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Thursday, 25 July 2013

Designer
Dance Presentation

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Friday, 24 May 2013

The
Use Of Space In Dub, And How This Has Influenced Modern Electronic Music.
Presentation

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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
Minimal Techno Tutorial Pt 1: Ableton
Live - Space & Dimension to Drums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-DdFq5RdK7w Richie
Hawtin style delay tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZVM9sxBZOI John
Selway. More than a bass line tutorial

https://www.ableton.com/answers/creating-dub-style-sounds-like-brendon-moeller Creating
dub style sounds like brendon moeller

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nCPnGnuzWs Ableton
Tutorial - How To Produce Dub Music - Drums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8d70sR8lWI Ableton Live Tutorial part
3/5 - The Dub Delay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ0DopG3BqsAbleton Tutorial - Reverb -
Dub FX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhc7EpxsiPk Ableton Tutorial - Feedback
Soundscapes

http://vimeo.com/860391 Dubbing out in Ableton Live!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxbLEywOB8c How to Make a Dub Siren in
Ableton Live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtJLo5o7IqY Ableton
Live tutorial - Ambient Dub techno in 12 minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq9x_1GmEnA How to Make Dub Techno
Chords

http://vimeo.com/27854819 Reverb
Dub FX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1EGiUT0MQ0 Producing Dub
Techno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjiTAqf5Yns Dub
Snare Reverb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkBF9hzaqbk Noise
Drone - Dub Techno Experiments with Ableton Live

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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
thefact 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 utilisedby 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

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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

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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;

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)

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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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abstractedaudio

I am interested in experimental music and sound.
I produce a wide variety of electronic music, create audio visual installation
art and also compose scores and sound design treatments for film.
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