Starting points: dub and dub techno settings for Resilio Versio

Here are six classic dub settings to start from, then five characters from dub and dub techno, with a few tips for getting there. From there, move by ear. If you find a setting worth sharing, suggest it and I may add it here, with credit. The Versio has no preset memory, so you’ll set the knobs by hand. In the plugin you can type the values in or save them as presets in your DAW.

Reading the panels. Each starting point shows the panel with its knobs and switches set, and the exact values underneath. Knob values run from 0 (fully left, 7 o’clock) to 1 (fully right, 5 o’clock). Noon is 0.5, and each hour is about 0.1. Each switch is drawn where it’s set, up, centre or down.

WOBBLE is bipolar. At noon it’s still, to the left it drifts like tape, and to the right it’s a vibrato. Most starting points sit just left of noon for a little tape drift. Right of noon, TONE is the “Big Knob” low cut, so the settings that sit there come out a little thinned, and Telephone snare a lot.

On the hardest drum hits, Tubby snare splash, Drowned howl and Valve tank drop can light the output LEDs red. That’s the limiter catching peaks, and it’s normal for those three. Skanks and pads stay clear of it in all the starting points.

Tubby snare splash

Sounds like: the snare thrown into the spring. A bright crack, a loose boing, then a dripping tail of about 2.5 seconds with tape grit.

Play into it: a snare or rimshot, one hit per bar on the backbeat. It works best on a send, with BLEND fully right on a return, so you can ride the send.

Move next: turn TENSION further left and the boing gets bigger and slower. Push TONE further right to thin it out like Tubby’s “Big Knob”, and the snare picks up a nasal ring. Past 3 o’clock, SPLASH gives a much bigger clang, and more DRIVE makes the drips dirtier. For a one-off crash, flip ATTITUDE to VALVE mid-tail.

TANK: 2
ATTITUDE: TAPE
BLEND: 0.45
DECAY: 0.6
TONE: 0.65
SPLASH: 0.7
TENSION: 0.35
WOBBLE: 0.45
DRIVE: 0.5

Skank chord wash

Sounds like: a smooth, dense halo behind offbeat chords. It’s warm and moves a little, and it doesn’t smear the groove.

Play into it: a guitar or organ skank, short stabs on the offbeat.

Move next: if the chords start to blur into each other, bring DECAY down. WOBBLE further left gives a seasick, worn-tape drift, and right of noon a steady vibrato. TANK 1 is a sparser, splashier tank. Or switch TANK to ECHO, set TENSION to dotted 1/8 and skank into the tape echo.

TANK: 2
ATTITUDE: CLEAN
BLEND: 0.35
DECAY: 0.7
TONE: 0.4
SPLASH: 0.2
TENSION: 0.5
WOBBLE: 0.43
DRIVE: 0.25

Tight slap

Sounds like: a short, pingy spring slap, about half a second long. It’s the “amp in a small room” spring, with quick repeats that still sound clearly springy.

Play into it: melodica, vocals, rimshots, or anything busy that a long tail would swamp.

Move next: if it’s too metallic, ease TENSION a little left. Bring BLEND up when you want an obvious slapback, or turn TONE left to sit it behind the source.

TANK: 1
ATTITUDE: CLEAN
BLEND: 0.35
DECAY: 0.05
TONE: 0.6
SPLASH: 0.3
TENSION: 0.9
WOBBLE: 0.45
DRIVE: 0.2

Drowned howl

Sounds like: the tank tipping into its own feedback. You get a rough, siren-like roar that moves around and keeps going after the input stops. It won’t turn into a clean tone.

Play into it: one hit or a dub-siren blip, then stop and ride the knobs.

Move next: ride TONE and TENSION to steer the pitch and colour of the howl, and push WOBBLE further left for more seasickness. When you want out, pull DECAY below about 4 o’clock and it falls back into a normal tail, fading in a second or two. Keep an eye on the output LEDs. Red here means the limiter is holding it.

TANK: 2
ATTITUDE: VALVE
BLEND: 0.8
DECAY: 0.95
TONE: 0.35
SPLASH: 0.5
TENSION: 0.3
WOBBLE: 0.41
DRIVE: 0.6

Valve tank drop

Sounds like: a hard hit landing as if someone kicked the whole tank. There’s a big metallic crash that boings out for about 3.5 seconds, and with one loose spring it stays sparse and splashy.

Play into it: throw the snare or rim on the drop, the one before the bass comes back in. Hold the button (or send a gate) for just that hit.

Move next: try a gate sequence for rhythmic throws. With DECAY past 4 o’clock, the crash can build into the howl. TAPE or CLEAN on ATTITUDE gives a softer knock.

TANK: 1
ATTITUDE: VALVE
BLEND: 0.6
DECAY: 0.7
TONE: 0.55
SPLASH: 0.6
TENSION: 0.2
WOBBLE: 0.45
DRIVE: 0.55

Mix-bus spring

Sounds like: a short, dense spring, light enough that you feel it more than hear it, gluing a whole mix together.

Play into it: a submix or a full stereo mix.

Move next: nudge BLEND up or down until you only notice it when it’s off. If the highs get busy, turn TONE left. Keep DRIVE and SPLASH low so peaks stay clean. Pads in the mix are looked after, because the tank turns held sounds down before they reach the limiter.

TANK: 2
ATTITUDE: CLEAN
BLEND: 0.15
DECAY: 0.35
TONE: 0.45
SPLASH: 0.1
TENSION: 0.6
WOBBLE: 0.45
DRIVE: 0.1

Dub and dub techno characters

Dub and dub techno use the same tools in different ways. Roots dub throws single hits into the springs and rides the desk. Dub techno, from Basic Channel onwards, turns chord stabs into long, filtered washes and echoes that sit under a steady kick. Here are a few tips, then five settings to start from.

Use a send. Set BLEND fully right on a return channel and send only what you want soaked, like the snare, a chord stab or a siren. The dry signal stays on its own fader.
Keep the lows out of the tank. TONE a little right of noon keeps the reverb out of the kick and bass, which matters most for dub techno’s long washes. The Hold (DECAY fully up in CLEAN or TAPE) also dips under the kick and bass it hears.
Pick the grit with ATTITUDE. CLEAN suits glassy dub techno beds, and TAPE’s 12-bit grain suits roots dub. For rough, broken-amp dub, VALVE brings 10-bit grit and lopsided saturation. The grit comes before TONE, so turning TONE right thins it too.
Ride, don’t set. Dub engineers played the desk. Treat TONE, DECAY and the throw as moves you make while the track runs.
Clock the echo. Send the gate input one pulse per quarter note from your sequencer (or tap the button), then pick the division with TENSION. Dotted 1/8 sits at about noon, 1/8 at about 1:30 and 1/4 at about 10:30.

Chord stab into the bed

Sounds like: dub techno’s chord and bed. A short stab blooms into a held wash that moves slowly under the track and dips out of the way of the kick.

Play into it: short minor chord stabs, one or two a bar. The bed ducks under the kick and bass that reach the input, so feed it the loop (or a send with the kick in it) if you want it to pump. Send it the chords alone and it simply holds.

Move next: switch ATTITUDE to TAPE for a little grain, or turn TONE further right to keep the bed thin and out of the bass. Below about 4 o’clock on DECAY, the bed fades like a normal tail. A touch more WOBBLE to the left gives it a seasick drift.

TANK: 2
ATTITUDE: CLEAN
BLEND: 0.5
DECAY: 1
TONE: 0.6
SPLASH: 0.1
TENSION: 0.55
WOBBLE: 0.43
DRIVE: 0.25

Echo chord

Sounds like: a chord stab trailing off in dotted-eighth repeats, each one blurring into the springs and getting darker and duller as it goes.

Play into it: short chord stabs with the echo clocked from your sequencer (or tapped in on the button).

Move next: ride TONE slowly left and right for the filter-swept chord. Turn DECAY up for longer trails, and at the very top the repeats hold. For quarter notes and a slower pulse, set TENSION to about 10:30.

TANK: ECHO
ATTITUDE: TAPE
BLEND: 0.5
DECAY: 0.6
TONE: 0.6
SPLASH: 0.15
TENSION: 0.5
WOBBLE: 0.42
DRIVE: 0.3

Telephone snare

Sounds like: the snare’s reverb thinned to a nasal, telephone-like ring. This is the “Big Knob” near its top, where Tubby’s filter turned a snare into a squeak.

Play into it: a snare or rimshot on a send. Ride TONE between noon and fully right as the tail rings.

Move next: try moving TONE in jumps, like the original’s steps, rather than in one smooth sweep. SPLASH past 3 o’clock gives a bigger clang, and VALVE on ATTITUDE puts coarser grit on the ring.

TANK: 1
ATTITUDE: TAPE
BLEND: 1
DECAY: 0.55
TONE: 0.95
SPLASH: 0.75
TENSION: 0.4
WOBBLE: 0.45
DRIVE: 0.5

Murky tape echo

Sounds like: a dark, wobbling tape echo whose repeats smear and bend. It’s the murk of a worn tape echo feeding a spring, as in Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Space Echo dubs.

Play into it: a melodica line, a vocal phrase or a skank. With a clock, TENSION at 1:30 gives eighth notes. Without one, it sets the time freely.

Move next: turn TENSION while the repeats play and they bend like a Space Echo’s rate knob. More WOBBLE to the left makes the tape more seasick, and more DRIVE gives thicker, more saturated repeats.

TANK: ECHO
ATTITUDE: TAPE
BLEND: 0.45
DECAY: 0.7
TONE: 0.3
SPLASH: 0.3
TENSION: 0.65
WOBBLE: 0.3
DRIVE: 0.6

Siren swoop

Sounds like: a dub siren blip that keeps repeating. At the top of DECAY the tape’s saturation holds it, and it warbles and swoops in pitch as you turn TENSION.

Play into it: one short siren or synth blip, then stop and play the knobs.

Move next: without a clock, TENSION swoops smoothly. With one, each step to a new division swoops like tape. Pull DECAY back and the repeats die away, or turn TONE right for a thin, distant siren.

TANK: ECHO
ATTITUDE: VALVE
BLEND: 0.55
DECAY: 0.95
TONE: 0.55
SPLASH: 0.4
TENSION: 0.5
WOBBLE: 0.6
DRIVE: 0.65