Dub, an era of Jamaican music history that still has the power to capture the hearts and minds of listeners over a half century later.   It has sent researchers down the deep and dark rabbit holes of history and has captivated the thoughts of recording engineers as they seek to find the magic behind the equipment.  Over the years, it’s been repeatedly traced back to two people, Lee “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby.  While they are undoubtedly two legends of dub that kept pushing the boundaries and cemented a style of mixing that has become standard, they are two of many people in the late 60s and early 70s that happened upon a new sound.  

What is dub and where does the term come from?  Well, to “overdub” is to create something new.  From the days of tape recording, machines were limited to a number of tracks they could record on.  If you wanted to record a new track with an existing track previously recorded, you were overdubbing.  While dub isn’t a term exclusive to Jamaica, as it was an abbreviation for overdub used in many countries, it would exclusively be used to denote the genre of music where an engineer would take an old song and create something new by stripping away the rhythm to its core components and treating it with effects like delay and reverb.  It’s truly the only genre who’s trademark brings the engineer out from behind the scenes and into the spotlight. Now the engineer would create new music arrangements out of existing songs not by way of an instrument or his/her voice, but by the recording technology that consisted of mixing boards, tape machines, and effects units.  

 Like many trends in Jamaican music, dubs are tied back to the sound system business.  Before dub, there were “versions.”  A version is a noun but sometimes, it can be a verb too, “to version.”  Like the word overdub, it means to create something new onto something that already exists.  

 Then we have “dubplates.” These are soft, lacquer coated aluminum discs that you cut the music onto using a specialized lathe.  They were particularly used for test cuts or sound system exclusive mixes but they have a finite amount of times they can be played before wearing out into an inaudible static mess of noise and music.  

Presto 8D recording lathe

The greatest thing about the history of versions is that we can trace their inception to a particular time, place and person.  Bunny “Striker” Lee recalls that he was with King Tubby and Byron Smith at Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle Studio in 1968.  They were cutting dubplates for sound system owner, Ruddy Redwood.   By mistake, Byron forgot to turn up the vocal track on the song.  About to stop the session, Ruddy interjected and told him to keep playing the rhythm. This simple mistake would eventually lead to the “version craze.” No longer were B-sides of 45s another full song. Instead, people wanted to hear the instrumental of the A side.  The sound system owners also loved this new idea as they now had a clean instrumental to make announcements over. Eventually, with the rise of DJs like U-Roy, up-and-coming vocalists could sing on them and make their own versions.  One of the first version sides to be released to the record buying public was John Holt’s “Stealing, Stealing.” 

While the version style of mixing would keep developing over the next couple of years, an explosive new era was about to erupt,  but it would take a little while to catch on.  Byron Lee, owner of Dynamic Sound Studios and member of The Dragonaires,  was a rep for a little known company called Music Center Incorporated, or MCI, based out of Miami and owned by Grover “Jeep” Harnad.  Byron was impressed with Jeep’s craftsmanship and ordered a custom built 12-input mixing board.  While this board was modest, it still was a powerful piece of equipment at the time. It had Electrodyne low, mid and high equalizers for each channel, one effect/monitor send, and four group outputs or busses with faders that are reminiscent of something you’d find on an airplane control panel. It also had tape transport buttons, something a bit rare for the times. It included an Altec 9069B high pass filter that could be patched into any part of the signal via the included patchbay. The Altec filter’s sound is unlike other units that most people are familiar with. It has a high peak resonance and, while not exclusive to its operation as other similar filters of the era have this setup, the knob is more like a switch than a potentiometer. This way, the user can set the frequency and forget about it. This lends to its “stutter” type sound when twisted rapidly. Each frequency, 70hz through 7.5khz, is clearly labeled on the panel. 

 These days, the 9069B is the holy grail of dub, but back then, no one was using it for anything other than utilitarian purposes such as removing unwanted frequencies from a particular microphone.  Though this would become the sound of King Tubby in the future, no one ever thought to use the filter in a musical way, until that console arrived at Dynamic Sound Studios.

Byron Lee, Lutz H. Meyer, Graeme Goodall, Keith Slaughter, Jeep Harnad, Claude Hill. Courtesy of MCI

What arrived before the explosion of dub are what we call “proto-dubs.”  These early versions predate the most classic dub songs but, unfortunately, they weren’t kickstarting the dub revolution like Perry and Tubby would later do.  These songs were at the right place, but not at the right time.  

 Probably the earliest proto-dub is that of “Phantom,” released by Clancy Eccles in 1969.  A remix of King Stitt’s “Herbsman Shuffle,” it was mixed at Dynamic Sounds on the MCI.  This song uses the technique of muting and unmuting instruments and letting the bass and drums play on their own, but there are some other songs mixed at Dynamic around the same time period that predate King Tubby’s use of the Altec high pass filter. These include Byron Lee’s “Squeeze Up Part 2,” a version of The Bleechers “Ease Up.” With this song, the filter seems to affect the whole mix and then drops out, letting the drums and bass play on their own.  Every now and then, the piano and guitars come in and then drop out, laden with reverb.  The reverb is less splashy like a spring and more airy like plate reverb.  An organ overdub not originally found on “Ease Up” completes this new version nicely.  

Winston Blake’s “Herbert Spliffington” is another Dynamic produced proto-dub.  A short delay effect on a vocal starts the track,  “This is I, dread, Herb Spliffington,” followed by the sound of an inhale and exhale to emulate smoking ganja through a pipe.  The track comes in with the “swishy” sound of the filter, due to it’s high peak resonance curve on the guitar, piano and organ, with a little bleed over onto the drums, which mostly affects the hi-hats as you can hear them disappear and reappear with the turn of the filter.  This is probably due to the microphone spill, where another instrument’s signal is heard by a nearby microphone.  They are affected with the same type of reverb as the previous mentioned song.   A trombone lead melody rounds out the mix.   

 Next up, we have Byron Lee’s cover of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Don’t Call Me N***** Whitey Version 2.”  This is a very driving tune that starts out with the whole band in the mix, before the snare drum fill, which is affected by reverb, plays on its own.  The filter is clearly heard in the beginning and only affects the guitar on this song, but it compliments the heavy bass and drums that blast you away until the end.  

 Lynford Anderson aka Andy Capp released a song called “Pop A Top” in 1969 which was based on the music of Dave Bartholomew’s “South Parkway Mambo” and lyrics of his big hit “The Monkey.”  Derrick Morgan had also used the same rhythm previously for his single “Fat Man.”  Andy Capp was said to have been inspired by a then popular soda commercial that instructed you to “pop the top” on the can.  This song was a massive hit and was said to have sold over 50,000 copies.  While this doesn’t use the filter, it uses a lot of muting which adds a new rhythm to the song.  It’s said that this new rhythm and beat was a key factor in furthering the then new reggae type beats. Andy would mix and release many more versions of this song, each with a different vibe than the previous.  

A custom MCI, noticed the High/Low Pass filter section top right below the bank of 8 knobs.  Courtesy of MCI

 No one knows who actually mixed those songs that use the filter at Dynamic, and according to many sources, it could have been Andy Capp, Carlton Lee, Sydney Bucknor, Byron Lee or even Lee Perry himself.  Most tend to believe it was Andy Capp, despite him not remembering them when asked during interviews conducted by a few researchers in the past. 

 While the Dynamic engineers weren’t the only people to experiment with these new found techniques, we have to give credit to others that were producing drum and bass type mixes or remixes in this early style.  Lee Perry, who at this time was also working at Dynamic, had put out “Takio” aka “Tackro”,” a drum and bass version of his Yakety Yak single, “Kill Them All, ” as well as “Lockjaw,” which also predated DJ vocal style songs.  Joe Gibbs participated with “Navado Joe” and “News Flash,” which also uses The Bleechers “Ease Up” rhythm track. Other producers entered the market such as Lloyd “The Matador” Daly, Alvin “GG” Ranglin, and Prince Buster.

 It seems that for a little while, people were getting into this newly formed style of mixing. Then, for some reason,the trend slowed down and it’s a wonder as to why that is. It’s possible that, since version style mixes and these proto-dub mixes popped up at the same time, no one gave a thought to distinguish between the two.  It’s very unlike Jamaicans to happen upon a new sound and sit on it or forget about it entirely.  Yet, in this case, it seems like the next advancement in dub wouldn’t really start happening until mid to late 1972.  

 Speaking of 1972, in this year, Dynamic Sounds was chosen by The Rolling Stones to record part of their Goat’s Head Soup album.  While they did bring in their own gear, Byron Lee decided to upgrade the equipment to a 16-track studio.  This meant the old trusty MCI was installed into less sophisticated Studio B at the back of the main building.  It would still get used though, most notably for “Conquering Lion” riddim by Yabby You, “Cassava Piece” and “Meets Rockers Uptown” by Augustus Pablo.   At some point in 1972, King Tubby decided to buy that MCI and that was the true beginning of his magic touch.  While that filter did get its work at Dynamic Sounds, when King Tubby put his hands onto it, it became a whole other thing!  

Mid 70s ad of both HPF/LPF models. Courtesy of Altec

The Altec 9069B seems to be a bit of magic these days, but as we can see so far, it was already installed on the MCI when Jeep Harnad designed and built the board.   Often, people talk about how it was custom built by King Tubby or modified, but in truth, it was already being used creatively at Dynamic.  In fact, its circuit is mentioned extensively in Howard Tremaine’s 1956 book, Attenuators, Equalizers and Filters, as well as his 1969 book Audio Encyclopedia. These books show every possible way to use these types of filters whether through changing output resistors or patching the signal, each technique yielding different results.  I strongly believe engineers in Jamaica were well aware of these books. Not to mention that King Tubby himself was very familiar with crossovers, winding transformers and inductors for his amp building business.  I feel what makes the filter different from the early days at Dynamic compared to King Tubby’s time with it is how it was used.  At Dynamic, they simply twisted it back and forth, but King Tubby was much more experimental with it.  For example, he would just leave it on for sections of the song.  It sounded better on Channel One’s muted drum tone than that of the more ringy rocksteady style drums at Dynamic.  His Fairchild Reverbatron was a bigger and splashier sounding reverb and the filter sometimes made the reverb “ring” or self oscillate, adding to the psychedelic nature.  

Fairchild Reverbertron 658

 King Tubby wouldn’t really hit the ground running on dub mixes until 1972-1973, the same years some of the first dub albums appeared.  Rumors suggest that the first, or one of the first dubs he did, was on the B-side of a single called “Merry Up” by Godsons.  It starts out with feedback from a tape delay before the beat comes in.  The horns are affected by a short tape delay effect before a melodica melody takes over.  The drums and bass heavily bump along, being treated by spring reverb. If he is indeed the remixer on this song, there’s no Altec filter to be heard.  While the filter was his trademark, there are plenty of songs that don’t feature it. If this is the earliest example of his work, it makes perfect sense that the effects are minimal. It wouldn’t take long for the King to find that big ol’ knob and start twisting away like Andy Capp had done a few years before.  

 It’s hard to pin down which dub albums came first, but some releases that appear in 1972-1973 include Lee Perry’s Rhythm Shower and the landmark album Blackboard Jungle, which has several versions including an L/C/R and dual mono mixes to create pseudo stereo effects by King Tubby.  Others include Joe Gibbs’ Dub Serial aka Dub Sequeldo, Prince Buster’s The Message Dubwise and Herman Chin Loy’s Aquarius Dub to name just a few.  

 While it will be debated from now until infinity on who got what out first, there are many unsung heroes in dub. Most importantly, this revolutionary genre will continue to capture the hearts and minds of future generations. If you are interested in finding out more about dub, the writing of Chris Lane, Thibault Ehrengardt, Noel Hawks, Jah Floyd, and engineer Westfinga are great people to seek out and follow. This article’s embedded playlist provides an audio journey through the history of these proto-dubs and the earliest known dubs into the mid 1970s.