Hi guys,

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I am looking to get into karaoke, (i currently do parties and weddings). Firstly where would ye recommend getting the songs from, is there a reasonably priced collection with all the classics I could start with. I looked at mastermix and they seem very expensive.

I intend to start doing it with numark cue initially, and if it takes off I'll get a specialist program. i use a Denon Dn-X500. It only has 2 mic outs and I will need one of those for myself obviously. Can anybody recommend a mic splitter or what do you guys use. Please don't recommend buying new hardware (ie mixer) as I am only trying Karaoke out, not sure if I want to really go for it long term.

Thirdly what about LCD Screens, I am 100% mobile, besides one residency which won't be doing karaoke, so i presume I need two screens (one for singer and other facing crowd), is there a good stand that folds away and doesn't weigh a tonne? Would 21" screens be sufficient for birthday parties? I know some venues may allow me to use their big screen to face the crowd which is great, but if not will a 21" screen facing the crowd be ok?

If anybody has any thoughts that'd be great, thanks in advance.

Not a cheap thing to get into im afraid if you want quality tracks. Start with the sunfly hot hits series as well as the 70's 80' and 90's sets. Legends series do some good discs and you can pick up what i would call an 'artists greatest hits' for about £5 each. Ebay may have some cheap sets of discs

ripping karaoke tracks to mp3+g has licencing issues so you would need to look into this

Or if you want cheap and cheerfull then this may be for you
http://www.emkaraoke.co.uk/2010/contents/en-uk/p1337.html

cheers
Dave

Use a twin mic unit which means each mic has an on-board gain control and the single output can be used on the aux mic channel. You can then use the effect send and receive to take it to an echo unit. I use the Behringer Minifex which is ideal for this, as well as having the helium voice/darth vader option, which can be fun when the birthday boy comes up to make his thank you speech, although it's not perhaps the best option if it's the groom.

If you go digital for your karaoke... you can now download the official sunfly songs already in digital format...

www.sunflykaraoke.co.uk

You can download them in various formats... and as you are NOT changing the format you originally purchased them in, it doesn't require a produb license ( AFAIK )

If you have access to Mobile Internet it may be worth getting a base of discs/tracks together... and then if someone asks for a song you don't have you simply download it :)

Here's a good starter pack of Karaoke CD's

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SWEET-GEORGIA-BROWN-...=item3359ac0d7e

For LCD screens with collapsible stand, you could get a 35mm pole stand and one or two of these

http://www.djkit.com/product.php?id=5344&cat=389

You can then put two screens on one pole, one facing the singer and the other the audience.

On Amazon you can also get various collections of 100 Karaoke songs (just search 100 Karaoke), the latest being 100 Love Songs in time for Valentines.

The SGB disks are a great starter collection and work well.

SGB Playlists: There is no one digital place where you will find each CD's playlist. Rather than type in every one, just Google away at each disk code number (you will see if you get the disks as they are printed on each one) many of the playlists are listed in Ebay, you can then cut and paste into an Excel spreadsheet.

The LCD bracket is also something I use and will fit most LCD's. If you're going to run more than one TV then get a simple multi system remote control or you're going to get bogged down in remotes.

Hope that helps

a lot of singers from my experience do not like when the audience can see the lyrics ..
you can work perfectly well with one screen for the singers. Then add others at a later date.

some singers sing it there way or add bits or change the lyrics (which may be wrong on the karaoke track) or miss whole bits out of the song as it goes too high etc .. so they dont want the audience to see the lyrics. also some want to keep the song a surprise until they start singing , also you get people in the audence singing along if they see the lyrics ..thats fine on 500 miles etc but when a girl is singing a solo diva song they are not too pleased when someone starts singing louder than them on the front row. lol

to be a sucessful karaoke host you often need to be a keen observer of huan nature too lol

if you are playing a music request and you cue up a karaoke track ready for when the music finishes sometimes the singer will come straight up even though you were going to announce them at the end of the requested song , just because they can see the track on screen ,it must be there turn ! lol this can often mean you having to cue karaoke at the last minute and with ten second silence before the track on some discs this can be a pain. not having a screen the audience can see stops this there are of course other ways around this problem .

On the other hand some like that the lyrics are shown to everyone.

thanks for the advice guys, will be going 100% digital with it, I may start off with one screen and see how I go. karaoke isn't nearly as widespread over here as it seems to be in the UK so it'd be a real niche for me, with the amount of young guys getting into DJing I need something to stay ahead of the game. Should be a bit of fun too looking forward to it. Anybody any advice on a mic splitter as I only have two inputs on my Denon mixer and no way I'm buying a new mixer for something that may not even work out very well for me. By the way do you guys sing yourselves to get things started or depend on punters to come up? Can't sing a note myself so this could be a potential problem

Well you will need effects on the vocals as most singers like a bit of reverb..if you dont want another mixer i would buy ..a mixer any thing that has more than one channel and sends it to one is a mixer lol but this one is to plug into your existing one Behringer MINIMIX MIX800 Ultra-Compact Machine



This not just gives you two mic channels but has built in vocal effects that you will need

these are only about £50 and are miles better than the maplin mic splitter which are a tenner but have no effects and not very good.

Thanks will look into that, would have probably ended up buying something totally unsuitable but for ye're advice. I'll let ye know how I get on cheers

Gonna order two of those LCD brakets as I have some spare poles at home, it's probably the best solution. My question is how do I fit them to my LCD's? Do i need a clamp of some sort?

Thanks for the advice by the way I'll probably go with those discs you advised me to look at too
Thanks in advance

There appears to be a universal standard for the back of LCD's.

All the TV's have screw holes in the back for wall mounting.

I think you will find the bracket will fit most tv's. I can;t remember but I think they come with the various adapters/screws etc. If in doubt give djk a ring.

Ahh the ole VESA standard mounting holes. Its something they actually got right and standardised on years and years and years ago :)

I have bought a multimedia projector, I always ask the customer if they would like the karaoke words put onto a screen.

I bought this device to plug into my current mixer.
My mixer has 2 microphone sockets on my mixer, But I like to use these sockets for my mic and the graphic is not as good as my karaoke mixer.



I then plug the laptop that has the Sunfly discs on that I to have bought from Sunfly's website into this mixer. So it gives me extra channels and the reverb etc and the ability to be able to plug a guitar in etc.

I did pay a bit too much money for it. I paid 160 pound for it (pound sign not working) with its own flightcase, but you can get similiar ones for about 100 quid.


Cheers

Gonna go with the behringer minimix to start with at any rate, and a mixture of the 100's discs and mastermix discs that I can get on e-bay. I already have and LCD screen (missus won't be able to watch TV in bed the nights I'm working LOL) so overall setup costs don't appear too bad. I'll be using Numark cue initially as this is primarily a DJ program maybe this should be a worry but if it gathers momentum I have no problem investing in a specialist Karaoke program. Like I said in an earlier post Karaoke is not all that widespread over here so peoples expectations aren't gonna be that high, in fact I don't even know a single DJ doing it (and I know quite a few DJ's).

Any thoughts on getting the crowd warmed up, singing myself is out of the question as I simply cannot sing at all. Do ye find it takes a bit of dutch courage for punters to get into the singing or is there any way to entice people onto the stage.

Hey Mickey...:-)

Being able to throw out some tunes yourself does help I find. I'm not a pro like a lot of the guys here..I just do Karaoke/DJ for friends and family and people I know, so more of a hobbyist but I find I'm doing quite a few lately..getting to that stage in life I guess...40ths, 50ths, anniversaries etc.

Do you have anyone that can sing that would be willing to lend a hand? It really can help to break the ice. I find that even at functions where I know a lot of the people it can be hard to get them started. But of course, as I'm sure most of the Karaoke jocks here will tell you, once they get going they usually end up fighting over the mics and disappointed when the management call it a night and they haven't got to sing their songs. Most people do need a bit of Dutch courage.

By the way, I found those 100 Hits series to be great value and the quality is pretty good for the price. Definitely a great place to start on a budget.

Whereabouts in Ireland are you based btw? I'm in Dublin myself.

When you are on about singing, just pick something easy,you must sing along to stuff in the van on the radio so think of those. Also, dont nick all the favourites from your punters (sweet Caroline etc) as I find these are the ones used to get people up and running. I tend to go for a bit of novelty stuff that people dont go near.....George Formby....... turned out nice again

I'm munster based, do mainly weddings, 21sts and other parties, and do some residency work as well. I noticed that there was virtually nobody providing a karaoke service down here so gonna give it a go as an add-on for parties, I can't offer professional karaoke nights as I can't sing, but I think 21st parties could go for it. Those 100's discs are tremendous value alright, I bought 5 of them to start me off and downloaded all the new chart tunes and will keep adding more as time goes by. I'm involved with 2 youth clubs so gonna give my system a trial run in the next two weeks with the kids they were very excited when I told them. Upgraded to the new virtual DJ so will be using that to host initially, hope it takes off now,

Don't worry if you can't sing well !! I know a few hosts who start off singing badly on purpose as its less intimidating to new singers and people who think they can sing better!! If you have just good singers it can put off new ones unless they are drunk

Reviving an old thread here, I'm ready to start my Karaoke career now and have spread the word and am getting alot of interest, bought a retiring KJ's sunfly & legends series discs so have plenty of tunes (about 15,000 altogether) which I have converted for digital use, but I have two further questions:

I will be using the Behringer Minimix, I have seen posts about reverb, and knowing how to set it for certain singers, excuse my ignorance as I'm new to this but what does this mean exactly, I have no idea and guess I will have to learn as I go about the settings but can anybody give me some tips?

I switched to a new mixer at xmas (Denon DN-X500) and since then I seem to be getting crazy feedback from the mic even when making announcements. I always set up a few feet behind the speakers so have no idea why this is happening and I'm really worried that this will be a big problem when doing Karaoke in small venues with limited setup space. I will be using wireless mic's for the singers. Anybody any tips on how to reduce singer feedback?

On a more positive note I have a pub who want me to do thurs & fri nights over summer, to trial at the start but if it works out it looks like there could be a residency there. Thursdays would be tricky as I work friday mornings but luckily I can rearrange my hours as I'm the boss

If anybody can help with the above I'd appreciate it.

reverb depends on the singer and song

listen to cher shoop shopp song for example the original vocal on that song certainly has effects on it and quite a lot if you were to get a singer to sing without any reverb it would sound wrong no matter how good of a singer they were BUT on songs where people sort of talk or rap very little or no reverb is needed so it depends on the original song they are singing.

also some singers cling to reverb like dumbo did to the magic feather wanting more than is needed as they think it covers up any mistakes .

microphone gain needs to be watched if your hosting karaoke also turn the music down to get the balance between music and vocals ..playing about testing a few songs singing a few before a gig would be very useful. most time people get feedback is that they hold the mic too far away and are too quiet so you turn the gain up and whooooo feedback ! if they hold the mic a thumb away from there mouth and hold it as if they are about to swallow the mic NOT under there mouth often singers and djs talk over the top of the mic not into the mic so because of that you have to turn the mic gain up causing feedback.

I often take mics off people when they say its not on then say one two loudly down the mic ..they realise its them thats quiet!

regular karaoke singers often know all this and that is why they sound better a few prima donnas will always moan about settings often these are singers who are not the best vocally and use your gear as a way of not admitting they are not as good as they think they are.

for me karaoke isn't about how good you are but how much fun you have but you will always get some who take it too seriously.

wireless mics will be a nightmare for the walk about singers , the ones who wander about while singing often they walk right in front of your speakers be ready to cut the gain on the mic.

Good luck

rob

@ Rob as a seasoned pro would you advise wired mic's in that case??

I have both but though wireless would be less hassle and less chance of people tripping / standing on cables

im surprised you get so much feedback when you switched to the denon, was there an issue before? What mic and lead are you using?

I find reverb, or infact all the effx on cheap mixers a waste of time. i have a little mackie mixer and have the bypass on. karaoke backing tracks are compressed to hell as it is and the tracks are riddled with effects. Adding reverb to your singers voice wont really do much good.

A nice delay sounds good but its hard to get a good balance with all the background noise. Reverb will add to your feedback problems too

saying all that i do use a deep reverb effect for the comedy value, demonic laughter etc

regards
Dave

pros and cons to both

with wires you can stop wanderers and for the same price wired always sound better ..notice i said same price before anyone comments ! so if you spent £100 on a wired mic and £100 on a wireless Mic the wired would blow it away

Trip hazard wired mics are a worry as are wired mic swingers , controlling a show nicely but firmly is a skill that takes years and are always learning.

i used to only use wired mics but now use wireless but in venues where feedback is a real problem i use wired with mic stands or my 50's chrome mic on a stand which has the microphone element pointing at the singer.

hope this helps

I'm surprised also, had no issue at all before, and that was with a cheap numark mixer, I use a sennheisier wired mic, and a t-bone wireless if I want to go out front. Perhaps I've simply had it up too loud will play around with it before I take at the Karaoke. Luckily I'm involved with youth clubs so will be trying it out with them before I get onto paid gigs, this way I can iron out any problems with a crowd that won't mind a few technical problems, they'ye dying to try it out so should be fun. I bought an intimidation 2mic unit for the karaoke which I will run through the behringer unit, hopefully I'll be able to sort the problem with correct speaker placing and so on.

In my experience if you don't know what effects / reverb to use and how much many singers (the good ones ) will not come back , if you have a residency you get to know which singers like what for example i have a singer that sings Johnny remember me and the level of effects is so high its unbelievable BUT on that song with that singer it works and sounds good. i would never use those settings on other songs and with different singers ..to use no effects is suicide for me too as i would have no singers the week after ..so many DJ's who try KJing dont use effects and the singers (usually karaoke veterans) look at them like i sound rubbish and its your fault , and the DJ's look at them like well its not me your not as good as you think you are. I see this scenario quite often when a dj mate covers for a Kj when they go on holiday for example , the stupid thing is often the DJ has miles better gear but lacks quality effects and the knowledge on how to use them properly.

Feedback is just that... signal is feeding back causing a loop... if the gains are set so high that the tinniest sound from the mic is amplified massively then blasted out the speakers then picked up by the mic set on too sensitive then it will feed back turning the mic level down and getting singers to sing properly and use good mic technique is often the only and best way to solve small venue feedback problems.

Singers see music videos where the singer holds the mic at waist height and waves the mic about while dancing etc , then wonder why they can't hear themselves. they need to be nicely guided it to using the mic properly.

Good advice guys thanks, to be honest Karaoke is not widespread over here at all. I wouldn't expect to come across any veteran singers or performers, as it simply isn't very popular, for what reason I don't know. The pub which wants to try it out for example has never done it before, no harm in being well informed on how to use the equipment properly however.