Editing King Tubby

{{Short description|Jamaican sound engineer (1941-1989)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name                = King Tubby
| image               = King Tubby.jpg
| caption             =
| image_size          = <!-- Only for images narrower than 220 pixels -->
| background          = non_performing_personnel
| birth_name          = Osbourne Ruddock
| alias               =
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=yes|1941|1|28}}
| birth_place         = 
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=yes|1989|2|6|1941|1|28}}
| origin              = [[Kingston, Jamaica]]
| death_place         = Kingston, Jamaica
| instrument          =
| genre               = {{flat list|
*[[Reggae]]
*[[Dub music|dub]]
}}
| occupation          = {{flat list|
*[[Audio engineering|Sound engineer]]
*[[Record producer|producer]]
}}
| years_active        = 1968–1989
| label               = Firehouse, Kingston 11, Waterhouse, Taurus
| associated_acts     =
| website             =
}}

'''Osbourne Ruddock''' (28 January 1941 – 6 February 1989), better known as '''King Tubby''', was a Jamaican [[Audio engineering|sound engineer]] who influenced the development of [[dub music]] in the 1960s and 1970s.<ref>{{cite news|last=Stratton|first=Jeff|title=Dub from the Roots|url=http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2005-03-03/music/dub-from-the-roots/|newspaper=Miami New Times|date=3 March 2005|access-date=30 April 2016|archive-date=21 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054941/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2005-03-03/music/dub-from-the-roots/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="LarkinGE">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|pages=1380/1}}</ref>

Tubby's studio work, in which as a [[mixing engineer]] he achieved creative fame previously only reserved for composers and musicians, was influential across many genres of popular music. He is often cited as the inventor of the concept of the [[remix]] that later became ubiquitous in dance and [[electronic music]] production. Singer [[Mikey Dread]] stated, "King Tubby truly understood sound in a scientific sense. He knew how the circuits worked and what the electrons did. That's why he could do what he did".<ref name="Music">{{cite book
| first= Paul
| last= Du Noyer
| year= 2003
| title= The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music
| edition= 1st
| publisher= Flame Tree Publishing 
| location= Fulham, London
| isbn= 1-904041-96-5
| pages= 356–357}}</ref>

==Career==
In the late 1950s, Jamaican [[Reggae sound system|sound system]]s were becoming popular in [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]] and were developing into enterprising businesses. A radio repairman, Tubby found frequent work for the sound systems, as the tropical weather of the Caribbean island (often combined with sabotage by rival sound system owners) led to malfunctions and equipment failure.<ref name="Thompson">Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, {{ISBN|0-87930-655-6}}, pp. 138–141</ref> Tubby owned an electrical repair shop on Drumalie Avenue, Kingston, that fixed televisions and radios.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> He built large amplifiers for the local sound systems.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> In 1961–62 he built his own radio transmitter and briefly ran a pirate radio station playing [[ska]] and [[rhythm and blues]] which he soon shut down when he heard that the police were looking for the pirate broadcasters.<ref>"[https://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/dancehallafterdark/jammy.shtml King Jammy interview]", [[BBC]], 2005. Retrieved 30 April 2016</ref> Tubby eventually formed his own sound system, Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi, in 1958.<ref name="Thompson" /><ref name="Bonitto">Bonitto, Brian (2012) "[http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/King-Tubby--the-sound-creator_11886528 King Tubby, the sound creator] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130202731/http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/King-Tubby--the-sound-creator_11886528 |date=30 January 2021 }}", ''[[Jamaica Observer]]'', 6 July 2012, retrieved 13 July 2012</ref> It was popular due to the high quality of his equipment, exclusive releases and Tubby's own [[Echo (phenomenon)|echo]] and [[reverb]] sound effects, at that point a [[novelty]] which had not been created outside of a studio setting.<ref name="LarkinGE"/><ref name="Bradley">{{cite book |last1=Bradley |first1=Lloyd |title=Reggae: The Story of Jamaican Music |date=2002 |publisher=BBC Worldwide |location=London, UK |isbn=0563488077 |page=32-33}}</ref> The sound also launched the career of [[U-Roy]], its featured [[Deejay (Jamaican)|toaster]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Masouri |first1=John |title=Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley's Wailers |date=2009 |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-0857120359 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rq_7iIvMvYgC&q=u-roy+and+king+tubbys+hometown+hifi&pg=PT200 |access-date=22 June 2020}}</ref>

===Remixes===
Tubby began working as a disc cutter for producer [[Duke Reid]] in 1968.<ref name="Thompson" /> Reid, one of the major figures in early Jamaican music alongside rival [[Coxsone Dodd|Clement "Coxsone" Dodd]], ran [[Treasure Isle]] studios, one of Jamaica's first independent production houses, and was a key producer of [[ska]], [[rocksteady]] and eventually [[reggae]] recordings. Before the advent of dub, most Jamaican 45s featured an instrumental version of the main song on the flipside, which was called the "version". When Tubby was asked to produce versions of songs for sound system MCs or [[Deejay (Jamaican)|toasters]], he initially worked to remove the vocal tracks with the faders on Reid's mixing desk, but soon discovered that the various instrumental tracks could be accentuated, reworked and emphasised through the settings on the mixer and early effects units.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> In time, Tubby began to create wholly new pieces of music by shifting the emphasis in the instrumentals, adding sounds and removing others and adding various special effects, like extreme delays, echoes, reverb and phase effects.<ref name="Music"/> Partly due to the popularity of these early [[remix]]es, in 1971, Tubby's soundsystem consolidated its position as one of the most popular in Kingston and Tubby decided to open a studio of his own in Waterhouse in 1971, initially using a [[Multitrack recording|4-track]] mixer purchased from [[Byron Lee]]'s Dynamic studio.<ref name="Thompson" /><ref name="Bonitto" />

===Dub music production===
King Tubby's production work in the 1970s made him one of the best-known celebrities in [[Jamaica]], and generated interest in his production techniques from producers, sound engineers and musicians across the world. Tubby built on his knowledge of electronics to repair, adapt and design his own studio equipment, which made use of a combination of old devices and new technologies to produce a studio capable of the precise, atmospheric sounds which would become Tubby's trademark. With a variety of effects units connected to his mixer, Tubby "played" the mixing desk like an instrument, bringing instruments and vocals in and out of the mix to create an entirely new genre known as dub music.<ref name="Music"/> By the end of 1971 he was already providing dub mixes for producers such as [[Glen Brown]] and [[Lee "Scratch" Perry]].<ref name="Thompson" />

Using existing [[Multitrack recording|multitrack]] master tapes—his small studio in fact had no capacity to record session musicians—Tubby re-taped, or "dubbed", the original after passing it through his 12-channel, custom-built [[MCI (audio)|MCI]] mixing desk, twisting the songs into unexpected configurations which highlighted the heavy rhythms of their bass and drum parts with minute snatches of vocals, horns, piano and organ.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> These techniques mirrored the actions of the sound system selectors (reggae [[disc jockey]]s), who had long used [[Equalization (audio)|EQ]] equipment to emphasise certain aspects of particular records, but Tubby used his custom-built studio to take this technique into new areas, often transforming a hit song to the point where it was almost unrecognisable from the original version. One unique aspect of his remixes or dubs was the result of creative manipulating of the built-in [[high-pass filter]] on the MCI mixer he had bought from Dynamic Studios. The filter was a [[Parametric equalization|parametric EQ]] which was controllable by a large knob—a.k.a. the "big knob"—which allowed Tubby to introduce a dramatic narrowing sweep of any signal, such as the horns, until the sound disappeared into a thin squeal.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yoganathan |first1=Nimalan |last2=Chapman |first2=Owen |title=Sounding Riddims: King Tubby's dub in the context of soundscape composition |journal=[[Organised Sound]] |date=April 2018 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=91–100 |doi=10.1017/S1355771817000310 |id={{ProQuest|2013630290}}}}</ref>

Tubby engineered/remixed songs for Jamaica's top producers such as Lee Perry, [[Bunny Lee]], [[Augustus Pablo]] and [[Vivian Jackson]], that featured artists such as [[Johnny Clarke]], [[Cornell Campbell]], [[Linval Thompson]], [[Horace Andy]], [[Big Joe (reggae)|Big Joe]], [[Delroy Wilson]] and [[Jah Stitch]].<ref name="Thompson" /><ref name="Bonitto" /> In 1973, he added a second 4-track mixer, and built a vocal booth at his studio so he could record vocal tracks onto the instrumental tapes brought to him by various producers.<ref name="Thompson" /> This process is known as "voicing" in Jamaican recording parlance. It is unlikely that a complete discography of Tubby's production work could be created based on the number of labels, artists and producers with whom he worked, and also subsequent repressings of these releases sometimes contained contradictory information.  His name is credited on hundreds of [[B-side]] labels, with the possibility that many others were by his hand yet uncredited, due to similarities with his known work. Several albums of Tubby's dub mixes were released, among the earliest the Perry-produced ''Blackboard Jungle'' and Bunny Lee's ''Dub from the Roots'' (both 1974).<ref name="Thompson" />

His most famous dub and one of the most popular dubs of all time was "[[King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown (song)|King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown]]" from 1974.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 November 2007 |title=1000 albums to hear before you die: Artists beginning with P |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/nov/21/1000tohearbeforeyoudie.pulp |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> The original session was for a [[Jacob Miller (musician)|Jacob Miller]] song called "Baby I Love You So", which featured [[Bob Marley]]'s drummer [[Carlton Barrett]] playing a traditional [[one drop rhythm]]. When Tubby completed the dub, which also featured Augustus Pablo on [[melodica]], Barrett's drums regenerated several times and created a totally new rhythm which was later tagged "rockers". This seminal track later also appeared on Pablo's 1976 album ''[[King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown]]''.

By the later part of the 1970s, King Tubby had mostly retired from music, still occasionally mixing dubs and tutoring a new generation of artists, including [[King Jammy]] and perhaps his greatest protege, Hopeton Brown a.k.a. [[Scientist (musician)|Scientist]].<ref name="Thompson" /> In the 1980s, he built a new, larger studio in the Waterhouse neighbourhood of Kingston with increased capabilities, and focused on the management of his labels Firehouse, Waterhouse, Kingston 11, and Taurus, which released his productions of [[Anthony Red Rose]], [[Sugar Minott]], Conroy Smith, King Everald and other popular musicians.<ref name="Thompson" /><ref name="Bonitto" />

==Death==
King Tubby was shot dead on 6 February 1989, outside his home in Duhaney Park, Kingston, upon returning from a session at his Waterhouse studio. His death was believed to be the outcome of a robbery.<ref name="Thompson" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Icon – King Tubby reigns|url=http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080325/ent/ent4.html|newspaper=Jamaica Gleaner News|date=25 March 2008|access-date=30 April 2016}}</ref>

==Discography==
===With [[Augustus Pablo]]===
*''[[Ital Dub]]'' (1974, Starapple/[[Trojan Records]])
*''[[King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown]]'' (1976, Yard Music/Clocktower Records)
*''[[Original Rockers]]'' (1979, Rockers International/[[Greensleeves Records]]/[[Shanachie Records]])
*''[[Rockers Meets King Tubby in a Firehouse|Rockers Meets King Tubbys in a Firehouse]]'' (1980, Yard Music/Shanachie)

===With [[The Aggrovators]]===
*''Shalom Dub'' (1975, Klik)
*''Dubbing in the Backyard'' (1982, Black Music)

===With [[Prince Jammy]]===
*''[[His Majesty's Dub|His Majestys Dub]]'' (1983, Sky Juice)

===With Prince Jammy and [[Scientist (musician)|Scientist]]===
*''First, Second and Third Generation of Dub'' (1981, KG Imperial)

===With [[Lee "Scratch" Perry]]===
*''[[Upsetters 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle]]'' (a.k.a. ''Blackboard Jungle Dub'') (1973, [[Upsetter Records (Jamaican record label)|Upsetter Records]])
*''King Tubby Meets the Upsetter at the Grass Roots of Dub'' (1974, Fay Music/Total Sounds)

===With [[Bunny Lee]]===
*''Dub from the Roots'' (Total Sounds, 1974, Total Sounds)
*''Creation of Dub'' (1975, Total Sounds)
*''The Roots of Dub'' (a.k.a. ''Presents the Roots of Dub'') (1975, Grounation/Total Sounds)

===With [[Yabby You]]===
*''[[King Tubby Meets Vivian Jackson]]'' (a.k.a. ''Chant Down Babylon'' and ''Walls Of Jerusalem'') (1976, Prophet)
*''King Tubby's Prophecy of Dub'' (a.k.a. ''Prophecy of Dub'') (1976, Prophets)

===Other collaborations===
*[[Niney the Observer]] – ''Dubbing with the Observer'' (1975, Observer/Total Sounds)
*[[Harry Mudie]] – ''In Dub Conference Volumes One, Two & Three'' (1975, 1977 & 1978 Moodisc Records)
*[[Larry Marshall (singer)|Larry Marshall]] – ''Marshall'' (1975, Marshall/Java Record)
*[[Roots Radics]] – ''Dangerous Dub'' (1981, Copasetic)
*Waterhouse Posse – ''King Tubby the Dubmaster with the Waterhouse Posse'' (1983, Vista Sounds)
*[[Sly & Robbie]] – ''Sly and Robbie Meet King Tubby'' (1984, Culture Press)

===Compilations===
*King Tubby & The Aggrovators – ''Dub Jackpot'' (1990, Attack)
*King Tubby & Friends – ''Dub Gone Crazy - The Evolution of Dub at King Tubby's 1975-1979'' (1994, Blood & Fire)
*King Tubby & The Aggrovators & Bunny Lee – ''Bionic Dub'' (1995, Lagoon)
*King Tubby & The Aggrovators & Bunny Lee – ''Straight to I Roy Head 1973–1977'' (1995, Lagoon)
*King Tubby & Scientist – ''At Dub Station'' (1996, Burning Sounds)
*King Tubby & Scientist – ''In a World of Dub'' (1996, Burning Sounds)
*King Tubby & [[Glen Brown]] – ''Termination Dub (1973-79)'' (1996, Blood & Fire)
*King Tubby & [[Soul Syndicate]] – ''Freedom Sounds In Dub'' (1996, Blood & Fire)
*King Tubby & Friends - ''Crucial Dub'' (2000, Delta)
*King Tubby & The Aggrovators – ''Foundation of Dub'' (2001, Trojan)
*King Tubby – ''Dub Fever'' (2002, Music Digital)
*African Brothers Meet King Tubby – ''In Dub'' (2005, Nature Sounds)
*King Tubby - ''Hometown Hi-Fi (Dubplate Specials 1975-1979)'' (2013, Jamaican Recordings)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040820063704/http://www.roots-archives.com/artist/17 Discography] at Roots Archives
*[http://xraymusic.co.uk/ Discography of 1970's recordings & dub sources] at X Ray Music
*{{discogs artist|25872|King Tubby}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tubby, King}}
[[Category:1941 births]]
[[Category:1989 deaths]]
[[Category:Musicians from Kingston, Jamaica]]
[[Category:Dub musicians]]
[[Category:Jamaican record producers]]
[[Category:Jamaican sound systems]]
[[Category:Jamaican reggae musicians]]
[[Category:Trojan Records artists]]
[[Category:People murdered in Jamaica]]