Hosts- If you had to start out new what stuff would you choose?

[danny_g]

I think if I was Starting out new I would get the Chartbuster Essentials 1 and 2 and then build around it with Pop Hits and Country hits stuff. For a player I would go back to the Pioneer v10. Amp wise I have a friend who uses a Smason s-62, which I recently got to try out with my pair of Sound Barrier Speakers and man did it sound great.

Not only can you do karaoke with it you can DJ as well as possably even use the amp/ Mixer for a band.

When I used it I noticed that you don't even need to turn up the line levels very far to get a loud but clear sound.

Now how about your choice in setups?

[Papa Ray]

Disks -
I agree, with danny_g, chartbusters is a good start. Karaoke.com routinely sells older country and pop hits monthly at good discounts... great fill-ins for little bucks...check them out. A some people bad-mouth the SAV series, but I have them all and rate them as an excellent buy. All songs are very usable, and the price can be very attractive.

Equipment
Danny_g gave good equipment suggestions. A good amp and speakers is so important. Be sure that your speakers can handle the amp, and that your amp isn't working too hard... avoids distortion, and keeps the sound clear.

I use a 12 channel Mackie with built in effects, with a Mackie 800w amp. and have a soft spot in my head for Cerwin-vega speakers, although they are a bit big and heavy. The 12 channels are handy, but is overkill if all you do is Karaoke giggs. I plan on going to a 1400w amp and 4 speakers for larger gigs

For starting-
I strongly recommend a little unit called a Pro-2. It offers 2 stereo inputs, 2 or 3 mic inputs. Each Mic input has separate tone and volume controls. Echo is build in, and adjustable. It also has tone and volume controls for the music inputs. It's easy to use, and usually can be found for between $100 and $150. I have two of them in systems that I use for smaller gigs... Ok for a small to medium tavern/restaurant where you don't want to blast too much. You can get started without spending a fortune.

Once started -
I suggest putting a few limiter/compressors into the system. They can work wonders. You can get a good one for $100 bucks. The limiters can even out the loud singer and the soft singer, and stabilize the CD level... not all Cd's are created equal. some are so low you have to really crank, and some are so hot that they can make people jump when they come on if you don't watch it. Limiters will help bring up soft singers, and reduce the loud singers so you never get clipping (distortion).

didn't mean to write a book, but sound and singing is my passion.

take care,

Papa Ray,

Tunes For your Times Karaoke

[jumpmaster]

You guys are absolutely right about the equipment. Keep it simple! I didn't! Before I became a KJ, I noticed that the KJs in my area had one small amp, one pair of small speakers, a cheap mic and a small rack of equipment. Then I'd see bands set up and rock the same place with a bizillion more pieces of equipment. So I decided that when I put my system together, I build it as if my singers were the lead singers in those bands. I got a 12 channel mixer, feedback destroyer, quadraverb, peavey eq's, two shure wired and a shure wireless mic, gate/limiter/compressor, a three way crossover with each channel running to it's own peavey amp and it's own set of speakers (sub, mid, and highs), and another peavey amp and peavey eq and monitor speakers for the singers, all in road cases for .... :-) quick and easy setup :-). I also decided that I should have 2 cdg machines (one for karaoke) and another to mix from to upbeat or dance music after the singer finishes (lifts the show and entertains the non-singers) and also provides a backup machine if the main one went down (saw that happen once at a packed bar...machine quits...bar empties out...bad for owner and KJ!). I also got about 5,000 songs and built nice, neat and organized books.

No what...no one really noticed!!! Oh they noticed that I had a lot of good songs and that got me going well. However, only a few singers really noticed how great the system was! I spent all that cash on all that equipment to give them the same sound as the lead singer of a band...and they didn't notice!

I don't regret spending the money on the equipment because I appreciate it, but for the new guy starting out...spend the money on the songs and the books! Get a basic (but good) amp, mixer, mic and speakers! If you want to build a dream system, add as you go, but keep in mind...you have to drag that stuff around, spend all that money, and what's more important...the more equipment you have...the more chance you have that something will break in the middle of a show. Luckily mine didn't...but it could have!

[kwoozn]

This topic is just what I am looking for! Here's my story: I currently do karaoke at home, and have been for the better part of 10 years. I used to go to clubs quite a bit, but that slowed down because of my job, having to get up in the morning anywhere between 3-5am sometimes 7 days a week for long stretches at a time. I have since been layed off, and given time will be called back. In the mean time I have some fairly decent equipment, and not too bad of a song library, roughly 1300 songs, of course there are some doubles. My player: 3disc JVC, speakers: Peavey TLS5, mic amp: Fender SR6325, and Shure SM58 mics (no switch), all of this equipment is less then 6 months old, purchased new by myself. I would like to start doing some shows in public. My question is on the music. My current library consists of songs that myself, friends and family sing. Mainly 50's, 60's, 70's, Elvis, and country. My thought is that I lack new rock, hard rock, and some of the newer country. I am looking at puchasing the DK Millenium set which has some 1700 songs, which would again double some that I have (expected). Now I have found the Sweet Georgia Brown set which is cheaper by about $1100.00, but only has 1100 songs. What kind of quality is Sweet Georgia Brown that could make it that much cheaper? I have resigned myself to the idea that to build a decent library I have to buy a whole new set to get a good price as opposed to putting together my own set. Your thoughts on this please! Also any other thoughts or ideas based on what I have told you. Sorry for rambling, your input is appreciated! kwoozn......

[danny_g]

If you are wanting great pricing for sets with up to date music, Then Charbuster's Essentials I and II are the way to go. They have songs from Sinatra to Creed in their library. And to build on that go POP hits, Monthly, Rocker & Nashville series as they are the best on being even close to up to date for POP, Rock and Country. As for the SM58's I have one. The switches are on the bottom of the mike, one for Power and one for mute. I actually like the quality of the other mike and am considering buying another one with a different frequency to replace the SHure MIke as I can better afford to replace the other mike if it breaks thna to replace the Shure. The SHure's run about $250 to $400 a mike while the other runs $110 a mike and I get better quality vocals out of the lower priced mike anyway.

[DJNickieK]

For software in our biggest system (we have 7 altogether) the main components are DK original 1 - 100 and the other specialty ones billy joel , neil diamond, moody who etc. Soundchoice spotlights 8101 - 8688 (just ordered thru 8735 yesterday) Music Maestro 6000-6359, Pioneer Rock 1-40 , Sunfly 1-17, and Top Hits monthly POP & COuntry thru this month. There are also some misc discs like pocket songs , ALL HIts, JVC etc.

For the other systems 2-7 we customized them based on the places that they would go to and what people liked most. I made my own for my private shows (system 5) that has the soundchoice foundation, dk 1-100 , all pop hits & country hits monthly, select soundchoice spotlights (mostly the 70's and 80's disc's and specialties like eagles,jimmy buffet, silly songs,xmas etc. and some select music maestro. Note Our big system is permanate at a show we have had for 10 years so have such the benefit of a large selection but dont have to lug it around. (but those books are like a mini yellow pages !!! But hey everyone loves the variety.

For Hardware at the permanent and mobile private shows we use Denon Dual cd player with the cavs cdg convertor for both drawers plus a back up player , either JVC multiloader or 2 drawer Pioneer, Mackey board, Shure wireless, and vocal effects processor all in each road case with dj lights and the appropriate connects inside the case for easy hook up and break down. For speakers we use the JVC Paks with the amps already inside the speakers. Boy don't I miss lugin those old amplifiers (my back!!)

All in all we have mixed and matched a few diffnt dj cd players and cdg kareoke machines and diff types of corded and wirless mikes. I think with regular maintenance and cleaning and a little T L C that equipment can last. The permanent set ups we have are used every thurs, fri, and Sat nite and have to have the little bugs fixed once and a while, cables get old, tv's don't last forever, mikes do get droped etc, etc.

Hardest to me is keeping the Kareoke Books up to date and in good shape. I swear that sometimes people just like to eat em or doodle or rip em up because drunk people do stupid things.

But that's my story and I'm stickin to it !!!!

DJNICKIE K.

[jumpmaster]

In my opinion Sweet Georgia Brown are not as good quality tracks as Sound Choice or Chartbusters, but for the money, I'm glad I got them. Many of the tracks are crap, and most have way too much bass, but again...for the money, and for the number of songs to have in your book, I absolutely don't regret having them, and would buy them again. Besides, some of the tracks are very good any way.

Karaoke singers only sing three to six songs in a single night, but they love it when you have 5,000 songs! If you use the essential series, and some of the other main sets available for the mainstream music, then having SGB is a nice add on. I surely wouldn't dream of only having SGB!

Come to think of it...your on to something! I think I'll start a thread for KJ's to rate manufacturers and disc series such as I just did above!

Hope this helps!

[SteveWalker]

I have all the Pioneer CDG and about 60 Sound Choice. I also have a mix of CDG's from the other manufacturers. I need to bring myself more up to date and perhaps the Chartbuster Essentials 1 and 2 and Pop Hits would be a good choice for adding the more recent titles.

The equipment that I currently use includes the following:
(at the end I will list what equipment I will use for a PC based karaoke show)

1. I started out with the JVC CDG player which has the 6 pack cartridge that I used so I did not have to handle individual CDG's for protection.

2. I added the Pioneer 300+1 CD player and a lyrics decoder box that uses the optical output of the CD player. With this you don't have to handle the CDG's or the cartridges, just enter the song number into the remote control.

3. I use a Mackie 1604 mixer which is a professional quality mixer that I also use for live bands and home recording. For karaoke only, you could use the more compact Mackie CFX-12 mixer which has excellent build in effects unit.

4. I use an excellent Lexicon studio quality effects unit. Now a days you can get excellent reverbs and delay at less than $300.
Also, you can now get effects in the Mackie CFX-12 mixer which reduces the number of pieces to connect and to carry. Note that Karaoke machines usually have very cheap sounding effects and I would disable them.

5. I use the Crown Micro-Tech 1200 amplifier which drives 500 watts into a 4 ohm speaker per channel. Crown amps are the workhorse for the live touring bands and is rock solid.

6. I use the JBL SR-4738A full range speaker cabinets with 4 ohm input impedance and maximum 600 watts. It has an 18" and 10" speaker and a horn in each cabinet. Note that the amplifier when set to maximum puts out 500 watts which is less than the speaker rating. Also note that the impedance of the amplifier and speaker are matched at 4 ohm.

This is the best sounding speaker that you will ever hear used in a DJ or KJ application. The downside is that each cabinet weighs 118 lbs and fills the back of my minivan. However, this is the price for having the best sound and after your customers and singers are used to the tremendous sound quality everything else they hear out there just doesn't sound right to them! That's what I they tell me.

7. TV is 13" with only 75 ohm input. Cheap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now here is the equipment that I have for a PC based karaoke show:

1. Dell Inspiron 8100 Notebook PC with 1GHz Pentium III, 512Mbytes of RAM, 48 Gbyte hard drive, Sony CD-RW drive that can play CDG's directly and also works for converting from CDG to mp3+G, Nvidia GeoForce2 Go video adapter with TwinView which allows two displays.

2. I now use the sound card output on my laptop and send it to my Mackie mixer.

3. Karaoke software would include Hoster type of karaoke player which must have a built in key changer.

4. Crown amplifier which was described above.

5. JBL speakers which were described above. Most karaoke shows use speakers on tripods which are lightweight and portable. In this case, I would recommend either the Mackie or JBL EON amplified speakers.

6. The TV could be replaced with an LCD monitor which would be connected to the monitor output on your notebook PC. My notebook has a video adapter that allows TwinView which allows the lyrics window to be placed on the external monitor and the notebook screen will display the karaoke player. If you need to connect to the venue's TV system, I recommend getting scan converter which connects between the notebook PC and the TV. If the TV system is 75 ohm, then you will need to connect an RF modulator between the scan converter and the TV system. Note that the scan converter allows the notebook screen resolution to stay the same such as 1024 x 768. If you use the TV output on the notebook, you will be forced to reduce the notebook screen resolution down to 800 x 640 and you will have problems viewing the Sonar windows.

In summary, this new setup has very few connections required so the setup time will be 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes. If you use amplified speakers, you will have only 4 pieces to carry: 2 speakers and the laptop PC.

[danny_g]

Although I like Steve's idea for his Computer system I think that I will keep the external Amplifier, MIke mixer and speakers as I don't mind my fifteen minute setup that I have right now. My present system now has a DVD/VCD/CD/MP3 player, A Sony single tray player hooked to a LEader Decoder, A BMB karaoke Amp that includes a key changer and an RF modulator. The MOdulator and the speaker outputs are Hardwaired into my case so all I have to do is connect the TV cable between my Rack and the Tv, and my Speakers to the rack using 1/4" connections for the speakers. I'm thinking of hardwiring my mike outs from the back into the rack so I can just plug into the rack from My 2 hand held wireless mikes' receivers. As for software I have the complete Essential vol 1, Essential 80's pack, KJtools set, Pioneer 1 through 33, 35, 38, country 9, country 11. I also have about 47 Sound CHoice SPotlights, 5 Star Series, and 4 power picks. I also have 5 VCD karaoke discs- hence the need for the DVD Player. As I don't have the funds yet to set up my computer set up which will be tougher to set up as I can not afford a laptop and must build a tower or Desktop to meet my needs I will have to maintain the setup I have now.

[SteveWalker]

danny_g,

It sounds like you have all the same Pioneer and Sound Choice CDG's that I have except I haven't purchased many in the past 3 years. If you are going to need all your current gear along with the PC running Hoster, then you might as well use your current mixer and feed the sound card output to the mixer. However, I think the ultimate evolution will be the ability to play all the formats DVD/VCD/CD/MP3 in your PC and the only current drawback is finding a player that can integrate all the formats. Hoster is supposed to do this but it is not here yet. I'm currently using PlayCDG CE which has similar function included with an excellent key changer for $49.99. It is also necessary to have a CD/DVD drive in the PC that can read all these formats directly because at least 50% of my customers hand me their CDG each time they come up.

Steve Walker

[danny_g]

Probably don't have some of the ones I have- Sound Choice is so expensive to buy that When I do they have to contain songs I don't already have or songs that I will sing myself. Most of them- not all- were bought as personal discs and added into my system. All my other discs were bought with my singers in mind.
I had decided when I started out buying discs for a system that I wnated to go outside the normal songs that most KJ's had- my little hook if you will, didn't work to well so I've been in the last 2 years stocking up on the traditional songs- think I'm just about there- will be there when I get the Essential 450 vol II. Now I see what is hot at other shows and pick up copies- not always the same brand of songs- of the hot ones. I look for the hot songs usually on the same disc if possible- hit the motherload with a Powerhits disc made by Ameri-Sing when I was looking for
O-town, Usher, My Sacrifice, It's been awhile, Yellow, Drive, Drops Of Jupiter, Hero by Enrique etc. 18 hot songs of today on one disc. Wish they made more of them- Last I looked they only had four. They have the quality of Pop hits. May actually have been better than Pop HIts in my opinion.

[George]

just subscribing. interesting reading

[family affair]

has anyone used or heard the Fender Passport 250 Deluxe?
it sounds like a good little pa system. lightweight, easy to use.

[Louieoke]

First of all I'd have to say you guys are really proud of your stuff, as well you should be. The Chartbuster Essential series are great. I have the first edition and am going to get the second one shortly. I only have around 3500 songs total but of those, probably 50% or more seem to come from this 1 set of 450 songs. As far as amps/mixers, I like the Yamaha EMX 860 ST - 8 channel mixer w/ 3 - 200 watt amps. I only use the 1 for mains and the other for monitors but have 1 nice backup right there just in case. It has 2 mixers on board (1 for the mains) (1 for the monitors) and some limited built in effects. For ubder $600 bucks you get the mixer, amps, and effects. Very good for starting out. You then can use some of your profits to upgrade and use this as a very dependable spare or even an extra running sysyem.

[SteveWalker]

Originally posted by family affair
has anyone used or heard the Fender Passport 250 Deluxe?
it sounds like a good little pa system. lightweight, easy to use.

Did you say Fender Passport 250 Deluxe. I've used Fender guitar amplifiers since the 60's and I'm very surprised that Fender is making such a poor sound system.

[Alan Bingham]

Originally posted by family affair
has anyone used or heard the Fender Passport 250 Deluxe?
it sounds like a good little pa system. lightweight, easy to use.

We use that with our Track and Field program, mainly for our picnic, Our requirements were that it be portable and self contained, cause we do not have power in the park.

I would not suggest using it for a DJ/KJ service, it is just too small.

I suggest that you go find a more professional amp and speakers, I suggest that you look at www.musiciansfriend.com They have some good deals on pre-amps, speakers, mixers etc..

I suggest that you look at the Yamaha S115IVS Club Tour Series 15" 2-Way Speaker they are about $299.00 each.
the SM12IVS Club Tour Series 12" 2-Way Floor Monitor
is also $299.00, look at a good power amp get a good pre-amp and a good mixer and a few good Mics, (4 minumum 1 KJ, 2 Singers, 1 backup, 5 Mike Cordes, 4 speaker cables) some speaker stands, a tv stand a 15" tv your cd+G player, and your set, some coxial cable with ends, a few splitters, get their and find out if they have hook-ups for the bar TV's and get as many of the TV'.