Album review at Dub Flash

Due to my lack of online activity theses last months I've missed the review made by Ralph (Dub Flash) about the first Almighty Dub Records album !

The album received a nice 4/5 rating, and a wonderful detailed review :
KoCha meets Open Dub Foundation 'Worldwide Dub Meeting #1' Review


Take a look at the whole Dub Flash website if you didn't already know it, it's a nice place full of reviews and information about dub music.

And finally, get ready for new releases soon, I finally ended with all personal issues I got, and I'm actually building a new dub project for the Open Dub Foundation.

Still lot of work to do, but this time I'm really moving forward, far from all Babylon's stuffs that took my time this year !

Worldwide Dub Meeting #2 is at work ... Happy new year !

I'm back online !

Three months since my last online activity...

I apologize to all my friends and members of the Open Dub Foundation, but I had some personal issues preventing me to be active online. Lot of things happened during this times, the Versionist community has changed to a new platform (loosing some members, and for sure a part of his soul) and a new collaboration website for reggae musician is open and seems to grow fast (ReggaeDubwise.com).

Lot of mails are unread in my inbox, so it's gonna took time to answer to each people that had send me a message during this time, please let me 1 or 2 week to answer to everyones.

There is to a lot of stuff to do with the records and the Open Dub Foundation :
- Replace all bad link from the old Versionist platform
- Select tracks and publish the new ODF compilation
- Publish new ODF projects
- Publish a tutorial for the Open Dub Virtual Conference
- Organize next Open Dub Virtual Conference
- Mix new riddims and start production on the Almighty Dub Records

So I'm actually starting some of this tasks, and reconnecting with friends and the online reggae-dub community.

Thanks to all friends for them support during theses hard times !

ODVC 20080302

The last virtual conference was a total success, thanks to all who have participate, with a duration of approximately 45min the show had run without network failure, thanks to NetroMedia free broadcast service for that.

Next one is planned 6 April at 7pm (GMT) and as requested by a listener, I will try to do a little workshop after the show to explain how I use my controller and how the controller is linked to the PC software.

The conference was recorded, I just finished upload materials on youtube, enjoy:
ODVC_20080302 #01 - Endless Fighting Dub
ODVC_20080302 #02 - Tolerance Dub
ODVC_20080302 #03 - Unfreeze Dub
ODVC_20080302 #04 - Opening Connection Dub
ODVC_20080302 #05 - Drum Song Dub
ODVC_20080302 #06 - Murcianists Dub

Don't know exactly how many people was attending to the conference (cause I now use a dedicated server, not streaming to everyone directly with my PC, not enough bandwidth for that), but I estimate near 10 users based on feedback I got, don't hesitate to join us for the next one.



I'm gonna made a tutorial to explain how to stream from PC and run virtual conference, hope Don Fe will be able to do a session for the next one.

Conference managment running

I've just spend theses last days coding a whole infrastructure to let ODF members managing virtual conference online.

Registered users can now:
- Edit his availability schedule
- View others availability schedule
- Edit his streaming URL and active it when broadcasting

Anybody visiting the foundation website can now view and listen in live the active open dub virtual conference (if one running of course), join the chat room and talk with everyone else viewing/running the virtual conference.

A first public ODVC is planned this Sunday at 7pm (GMT) more info in the dedicated section:
http://open.reggae-dub.com/odvc

Next to all theses improvements, a new project was added to the foundation; 'Murcianists' is dedicated to all people that made the Murcia gathering possible, don't hesitate to download it and make your own version !

ODVC 20080131

Here is a video shot from the open dub virtual conference done yesterday, special thanks to KayaGardens (Thomas) to have made test with me.

Was able to do a session with 4 clients (has done first test with 3) at same time without so much lag, but need to do a compromise between image quality/fluidity/sound. Using broadcasting technology, number of clients limit is high.

I privileged fluidity and sound, during session I recorded a full track, here is the result, quality is exactly same as if you was watching the conference in live.

This was done as a try out to test technology for streaming, was able to use VLC but without a stream compatible with an other player than VLC, so I used the Windows Media Encoder.

Recorded at home, I haven't Internet access at studio, so the mix is done using digital stuff (MIDI interface controlling PC), doesn't sound same as mixing in studio !

Next step is to build a good infrastructure on ODF to make able anybody join the conference, and give possibility to member to start their own.

New contents for the foundation

I uploaded yesterday a new project on the Open Dub Foundation, this project is based on the 'Drum Song' riddim used to record vocal from 'The Gladiators' some time ago.
Feel free to download the project and do a remix !

I still working on the Open Dub Conference project, actually trying to write a license to avoid any issue while organizing 'real' conference, and building a whole infrastructure to easily start running virtual ones.

Hope to be able to run weekly conference soon, first with only one dubmaster (at same time) streaming his performance to other, and then perhaps start doing live collaboration.

First open dub virtual conference

What a nice preview of the Murcia gathering that doing a Jam with people that I'm going to meet !

Last week I had the honor to take part of the first ever 'Open Dub Virtual Conference', I wanted to make that from long time and Don Fe (Spain) make it real, so many thanks to him.

For me it's really a historical and technical performance, we was able to do a real 'virtual jam' and record it. Don Fe was mixing the dubwise using his digital mixing desk while streaming audio and video threw Skype to me and KayaGardens, then I used my gypsy to play in live on the dub-mix and stream the result to conference participant. Don Fe was able to hear me playing guitar while mixing dubwise, and fortunately latency wasn't too high.

You can listen to the resulting track of the recorded jam here:
Versionist All-Stars - Open Dub Virtual Conference (20080111) - Track 1

The jam was ~5 hours long and we finished it at 2am, many thanks to Irish Moss to had give us some fantastic exclusive mix.

It's a big step for the Open Dub Foundation Conference project, I hope to make available tools to let people synchronize their time of availability and then do music virtually together.

Hoping to be able to make it run using Ninjam instead of Skype.

The 'Dub Discussion Board' is back !

What a surprise to read in my email-box this morning that the Dub Discussion Board is back !

This board was the home for all online dubmasters to share technics during long times (1998-2006), but due to spam problem the website was closed until today.

Now the board is re-open with all archive inside, it's a really good news for all dubmaster that want to share and exchange mixing knowledge.

We are still migrating and organizing knowledge from interruptor.ch and versionist.com on the Open Dub Foundation - Knowledge Base

First open dub conference

The first open dub conference 'down in reality' is planned:

Saturday 08.12.2007 / Sunday 09.12.2007 | Starting at 3pm
Gasthof Ritter, Tuebingen, GERMANY
Dub Jam Conference organized by Rick (Overdubber)

More information

Unfortunately I'm not sure to be able to go to this conference due to family issue ... but hope to resolve it before ...

It's really a nice step forward for the Open Dub Foundation, this bring it to reality and make people able to have pleasure making music together.

Finally a big up for all who made that possible and too to every one that make the reggae/dub community alive by making gathering in past and future (versionist, dubconference,...) !

Dub poetry or the roots of slam

I love dub poetry from long time, the first ever dub album I bought was the 'LKJ in Dub' (recorded in 1981, and bought by myself more than ten years later...) and this was a musical revelation for me.


Then I started listening to Tubby's records and other 70's records, until I found a Prince Far I record made by Adrian Sherwood in 80's... I was shocked by the power of Prince Far I voice, it was like a slam in my face !

Dub poetry is the spoken word version of dub music. For I dub poetry is more related to dub than 'simple reggae', because words get an other power when the music is mixed in a specific way giving voice a strong signification, it's for me the roots of 'today' slam...

I'm actually trying to create a new project about dub poetry, here is some links to get more inside this musical style:

Dub Poetry - Wikipedia article
Dub Poetry Introduction - Nice introduction to dub poetry
Dub Poetry Selection - A selection of dub poetry albums
Dub Poets Collective - Dub poets crew from Canada

Remote dub conference

Just discover this software with the help of versionist community.
NinJam

This software enable musicians to play together using Internet connection.

The problem when doing remote connection to play music is the latency, the solution proposed by ninjam is to use latency measured in measures, and that's what makes it interesting.

Hope to do jam soon !

Opening Dub Connection

I've just uploaded a new project on the Open Dub Foundation.

A preview of the whole song is available for download at versionist.

This song was build using only digital synth (except vocoder samples), it's first time (since I started use traditional instrument) that I make a full digital dub, I hope artists from the foundation are going to enjoy playing with it !

It's a kind of try out to see how can sounds my music in digital style... It was a real pleasure to build this song.

Don't hesitate to download the new project.

Worldwide Dub Meeting #1

The first album from Almighty Dub Records are now released ! and for free !

It's a free net-album containing a compilation of tracks done on the Open Dub Foundation featuring me.

Many thanks to all dub-masters/artists active on the foundation, without them this release simply can't be made !

Tracks aren't mastered so volume can change slightly between tracks.

KoCha meets Open Dub Foundation - Worldwide Dub Meeting #1

It's a debut album, the foundation was created in June, I hope quality are going to get higher with next release.

Openning a foundation riddim

Really good news for the Open Dub Foundation, I've just finished a new riddim based on the Jamaican classic 'Drum Song'.

This riddim was build to provide a base for building some poetry stuff with versionist community using a midi source file from baroque dub (with of course some modification and a whole arrangement).

But more than only a riddim, I'm actually managing to record vocal from a well know Jamaican reggae band.

So I hope to get in few day this vocal and start recording instrument / dub mixing the new track, with Tolerance and the upcoming free album, there's going to be a major update on the website soon !

Album under Creative Commons

I'm actually building a compilation including the work done between I-self and the Open Dub Foundation, this compilation going to be released on Creative Commons.

So I was happy few days ago to read in my mail-box that a release from Hot Drop (ES) is available for free under Creative Commons !

This make me believe I'm going in good direction, and I hope Hot Drop going to accept to publish a remix on the Open Dub Foundation.

Download the whole album

Unfreeze Me

A new project is available on the Open Dub Foundation.

I'm really happy to present the first project that wasn't created by me !

The instrumental was created by Ackboo, then I added a solo guitar part using my cheap gypsy guitar (that sounds terrible), but I was at home without good mic so I used a piezo.
After hearing the recording, I found that the sound was bad so I made lot of EQ/Compression and then I added a amp sim making my acoustic gypsy guitar sounding like a electric Gibson in a Marshal amp.

This is an improvisation and I was tired so lot's of little mistake in the solo :

Open Dub Foundation - Unfreeze Me

Hope you enjoy this roots digital steppa.

Baroque Dub

I just found few days ago a enormous source of Jamaican foundation riddim, this is a part of the 'Baroque Dub' net label :

Midi Reggae Riddims

This kind of online resource can be really useful for Open Dub Foundation's members.

I plan to build a new project on the Open Dub Foundation using one of the Jamaican foundation riddim available on 'Baroque Dub', if getting success I can build a good collection of foundation dub-source ready to mix !