OK, I, and I mean no offence to anybody here, actually have experiance recording reggae a lot of the time. It is one of my favorite types of music, and for 2 years, I did nothing but reggae. FIRST, I need to know what type of reggae you are trying to record. Rocksteady (alton ellis, desmond dekker), Early Reggae (toots and the maytals, early bob marley and the wailers), Roots Reggae (Bob Marleys Get Up Stand Up, I shot the Sheriff), Dub (lee scratch perry), 80's Dancehall (Sister Nancy, Sly and Robbie), or 90's Rancehall (sean paul, chaka demus and pliers). I can tell you what I know about recording any of these things. I have the most experiance recording rockesteady and early reggae styles, but ive done dub and dancehall styles aswell, and can let you know what ive learned.
Im assuming you are trying to record organically using real instruments. Ok, there are a few essential things that make a reggae sound.
1) One Drop: Ok, this has nothing to do with recording, but playing style. One drop is removing the first peat of the measure. In most reggae styles, with some exceptions, you will often hear nothing but the tick of a high hatt on the first beat. Listen for it nd you'll know what i mean. Too many people bastardise reggae and call what they're playing reggae, its not, its ugly. Learn the one drop.
2) Acented 3: Reggae drummers play the kick on the 3, doubled up most often with a rim click. NOT THE ONE! there are exceptions, but few that are still good. VERY Essential.
3) Guitar Skank: The upstroaking of a guitar is called the skank in reggae. There are many ways of skanking, not just on the 2 and the 4 like many think (although this is accepted). You will often hear in a 1-2-3-4- pattern skanking on the -2-, and the -4-, that's "and two and" "and four and". Heres an
Example. Notice how the first "and" is more accented, the following 2 are a lot more muted. You will also hear quick double shots on the "two and" and "four and" in a lot of reggae. Heres an
example.
Notice how muted it is, the chourd is barely distiguishable. Dont be afraid to just hold your hands on the strings, without even pressing them down, it does the trick. Also, DONT Use reverb on your skanks. I dont know what that guy was talking about. There are exceptions, but generally you want your skanks dry and percussive. There are some early reggae songs with one guitar doing dry 3 stoke skanks, and another really reverby one doing singles on the 2 and 4, you can mess around, but generally reggae is pretty dry (unless its dub, whole new ballgame). The lead guitar in reggae, often plays single notes, and does lots of fancy .... stuff, i dont know how to describe it, just
listen to this.
4) Organ Bubble: you need a real hammond organ to get a "good" bubble, You can find cheap ones like L-100s or M3's (i have both). next best thing is a nord hammond clone, but reggae does and always has contained organs from all different makes and persuasions, your grandmas cheapo yamaha, or your ungles 80's roland might even have something usable. A typical organ in reggae will usually do something opposite of, but complimentary to what the guitar skank is doing. For example, the guitar will be doing a 3 stroke "and two and" "and four and", with the first "and" in each group being accented, the organ will be doing the same pattern, but instead accent the "two" and the "four" . If you are able to use a hammond, or a nord, or a good organ knockoff, set the drawbars so that it's mostly low frequencies, makes for a bubbly sound, hence why it's called that.
Heres an example, fast foreward to 0:30, the song cuts to just organ and guitar, you can hear exactly how it should be. Note how the guitar and organ do different things.
5) Recording: Reggae originates in a poor country, the recording equipment used was primal in most cases. For drums, tune your kit like a jazz kit, tighten your snare like a timbale, and place one mic in front of the kit. If you can record to tape do it, if not, just use a good tape emulator (
download the free massey plugin "tape head"). For a long time, reggae all came out in mono, so if you like you can mix it that way. You don't have to do this, but i have best result putting mutes on the bass before recording it, makes for a big dead tone often found on reggae. Stuff a spnge under your strings near the bridge, or if you can use a rickenbacker, they are surprizingly good for reggae bass (they have built in mutes). PLAY WITH YOUR FINGERS. Also, eq the bass freqs overtly high in the low end, its how its done. Don't use chorus like that guys up there are saying. If you want to add reverb to anything its vocals, thats how it was often done,
listen to this.. Notice how the whole band is incredibly dry, the vocals are wet, and also have delay added. Which reminds me, you can experiment with adding delay do the dry guitar skank.
6) LISTEN TO REGGAE: Most important step. There's no trick to recording reggae, the pioneers of it just went for it, so can you. The magic is in the music itself. It is extremely unique in its execution and is unlike any other form of music. Listen to it, know it, live it breath it. Try and understand what the players are doing. The one drop isnt the only thing the drummer does that makes a reggae sound, theres a lot to learn. Practice the guitar skanking. I was the same as you when i first started recording reggae, didnt satisfy me, but i was sloppy and all over the place, and i thought you only went up on the 2 and 4. Wrong. LISTEN
Best of luck to you. Hope that helped.
Assuming you do know how to play reggae-style guitar, all you need is a decent guitar and tube amp. No, I take that back -- you can get away with just about any guitar and amp when it comes to reggae. What you are probably missing are the effects: Reggae guitarists really dress up those upstrums, as they can be a bit plain sounding. Lots of chorus, some reverb, even some delay on various segments of songs. But go crazy with the chorus. And remember, it's about feel, not about flawless technique. Try to focus on the playing too much, and you'll get bored, try to make the part too complicated, and it will end up sounding like crap.
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