what is the typical or best way to set up a dub mix?

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fragile
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Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:19 pm

what is the typical or best way to set up a dub mix?

Post by fragile » Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:30 pm

Hello All,

i'm new to this forum and just getting the idea of making dub mixes in real time.

i've been producing music on a computer for a while so am no stranger to most things.

what i'm trying to find out is how a typical mixer is set up for a dub mix. I don't yet have a hardware mixer so am hoping to recreate the setup using abelton live and a midi controllers.

anyway i was watching video on you tube with scientist doin his thing and he seemed to be using the main faders for his delays rather then the aux send pots. ive not seen a mixer set up this way before but looks like a much easier way to work.

so can anyone explain how the mixer would be set up in thisway so ican try and recreate it on ableton?

or any other routing meathods that work well?

also can you give any adice on what sort of bussing would be best. as in would you be working with each individal instument in the mix or would you group things tofather like drums and purcusion and send them to the effects as a group? i'm imaginig the snare and the kick would be dealt with separtaly though? :?



sorry for rambling but cheers for any help,

cheers for any help you can give

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Klaus5
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Post by Klaus5 » Sat Aug 15, 2009 9:09 pm

Ive no idea how scientist and jammys have it set up. Looks like they have a easier set up to work with than twiddling little send knobs, they only seem to leave the faders to adjust the high pass.


I guess you just group instruments into channels depending on your style of dubbing...

Personally, I usually have one channel per instrument, but may group a horns section or percussion depending on what part they are playing in the track. It gives more potential to have one instrument per channel (as in you can apply effects to individual instruments), but in my experience that can also make it slightly harder to work with and can make it harder to flow, as there is too many options open to you if that makes sense, not to mention that it is physically harder to manipulate all the instruments simultaneously. Though I should point out that I dont have a hardware mixer, nor have i ever used one. (only computer keyboard/mouse)

As for drums, i usually split into 3 channels: snare, hats&cymbals and kick&toms etc, but of course it varies depending on the tune (eg you might want to have just the kick drum going). Im not sure how scientist/tubby/jammy etc did it as it sounds different on different tracks, somtimes a clear 2 channels: hats and everything else, othertimes the snare is on one channel and everything else on another.. well i think so.. i dont know how many channels and takes/mix downs they would tend to do (and of course that varies depending on the studio and how the riddim was originally recorded etc).

fragile
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Post by fragile » Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:32 am

nice one, cheers for your reply

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Klaus5
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Post by Klaus5 » Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:58 pm

No worries. But disregard most of what ive said in this thread, as ive since realised i have much less of an understanding than i previously thought! :grin:

You might want to have a little read of this thread, it explains how tubbys studio mixer was set up
http://www.interruptor.ch/Php5/dubboard ... php?t=1040

fragile
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:19 pm

Post by fragile » Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:58 pm

cheers for sharing that link, it has given me a few things to think about.

as it happens i manged to get something cobled together using ableton live and an my akai mpd 32. it only lets me mix 7 channels plus a delay fader as well as reverbs on auxes, but it seems to work fine.

i'm quite glad its only a simple thing as it makes you focus on what your doing. but after reading that thread it seems that they wern't using much more equipment wise.

still now its working and ive been practising away for a few weeks its all starting to make sence and ive never had so much fun in the studio :D

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