matta
Well-known member
[quote author="barclaycon"]Well the originals were Kepex and Gain Brain made by Allison Research and designed to fit in their rack. They were FET-type units.
Paul Buff who designed them (and whose first wife was named Allison) then teamed up with someone else and formed Valley Audio.
He had subsequently developed the Valley People VCA - I think from work done on automation systems such as Little Helper and the Allison mix system (horrible systems!) and when they relaunched Kepex and Gain Brain under the Valley banner (and in a new rack format) they called them Kepex 2 and Gain Brain 2.
As you say, these units used the Valley VCA (EGC 101 I believe).
I feel I am becoming a historian![/quote]
Hi Barclaycon,
Yes you are correct, the first Gain Brain and Kepex were Class A, Discrete designs which fit into the AR racks. Paul then moved to Nashville and merged with Valley Audio and the resultant company was Valley People which introduced the 800 series racks and the later monolithic opamp designed GBII and KII using the same VCA.
Paul left the company in the early 80's and sold it to Norm Baker and my good friend Michael ' Doc' Morgan, who was the product designer and CTO at Valley who ported the Alison stuff across and was responsible for many of the later designs at the same time a name changed occurred and it became known as Valley International.
Sadly due to bad business decsions the company went bankrupt and the assests were sold to different companies and landed up in the hand of Brock at Galaxy Audio who tried to reintroduce some of the products under the Valley Audio name and later closed it again.
The exciting and good news is that I found out earlier this week that Alan Hyatt of PMI Audio (Joe Meek, Toft, Studio Projects etc) have just acquired the assets and hopes to have some of the modules/units back in production by the end of the year.
Here is the Press Release that was issued.
-------------
We are pleased to announce we have acquired the assets of the original Valley People aka Valley Audio company. Valley Audio has been a well respected pro audio company since the 1970's with years of pro audio experience, and was a leader in VCA technology for many years.
I can't think of a hit record in the 1970's, 80's, and 90's that did not have Valley Audio on it. Unfortunately, the company went through some bad years with the selling of the company a few times, and then basically sitting idle for many years under the ownership of Galaxy Audio.
Well, PMI has purchased the company, and we are now in the process of sorting it all out, and will introduce the company again at the end of this year with some familiar models, and some new things as well. We are confident we can bring Valley Audio to market with the same quality and flexibility at an affordable price point.
To me, the Keypex, Gain Brain, MaxiQ, Dynamite and the 401 vocal processor are as effective in today's market as they were in years past. So look for more information on this in the coming months, and we will do our best to get this gear out by AES.
-------------
I called up Alan earlier this week and we chatted about Valley and I've put him back in touch with Doc Morgan and Paul and hopefully we will see some new designs overtime from the Valley 'Brain Children'.
I for one am really happy to see this happening and have confidence that Alan will build the units to the original spec and design.
I'm having lunch with Doc today and so if there are any specific Valley questions post here and I'll try get you and answer.
Cheers
Matt
Paul Buff who designed them (and whose first wife was named Allison) then teamed up with someone else and formed Valley Audio.
He had subsequently developed the Valley People VCA - I think from work done on automation systems such as Little Helper and the Allison mix system (horrible systems!) and when they relaunched Kepex and Gain Brain under the Valley banner (and in a new rack format) they called them Kepex 2 and Gain Brain 2.
As you say, these units used the Valley VCA (EGC 101 I believe).
I feel I am becoming a historian![/quote]
Hi Barclaycon,
Yes you are correct, the first Gain Brain and Kepex were Class A, Discrete designs which fit into the AR racks. Paul then moved to Nashville and merged with Valley Audio and the resultant company was Valley People which introduced the 800 series racks and the later monolithic opamp designed GBII and KII using the same VCA.
Paul left the company in the early 80's and sold it to Norm Baker and my good friend Michael ' Doc' Morgan, who was the product designer and CTO at Valley who ported the Alison stuff across and was responsible for many of the later designs at the same time a name changed occurred and it became known as Valley International.
Sadly due to bad business decsions the company went bankrupt and the assests were sold to different companies and landed up in the hand of Brock at Galaxy Audio who tried to reintroduce some of the products under the Valley Audio name and later closed it again.
The exciting and good news is that I found out earlier this week that Alan Hyatt of PMI Audio (Joe Meek, Toft, Studio Projects etc) have just acquired the assets and hopes to have some of the modules/units back in production by the end of the year.
Here is the Press Release that was issued.
-------------
We are pleased to announce we have acquired the assets of the original Valley People aka Valley Audio company. Valley Audio has been a well respected pro audio company since the 1970's with years of pro audio experience, and was a leader in VCA technology for many years.
I can't think of a hit record in the 1970's, 80's, and 90's that did not have Valley Audio on it. Unfortunately, the company went through some bad years with the selling of the company a few times, and then basically sitting idle for many years under the ownership of Galaxy Audio.
Well, PMI has purchased the company, and we are now in the process of sorting it all out, and will introduce the company again at the end of this year with some familiar models, and some new things as well. We are confident we can bring Valley Audio to market with the same quality and flexibility at an affordable price point.
To me, the Keypex, Gain Brain, MaxiQ, Dynamite and the 401 vocal processor are as effective in today's market as they were in years past. So look for more information on this in the coming months, and we will do our best to get this gear out by AES.
-------------
I called up Alan earlier this week and we chatted about Valley and I've put him back in touch with Doc Morgan and Paul and hopefully we will see some new designs overtime from the Valley 'Brain Children'.
I for one am really happy to see this happening and have confidence that Alan will build the units to the original spec and design.
I'm having lunch with Doc today and so if there are any specific Valley questions post here and I'll try get you and answer.
Cheers
Matt
