Dub Chord Rack
Instrument Rack for dub techno / dub reggae stabs — Analog and Operator chord chains into Echo and Auto Filter, with macros for Filter, Dub Send, Decay, Detune, Darkness and a momentary Throw.
The dub chord is a short minor stab that lives mostly in its own delay tail. This rack gives you the stab (an Analog chain for the warm detuned body and an Operator chain for the glassy top) and the dub treatment in the same device: an Auto Filter that you ride, an Echo whose feedback and send level you throw, and a Darkness macro that pulls the whole thing into the murk. It assumes a MIDI Chord device in front so you play one note; the stab itself is a stacked minor 7th or 9th. Use it for dub techno, dub reggae, deep house, dub-leaning trip-hop and ambient; the Throw macro is built for Push pads or a momentary CC button. BPM assumption: 122 for dub techno, 70–75 for reggae.
Layout
How it's built
- Create an outer Instrument Rack with one chain. Inside that chain, put an inner Instrument Rack (the two synth chains) followed by the dub effects. Nesting this way lets the outer rack’s macros reach both the synths and the effects; the outer rack is what you save.
- Inner rack, chain Body: MIDI Chord device first: Shift 1 +3 st, Shift 2 +7, Shift 3 +10, Shift 4 +14 (minor 9th voicing). Velocity for shifts 3 and 4 at 80% so the extensions sit under the triad. Then Analog: Osc 1 Saw, level 0 dB; Osc 2 Saw, Fine +7 ct (Detune macro raises it), level −2 dB. Filter 1 LP 24, 1.8 kHz, Res 15%, envelope amount +40%, Filter env A 2 ms, D 180 ms, S 0, R 100. Amp 1 env A 2 ms, D 220 ms, S 0, R 150 ms. Polyphony 8.
- Chorus-Ensemble after Analog: Classic, Rate 0.4 Hz, Amount 25%, Width 60%, Dry/Wet 35%. EQ Eight: low cut 24 dB/oct 160 Hz — the stab must leave the sub and kick alone. If you are keying a bass under it, go to 200 Hz.
- Inner rack, chain Glass: same Chord settings. Operator algorithm B→A, Osc A Sine, Osc B Sine Coarse 3 (a twelfth above) at −22 dB, Tone 60%. Amp env A 1 ms, D 160 ms, S 0, R 120. Osc B envelope with its own Decay 90 ms so the FM brightness dies before the body — that is the “ping” on the stab. Then Auto Pan-Tremolo (12.3) in Tremolo mode, synced 1/8T, Amount 20%, shape sine, for the slight shimmer. EQ Eight low cut 400 Hz, low pass 9 kHz.
- Key zones C1–C5 on both inner chains; chain volumes Body −3 dB, Glass −9 dB.
- After the inner rack (still inside the outer chain), Auto Filter: LP, slope 24, circuit MS2, 2 kHz, Resonance 20%, Drive 10%. LFO off. Envelope follower off. This filter is for your hand, not for an LFO.
- Echo: mode Ping Pong, Sync on, Left 3/16, Right 3/16 (so the pong is symmetric), Feedback 45%, Input gain 0 dB, Dry/Wet 30%. In the Echo tab: filter HP 200 Hz, LP 3.5 kHz. Modulation: Rate 0.3 Hz, Filter mod 10%, Delay mod 0. Character: Noise 5%, Wobble 10%, Gate off, Duck 30% (the tail drops while you play, rises when you stop — very dub). Reverb amount 20%, Decay 2 s, Loop (reverb inside the feedback path) on.
- Saturator Soft Sine, Drive 4 dB, Soft Clip on, then Utility with Bass Mono at 150 Hz, Width 110%.
- Macro 1 Filter: Auto Filter Frequency Min 180 Hz, Max 9 kHz. Macro 2 Dub Send: Echo Dry/Wet Min 10, Max 75%; Echo Reverb amount Min 10, Max 50%. As you push the send up, the tail also gets wetter — one knob reads as “more dub”. Feedback is deliberately left for the Throw macro, because a Live parameter can only be mapped to one macro.
- Macro 3 Decay: Analog Amp 1 Decay Min 80 ms, Max 1200 ms; Operator Amp Decay Min 60, Max 900 ms. Short for the Rhythm & Sound style stab, long for a pad-like chord swell.
- Macro 4 Detune: Analog Osc 2 Fine Min 0, Max +22 ct; Chorus-Ensemble Amount Min 10, Max 60%.
- Macro 5 Darkness: Echo LP filter Min 6 kHz, Max 900 Hz (inverted); Analog Filter 1 Frequency Min 2.5 kHz, Max 500 Hz (inverted). Turning it up makes the stab duller and every repeat duller still.
- Macro 6 Throw: Echo Feedback Min 45, Max 95%; Echo Input gain Min 0, Max +6 dB. At rest the delay runs at a polite 45%; pressing Throw slams the current stab into the line 6 dB hotter and lets it circulate near runaway, with the reverb inside the loop blooming on every pass. That is the point of Throw and the reason it must be momentary.
- Make Throw momentary: in MIDI Map mode assign it to a pad or button on a controller that sends a CC with value 127 on press and 0 on release (Push 3 pads in User mode, or any pad controller set to CC momentary). A note-mapped pad would toggle instead. On release the loop decays at 45% feedback.
- Exclude Throw and Dub Send from randomization — randomizing feedback to 80% mid-set is a runaway. Store Macro Variations: Dry stab (Filter 70, Send 10, Decay 25, Detune 30, Darkness 20, Throw 0), Deep (50/55/35/45/60/0), Reggae skank (65/35/15/20/35/0), Washed (30/80/90/60/85/0). Save the outer rack as Dub Chord Rack.
Macro map
| Macro | Device.parameter | Min | Max | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filter | Auto Filter.Frequency | 180 Hz | 9 kHz | The hand-ridden filter is the main dub techno performance gesture. |
| Dub Send | Echo.Dry/Wet / Echo.Reverb amount | 10% / 10% | 75% / 50% | Send amount and tail wetness grow together. |
| Decay | Analog.Amp 1 Decay / Operator.Amp Decay | 80 / 60 ms | 1200 / 900 ms | Stab to swell in one knob. |
| Detune | Analog.Osc 2 Fine / Chorus-Ensemble.Amount | 0 ct / 10% | +22 ct / 60% | Warmth and width without changing the voicing. |
| Darkness | Echo.LP filter / Analog.Filter 1 freq | 6 kHz / 2.5 kHz | 900 Hz / 500 Hz | One knob from present to submerged (both inverted). |
| Throw | Echo.Feedback / Echo.Input gain | 45% / 0 dB | 95% / +6 dB | Momentary push into a near-runaway loop. |
Signal flow notes
Body chain
Glass chain
Dub bus
Dub delay works because the feedback filter is inside the loop. Each pass removes a little more high and low, so a bright stab becomes a mid-range smear by the eighth repeat — the ear hears depth and distance. Echo’s built-in filters sit in the feedback path, which is why no external EQ is needed.
Feedback above 90% with reverb in the loop is self-oscillating — the Throw macro intentionally goes there. Keep the Saturator after Echo with Soft Clip on and a Limiter on the track at −1 dB so a runaway stays loud rather than destructive.
Variations
- Dub techno (122 BPM): as built. Automate Filter over 32 bars, hit Throw on the last beat of each 8-bar phrase. Sidechain the whole track lightly from the kick. See dub techno and dub techno deconstruction.
- Dub reggae skank (72 BPM): Chord voicing +4, +7, +12 (major triad), Decay 10%, Echo time 1/8 dotted, Feedback 55%, replace Chorus-Ensemble with Electric (Rhodes-type) in the Body chain for the organ/piano skank, Darkness 35%. See dub reggae.
- Deep house: Chord +3, +7, +10, +17 (m7 add 11), Decay 50%, Dub Send 25%, Echo in Stereo mode at 1/4 with 30% feedback; swap Analog for Wavetable (Collection > a vintage pad table) for a softer stab. See deep house.
- Trip-hop: Decay 60%, Darkness 70%, add Vinyl Distortion after the Saturator and a Redux at 11 kHz before it. Echo time 1/4 dotted at 90 BPM. See trip-hop.
- Ambient wash: Decay 100%, Dub Send 90%, Darkness 90%, Echo Reverb 80% with Hybrid Reverb (Shimmer, +12 st) on a return. Freeze-and-flatten 8 bars and reverse. See ambient.
Performance notes
- Push: Filter on encoder 1, Dub Send on 2, Darkness on 5. Throw must not be on an encoder — put it on a pad in User mode sending CC momentary, or on a footswitch. If you only have Push, map Throw to the Session Record button’s neighbour in User mode and set the pad to CC.
- Macro vs automation: Filter and Darkness are hand gestures; automate them only for a recorded take. Throw is never automated — if you want it in an arrangement, record the macro movement live and keep the human timing.
- Playing style: one note on the 2 and 4 (techno) or the off-beats (reggae) with the Chord device doing the voicing. Change the root per section rather than the chord shape.
- Tuning systems: if the set uses a non-12-TET tuning (Live 12 Tuning), the Chord device follows it, so the m9 voicing stays in tune with the sub rack. See tuning and scales.
- CPU: Echo with reverb in the loop plus Analog at 8 voices is moderate. Keep polyphony at 4 in a live set — a dub chord rarely needs more.
- Send alternative: for several chord racks sharing one tail, remove Echo from the rack and use the dub delay send rack on a return instead, mapping Dub Send to the track’s send amount.