How to Make a Dub Mix: Creating a Minimal Dub

Today, we’re going to be taking a dive into a track from my latest record, Groove Ministration EP. Greyhound (Dub Mix) surprised me by quickly outperforming the rest of the tracks on the record. It was something of a sleeper hit, it seems. That makes me very happy because making that dub mix was some of the most fun I had producing that EP. Let’s get into it…

What is a Dub Mix?

Dub is a style of music and music production that has its roots in 1970’s Jamaica. Producers back then would make stripped-down, experimental, alternate mixes of traditionally recorded songs. Rather than highlighting the performing artist, dubs highlight the producers and mix engineers behind the controls. Using the multitrack recordings as their medium, dub engineers would improvise arrangements and record their mix performances to tape. 

These “dub mixes” quickly gained popularity and eventually grew into a musical genre unto itself. Artists like King Tubby, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Scientist paved the way for waves of producers who would emulate and expound upon the style generations into the future.

Inevitably, that same mix ethos bled into electronic music culture, and we got things like dub techno and dubstep (the original British dubstep – not the brash, wubby mess that Americans call dubstep), among many other related sounds.

Mix Ethos

The fundamental ideas behind a dub mix are improvisation, spontaneity, and a sense of space. For this mix, I opted for a minimalist approach. By limiting the number of elements in the mix, I can increase the impact of each element and keep things simple during the mix performance. This allows me to focus my attention on the arrangement I wish to improvise instead of the technicalities of how my mix configuration works; less logic brain = more art brain.

In the spirit of keeping my controls immediate and intuitive, I opted to keep my controls simple, broad and limited as well. I did all the heavy-lifting prior to pressing record by making good grouping and routing decisions.

Gear

To understand my routing, it’s important to understand the gear I’m using. Here is a brief rundown of the gear I actively employed for the dub mix:

• Audio Interface (MOTU 828X)
• Mixer (Akai APC-40 mk II)
• Patchbay (Samson S-Patch Plus)
• Delay 1 (Waves H-Delay plug-in)
• Delay 2 (Line 6 DL4 Delay pedal)
• Auxiliary Controls (Akai LPD-8 – to control H-Delay)

Grouping

This is an important bit to get right for an effective dub setup. Grouping and routing will dictate the degree of control you will have over mix elements and send effects. While you could set up a scheme for deep, individualized controls, you want to set limits for dubbing. Early dubbists were limited by their gear, and that contributed to the sound they created. Besides, limitations breed creativity – and keep you from getting hopelessly lost during a mix performance.

In the case of the Greyhound dub mix, I had already opted for a very small number of mix elements, so even spread out across my channels, I only actively used 8 channels: 

• kick
• bass
• tops (hat/clap)
• percussion
• synth stabs
• synth pads
• vocal sample
• one-shots

This number 8 comes with a few caveats, though. The session actually employed 30 individual tracks, but many of them were either grouped together, allowed to run uninterrupted, or were essentially bus tracks for my outboard delay. (More on that configuration later. Jump to that section) I should also note that in the released version of Greyhound (Dub Mix), I actually didn’t use any of the one-shots I had set up.

This is also the stage where you make your static mix decisions. By static, I mean any mix decision that you don’t plan to manually alter during the mix performance. This means any EQ, compression, panning, sidechaining, etc.

A Note on Levels: This bit is important for dubbing. Since dubs are live performance mixes, you don’t want to have to worry about levels while you’re recording. It’s a good practice to push your channel faders up to max level and use gain controls to actually set the track levels. This way, you can slam the faders up and down without having to worry about whether you pushed a channel too hard, or not hard enough. It also sounds more organic than muting, since you will still have an audible rise and fall that a mute button would eliminate.

Routing

In order to implement the control I want over my send effects, I needed to apply some routing schemes – a bit of an advanced one in particular for my outboard delay module.

Delay 1 – Waves H-Delay (Software Plug-In)

First, I set the static send effects for the appropriate channels (e.g. reverb send for the hats). Then, I choose which bus I want immediate access to throughout the mix and change the panning encoders on the APC-40 into sends for that bus. I could change the active bus on the fly with a quick button combination, but remember my ethos for the mix: simple and limited.

I chose that available send effect to be the Waves H-Delay. Now, I can whack the encoders up and down and get momentary delay tails. Not only that, but with the LPD-8 mapped to the H-Delay (that is part of my default Ableton template), I have immediate tactile access to crucial controls on the H-Delay.

Delay 2 – Line 6 DL4 (Outboard Effects Unit)

This is the trickiest part of my configuration. There is a reason I did it this way, but more on that later.

First, I created “helper tracks” in my DAW for any channels I wanted the ability to send to the DL4. These helper tracks are essentially buses; they allow me to duplicate channel outputs and route them into the helper track.

Next, I route the output of the helper tracks to a line out on my interface. The line outs from the interface are hardwired into my patchbay for just this type of situation. This allows me to control the audio into the DL4 by physically plugging and unplugging a patch cable. (This “cable-yanking” method for send effects is the way old-school dubbists do it. And it’s so tactile and fun to do!)

Finally, I send the output of the DL4 back into the interface via the patchbay using a dormant patchbay channel normalled to one of my hardware synths. (Patchbay configurations are outside the scope of this article, but to learn more on normal, half-normal, and thru configurations, check out this article on patchbay integration into the home studio.) I create a new track and route the incoming audio from the DL4 into, and I record that audio just as I would a synth or any other instrument.

The Dub Mix Performance

Now, with all the pieces in place and configured, it’s time to make some dubs! For Greyhound, I recorded some four or five takes. For the record, I selected take four. This is a clip of a video recording I made while making that take.

If you’re interested, you can see the full recording with the raw, unedited cut of the dub here.

Post Take Editing

I’ll admit – editing a dub like this could be considered “cheating” by purists, since dub mixes are traditionally printed to tape – warts and all. However, I’m not a purist and I’d rather make the best possible track with the tools at my disposal. 

The danger with editing a dub mix this way comes from the capacity to over-do it. Dubs have a personality and spirit because of their flaws and imperfections. If you go over a dub and fix everything, your end product will sound sterile, lifeless, and boring.

My goal wasn’t to sanitize the take by correcting all the little mistakes and inconsistencies. Rather, I wanted to be able to make small, crucial adjustments in order to elevate the end result beyond my current dubbist chops. And that choice paid off.

Probably the best example of the type of editing I did was the clap. If you recall, my configuration did not afford me distinct control over the clap – I had grouped it with the hats on a single channel. Post mix, I went in and had the clap track come in at the first drop. Listening to the track, that tiny decision effectively marked the point where the track “begins.” 

Aside from that, the only other mix edits I made were a couple mistimed fader cuts – a decision which served to sharpen the affected sounds.

Finally, I made a cut for time. I wanted to keep the track between 8 and 10 minutes, and the unedited version clocked in at around 12 minutes. So I found a sensible spot around just before the 10 minute mark to end the track and made a cut, allowing a delayed stab to echo out.

Conclusion

I made this dub mix pretty much on a whim – I was playing with delays during a session for the original mix of Greyhound and thought it would be fun to try. I’m very glad I did, as it was probably the most satisfying session during Groove Ministration EP’s production.

I shared my process and techniques here in hopes that it would inspire and maybe give a little direction to new or aspiring producers interested in making this type of music. So by all means – copy these techniques. Alter them to fit your production setups. Make something cool. And above all, enjoy yourself!

Happy Dubbing,
AudioMunk