Yeah, technology has passed me by in this regard.
Traditionally though, prior to easy-to-cut plastics, plates were cut on acetate coated metal plates, the same plates used to create master plates for pressing finished vinyl records. They were always sized larger than the actual finished record would be; hence, a 14" plate for a 12" record, 12" plate for 10" record, 10" plate for 7" record. 10" plates tended to be the size of choice for working DJs cutting dubs. Before digital took over, carrying a stack of plates through airports or even just to gigs could be a serious thing. They weigh tons.
The culture goes back to Jamaica, where it started. Producers would create actual dub versions of their songs and cut those on to acetates, thereby allowing the sound system to have exclusive versions of songs; songs that were generally already well-known. That’s more or less how “dub” and “version” came to be part of the vernacular.
As much as all the music touched on here owes lots to people spanning a range from Brian Eno to Stockhausen to Messiaen, Reich, Buchla, et al, in my mind, people like King Tubby and Lee Perry are as much responsible for electronic music and the philosophy of studio-as-instrument as anyone else. There are even a few relatively early Perry dubs that sound almost eerily like Detroit techno antecedents. One was even liberally sampled by Carl Craig–sorry, can’t remember track names right now.
