I didn’t grow up with any of that but I did grow up with Jazz and Blues. Non Jamaicans rarely grew up with influences of traditional African music and that plays a huge part in Reggae. Drummers hit differently, they may push or pull the beat in different ways that affects the whole ensemble. There’s a huge difference in terms of feel when you take a Jamaican recording and put it up against a 1990s Southern California ska or reggae band. The players will make or break your recording. My advice to anyone that wants to record instruments is focus on finding the best players and worry about the equipment later. I also found that it was less about the equipment and more about the players, energy of the vocal groups and the creative ingenuity of the engineers. Other equipment has fell victim to the rise of the vintage gear market and the price gouging that came with the trend. Some of the consoles that were used are left into obscurity or are still kept secret. I did that when I first started and realized that many things were just unobtainable and a waste of my time and a drain on my creativity. When it comes to Reggae music, often times budding engineers will approach it with a sense of recreating the older sounds. Beginning Your Journey Into Recording Reggae
