Find of the day? Valley Micro FX?

[DryCounty]

While cleaning up my bands rehearsal space, I stumbled upon some effects boxes lying around in a back storeroom. The rack must have been sitting there, untouched since before we moved in (about four years ago). One of the rack effects was a "Stage" brand reverb unit, 2U in size, but then I unlatched this:



On the front are controls for threshold, ratio, release and gain. 8 LEDs note the gain reduction, from 30db to 3. On the back of it it says "VALLEY INTERNATIONAL, INC NASHVILLE TN" with a serial number of 2685.

When I got a closer look on the inside I noticed TADA -- the VCA is a Valley People TA-101 -- SCORE! I think I found a date of 1978 (or it could have been '87).

Immediately plugged it in and got some great sounds from my guitar -- nice even tone, much cleaner than my other comp. pedal (a BOSS CS-3).

I have had zero luck in finding anything out about the Valley company, but know that they were based out of Nashville at one point. Anyone know if these little units are solid enough for gig use?

Man, this is a total lesson to me and all of my space mates -- that thing had been sitting in that crummy old rack for ever and a day, collecting dust and never being used.[/img]

[I'm Painting Again]

Sweet score Eric!

[doc]

You might want to check out that Stage reverb. If it's the same one I found a few years ago at a local music shop for $20.00 it's a very nice sounding spring reverb that was made in Japan in the 80's. It tends to easily overload, but if you watch the clipping, it sounds awesome. I use it on vocals and acoustic guitars all the time.

Cool comp too!

-doc

[JamesHE]

edited to not be an idiot

[JamesHE]

I thought "snare" was actually "snake" and made some post about him wanting it back. lol. ok I go hide now.

[DryCounty]

Hysterical, but you know, I think superficially I'd seen "snake" on there too and wondered about the previous tenants. Perhaps this is why I never touched it.

[cgarges]

I remember seeing these in a few studios around here in the late 80s and have seen one or two in recent years. I think there was an entire series of Micro FX stuff that Valley (from the Allison/Valley People/Valley Audio/Valley International lineage) made. I've seen compressors, gates, and maybe even EQs and or reverbs/multi-effect untis. I can't say that I ever recall actually hearing anyone use one, so I can't comment on the quality or performance, but Valley made some pretty solid stuff. Aside from guitar, have you fooled around with it much yet?

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[edanderson]

valley is now a part of galaxy audio. they don't have the manual for the microFX series up, but they do have some other stuff:

http://galaxyaudio.com/Manuals.html

ed

[YOUR KONG]

Ha - I thought it said Snake also.

Whether it's this Snake:



this Snake:



or this snake:



...just be glad it actually says "Snare!"

[DryCounty]

Chris -- haven't had a second to get back to our space to try it out. But I sure can't wait to try it out on snake! Er, I mean snare.

And now I can rest assured that NO ONE is going to mess with this comp!

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I have a gate from that sertes. It's nothing too special but not terrible.

[matta]

Hi Guys,

The micro series was developed by Michael 'Doc' Morgan at Valley, which was a fully comprehensive line of modules.

A bit of history... The lineage stated with Paul C Buff who with his then wife Allison moved to Nashville and merged with a small company called Valley Audio in 1981, in 1983-84 Paul left selling his shares out to Doc and Norm Baker the company then became known as Valley International before it was eventually was forced to declare bankruptcy and was sold off to Galaxy.

The company made outstanding gear that technically speaking was way ahead of it's time. The micros were geared to be a low cost option for the masses but still very usable. They are prob more widely known for the 800 series modules like the Gain Brain II, Kepax II, MaxiQ, DSP, Commander and Leveller etc along with the 400 series Dynamite and 410 and 610 processors.

I'm actually +-2000 words into a 'Behind the Gear' interview with Doc about Valley for Tape Op and there is some great stuff in there so hopefully some day it will end up in the mag. Doc is a very funny and passionate individual.

Paul now owns the largest manufacturer and retailer of photographic monolight flash units in the States, with Doc as his chief technical engineer called 'Alien Bees'.

Paul has a WACKY sense of humor check out this T-shirt they have.



For those that don't know Paul was the owner of 'PAL Studios' in LA, which he sold off to Frank Zappa (Studio Z) and was responsible for much of the early 'surf rock' sound.

Cheers

Matt

[DryCounty]

Matta

All I can say is wow, I really look forward to the article! As far as Valley stuff, I've also got an early stereo Dynamite that will never, ever leave my possession. They really did some great stuff back then.

[getreel]

Awesome! I just bought a Dynamite. It's the newer version with black face/purplepink graphics. Anyone know what to expect? It hasn't made it here yet.

[leigh]

DryCounty,

I know this thread is OLD now, but you're the only one I can find to ask: when you just power up these MicroFX comps, do all the LEDs of the Gain Reduction meter come on?

I found a pair of these at an estate sale (score! not even gonna tell you how little I got them for.) They seem to work fine, just that meter behavior seems weird to me.

What happens is: if I just power up the comp, all the Gain Reduction LEDs light. Then, if I start pushing signal through, the meter starts moving, but it moves "backwards", from left to right. That is, a quiet signal will get just the -30 dB LED to turn off, while it takes a much louder signal to get all the Gain Reduction LEDs to turn off.

Only thing I can think is that I need a better matched power supply... it calls for 9VAC, 300 ma, and I'm feeding it with 10VAC on a supply that will go up to 1500ma. Since it's doing the AC->DC conversion and regulation internally, I don't think 9V vs 10V AC is gonna throw it like that. But maybe...??

thanks for any advice!
Leigh