dub bass?

[Bwanasonic]

I remember seeing Robbie Shakespeare with Peter Tosh at Sanders theater for the "Legalize It" tour. He was using a Hofner *Beatle* bass. It was the biggest bass sound I ever heard and almost caused me to evacuate my bowels, like those big artillery guns. Just thinking of it makes me want to dig up my vinyl copy of "Garvey's Ghost". I used to use a EH Micro-Synth set so the filter never opens for some dub-like sounds.

Kerry M

[uqbar]

I'm gonna look in getting some of those "fingers" you guys keep talking about.

Just make sure you get the model that comes without a pick. If you have a hard time operating the "fingers" without a pick, a compressor can help smooth out inconsistencies. I prefer a little stomp box Bass compressor from EBS that I have. (I'm a huge fan of their bass pedals and think they are well worth the extra cost.)

Really though, there are lots of bass sounds in dub, and I'm not sure which one you want. It's a long a way from the old Aggrovators sound to the processed 80's sound of guys like Laswell or Wimbish (in his On-U sound system work). To me it's always been a matter of taking the raw bass track (usually I mic a tube bass amp) and then eq'ing it so it is very full, and has enough high to cut through the mix and enough bottom to make your windows shake. Then just leave a lot of space for it in your mix - bass is the melodic lead in a good dub mix.

For highly processed bass sounds I've used the EBS BassIQ and the EH Bass Microsynth. But really I like the more natural sound of the early dub records best...

Which records are good examples of the sound you like?

mark

[aurelialuz]

i get that low and deep sound slamming a joe meek VC3.

alex

[EasyGo]

In the 'Studio One Story' DVD documentary, house engineer Sylvan Morris mentions discovering that the bass cab (apparently open back) they used sounded deeper when miked from the back. Of course then when you listen to classic Studio One tracks, you notice the bass has this consistently deep sound, so if using an amp is an option, that may be something to try.

[sonariste]

Pbass or Music man or G&L bass
old strings, or flatwounds
pultec eqh2:
full boost at 60hz full cut at 12Khz

follow that with volumax comp or la2 or la3 comp

A fat DI (something with a tranny)
or a nice SVT rig and a fet 47


And truly:

the touch on the strings is what will make it Irie

[dubplate]

A hollow body bass(fender P, works well too) into a goodsize amp. (12-15" speaker) with a little compression will do it. NO PICKS! NO DIs!
Just throw a 57 on the speaker and crank it up to 70%.
Then it's all about the finger style & natural palm mute.

[antilog]

ok - I think I heard some dub before, what are some good examples of awesome dub bass that I could check out?

[E-cue]

"The Story of Jamaican Music" box set is AWESOME. Burning Spear's "Living Dub Vol 3", Tapper Zukie's "In Dub", Mad Professor's "Ras Portraits", Lee Perry's "Reggae Greats", and Sly and Robbie's "Dub for Tubbs" all quickly come to my mind.

[beebe]

Acording to my yorkville bass amp (amp has multiband eq) manual. For reggae you make a straight line with the eq levers slanting down from low frequencies to high frequencies. I believe it specifically goes 40 - 80 - 120 - 180 - 340 - 660 - 1.3k - 2.5k - 5k - 10k. +8dB to -8dB

http://www.yorkville.com/downloads/manuals/ombm400.pdf

[joel hamilton]

I just recorded a group called "Dub Trio" for ROIR records, and we used the avalon U5 DI, with a single 15" EV box made custom, and an SWR head.

I used an RE20 on the cabinet, dead center on the cone, and the DI. No EQ and some compression on playback. We printed to 2" at 30 IPS +9 alignment on a Studer A827, and mixed to 1/4" 2 track on an Otari MTR15 at +6 at 30IPS.

There is hardly any EQ on that record, and the bass is HUGE. The player, Stu Brooks is really good, and the group is really talented, and it came across loud and proud.

Just turn the tone knob OFF on whatever bass you are using, and play it in!

[takeout]

Technique. I get this sound live all the time. Confuses the shit out of a soundguy ("Wha?").

It's ALL about where you play. I use either fingers or my thumb (plucking, not slapping), right at the end of the fretboard or even over the fretboard. I can go from an angry grind to shaking drinks off the bar just by palming my pick. No EQ changes necessary.

Studio-wise I might get a little more anal about it (dust off my DOD, multiband compression, etc.)

P.S. Sansamp RBI bass preamp. Get it NOW.

[corinpills]

As someone who owns literally 15 dub box sets (which, my wife points out, sound "exactly the same"), and as someone who is very lilkey to break into a dub bass line at the slightest lull in any musical activity, these are the things that I think help:

Flatwould strings. I haven't bought a set of roundwound bass strings in 15 years. Labellas, heavy.

Roll the treble off.

Hollowbody bass (like the Hofner on many of the classic Sly & Robbie tracks), although there have certainly been some earth movers done on Fenders. No asymetrical 5 strings.

MUTING- huge part of the sound. I usually play with my thumb and mute with the plam of my hand.

tube amp. Not something with a 12AX7 in the pre amp and then a solid state power section, a tube amp.

[flanneljammies]

As someone who owns literally 15 dub box sets...

Any recommendations on said box sets for someone wanting to start exploring this genre?

[corinpills]

There' some great stuff on Soul Jazz out of London, but it's not so much educational. It's always top cuts with amazing packaging, but it's not in chronological order with footnotes and all that. Studio One Soul is a beast- really shows the cross fertilization of styles that is so important to reggae in general. Trojan put out a bunch of 3 CD boxes that you can find at Tower or Virgin really cheap (like $20, that's how I ended up with so many of them) and there are a couple of really serious Lee Perry 2 CD sets that Island put out. Plus, the King Tubby stuff is very cool.

Warning: this music will warp your mind and you'll start to hear everything with echo....echo.....echo... shah.....shah....shah....Zion....Zion....Zion....Zion...

[tiger vomitt]

since this thread has been rejuvinated...

for a mute i have a piece of cloth, it's maybe about the size of an open jewel case...i roll it up like a doober and hold it closed with 2 small pieces of duct tape. i put it between the bridge pickup and the bridge on my jazz bass. it makes for a wonderful mute.

recently i got a bass driver DI (sansamp) thing. WOW. very dub'd out if you want it to be. i didnt expect that about it at all...