Above all, they teach us how to enjoy using the mixing desk as a genuinely creative tool.ĭub mixing is also a great way of giving your music-making a focus. I was a teacher back then, and I also came to realise that dub mixing techniques were a really useful tool for teaching my students about recording and signal flow. When you mix dub you are the driving force and you are expected to perform. I was a performer and my skills on the mixing desk were the centre of the attention. It was as if the mixing board became a real musical instrument.

For the first time ever in my working career as a sound engineer, I was aware of the creative central position that I occupied when mixing dub. The reason why I fell in love with dub wasn't just the music itself, nor the Rastafarian ideology or the herbal elements associated with this culture. It was during the early '90s that I first got into reggae and dub music. Next month, we'll be talking in depth to Mad Professor, who is perhaps the leading dub mixer working today, but before that, let's look at what dub mixing is and how you can do it in your studio.

Some of the most important producers in the history of dub mixing include the aforementioned Osbourne Ruddock, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Adrian Sherwood, Mad Professor, Jah Shaka, Augusto Pablo and Dennis Bovell. They all shared a fresh approach towards the use of tape machines, mixers, effects and experimentation, never scared to pick up a screwdriver and open up the equipment to fix it or alter its sound. Jamaican producers have been pioneers in sound engineering, with an exceptional and daring capacity to innovate in sonic terms. Either way, Jamaica has always been a sanctuary for this type of music, and hundreds of great dub records have been produced and mixed there. It's fun, it's creative, it puts your engineering skills centre stage - and it might even make you some money.ĭub started in Jamaica in the late '60s with engineer Osbourne Ruddock, aka King Tubby. There are lots of reasons to teach yourself the art of dub mixing. Some of the most famous dub mixes of the '70s came from Lee 'Scratch' Perry's famous Black Ark Studio in Kingston, Jamaica.

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