[sdiy] ALLISON VCA / SFSU Studio

[Cynthia Webster]

Allison also made some noise gates, (automatic VCAs) I remember working 
with them at
San Francisco State University's Electronic Music Lab back in 1976 or 
1977 they were great
little modules about the same height as the Buchla 100 series modules 
that we had there.
They too had the little cartoon image of Allison smiling on the front 
panels.

The first modules that I ever designed were in Buchla format for that 
cool little studio,
which was not much bigger than a broom closet off the main hall of the 
music building.
People would come and go not realizing the little electronic wonderland 
right on the other
side of that door in the main hallway. Herbert Biddlewa was my professor 
and he put the
studio together from various and sundry bits.  The studio never had a 
big budget to buy a
large pre-conceived all-in-one system, but it was a great inspiration to 
work there just the same.
We did a lot of Live electronic music concerts at SFSU and often ran 
signals through the
"trunk lines" that were long shielded cable runs between the auditorium 
and the little studio.

Cynthia

http://www.cyndustries.com

Dave Manley wrote:
> mike ruberto wrote:
>> Here's an odd little VCA module:
>> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190189249848
>>
>> Cute lady on the cover. Anybody know about them?
>>   
> A little googling turned up some interesting info.  Allison Research 
> was founded by Paul Buff, he has a couple of patents for VCAs 
> (http://www.audioannals.com/buffpc.htm).  I didn't find any details on 
> the module but perhaps the patents are applicable.  For a while Buff 
> ran a studio in LA called PAL Studios, which he later sold to Frank 
> Zappa. I think there are some stories in one of Zappa's biographies 
> about the homebrew equipment Buff built for the studio.  He is still 
> active but now in photographic equipment (http://www.paulcbuff.com/).  
> There's a bit of VCA history here with a line or two about the Buff 
> VCA: http://www.thatcorp.com/vcahist.html.
> Rane has an interesting page giving the background on most audio 
> companies names that includes Allison Research  
> (http://www.rane.com/pronames.html).  A lot of interesting trivia, for 
> example I didn't know the L in JBL was Lansing as in Altec-Lansing,  
> KORG = Keio + Organ, MUZAK = Music + Kodak, or Motorola = Motorized 
> Victrola  Although I did know the db in dbx is for David Blackmer.
>
> done wandering OT,
> Dave
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