absorption coefficients for each material.
A characteristic dub
reverb sound is the spring reverb. The spring reverb works by using the
physical movement of a spring to generate the reflections.
Spring Reverb Demo
Delay is another common
effect used to create space in audio recordings. Hodgson (2010 pg.124) states
“the simple delay line is the building block of all delay processing
techniques.” Then continues to describe how audio signals are fed into a delay
line where the signal is split and a copy is stored for a certain amount of
time before being passed to the output after the direct signal.
All delay units and
plug-in effects have 3 basic settings which are the Delay time or the amount of
time between the input signal and the copy arriving at the output. The mix
setting which adjusts the balance between the input signal and the delayed
copy. And the feedback which controls the amount of the delayed signal which is
routed back to the input. Hodgson (2010) states that recordists have created a
“staggeringly diverse array of musical techniques” by adjusting the 3
parameters listed above.
A common delay sound
used in dub is the tape delay. Case (2007 pg.224) states that
“Before the days of
digital audio, a common approach to creating delays was to use a spare analogue
tape machine as a generator...During mixdown the machine is constantly rolling
in record mode. The signal is sent from the console to the input of the tape
machine...That signal is recorded at the tape machine and milliseconds later is
played back...(the tape machine) remains in repro mode so the output is what it
sees at the playback head...The signal goes in gets printed onto tape the tape
makes its way from the record head to the playback head (taking time to do so)
and finally the signal is played back off tape and returned to the console. The
result is tape delay.”
Analogue tape delay also
adds tape saturation and tape hiss, these sounds have also become a highly
sought after additional qualities of tape delay. Many hardware and software
emulators try to recreate these qualities of tape delay and one such emulator
used significantly in the production of dub is the Roland RE 201 Space Echo
which uses a magnetic tape loop to simulate tape delay.
Roland RE 201 Space Echo
Another aspect of the use of space is creative sound staging. Moylan
(2008) states "The sound stage is the singular area occupied by all of the sound
sources of the music, as an aggregate or group.
It has an apparent physical size of width and depth that are defined at
the level of the individual sound source: (1) the dimension of width is defined
by the furthest right and left sound (lateral localization) and (2) the
dimension of depth is defined by the most distant sound source and the closest
sound source."
Zagorski-Thomas (2010) takes this idea of the sound stage further to
functional staging “Functional staging is a concept building on the idea of
phonographic staging developed by William Moylan and Serge Lacasse and related
to Allan Moore’s ‘sound-box’. The staging of sounds in the record production
process is considered to be functional if the reason for their particular
placement or treatment is related to the practicalities of audience reception
rather than to aesthetics.” (Zagorski-Thomas 2010 pg.1)
“Functional staging relates to the size of the
perceived space and the perception of distance rather than lateral placement.” (Zagorski-Thomas 2010 pg.6) References and Bibliography
Case. A. (2007) Sound FX: Unlocking The Creative Potential
Of Recording Studio Effects
Hodgson. J. (2010) Understanding Records: A Field Guide to
Recording Practice. Continuum International Publishing, New York.
Izhaki. R. (2012) Mixing Audio: Concepts Practices and
Tools. 2nd Edition. Focal Press
www.magicmess.co.uk/electronics/spring.php
(Accessed 27/10/12)
Moylan. W. (2008) Considering Space in Music. (Accessed
21/09/12) http://www.artofrecordproduction.com/content/view/180/109/
Zagorski-Thomas. S. (2010). The stadium in your bedroom:
functional staging, authenticity and the audience led aesthetic in record
production. Popular Music, 29, pp 251-266.
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