Vintage dub gear? mixing consoles/delays

nrich

I know a lot of the classic dub joints were done on handmade custom mixing consoles, but for the sake of interesting topics and erradication of boredom, what are some vintage boards that approximate that heavy, spacey dub sound? How many channels were typical?Also, what delays/reverbs were used or incorporated into the custom consoles?

Unknown

Most of the speculation about Perry's madness centers on what Katz terms "the excessive apex and sudden fall of the Ark." After Black Ark opened in December of 1973, Perry entered his most prolific, aesthetically arresting period, resulting in works such as the sizzling future soul of Susan Cadogan's "Do It Baby" and "Hurts So Good," the spirit-infused dub of Super Ape and Augustus Pablo's "Vibrate On," and the defiant sufferah laments of the Congos, the Heptones, Junior Byles, Junior Murvin, and Max Romeo. Perry's sonic innovations were made on outdated, cheap equipment. "Even in the later days of the Ark, the amplifier he was using was this little Marantz home stereo amp. It is astounding what he got out of so little," Katz said. Later Perry added a Mutron Superphaser and the Roland Space Echo, but he left an eight-track TEAC that Island founder Chris Blackwell gave him completely unused, eventually destroying it and burying it in the yard behind the studio.

I belive the first Mutron BI-Phase Perry had was a promo of the first edition.

K.

P.S.

used
these in the early days of Black Ark (1973-75):
- Alice mixer (Scratch: "They weren't professional machines they were only toys")
- Grantham spring reverb [er... that's a Grampian, I think]
- Roland Space Echo RE201
- Marantz amplifier for instruments
- AKG drum mic for vocals
- Teac 3340 1/4 inch 4-track recorder
- Teac 2-track recorder for mix down
In 1975 he added some new equipment:
- Soundcraft mixer (replaced the Alice)
- Mutron phaser (an early demo model)
- better mics
- Around 1979 he was given a Teac 1/2 inch 8-track recorder but he didn't like it and almost never used it. [and later buried it in the yard]

speshboogie

Far as consoles, I am sure it varies, but I've read alot of the big dub/jamaica recording dudes built there own gear pretty much of out scraps & pieces of other gear.
i.e. they had to get by with whatever they had.

However one thing is for sure, this or one of it's cousins is mandatory:




I'd love to see a book/magazine special on all these dudes & there setups.
I think Wax Poetics had a couple articles.

gir

on the building your own ish, check out what some of the dudes big into circuitbending are doing. i know a lot of those communities have dudes who are building their own effects, etc.

Swayze

watch out with old tape delays. The upkeep is a nightmare. I know probably a dozen people that bough Echoplexes and Space Echos to get exactly the typr of sound you speak of, only to have tehm not work/crap out/be cost-prohibitive to repair. I looooove the sound of tape dealy, bu if I was in the markey for a piece that would last for the long term, I would get one of the new Fulltone Tube Tape Echoes. That thing is an amazing sounding piece of gear, built like a tank, and is pretty simple to service/change out parts. It's around $1000, but is built to last and sounds awesome.

http://www.fulltone.com/tte.asp

Mike

speshboogie

^^^^

have your friends sell me there broken Space Echos.