In the 70's, I started building sound system audio amplifiers. I would then test the amplifier with test instruments to determine how the amplifier was performing. Everything would look normal, but when I played reggae music through the amplifier, it would over heat. The plates of the KT88 would run red, especially when I played a mix from the great King Tubby'sthat had subsonic drum and bass frequencies as well as razor sharp high frequencies I would have to re -bais the KT88 and make other changes in order to accommodate reggae's wide frequency response and high slew rate needs. I noticed when I played other types of music the amplifier would respond normal. I found that to be strange so I used King Tubby's mixes as a platform to ensure that the amplifiers would not break down under extreme conditions. I was fascinated by his exclusive style of mixing and unique sound effects. It was the "Roots of Dub" dub album produced by Bunny Lee that became my favorite test album and also inspired me to want to meet him. One day, I was repairing a television for a friend who had worked for King Tubby's. We needed a transformer and King Tubby's was the only place who had those particular types of transformers I was so excited to meet this brilliant man and considered myself very lucky to have had this opportunity After that, it became a regular place for me to buy special made power and output transformers for the amplifiers that I was building King Tubby's became impressed with my electronic skills and abilities at such a young age. I told him I wanted to build a mixing console, a real joke to him. We joked about making mixing consoles with moving faders and automation. Years later It became a realty in Neve's moving faders and SSL's automation with total recall.

How does Reggae music help the electronic industry?

Back in the late seventies a lot of radio stations' record-mastering plants were scared to play reggae on their equipment because transmitter would over modulate and the record cutting machine would go into protection mode to prevent the high frequencies from burning up the cutting heads. Spider man at Dynamics Studio in Jamaica would have to use extra helium to keep the cutting heads cool. Reggae is like the Indy 500 racing driver to audio equipment whenever an audio system can handle reggae's wide frequency response and high slew rate you know you have a good system. Reggae music pushes audio equipment to the extreme. Back in England and Europe Where reggae is more popular, companies like Tanoy, SSL, Neve, Goodman, Studar and all the major brands dominate our recording industry in the US. They have bin using reggae to final test audio equipment long before us in the USA. A few company in the USA like AST audio in New York uses reggae to show off Crown's superior performance Crown is one of the best amplifier in the world made in USA when ever I use a Crown amplifier I don't have to worry about overheating or the amplifier clipping they can handle a lot of abuse.

Valerie Crawford