The last installment of the Ragga renegade series is upon us and we get to finally release some tracks that have had their hooks firmly clamped in our brains for some time now. This is a release that flows through the different ragga spectrums within jungle and delivers a flavor for everyone to cud on.

So we start with a DJ K, famed for his songs that really make you want to move and at times carry an anti-polished venire that gives them such charm and last ability. You really will feel like jumping and be glad to have Marcia’s voice calling out over a jungle setting.
I tried to sign “Look no further” back in 2007 for a release and am really glad I secured it for a vinyl release, it’s a haunting journey of a tune that still gives me goose bumps, a day dreamer’s choice that converts 7 minutes on the hands of time into a matter of seconds.
So as we meander onto the next track by J-Man which truly blew me away when I first got my hands on it. You can’t kill this song, I’ve rinsed it to death, laid it to rest and you awake the next day to find the entrance to the cave is open and it has arisen again. If J-Man can continue with tunes of this caliber he will be one to watch out for.
Closing off the release is my old friend Diamond Geezer, a true gent who can blow the dust off his jungle sound and throw it into onto the bridge of space ship. Keep it Jungle!
 

Taking myself back to getting my first voicing recorded, it was all rather scary and exciting. But after receiving the wav file I found it lacked the punch and atmosphere that I would hear on even the most lo-fi of cassette clash recordings from 30 years ago (At this point if you are a producer, you would probably conclude what needed to be done and do it yourself). Feeling a little miffed I decided to take me grievances back to the chap who organized the session to see what was up (in a polite way of course). He suggested I do what most sounds do, which is to get them mastered and pointed me in the direction of such a person. At first the idea of paying more money on top, and sending away a copy of my prized dub, which was no doubt the best dub in the world (am I the only one that feels like this with everything I do….?) wasn’t ticking over in my train of thought to well. Several hours later the train left the station and the file was sent over. What I received back was a world of difference and I’ve continued to use the service with every other voicing I have had done to date. To share the experience fully I will give some examples of before / after mastering and a small Q&A that I did with Blenda who is the man behind the mastering.

What’s your background in music and how did you first get involved in mastering?

I worked in a record store that specialized in vinyl for 7 years, DJ’ing and producing music on the side. Around 2008 when record sales started to drop I understood that it was time to do something else. I studied sound engineering for 1.5 years, which was probably my best move so far in life. From the beginning the plan was to work on original material and not on dubplates. I was just doing dubplates for friends who were running sound systems until I understood that it actually could be a business. This was in September 2010, I did some email and message board promoting and since then it’s been a full time occupation and I’ve mixed over 1100 dubplates.

What equiptment / software do you use.?

I use Pro Tools, mastering and mixing mostly in the box but with some secret outboard weapons… Most used plugin without competition is the Izotope Ozone, also got a UAD-2 card that I truly love.

What are the most common adjustments that you find you need to make?

Dubplates Cutting 500 Hz is the healing of the nation. You can make whole heap a difference to a dubplate just with some eq and compression.

Is there anything people can do to improve the quality of the dubplate before getting started ?

Tell the engineer that records your dubplate that if he adds any compression/limiter or reverb/delay to the vocals you’ll never work with him again. Heard too many dubs that we’re ruined by clumsy recording engineers and I feel so sorry for the sounds that paid a lot of money for something that sounds terrible. It makes my work more of a “rescue operation” and I can never make the dub sound as a good as if it was a clean recording.

And of course always ask for wav.

Blenda can be found at: blendasound.com

A mix from 2008, clocking in at just under 40mins long.

Inky – Outer The Office (download)