MAKING DUB WITH COMPUTERS - CHAPTER 27: CREATING A SET UP (5): FINALIZING THE SET UP WITH A SOUNDCHECK

Truth be told: I did a little bit of preparation by using some specific settings on both reverbs. In short, I use a longer, heavier reverb for the Dub mixing (the one at aux 2), and a short one for the instrument enhancement (aux 4). I've also set the Space Echo as a Space echo (aux 3) but we're not going to use that in the soundcheck itself. 

We'll start that soundcheck with the drums. It gets some extra EQ-ing, and a little bit of reverb. The bass is next, gets some extra EQ-ing as well. Then the skanks and the horns. Both submixes have their own phaser, and they are put in action. The balance between the instruments is made in the submix, and then the skanks and the horns are balance with the bass and drums. The last part is for the accompanying elements: the guitar and the clavinet. While you could also add a phaser to that submix, for this tutorial we'll leave it at that. 

I've made three temporal midi tracks for the horns, to make them play the theme all over again. After all, we have to make a setting. After the soundcheck, I reinstated to original horns track. 

This is the sound check, live and direct.

Now, you can -and should- do much more getting the right sound. Use compressors and more EQ for the drums and the bass, for example. For the purpose of this tutorial at this place, though, let's just leave it at that. After all, we're almost at the point where we will take our first steps in Dub mixing.

Before we do that, though, let me shortly summarize and conclude this part of the tutorial, where we've made the music and the right set up in our (virtual) studio and in principal are ready for Dub.

• We've created an instrumental Reggae track with MIDI, but you could also skip the whole "How to create Reggae" part and simply use loops. There are even Reggae construction kits available for free and commercially. What you do in that case is, you don't use drum computers and samplers but loop players. Still you will be able to use the set up proposed in this chapter. Use separate channels for Drums, Bass, Skanks, Themes and Accompanying elements.
• In a scale from 0 (silence) to 100 (loudest), a general guideline to balance instruments in Reggae would be this:
  99 bassdrum 
  90 bass
  85 drums
  80 skanks
  70-90 themes
  40 accompanying elements
• Whatever you do, make your your master output does not clip. It should never go in the red. Use normalize in the mastering process.
• Use your ear when you do the soundcheck. It's better to do it in more than the 5 or so minutes of the video in this chapter. The more you pay ear to the detail, the better it will sound. 

Soundcheck Done!

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