have been producing and mixing all sorts of music from country to metal over the last 30 years, but recently i got more into reggae again.
not so much modern digital dancehall, but more roots and dub.
beeing without an own studio space for over two years now (but that will forunately change in the near future, when my new room is finished) there was not so much opportunity to record real drums or horn sections, so i did improve on my programming skills in the meantime.
all the recent tracks on my soundcloud are roots or dub tracks as i was in a producing frenzy over the last few months.
bass and guitars are real most of the time, especially the skank wich is very hard to do a convincing sound digital only.
most modern digital dancehall is very reduced and sparse arrangements, so the quality and layering of the source sounds is crucial. start with strong sounds already and try to make them impact the most you can. yes and the bass has to be phat even if it is just a one note bassline.
to get that oldschool massive bass try using a fingerstyle p-bass or jazz-bass sound with an tube amp with very high gain but then play the notes very lightly to not trigger the distortion too much. if you then make that bass louder it will be very low and phat.
peace, jo
some of my music and some tracks i have mixed:
https://soundcloud.com/blackcapsound
