well as a qualified percussion teacher,
a degree in sound engineering,
an owner of my own record label,
a music producer/DJ with 20-odd years in the industry,
having grown up carting round sound systems in Brighton and south London,
and been very much present throughout the birth of the dubstep scene,
I feel im qualified to speak here.
Firstly, let's ditch this nonsense with regards to personal taste.
The fact is that ALL genres of music take hours of sifting through and finding tracks that suit you.
I would say i "like" dubstep, and i "like" rock music, however the reality is that 99% of any style of music, even one i claim to like, is not really my cup of tea.
The tracks i panstaikingly choose and produce, are, like your own beloved classics, entirely personal tastes and thus entirely subjective.
So let's focus more on the gist of this thread and the points raised here.
basically dubstep has very little relation to dub reggae other than the use of oscillators, off beat high hats, and a love of sub bass.
"dub" was coined by king tubby for the most part, an electrician and reggae artist, who built one of the first oscillating synthesizers and echo/effects equipment.
dub is driven by a dominant sub bass loop, snare echoes, synth/effects stabs, and up beat/off beat chord strikes ie. one AND two AND one AND two AND.
originally coined around mid to late 70s, here is the roots of dub music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcUAJHIuJo0&feature=related
the similarities with dub step are more present in some tracks than others, though for the mot part, comparisons are tenuous.
"dub step" came out of the back end of the garage scene, and hence often uses a two step beat. ie kick-kick, snare-snare, kick-kick, snare-snare, kick-kick snare-snare, kicka-da-kick-kick snare snare.
at the tail end of the garage scene, the few survivors were playing a very different kind of sound,
mfor a while we deemed the genre "Raggage".
It largely consisted of very dark and broody, heavy, low sub bass.
This is late 90s were talking here... have a listen to what im talking about here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onQmWbfIpdI&feature=related
note the use of sub bass and the two step drum beat.
dubstep took things a leap forward in terms of what was possible with harware and software sounds.
Dubstep makes use largely of the LFO or low frequency oscillator in order to drive the rythm of the powerful bass sound.
The LFO is what creates "wobbles" however fast or slow. waves basically, where the heavy bass sound is sent to the cut off filter and often given a unique rhythmical quality.
Sub bass is inherent to dubstep, it is part of what defines it, and although there are a lot of very different sounds out there, rhtymical or polyrythmical bass oscillations are intrinsic to 90% of the production.
Dubstep is "Club" music.
the resonant frequencies of the music are tailored to suit large sound systems and to be not only heard, but listened to, and not only listened to, but FELT through the whole body.
this is why dubstep suits the sound of vinyl, and most of us dub heads cut to records over mp3 or cd, as the mastering suits this heavy bass.
proper dubstep sounds shit on little headphones or your home stereo.
t was born in the clubs and is only truly experienced there.
dubstep is unique in that the bass oscillation sets the tempo and rhythm of the music.
house, trance, techno, electro, drum and bass, breakbeat etc are driven by the dominant drum beats.
this may be a 4 on the floor kick drum, or a powerful breakbeat.
dubstep is different.
whilst produced essentially at 140bpm, the same speed as psychedelic trance, hard techno, nu school breaks,
it is, for the most part only the rhythm of the bass that could be defined as so.
dubstep, unlike garage, uses HALF TEMPO drums, ie a slow 70bpm, very understated and subtle drum beat.
if psychedelic goes...
kick tss kick tss kick tss kick tss kick tss kick tss kick tss kick tss.. then dubstep goes;
kick tss tss tss snare tss tss tss kick tss tss tss snare tss tss tss
this means there is a lot of space in the music for effects, sub bass compression, lyrics, melodies, progression, ambience.
dubstep can take on the feel of almost any genre.
whether you like grungey punk guitars,
or psychedelic acid twisted synthesizers,
or dub reggae skankin roots style,
or euphoric female vocals,
or dirty filthy insanely overdriven and wobbletastic nastiness...
theres something there for you.
the issue like any genre is finding what you like.
dubstep is the first entirely new electronic genre for many years, and as such is subject to a unique problem that, as a music producer, I had not encountered before. That problem is READILY AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY!
the average decent computer and the average production software like fl studio, reason, ableton, cubase etc are all perfectly up to the task of producing music without the need for too much in the way of hardware, studio equipment, experience, knowledge, taste or decency!!
As such, every man and his dog has had a crack at knocking out some aural monstrosity.
not only that, but the advances in online sharing/posting/uploading mean that the music doesn't have to be approved and realesed by a sound engineer/record label either, hence the fact that there is A LOT of rubbish out there.
to some extent in the mid ninetees for example, whne i was producing acid techno or jungle...
you needed hardware,
experienced mates,
a lot of time,
to create a cd/tape,
send it off to a million labels,
work on the advice by the ones that bothered to reply,
and then your shit was mastered and cut to vinyle by a professional, and released properly..
this whole process meant that, whilst "taste" was subjective, the majority of music was well produced at least.
dubstep - not always the case.
Having said that,
some of the best music production ive ever heard in my life, has come out of the dubstep scene....
if you like epic female vocal remixes listen here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2XmLcnYSwQ
if you like representing the roots of dub and reggae listen here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFO0374z3IY
if you like classic simpe catchy driving sub bass listen here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6rAva-j5AM&feature=related
if you like impressive sound production/ D n B style synthesizers and bass listen here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMdXkKLGFG8
if you like to really chill it out with classical strings and bass listen here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLyxHGtFBZY
if you like to destroy your sub and damage the foundations of your entire street listen here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn8AU15VJzI
if you want to know what may be next up and around the corner?
perhaps the official birth of the sub genre "dub hop"?
all credit, or at least a smudge of it to me lol.
my latest unfinished and unmastered and fresh efforts of the weekend in the studio are here...
http://soundcloud.com/bigman-productions/dubhop
if you really want to know more about dubstep,
where it came from,
when it happened,
which of us were involved,
what the "real" scene is like,
why it is good,
and why you like it...
check out a wicked documentary called bassweight here.
it speaks for itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udKX7mZcpbI
