Dub documentary.

[Diabolical Artificer]

Not sure where to put this one.... Just watched an interesting documentary on dub reggae, which included a brief history of sound systems in Jamaica and how they influenced modern music.

There's a very brief look at a record cutting machine, including a bit on dub plates, as well as a look at dub producers like King Tubby, Lee Perry etc.

Whilst there was nothing really new to me, it was an interesting watch non the less. Here's the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwORVKKtUwE The music may not be to everyone's taste, but dub is still an important genre especially for how it influenced other artists.

Andy.

[dave cox]

I'll take a look, thx Andy.

King Tubby was a very decent electronics engineer as well
(try Psalms of Dub or Casanova Dub to get a taste of his musical output)

dc

[Andrew2]

Sounds worth a look. Funnily enough I'm just reading the chapter on Dub and Tubby in the Greg Milner book.

[Brigham]

Does Lee 'Scratch' Perry use an oscilloscope?
The idea seems a bit 'upsetting'.

[m0cemdave]

I used to work with an engineer who was really good at dub mixing with live reggae bands. It's a highly specialised art form and takes a lot of skill.

A prime example of why there's still a need for analogue mixing consoles - you couldn't do it on a modern digital desk where there is only access to one channel's controls at a time.

Wishing I had kept my Grampian 666...

[knobtwiddler]

Thank you for the link.

I listen to Tubby's work daily. He was a true genius, and it saddens me to think that he was taken from us so early, in such a pointless way.

I once attended an AES lecture given by one of the world's most knowledgeable audio historians. It was designed to chart the development of audio tech over a hundred year period. There were some profound realisations in it, where he showed that many problems that are thought of as modern, originated decades earlier. The lecture covered the 1880s to 1980s. In order to show how sophisticated recording had gotten at the end, he finished the lecture with a Tubby production.

Something that amazes me is that we can now have the power of 100 1970s studios in a laptop, yet despite such technology, much modern music sounds homogenous. A great deal of early electronic music that utilised electromechanical effects and the like still sounds as otherworldly and alien today as it ever did.

There is a firm in Leeds that is reissuing the Grampian reverb. I seem to recall it has a spring tank linked to an amp based around Ge transistors. Doesn't strike me as rocket science, so I would expect the replica to sound very similar.

[Diabolical Artificer]

"Funnily enough I'm just reading the chapter on Dub and Tubby in the Greg Milner book. " what does he say?

"Does Lee 'Scratch' Perry use an oscilloscope?
The idea seems a bit 'upsetting'. " Groan. He's an old man now and no longer has a studio after he burned down the Black Ark after an argument with his girlfriend/wife and after getting hassled by gangsters; don't think even he knows anymore.

".....It's a highly specialised art form and takes a lot of skill. " I've never tried it but imagine there's more to it than just mixing in a bit of reverb or echo. A properly dubbed track adds to the music, other dub records just sound boring unless you've had a smoke.

"I once attended an AES lecture" would have loved to heard that, must have been before Youtube so guess there's no chance of it being filmed.

Andy.