Aphex is a brand of audio signal processing equipment. Aphex Systems was founded in 1975 in Massachusetts by Marvin Caesar and Curt Knoppel, the inventor of the Aural Exciter. The company changed its name to Aphex in 2011.
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Formerly Aphex Systems, the company is now Aphex, LLC, wholly owned by DWV Entertainment. Aphex moved in 2011 to Burbank, California, in a purpose built facility. Aphex products are manufactured in the United States, primarily in a 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2) facility in Sun Valley, California. Design facilities are in Park City, Utah.
Aphex builds products for the professional audio, broadcast, fixed installation, touring-sound and home-recording markets.
Aphex products have been used in the recording industry for over 35 years. Artists like Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, and hundreds of others, have all used Aphex technologies to enhance their recordings. Aphex has developed further products for live performance, TV and radio broadcast, musical instrument and consumer electronics worldwide.
Aphex has developed a number of technologies and products, such as the Aural Exciter, Compellor, Dominator, Expander/Gate and Expressor, plus the Model 1100 Two-Channel and Model 1788 Eight-Channel Ultra-Precision Remotely Controllable Microphone Pre-Amplifiers, and the Model 2020 Mk III Broadcast Audio Processor. A key element of all the dynamics processing products is the Voltage Controlled Attenuator, the Aphex VCA 1001. Another key element is Aphex' input and output circuitry, using electronic balancing techniques instead of transformers. In the late 2000s, Aphex introduced a digital signal transport product, the Anaconda 64-Channel Bidirectional Digital Snake.
The Aural Exciter is said to enhance clarity and intelligibility by adding phase shift and musically related synthesized harmonics to audio signals. The Big Bottom circuit combines a low-pass filter and dynamics processor to compress and delay incoming low-frequency information. The process is reverse amplitude dependent, meaning that more is applied as the input level drops and less as the signal gets hotter. Together the dynamics processor and time delay create sustained bass frequencies that are perceived as being louder yet do not noticeably increase peak output.
The first Aural Exciter units were available exclusively on the rental basis of $30 per minute of finished recorded time. The unit became so popular, especially with the Los Angeles music and recording studio scene, that Aphex had to move to Hollywood. In the 1970s, certain recording artists, including Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor stated in their liner notes "This album was recorded using the Aphex Aural Exciter." Other users included Donna Summer, Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac, Olivia Newton-John, Alan Parsons, and Warren Zevon.
Recognizing that there was a much bigger market than just the rental business, Aphex started selling the professional units, and introduced two low-cost models: Type B and Type C. The Aural Exciter circuit is now licensed by a growing list of manufacturers, including Yamaha, MacKenzie, Gentner, Emu and Bogen. The original Aphex Aural Exciter, first offered in 1975, came without the Big Bottom circuit, which was added in 1992. Later revisions of the Aphex Aural Exciter included the Model 104 Type C and Type C2 units. Aphex has now released the Model 204 Aural Exciter and Optical Big Bottom, yet another refinement of the original unit. According to Aphex, the Model 204 updates the Aural Exciter and Big Bottom processor blocks with improved circuitry, including an optical gain-control element for the Big Bottom compressor.
Functionally similar units from competing manufacturers are generically known either as 'psychoacoustic processors' or more commonly just as 'enhancers'. Broadly comparable products are now available from BBE, Joemeek, SPL, and Behringer , Aphex is considered the "gold standard" and benchmark of audio signal processors. While most are analogue signal processors, Aphex has created a variety of digital processors and software versions of its technologies for use in products and in licensing.
While Aphex is best known for its Aural Exciter and Big Bottom (low frequency) enhancement technologies, the company has created high quality microphone preamps.
Aphex has taken its technologies into guitar and instrument pedals offering its Aural Exciter and Big Bottom technology in the Xciter pedal and its compressor technology in the Punch Factory pedal.
Formerly Aphex Systems, the Company is now simply Aphex. It is wholly owned by DWV Entertainment. Aphex management consists of David Wiener as Chairman and CEO, Robin Sibucao as COO and Rick McClendon as General Manager.
Aphex now manufactures all of its products in the United States.
Electronic music recording artist Aphex Twin uses the same word in his moniker with permission, as recognised on all artwork for works under the moniker.