MidnightArrakis
Well-known member
Back in May of 1979, I met up with Paul Buff of ALLISON Research, the designer of the "Gain-Brain" comp/limiter at the "63rd AES Convention". ALLISON Research and Mr. Buff were there at this AES Convention to introduce the new "Gain-Brain 2" as they were discontinuing the original "Gain-Brain". For those who may not know and/or remember, the "Gain-Brain" was available as an up to 16-Channel unit housed in a 4U rack-chassis with each individual channel sliding into a card-cage assembly. Pretty slick for its time.
Because ALLISON Research was discontinuing the original "Gain-Brain" in favor of the new "Gain-Brain 2", Mr. Buff both agreed to and had no qualms about selling to me 2 bare PCB's of the original "Gain-Brain" with no components for $25!!! I thought that that was a terrific deal even then!!! Those original "Gain-Brain" PCB's were -- single-sided -- layouts that were manually hand-designed, probably by Mr. Buff himself.
Since at that point in time in my audio design engineering career I was just beginning to get into and learn about the process of designing PCB's on my own, as soon as these PCB's arrived at where I lived at the time, I immediately went about the process of "Reverse-Engineering" the "Gain-Brain" PCB on a large hand-built "light-table" I had built specifically to design PCB's at home. When I had that process completed, I took my PCB artwork to a local PCB-fabricator and had 12 PCB's fabricated. I then took 2 of the PCB's and created a "Stereo Gain-Brain" in a 1U rack-chassis that I still have even today!!!
What all of this -- rambling -- is leading up to is.....now that I design rack-mount chassis and PCB's using modern CAD-design programs, I have often thought of replicating the original "Gain-Brain" schematic using my CAD-design software and then designing a 1U rack-chassis that could house either 8 individual channels or 4 - Stereo Pairs of "Gain-Brain" comp/limiting. My idea being somewhat akin to that of what "Pucho" is thinking of doing.
But.....I have often thought that maybe "Valley People" (the new ALLISON Research company) just might come knocking at my door with some kind of legal action. However, I have also thought that: 1) I was personally sold the original PCB's by the then-owner of the original company, 2) The "Gain-Brain" was considered -- discontinued -- back in 1979 and, 3) The "Gain-Brain" has not been in production for over 40-years, 4) My creation of the schematic, the PCB's, the rack-chassis sheet-metal design and other details would all be of my "work" and would not be similar to the original product in any way, shape or form!!! And.....5) During my various hopping trips across the Internet, I have come across some other audio forums where their members still favor the comp/limiting action and sound of the "Gain-Brain" and have expressed a desire to purchase one.....-- IF -- they were still available. Ergo.....my interest in fulfilling a possible need. But, I don't wanna get sued!!!
Any ideas???
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Because ALLISON Research was discontinuing the original "Gain-Brain" in favor of the new "Gain-Brain 2", Mr. Buff both agreed to and had no qualms about selling to me 2 bare PCB's of the original "Gain-Brain" with no components for $25!!! I thought that that was a terrific deal even then!!! Those original "Gain-Brain" PCB's were -- single-sided -- layouts that were manually hand-designed, probably by Mr. Buff himself.
Since at that point in time in my audio design engineering career I was just beginning to get into and learn about the process of designing PCB's on my own, as soon as these PCB's arrived at where I lived at the time, I immediately went about the process of "Reverse-Engineering" the "Gain-Brain" PCB on a large hand-built "light-table" I had built specifically to design PCB's at home. When I had that process completed, I took my PCB artwork to a local PCB-fabricator and had 12 PCB's fabricated. I then took 2 of the PCB's and created a "Stereo Gain-Brain" in a 1U rack-chassis that I still have even today!!!
What all of this -- rambling -- is leading up to is.....now that I design rack-mount chassis and PCB's using modern CAD-design programs, I have often thought of replicating the original "Gain-Brain" schematic using my CAD-design software and then designing a 1U rack-chassis that could house either 8 individual channels or 4 - Stereo Pairs of "Gain-Brain" comp/limiting. My idea being somewhat akin to that of what "Pucho" is thinking of doing.
But.....I have often thought that maybe "Valley People" (the new ALLISON Research company) just might come knocking at my door with some kind of legal action. However, I have also thought that: 1) I was personally sold the original PCB's by the then-owner of the original company, 2) The "Gain-Brain" was considered -- discontinued -- back in 1979 and, 3) The "Gain-Brain" has not been in production for over 40-years, 4) My creation of the schematic, the PCB's, the rack-chassis sheet-metal design and other details would all be of my "work" and would not be similar to the original product in any way, shape or form!!! And.....5) During my various hopping trips across the Internet, I have come across some other audio forums where their members still favor the comp/limiting action and sound of the "Gain-Brain" and have expressed a desire to purchase one.....-- IF -- they were still available. Ergo.....my interest in fulfilling a possible need. But, I don't wanna get sued!!!
Any ideas???
/
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