Cheers - just looking for some information on dub sirens and when did they start making an appearance in the sound system setups? Who were the first ones to make and use these in the dances. Looking for information more on the box set up but also rack mounts. Thanks
Re: Historical Info on Dub Sirens
Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 3:42 pm
by interruptor
I don't know where it all started, but sirens have been around for as long as I remember.
Searching online I noticed that a specific siren called NJD SE-1 is mentioned a lot, because Jah Shaka is using it.
He can be heard/seen playing one in the clip below from the Movie Babylon from 1980. Also on his album "Jah Shaka Dub Commandments Vol.1" from 1982 the same sounds can be heard. In fact I listend closely to this record when programming the dub siren vsti plugin available on this site..
NJD was a british company manufacturing a range of products like mixers, speakers, lighting in the 70s and 80s. Nowadays handbuilt clones and variations of this siren can be bought from a number of small manufacturers.
Sirens are very simple electronic devices. Therefore many sounds used to build their own sirens. Also DJ-samplers and other lofi-soundeffect boxes have been popular.