What Dub Mixing Is & How To Do It

Great article from Sound On Sound By Andrea Terrano. Click here

There are lots of reasons to teach yourself the art of dub mixing. It’s fun, it’s creative, it puts your engineering skills centre stage – and it might even make you some money.

Dub started in Jamaica in the late ’60s with engineer Osbourne Ruddock, aka King Tubby. 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. Jamaican producers have been pioneers in sound engineering, with an exceptional and daring capacity to innovate in sonic terms. 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.

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. 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.