How Can I Get Good Dub Bass Sound! Options

[booyakabass]

I am about to embark on a Dub project and wondered if i can pick up some tips
such as recording ie Mics & placement or DI , Good EQ and / or plugins from Logic Express.

I'll be using a 5 string Spector Bass and a Fender Jazz bass probably and maybe an elec upright plus an
Ampeg head and a Ampeg cab with a 15", 10" & tweeter speaker.

I want to get that full bodied fat warm tone but without killing my speakers.

[rickenbacker]

I don't know much about producing dub records, but from listening to them I'd say the main things you need are a really good reverb and a really good delay. For delay, the 608 from PSP Audioware would do you nicely. They also do a reverb plug-in and the Vintage Warmer might help give your tracks some analogue grit.

However, that "full bodied fat warm tone" generally came from recording to analogue tape and bouncing down repeatedly - for example, Lee Scratch Perry's Black Ark studio in the early 70s only had a four-track tape machine. Dub is as much about the production process as it as about the recording process - maybe even more so. Listen to the Arkology boxset - that will tell you everything you need to know.

[Downpressor]

I produce dub and have an opinion about recording bass

First of all use only the J bass & the Ampeg head & cab, forget the others, they wont sound right at all. Seriously, do NOT use the 5 string and the standup just wont carry the foundation you want.

Second, record direct or direct and mic'd but only if you have a decent sounding room to record in. There are as many ways to mic a bass cabinet as anything else, but in the end its up to your taste. I personally like to angle the mic down towards the speakers less than a meter away. Balance the DI & mic tracks to your taste. If you have a decent mixing board, assign em to one bus track.

I use just a tiny ammount of compression on bass, too much and it ends up sounding like rock or (god forbid) techno.

The previous poster is right that tape sounds great, but short of that, EQ your bass to cutoff everything below 100Hz and eveything above 2000 (hipass and lowpass filters work here too). If you have the money for something like the "PSP Vintage Warmer" plugin, thats a nice one.

Dont forget in reggae and thus in dub, drums are the heartbeat, the bass is the backbone, it holds up the body of the song. No need to get fancy unless your name is Laswell and even then dont overdo it.

if your project needs someone to do the actual dubbing, I'm for hire

[volxs]

A couple of things I would suggest:

Firstly I would say you should di the bass and maybe mix in a little bit of the mic'ed cabinet. But for the most part I reckon you'll end up using more of the direct part than the mic'ed part.

Secondly I would say you should consider using heavy compression right from the get go. The really fat bass sounds on dub records are generally extremely heavily compressed. They have probably gone through multiple stages of compression from the first recording stage and as rickenbacker mentioned the Tape that they are recorded too acts to compress the sound too.

Thirdly add some nice subtle room reverb to the bass.


Lastly but probably most importantly when you are dealing with very fat bass you have to consider that it is going to take up a lot of space in your mix in terms of frequency range. You'll notice in the great dub records that nothing competes with that fat bass sound. There are generally no other bass sounds at all. The rest of the sounds are usually in the Hi-Mid and Hi frequency ranges. The kick drum on dub records is usually more clicky rather than thuddy (if you catch my drift).

I think what I'm trying to say is that part of what makes the dub bass sound so great/fat is that no other sounds are competeing with it.

Just a few of my random thoughts, you may already have considered all this.

Anyway hope it helps a bit

Cheers

volxs

[booyakabass]

Hey folks thanks for the all the advice. I like the sound of the PSP Vintage warmer plug in.
Yeah, i totally agree that Dub is a science and as much about the desk as playing......i'm in my Dub education at the mo and checking the Black ark etc etc.....just loving that raw warm sound, particularly the Old King Tubby & Augustus Pablo stuff....maybe analogue has some benefits....the challenge is on.

Irie

[Downpressor]

I wanna say somefin aboug compression on bass, i think its mostly a crutch for mixers these days who dont know how to mix bass in a dub or bass players who want to sound fancy. Not to contradict anyone either, but most of the tracks done at the Black Ark or Studio One in the four track days didnt go through several generations of bounces. Mostly it was live takes on 1&2 with vocals on 3 and 4 was often blank. Perry didnt get into bouncedowns till long after Super Ape. I dont claim this to be fact but I get it from my friend who claims to have been there at the time. Anyways my point is yes tape has its own compression, but the true dub sound is in the mix. If you must have fancy drum tracks use some ducking to separate them from the bass itself.

[rickenbacker]

I just noticed from looking at my record sleeves that the Black Ark had a Roland Space Echo on top of the mixer. That thing gives you an instant dub sound. Universal Audio recently released a fantastic software version for its UAD-1 PCI/PCIe card.

Downpressor is right about the mixing thing. Multiple live players were channelled through the mixer to a stereo feed, leaving two spare tracks on the four-track tape deck. It takes some heavy discipline to do that.

[jimdubpram]

Just for comparison there is some very good digital dub around too. Have you checked out the Conscious Sounds studio output; The Bush Chemists, The Hydroponics, The Love Grocer, Mungos HiFi etc.
Although a few years old now still some cutting edge sounds and techniques to be heard.

[Vadim Chaly]

You might want to check this out:

http://www.interruptor.ch/dub_bass.shtml