Paul Conrad Buff

Paul Conrad Buff (born April 24, 1936 in California - † March 14, 2015 ) was an American entrepreneur. In the early 1960s he became known as a studio owner , music producer and sound engineer , giving surf music through his productions and sound and studio technology with his inventions. In the 1980s, Buff turned away from the music business and developed lighting equipment for photo studios . He ran several companies: two made studio flash systems for different target groups, one sold art prints, and a book publisher published books written by Buff.

Life

Raised in Cucamonga , Buff studied aviation electronics with the US Navy after graduating from high school. After his year he finished training as the best student, he first took up a position as an engineer for remote missiles at General Dynamics in Cucamonga. After a year he was tired of this activity. It was the time of rock 'n' roll , so he decided to explore this unknown profession. Following his credo “I've never been to a recording studio, but I know what should come of it - hits”, he founded his first company in 1957 at the age of 21: the Pal Recording Studio . (P. 86)

Music business

Interested musicians and groups could rent the studio to create recordings there. Buff, whose parents owned a music publisher , also wanted to use the studio for their own music projects. As an autodidact , he was not only able to sing and compose, but also to play piano, bass, saxophone and drums. His plan was to become a singer-songwriter . Frank Zappa, who worked in the early 1960s intensively with buff buffs described procedure in his autobiography as follows: "So he listened to the latest hits, which endeavored hooks out and created - by a mysterious process - his own melodic replica . " (P. 42) (p. 86)

Technical successes

Buff developed some equipment and audio engineering techniques that were either unusual or completely new. At a time when two-track tape recorders were still the industry standard and eight-track recorders were state-of-the-art in large recording studios, a conventional two-track tape recorder equipped with three additional, self-made recording and playback heads, see above that with it five audio tracks could be recorded simultaneously or one after the other on tape half an inch wide. He developed a suitable mixer which, in conjunction with his tape machine, enabled overdubbing . For a commercially available "Rec-O-Cut" turntable with a sapphire cutting head, with which master and acetate pressings could be made, he developed an extraction system that removed the chips from the record when the sound grooves were cut, which is decisive for the sound quality of the end product improved. In order to master the bad acoustics in his Pal studio, he developed what is known as “close-miking”, which quickly established itself as the standard method for recording instruments in pop music. In 1963 he developed a distortion device and used it on his recordings, two years before the Beatles first published this type of sound distortion on record and made it popular. At the end of 1965 he developed a ten-track recording studio for Art Laboes "Original Sound" in Los Angeles. After working for Original Sound, Buff founded the company "Allison Research" named after his first wife's first name, which successfully manufactured and marketed his inventions in the field of audio equipment. In 1980 Buff and Bob Todrank merged Allison Research and Valley Audio to form Valley People. Buffs developments include the Kepex Gate and computer-controlled mixing systems . In the early 1980s, he received two US patents, one for a VCA amplifier and another for a device that could be used to electronically control the volume level of an audio signal. (Pp. 87,100ff, 126)

Musical success

After the five-year development phase, during which business was rather sluggish, Buff began to show its first successes. The track " Wipe Out " by The Surfaris , recorded in the Pal studio, became a hit and rose to number two on the US hit parade in June 1963. In the same year, multi-instrumentalist Buff single-handedly recorded the piece "Tijuana Surf" under the band name "The Hollywood Persuaders". The piece was a hit in Mexico and stayed at number one on the charts for 17 weeks. Tijuana Surf also reached number one in the USA and stayed in the charts of Billboard and Cash Box magazines for ten months without a break . Both hits were " gilded ". Another surf song recorded in the Pal studio was " Pipeline " by The Chantays . With the demo produced by Buff , the group received a record deal with another record label - the song, released in late 1962, became a hit, but other cashes made it. After selling the Pal studio to Frank Zappa , Buff produced two more gold hits while working with Original Sound: "Incense And Peppermints" (1967) by Strawberry Alarm Clock and "Green Eyed Lady" (1970) by Sugarloaf . One of his most successful record releases is the song “Drums A Go Go” (1967), which he recorded on his own under the name “The Hollywood Persuaders”. For more than a year it was the title track of the American Bandstand TV series, which is very popular in the USA .

Other companies

In 1982, Paul Buff left the music business and moved from California to Nashville , Tennessee . He has since become interested in developing equipment for photographic lighting systems and flash systems. To this end, the company founded "White Lightning". The target group of its products were ambitious amateurs and beginners in the professional sector, for whom the company produced devices that were not only easy to handle and versatile, but could also be offered cheaply due to the marketing route from the factory directly to the customer. Over the years, the company grew into one of the leading manufacturers in this market, which is why it was split into two companies. Today “White Lightning” serves the professional sector, while “Alienbees” are produced for amateurs and beginners. In 2004 Buff and his second wife Deborah founded the "Different Strokes Art Gallery" in Nashville. The company sells large-format art prints by various artists (including Buff), screen prints , sculptures and clocks made using the giclee process . Buff is now also active as a book author and publisher. The first volume of the trilogy of novels “The River” was published in 2005 by Buff's publisher “GoGo Press”, part two is to follow shortly. Also in 2005 the novella "Texico: The Next American Revolution" was published. Buff's autobiography "Alien Bees - Rock and Roll and Me" should also appear soon.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary , accessed March 9, 2017
2. ↑ Born in California ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of June 2008) 
3. ↑ Founding of Pal Studio (as of June 2008)
4. ↑ Youth and Studies (as of June 2008)
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Barry Miles : Zappa . German edition. Rogner & Bernhard at two thousand and one. 2005. ISBN 3-8077-1010-8 .
6. ↑ Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso: The Real Frank Zappa Book . Poseidon Press, New York, 1989. ISBN 0-671-63870-X
7. ↑ Allison Research Inc (as of June 2008)
8. ^ Name of Allison Research (as of June 2008)
9. ↑ Valley People (as of June 2008)
10. ↑ Patents ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of June 2008) 
11. ↑ Tijuana Surf (as of June 2008)
12. ↑ Golden records ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of June 2008) 
13. ↑ Pipeline (as of June 2008)
14. ↑ Gold records (as of June 2008)
15. ↑ American Bandstand (as of June 2008)
16. ↑ White Lightning (as of June 2008)
17. ↑ Business model ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of June 2008) 
18. ↑ Alienbees (as of June 2008)
19. ↑ Different Strokes (as of June 2008)
20. ↑ The River, Part 1 (as of June 2008)
21. ↑ Different Strokes Art Gallery / GoGo Press ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of June 2008) 
22. ↑ Book publications (as of June 2008)

literature

• Barry Miles : Zappa . German edition. Rogner & Bernhard at two thousand and one. 2005. ISBN 3-8077-1010-8

Web links

• Paul C. Buff, Inc.
• White Lightning
• Alienbees
• Different Strokes Art Gallery
• GoGo Press