Secret becoming a fine reggae producer

[lawrence_mwangi]

Hi Everyone
am in school of music production tho' i work full time elsewhere i squeeze some time to learn, coz i really do luv reggae, in my country reggae is very much loved but we dont have successful reggae artists or good reggae producers only other genres, i would luv to do it even if it takes long time..so how can i perfect it
I listen to a lot of reggae and try things on my awn but with advice i can do much

[Inyaki]

I guess it depends on what you consider a "fine" reggae producer.

Some are just executive producers (putting the money) and good a selling and promoting music. Others delegate on musician and engineers to produce for them.
Some are great at the technical side (studio engineering). Some have a knack for convince ( or intimidate?) artists....etc

Good luck on your efforts.

[lawrence_mwangi]

thanks a lot @Inyaki
i would luv to be good at technical side (studio engineering)

[Musitronics]

I don't produce reggae, I produce D&B/Jungle I do restore some rare Dub/Reggae though and I know it's sound, perhaps I could offer you a few suggestions.

It would be a good idea to familiarise yourself with electronics to the extent that you can maintain a nice selection of your own analogue equipment, so you could service an analogue mixer, repair a damaged channel fader or a glitchey pot on a synth or service an analogue tape delay (Entry level stuff) but it will save you a hell of a lot of stress and money in the long run, electronics knowledge is essential these days as analogue kit is now getting very old and requires a high level of maintenance.

Why use analogue at all, well I wouldn't build a purely analogue studio the digital world has a lot to offer but there are many many elements within Reggae and Dub engineering/production which simply can not be achieved using modern digital technology, for example - The Fisher Spring reverb (The Tubby sounding Reverb) can not or at least has not yet been successfully been emulated in the digital world, the same go's for analogue tape delays like the HH and the Roland RE series, also to some extent synthesizers themselves (Most of them ok sure but) synths like the Amdeck PCK 100 han't quite been replicated. Digital is good at what it's good at you know, recording or intensive audio processing such as de-noising, spectral analysis etc, it's not "the" most creative tool as yet, even controllers like the monome, the Maschine and various other midi usb devices are starting to show signs of falling out of favour with producers because they rely so heavily on "Software" as opposed to something analogue that will produce (Real) sound).

Some production techniques I would look in to adopting might include (harmonics) particularly applying Harmonics to Bass, learn how to draw out harmonics out of Bass using real bass playing techniques and also EQ's or subtle amounts of distortions.

Distortion is not often thought of as playing a very large role in dub and reggae production but in today's age of crystal clear audio technology distortion is most important, contrary to popular belief distortion doesn't just make sounds appear harsh and "Distorted" there are many naturally occurring subtle distortions present within most analogue equipment, from a slightly over driven analogue reel to reel, to analogue mixing desks, valve amps and effects units etc, much of the time it's this distortion that gave us what we now consider to be the "analogue sound" adding harmonics to the music and creating what we now call "Analogue warmth".

Digital is all good too, though I would recommend as much of a hands on approach as you can afford to use with regards to mixing I wouldn't even attempt to try to mix solely in a DAW for example, use real kit and real energy in the mixes you are creating.

If you want to hear some of the best engineering in the world of Dub look to The Scientist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Cr7s71RS0 he has a very distinctive sound in the most part due to his engineering techniques, Personally I like a lot of the Treasure Isle Dub releases also, these are very well engineered with a very distinctive "Silky" sound.

It wouldn't hurt to learn Bass and build yourself a collection of decent musicians around you, perhaps put together a small horn section or a vocal group, not so difficult or costly to do, it would take time to find the right people but simply having the right artists to work with you regularly who are like minded, inspiring people to yourself is more than most people achieve.

Sorry did I just go off on one there for a little bit? lol. This is just my pov and a limited one at that, I would have thought most of what I've said is pretty intuitive anyway and nothing is set in stone, different people work best in different ways you know. . . .

/whispers (Boost 5k on the hh'ts) lol. . .

Musitronics.

[Prince Pud Pud]

just don't be smooth and sexy,put knitting needles thru amps and drums and so on,you dig?
no jazzed up drab

[Musitronics]

Yeah, overproduction sucks, get some grime in there with it you know.

[Prince Pud Pud]

leave the jam and eggyolk on the face,yum

[Prince Pud Pud]

oh and do exactly everything right, all the time! like scratch used to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9An7d1hMvak

[Musitronics]

I'll second that, The main thing that Scratch taught us was how to be inavative with virtually nothing, little more than a tape deck and a mixing board.

You can pic up those R2R's that he used pretty cheep, I wouldn't record to one now but they're great to use for rewinds and can also double up as delay units, the smaller one is a Teac A3300.

The Phaser in that vid (the big white looking box with the buttons) is a Musitronics Mu-tron Bi-phase (Stereo phaser) can also still be found but not so cheep, mine cost me around $1400.

The Re 201 tape delay is dead easy to find still, not sure what his board was.

[I-Lion Tafari]

not quite sure, but I think he used a Soundcraft board.