Dub and the Sound System

Dub and the dub sound system grew up together. Dub came out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s as instrumental versions pressed on the B-sides of Jamaican 45s, played at dances, then remixed by engineers who treated the desk as an instrument. Dubplates, specials and live effects all come from that loop between studio and dance.

Versions

The usual origin story is a dubplate. In 1968 sound system operator Ruddy Redwood went to Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio to cut a one-off plate of the Paragons' "On the Beach". Engineer Byron Smith left the vocal off by accident; Redwood kept it, and reportedly played the instrumental at his next dance for half an hour to an hour. Instrumental versions on B-sides became standard practice, and by 1973 the version had become dub, a subgenre of reggae in its own right.

King Tubby and Lee Perry

Osbourne Ruddock, King Tubby (1941 to 1989), was both an engineer and a sound man: he formed Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi in 1968 and opened his first studio in Waterhouse, Kingston, in 1971. He mixed by bringing instruments and vocals in and out, and used echo, reverb, long delays, phase effects and a sweepable high-pass filter on his MCI desk to thin sounds such as horns down to a squeal.

Lee "Scratch" Perry built the Black Ark studio in his back yard in 1973. His Upsetters 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle, co-mixed with Tubby that year, is regarded as a landmark of the genre. The Aquarius team of engineer Errol Thompson and producer Herman Chin Loy released some of the first all-dub albums the same year.

The techniques

• Drop-outs. Muting parts so the bass and drums land harder when they return.
• Echo and delay. Repeating fragments of vocal, snare or horn; tape echo units such as the Roland Space Echo were widely used through the 1970s.
• Reverb for space and splash.
• Filtering and EQ sweeps to make parts swell, thin and fade.

Dubplates and specials

A dubplate is a one-off acetate disc, usually 10 inches, cut so a sound can play music nobody else has. Reggae sound systems pioneered the practice. A special is a dubplate with a vocal re-cut for one sound, naming it and praising its strength, cut to win sound clashes. Despite the move to CDJs and controllers, dubplates are still cut for exclusive music.

Live effects at the dance

Many dub sounds give the operator a delay and a siren box in the preamp chain, so echoes and tones are thrown live over the record. That turns playback into performance and is part of each sound's identity. Echo feedback and siren tones put a lot of sustained energy into the mids and tops; watch the clip lights and keep feedback from running away. Where these sit in the chain: anatomy of a sound system.

What dub asks of the sub drivers

Dub puts the bassline in front: long, sustained low notes for hours. Two limits follow directly.

• Heat. Sustained notes mean high average power, so coil temperature, and with it power compression, builds through the night. Coil size and motor venting decide how well a driver holds up. See voice coils and heat.
• Excursion. For constant level, cone excursion quadruples with each octave down, so deep basslines need displacement (Sd × Xmax). See Xmax and excursion.

Both can be heard in our listening room by appointment. More: choosing an 18" scoop driver.

Beyond Jamaica

In the 1970s the UK became a new centre for dub, with Jah Shaka, Mad Professor and Mikey Dread among the key figures. Dub became a basis for jungle and drum and bass and a major influence on dubstep, and alternate dub mixes on 12-inch singles predated the remix era in other genres.

Sources: Wikipedia, Dub music, King Tubby, Lee "Scratch" Perry and Dubplate, checked October 2026; Wavemark WM1850/8 spec sheet and WM18X451 product data.