Effects, mixing, and the desk as an instrument

In dub, the mixing desk is the main instrument. In dub techno and minimal, the effects often matter more than the notes. Here is what each effect does and how our three genres use it.

Delay (echo)

A delay records the sound and plays it back later, and the feedback control sends some of that echo back in, so it repeats again and again.

• Time: sync it to the tempo. A quarter note (1/4) is the classic reggae echo. A dotted eighth (3/16, three sixteenths) is the secret of dub techno: the echoes fall between the beats and turn one chord into a rhythm.
• Feedback: low for one or two repeats, high for a long trail. Near the top the delay starts feeding on itself and howls. Dub engineers ride this live.
• Filtering inside the loop: if every repeat passes through a filter, each echo gets darker, like a tape echo such as the Roland RE-201 Space Echo, the machine all over Lee “Scratch” Perry's Black Ark records. Changing the delay time while echoes are still ringing bends their pitch: the tape-spin sound.

Reverb (space)

Reverb simulates a room: thousands of reflections blurred together. Decay sets how long the space rings, pre-delay sets a gap before it starts (keeps the dry hit clear), and damping darkens the tail. Dub is drenched in spring reverb, a metal spring in a box. Kicking the box makes the famous thunder crash. Dub techno uses long, dark reverbs to turn chords into fog.

Hear the delay and reverb

Each of these sounds gets its character from the effects. Play one, then open it in the synth lab and turn the delay and reverb sends down to hear what they add.

Filters as effects

A high-pass or low-pass filter on a whole group or the master channel, swept slowly, is a performance tool. King Tubby's high-pass sweeps on his customized mixing desk are a dub signature; in minimal techno a single cutoff move over 32 bars can be the whole arrangement.

Saturation and distortion

Saturation gently clips the waveform, which adds harmonics. Harmonics make a sound louder-feeling and help a sub bass survive on small speakers (lesson 1). A tape or tube saturator on drums or a bus adds warmth. Push harder and it becomes distortion, the grit in a chicha guitar or an acid line.

Compression and sidechain

A compressor turns loud moments down so the overall level is steadier. Its most famous trick in dance music is sidechain: the kick drum triggers the compressor on the bass or pads, ducking them for a split second on every beat. That keeps the low end clean and creates a pumping feel. In minimal techno, gentle sidechain on the bass is close to mandatory.

EQ and the low end

• Cut before you boost. Removing mud at 250–400 Hz usually helps more than boosting anything.
• High-pass everything that isn't kick or bass, somewhere between 100 and 200 Hz. Chords, skanks, percussion and reverbs don't need sub.
• Keep everything below about 120 Hz in mono. Sound systems and clubs depend on it.
• Decide whether the kick or the bass owns the lowest octave. In dub, the bass owns it. In techno, the kick does, and the bass sits just above or ducks out of its way.
• Leave headroom: aim for mix peaks around −6 dB before any mastering.

Sends and returns

Put delay and reverb on return (aux) channels, and use send knobs on each track to choose how much of that track goes into them. That way one delay serves everything, and you can throw a single snare hit into the echo by turning one send up for a moment. That move, the echo throw, is half of dub mixing.

Dub mixing moves

• Drop-outs: mute and unmute instruments, especially taking everything out except drums and bass, then slamming the full band back in.
• Echo throws: push a send up for one hit of the rim, a skank or a word of vocal, then pull it back so only the echoes ring on.
• Spring crash: a hit or kick of the reverb tank for drama.
• Filter sweeps: slowly high-pass the whole mix to thin it out, then release it.
• Feedback swells: raise delay feedback until it nearly runs away, then pull it back.
• Siren: a simple oscillator with an LFO, played live through the delay.

You can perform all six of these on the dub desk in the groove machine, lesson 13.