Dub music wasn't born in Jamaica, it was birthed in the USA/Soul scene.

[IllmaticDelta]

The conception of Dub music began in America with Soul music but in America the concept never blossomed into its own distinctive thing. This happened because in America you so many recording studios creating music with their own sounds whereas in Jamaica you had very few studios and the masses followed what came from them and the sound systems. So when the Dub concept caught on, everybody followed until it became its own thing.

The question is, what is Dub?

Dub music is characterized by a "version" or "double"[16] of an existing song, often instrumental, using B-sides of 45 RPM records and typically emphasizing the drums and bass for a sound popular in local sound systems. A "version" is a record with the vocals removed, the alternative cut of a song made for the DJ to toast over. These "versions" were used as the basis of a new songs by rerecording them with new elements.[17] The instrumental tracks are typically drenched in sound effects such as echo, reverberation, with instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. Another hallmark of the dub sound is the prominent use of bass guitar. The music sometimes features other noises, such as birds singing, thunder and lightning, water flowing, and producers shouting instructions at the musicians. It can be further augmented by live DJs. The many-layered sounds with varying echoes and volumes are often said to create soundscapes, or sound sculptures, drawing attention to the shape and depth of the space between sounds as well as to the sounds themselves. There is usually a distinctly organic feel to the music, even though the effects are electronically created.[16][18]

True Dub is basically taking an A-side and making another version of it as a B-Side. To break it down a little further you have/had..

1. A-side with instrumental B-side version
2. A reworked version (remixed..basically change the order of the A-side)
3. What I would call "Dubby" which is more like echo and reverb


^^all 3 of those things started in America with Soul/Funk music and pre-date King Tubby and similar studio guys in Jamaica. In fact, James Brown was doing early Dub years before anyone in Jamaica.


INTERVIEW: Dub Legend Mad Professor Takes Coffee With Me

Wow, a lot must have changed with that record.

Around ’69 quite a lot of changes were happening. A lot due to the fact that the techniques were changing. People were using multi-tracks. When this industry first started, I think there was only a one track record where everyone had to record everything at one time. Multi-track came in the 60s then you had 2-track, 3-track, 4-track machines. Jamaica, being a hungry society, the guys that made use of this facility, the overdubbing, one of the first benefits that came out of this thing is the B-siders because originally when records were first made you had A-side and B-side. You record this song for the A-side and this song for the B-side. And I think it started in the black music scene in America.

One of the things that came out of this was, take James Brown, he’d do a song for A-side and instead of recording a new song for the B-side, let’s just take out the vocals and run an instrumental for the B-side. Jamaicans see it, echo it, and call it a version. And this saved the producer quite a bit of money

http://www.dubera.com/blog/mad-professor-interview

When did you first hear dub and did you know you wanted to get involved?

Because of my age, I heard dub more or less from the start. Dub evolved from the Jamaican sound system versions which in turn evolved from the part two scenario that you had in soul records. For instance there’s James Brown’s “Sex Machine part one” which had vocals and “Sex machine part two” which was an instrumental track. In Jamaica they started to do versions so the DJ could ride on the rhythm. Dub evolved from the dance hall versions into something more extravagant. Dubs started to pull apart a song and create more space in a track. This was around 1971 –72, but we didn’t call it dub then, we called it “bass and drum.” I first tried mixing dubs around 1977 when I first built my studio.

Restless and Real - words and sounds from a shrinking world: A conversation with The Mad Professor

Ruddy played a key role in the initial development of dub, as he was the first to make a public performance of what would become known as ìversionî - the instrumental mix of a song without the vocals. In the early days of Jamaican recording, the music was recorded on two tracks. In general, the vocals were recorded on one track with the rest of the band being recorded on the other. In the studio, the two tracks would then be mixed to create the full sound. Ruddy would routinely come into the Treasure Isle Studio and cut new tracks with engineer Byron Smith for play on his sound system. One time however, Ruddy decided to have a dub cut with just the rhythm track to play at a dance. Record producer Bunny Lee recounts the story:


ìYeah . . . it was really VERSION those days - it wasnít dub yet, becaí it was jusí the riddim. One day a incident: Ruddyís was cutting a dub, aní when it start, Smithy look like ëim start bring on the voice and Ruddyís say: no, mek it run and ëim take the whole backing track off it. ëIm say, alright, run it again, and put in the voice. ëIm didnít do no more like that yet. ëIm carry it, go Spanish Town and ëim play it an gií ëim deejay - ëim have a deejay name Wax I tink - and when Wax put it on, ëim put on the singing then say ëim gonna play part two. And ëim put on - everybody know the rhythm now, and everybody a listen to the voice, an ëdem doní hear no voice and then everybody start sing along. So they say BRANí NEW! and then dem play it about twenty times.î (Barrow 1994)

The popularity of the instrumental ìversionî in the dancehall quickly inspired Duke Reid and other producers to begin releasing them commercially, and a new tradition was born. By 1970 the practice of issuing 45î singles with the vocal mix on the A-side and the ìversionî on the B-side had become common (Barrow and Dalton 1997 p. 202). Back in the dancehalls, ìversionî opened up new opportunities for sound system operators and their deejays. Without vocals in the mix, the deejays could add their own lyrics, chants, or other words over the music.

Dub Revolution


On the remixing side of things

Version also allowed different songs to be created with the same rhythm. In general, the musicians who performed on a recorded track were paid by the song. Once they had been paid their session fee, the song was essentially owned by the producer, regardless of how many mixes of that song were released. So a song could be recorded and released using the original vocals, and then the same song could be released again either as an instrumental, with a toast, or with different lyrics without having to pay the musicians any more dues (Ehrlich 1982 p. 105).

Dub Revolution


^James Brown did this all of the time

As a result, it became much more economical for producers to reuse rhythms than to hire musicians to play new ones. The producer also had the confidence in knowing that the rhythm had already been proven successful in the dancehall. This practice helped establish the Jamaican tradition of reusing rhythms many times. In doing this, the rhythms themselves become independent of the songs that they are a part of, and take on individual characters of their own. Many frequently used rhythms - mostly characterized by a drum beat and bass line - in Jamaica have their own names and are collectively known as ìriddims.î In Jamaica, popular riddims - examples include ìChiang Kai Shekî, ìCharlie Chanî, ìRub-a-Dubî, ìSatta Amassaganaî, etc - are so well known they have become folk knowledge, and are used over and over such that there could be dozens of songs all played on the same riddim. Version provided the opportunity for people to focus on the music behind the singers and develop the ìriddimî as a prominent force in the music. This was further enhanced by the development of true dub music, in which the mixing engineers take the instrumental version to the next level, using the power of the remix to change the whole sound and texture of the riddim. This was the turning point in which dub emerged as a unique and characteristic branch of music itself, and can be credited almost entirely to the contributions of a mixing engineer known as King Tubby.

Osbourne Ruddock, better known as King Tubby, operated a small sound system in the Waterhouse district of Kingston known as Tubbyís Hometown Hi-Fi. Tubby was friends with record producer Bunny ìStrikerî Lee, who introduced him to the version stylings of Ruddy Redwood in 1968. Tubby was quite inspired by what Ruddy had done with version, and decided to improve his own system to challenge some of the bigger sound systems in town (Barrow and Dalton 1997 p. 203). With the help of his impressive sound system and the deejay skills of Ewart Beckford, better known as U-Roy, by 1972 Tubbyís Hometown Hi-Fi had become one of the leading sound systems in Kingston. As Tubby said in December 1975:

ìWe introduce a different thing to the sound system world. This amplifier here have a chrome front and reverb. Thatís the first time a reverb was introduced in Jamaica is when my sound come out. And it get de people so excited that everywhere we go we have a following. And then U-Roy come on with a style . . . ì (Davis 1982 p. 114)

Dub Revolution

There are numerous examples of these "Dubby" sounds in Soul/Funk pre-1971

Tubbyís innovations behind the mixing board introduced to Jamaica the idea of the mixing engineer playing a creative role in the music. By taking the different components and tracks that make up a song, Tubby was able to rearrange them and reinvent them into something that sounded completely new. For perhaps the first time in the history of recorded music, the mixing engineer took a lead role in the creative aspects of the music. Working out of his tiny studio at 18 Dromilly Avenue in the Waterhouse district of Kingston, Tubby quickly made a name for himself among producers and became one of the most demanded mixing engineers. The amount of music he received from the many producers he worked with enabled him to experiment even further with his dubbing techniques. Some of Tubbyís most innovative dubs were released from 1972 to 1974, and it was these that also established his name with the public. Single 45s with Tubbyís dubs on the B-side often would sell due to that fact alone, regardless of what was on the A-side (Barrow and Dalton 1997 p. 199).

Dub Revolution

We have examples of this remixing technique of the a-side to th new version on the s-side in Soul music going back to the mid-1960's.

 

[MikeyC]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Come with some facts my dude





























before I hit you with more ether

 

[BigMan]

cool but thats like saying hip hop started in the South because dudes were rapping there. the genre was created and established in Jamaica

 

[IllmaticDelta]

cool but thats like saying hip hop started in the South because dudes were rapping there.

Modern Rapping is rooted in the South but HipHop as full blown culture (modern Graff is North Eastern) didn't.

the genre was created and established in Jamaica

The concept of Dub started in Soul music but never became a dominant subset of the music even though people like James Brown was doing alot of what came to be the foundations to Dub. In Jamaica it became substyle but I can't give JA the credit for the idea

 

[IllmaticDelta]

The HONORABLE SKJ and BronxFleezy

....you have any facts to drop into this discussion

 

[IllmaticDelta]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

On that "dubby" sound from a West Indian dub artist

go to 52:14 in this video

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Example of the the A-side with the B-side instru which was standard practice in lots of early Soul music

A-side



B-side



a vocal version



This is a clear example of the Dub "versions" concept, The full story..

 

[IllmaticDelta]

 

[Arris]

Not letting this thread die

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Not letting this thread die

It needs some debate....If someone is able to refute these facts. I was lead to believe dub/remixing was invented in Jamaica

 

[BigMan]

It's needs some debate....If someone is able to refute these facts. I was lead to believe dub/remixing was invented in Jamaica

no debate is necessary.........because you're right bro

Dub still a Jamaican genre

 

[Why-Fi]

my brothers a dj so i grew up thinking a dub was an instrumental with some of the vocals left in.
i figured dub in the jamaican sense was something separate, like a subgenre

 

[IllmaticDelta]

my brothers a dj so i grew up thinking a dub was an instrumental with some of the vocals left in.
i figured dub in the jamaican sense was something separate, like a subgenre

Dub is really an instrumental version and/or remix (reordering) of the A-side. "Dubby" is the echo/reverb stuff. You can combine the two though.