Dub rhythms: Put some heavy echo your drumfills (sticks on bongos work fine for this) and let them bounce around freely with huge dynamics. Abuse your snare's rim, and echo that too, but make sure you twist the knobs on your echo unit as you go along, and let it rest about 90% of the time. Use it on fills and periods when there's little else going on in your track. Get into the rhythm and improvise. Getting someone to play live drums, feeding them through an echo unit so you can work on them live as you record is great fun.
Reggae rhythms: Did anyone mention the crucial cruciality of the downbeat? Hit the 2 and 4! That's basically it.
Making Reggae music
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- KVRAF
- 4960 posts since 21 Oct, 2003 from UK
Wow, thanks for that fantastic post, original flipper! 
Like skipscada, I've copied it to a text doc and filed it away. Some really valuable and useful info there. Nice one.
I'll just say:
loose percussive rhythms with delay where necessary (mda dub delay can do some nice tricks, as can Metal Mickey
).
And Tony's right - the bass should ideally be so you can actually feel it as much as, if not more than, hear it. Subby as you like. But then, that's for dub, which is my fave.
For dub: feedback and almost never ending delays - used sparingly on the right sound of course.
Oh, and don't be afraid of the SPACE, man!
Like skipscada, I've copied it to a text doc and filed it away. Some really valuable and useful info there. Nice one.
I'll just say:
loose percussive rhythms with delay where necessary (mda dub delay can do some nice tricks, as can Metal Mickey
).And Tony's right - the bass should ideally be so you can actually feel it as much as, if not more than, hear it. Subby as you like. But then, that's for dub, which is my fave.
For dub: feedback and almost never ending delays - used sparingly on the right sound of course.
Oh, and don't be afraid of the SPACE, man!
-
Stupid American Pig Stupid American Pig https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=4753 - KVRAF
- 7065 posts since 25 Nov, 2002 from not sure
If you want to make reggae, model all your songs on Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2831 posts since 11 Jun, 2003
I uploaded my entry in the February competition.. haha.. it sounds nothing like Reggae except for a guitar sound
All this advice is very helpful though. It will be fun to really try to make a Reggae tune sometime instead of letting it take a different direction. Thanks again for all the tips.
All this advice is very helpful though. It will be fun to really try to make a Reggae tune sometime instead of letting it take a different direction. Thanks again for all the tips.
Play it by ear
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- KVRAF
- 6519 posts since 13 Mar, 2002 from UK
Or early Police and UB40.S_A_P wrote:If you want to make reggae, model all your songs on Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da
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- KVRAF
- 1669 posts since 22 Oct, 2004 from Schmocation
The Beatles approach might be hilarious, but Police and UB40 would lead you deep, deep into the hated subgenre "cod reggae".nuffink wrote:Or early Police and UB40.S_A_P wrote:If you want to make reggae, model all your songs on Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da
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original flipper original flipper https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=8999
- KVRAF
- 2544 posts since 14 Sep, 2003 from Essex
HI
After I wrote my little piece I realized how much I had NOT commented on!
I am thinking percussion here, many reggae drummers would put tambourines on their hi-hats which would jangle subtley away until the hats were opened giving a nice splash of sound, ride cymbals were another popular choice in high tempo 'rockers' style numbers and staple in SKA.
It would not be difficult to write a book on the subject!
Congas, bongoes, claves, block, vibra slap, triangle - Sly and Robbie even laid the horn section on an album by mimicking the sounds of brass using their mouths!
The mixing/production techniques and equipment used in reggae was also of interest and the way in which engineers (mixers) would often use equipment in a totally unheard of way - Lee Perry would re-record his drums through his studio monitors into a micraphone to get a live/abrasive sound, filters from analogue synths were connected to phasers and flangers to get wild swirling filtered sweeps, spring reverbs were used with practically no decay and run through mixing consoles and looped into a return to create mega feedback 'clangs' on snare drums whilst being manually swept through parametric eq's - these boy's were doing this shit back in the early seventies, they knew about the usefullness of a filter 30 years ahead of many other genres!
If you are lucky enough to have any vocal ability then you could do a lot worse (for inspiration) than listen to material like the Abbysinians who sung over sublime roots music in layered harmonies that is rarely equaled elsewhere.
A 'quirk' of reggae was Augustus Pablo and his Melodica - I have one and although they are bloody loud! they lend themselves to being played over stripped down rythms for a haunting (depending on your key) feel.
Lead lines in DUB is where this type of music is so interesting - you can pretty well use almost any interesting sound to be a dominant vocal point and don't think that reggae has not used the whole range of traditional analogue synths and keyboards, IT HAS; Rhodes, Moogs, syndrums, Elka ECT.
Happy hunting.
Flipper.
After I wrote my little piece I realized how much I had NOT commented on!
I am thinking percussion here, many reggae drummers would put tambourines on their hi-hats which would jangle subtley away until the hats were opened giving a nice splash of sound, ride cymbals were another popular choice in high tempo 'rockers' style numbers and staple in SKA.
It would not be difficult to write a book on the subject!
Congas, bongoes, claves, block, vibra slap, triangle - Sly and Robbie even laid the horn section on an album by mimicking the sounds of brass using their mouths!
The mixing/production techniques and equipment used in reggae was also of interest and the way in which engineers (mixers) would often use equipment in a totally unheard of way - Lee Perry would re-record his drums through his studio monitors into a micraphone to get a live/abrasive sound, filters from analogue synths were connected to phasers and flangers to get wild swirling filtered sweeps, spring reverbs were used with practically no decay and run through mixing consoles and looped into a return to create mega feedback 'clangs' on snare drums whilst being manually swept through parametric eq's - these boy's were doing this shit back in the early seventies, they knew about the usefullness of a filter 30 years ahead of many other genres!
If you are lucky enough to have any vocal ability then you could do a lot worse (for inspiration) than listen to material like the Abbysinians who sung over sublime roots music in layered harmonies that is rarely equaled elsewhere.
A 'quirk' of reggae was Augustus Pablo and his Melodica - I have one and although they are bloody loud! they lend themselves to being played over stripped down rythms for a haunting (depending on your key) feel.
Lead lines in DUB is where this type of music is so interesting - you can pretty well use almost any interesting sound to be a dominant vocal point and don't think that reggae has not used the whole range of traditional analogue synths and keyboards, IT HAS; Rhodes, Moogs, syndrums, Elka ECT.
Happy hunting.
Flipper.