FW: [Dixielandjazz] oral/aural Revivals

[James Kashishian]

Bill wrote:
Oral Roberts had LPs made from the music at one of his revivals,........

Excellent, Bill!   :>

Seeing the name Oral reminds me of how I went from the musician side of
recording sessions into the Control room side back in 1978.  A clever
black box was introduced to the recording scene at that time by a fellow
in California with an even cleverer way of marketing it.  He rented it
for $30 a MINUTE.  That's $30 per "recorded" minute of a record, so an
LP would be, say, 40 minutes x $30 = $1,200 for using this box on your
recording session.  

The reason for saying that Oral reminded me of the black box is because
it was called The Aural Exciter (by Aphex).  Remember that aural is
pronounced oral, and then you can see the humor in having in your liner
notes of a recording a phrase that says "this recording has been aurally
excited.    :>  I even have a t-shirt somewhere that says "I've been
aurally excited".  Would have sold well during the Clinton years!    :>
:>    :>

Before some of you audio professionals come back screaming what a scam
it was, let me tell you first that the box actually did work.  The thing
was a great help for the consoles of the day, particularly here in Spain
where most people had MCI desks, adding tremendous "punch" to a
recording, which the desk wasn't capable of (not to mention adding gobs
of noise that you really couldn't hear in those days!).  Remember the
punchy bass drum on YYYYY M C A?  Yep!  Aurally Excited.

The recording studio that used the box got a 10% commission for having
pushed the thing.
I insisted that it be treated as a commission, with receipts and
everything legal, rather than what the studios actually wanted....which
was a kickback under the table.  My American ideals running head on into
the Spanish mentality there!!!  I'm still in business today, however,
when the kickback boys have mostly disappeared.

I handled these boxes (a dozen of 'em) in Spain in the late '70's for
European distributor Britannia Row (owned by Pink Floyd), and that was
my entrance into the wonderful world of professional audio.  Worked
directly with Pink Floyd for 8 yrs.  Good people, and it was nice to get
into the concerts free, and ride along in limos with 'em!!    :>

By the way, Aphex, the company that made the Exciter is still going
strong....but, now in sales, not rentals.  I don't handle it any longer,
though.

Jim