Before karaoke, there
was....
AudioSynTrac
"A Problem Solved by the Sing-Along Concept"
Beginning his
career in the 1960's,
Scott Ebright was a drummer and singer who wanted to branch out
from playing in bands and instead perform on his own. But, unlike
piano players or guitar players sitting on a stool, he could not
be booked in small nightclubs playing just the drums. So, he began
singing live with tapes from his previous bands - only minus the
lead vocals dubbed out. Later, he managed a talent agency and promoted the first music tributes
to Elvis and the Beatles (see the band photos and press
articles listed on the lower section of “About Us”.). When musicians became sick
or when sudden personnel changes threatened to cancel concert tours, Ebright came up with
a creative solution to salvage his lucrative contracts with major hotels and entertainment
showrooms. He took the studio demo tapes of his bands and re-mixed them onto a new master
track, BUT minus the
lead vocals.
By the late 1970's, he
devoted full time towards producing stage shows which put singers on a stage with wireless
microphones, then added choreography and the singers sang live
while the studio tapes were played back through a PA system. This show format became
affordable for many more venues than before, and the problem of replacing and training new
musicians was suddenly solved (although Musician’s Unions objected fiercely).
Also, Scott used some of these tapes to sing his own songs while
performing occasionally as "The Singing DJ".
AudioSynTrac was was defined through advertising as "A
Revolutionary New Dimension in Live Entertainment".
Based
upon the enthusiastic reception of audiences responding to this new production
format, Scott founded AudioSynTrac in an effort to make his
music tapes available to the general public and professional
singers alike. That initiated a production deal with an electronics company
that could produce his hardware to play the tapes on..
"Numark Electronics Corp. Pacts Deal
with
AST Corp.
Venture"
Numark
Electronics Corporation believed in the future of Scott Ebright’s concept of
AudioSynTrac (AST) in the 1970’s. President Harry Kotovsky agreed to adapt
Ebright’s designs and build the $220,000 prototype AudioSynTrac music machine for
mass production and world-wide distribution.
As CEO
and President of the venture-capital company AudioSynTrac, Ebright went into production
recording all the music software for use in AST machines. A major marketing plan was next
conceived and implemented to distribute AST products to a world-wide market.
The
first phase of the AST singing machine actually consisted of three proprietary inventions. (1) the speed of
the standard Nakamichi cassette tape transports was sped up to 5 ips (inches per second)
from the standard 3.25 ips, (2) the key of songs had to be a variable button without
changing the speed of the song, and (3) a digital vocal processor needed to be invented
that would encompass all desired effects that singers wanted in a a small package (echo,
repeat, chorus doubling, and flanging).
After
demonstrating this prototype equipment with live cabaret singers in Las Vegas and Chicago
CES trade shows, Japanese electronics companies sent representatives to photograph and
study the AudioSynTrac concept. Mr. Ebright even recalls the times when Harry Kotovsky
from Numark dove dramatically in front of the AST equipment being displayed on the aisle
of the CES show in Las Vegas. He bent over and used his opened hands to cover his
brand-new prototype and scolded the Japanese “industrial spies” by telling them,
“If you want to copy this equipment, then buy a machine and take it back to Japan to
copy it.”
The
beginning of the end: Within months, Japanese companies came up with 8-track
versions of this concept - calling it “Karaoke”. Heavyweight companies like
Pioneer and Matsushita Corporation had marketing war chests of over $10 million dollars to
launch their karaoke products. This action forced AudioSynTrac Corporation and
Numark Corporation to "abandon ship" on their project. AudioSynTrac Corporation
officially closed down by 1984, and over 3 million shares of Scott Ebright’s
preferred stock became worthless overnight (see photo of stock
certificate below). Numark was able to recoup their R&D costs
by incorporating the new electronic features they invented into their new product lines
aimed at a Disc Jockey and Professional musician market.
CLICK to hear 5 min.
Demo
