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Tópico: Any advice for a karaoke virgin?

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I've been DJing for many years and never had to touch karaoke, until now... I know VDJ can play karaoke files but is there anything else I should be aware of?

I have zero karaoke files so am looking at a possible subscription service through VDJ.

ANY advice or personal experiences most welcome! Thanks :-)


EDIT: I'm a bit confused by the file formats; I would like HD if possible, but is there an option to cut out or reduce the vocals in the track, or is it just an instrumental with lyrics?
 
Mensajes Sat 11 Jul 15 @ 12:27 pm
Anyone actually subscribe to karaoke from vdj?
 
Yes, I do. However, I rarely use it. My suggestion to you would be to buy a starter collection which covers the standards. This will be a large collection, and not cheap. I believe that trying to start out with the subscription service, will result in a lot of havoc, and stress on you and your customers. People that sing karaoke are very passionate, which actually means crazy. They don't care that your internet is slow, or that the service does not have that song. Karaoke comes in CD+G, Zip and mp4 formats. There may be others, but these are the ones I know about. Some tracks come with a couple of versions, including background vocals. Take a look here for some options on building your collection.
 
Hi Rob,
take a look at Sunfly, there are some collections that are pretty good, I always buy the good ones in HD(.ie Crooners). I don't use the VDJ karaoke subscription as a rule, I tend to lean towards Karafun, 'cos you can use their player to adjust the lead/backing vocals seperately.
 
I like the look of Karafun and the graphics look good, however I would like to use vdj8 for playing all media if possible..
I have subscribed to Content Unlimited Karaoke (as time was short, first gig less than a week) but am very disappointed with the quality of files available. I have seen far superior offerings free on YouTube, although this option is not something I would consider... Can Karafun files be bought as a standalone download, or do they have to be used with their app?
 
If the Karafun catalog was available through KaraokeUnlimited that would be special!
 
...or Sunfly, I have looked without success for their tracks?

I have been contemplating subscribing to karaoke, as well as audio.
Content Unlimited supplements my core audio library extremely well !
 
Sunfly, are one of the biggest distributors of karaoke tracks, along with DK, they are the ones I started off collecting their CDs years ago, at the time I think Sunfly had only six compilation disc's to their catalogue.

A simple google will bring up loads of hits.
 
I just about remember Tayla, if a karaoke had about 600 tracks then I use to consider it awesome. That must have been about 1997, the DK range at that time were the big boys with a 99 disk collection, and a few mutiplex CD+G's as well.

Back then the CD+G disks were very cheap at £30 in comparison to the cost of the mega big Pioneer laser disks.
Hm I spent a small fortune.

I think the 90's were the UK's golden karaoke years.
Some KJ's used to wonder around with backing tracks, and song lyric sheets !
I wish I could go back.
I had some great times !
 
I started off with a collection of the first 34 or 36 disc's from DK, now that was a bit of an investment in those days, believe it or not I still hate bloody karaoke, but I could see there was money to be made and to be honest, I have had some good nights and a few laughs along the way with it.

But why does everybody want to sing the same bloody tracks.
 
Karafun has the advantage of HD and fading out vocals. I'm also taken by the milkdrop-esque backgrounds.. If other karaoke files could have a transparent background you could add your own graphics, hmm... SBDJ? Already had problems with live streaming Karafun though, I suppose the pro subscription at £80 pcm is the only option to play whole catalog offline :-( $megabuck$

Have demo-ed to residency, first night on sunday. NOT looking forward TBH, its WAAAY out of my comfort zone. MEH! (It's money)
 
If you want to continue to make money doing this, you need to be prepared. Check out others and see how they do it. You need a minimum of two mics, four would be better. Are you just going to take request, or will you have catalogs?
 
I use a maximum of two mic's.
Use one when possible.

People wonder in front of speakers creating feedback, and they also put multiple microphones too close together, again creating feedback. Singers often do not know how to use a microphone, if they create feedback you will get the blame.

Try not to use too much power, this again encourages the old enemy feedback.
I use loads of power, but I almost know what I'm doing.

Keep encouraging the singers to move the microphones closer to their mouths, this again helps in the war against feedback.
Some singers whisper quietly, all you can do is to try and persuade them to sing up.
Turn the microphone up a little, but be careful, the higher you turn the volume the more likely the result will be feedback.

Make sure your echo works.

Try to judge the microphone volume to suite your singer.
As a DJ you will often know how a song should sound, try to emulate this, a little more bass, or maybe top can help, maybe a touch more echo.

In the battle against feedback try to reduce your EQ's rather than increasing them, again feedback is the reason.
Hence a singers voice could be made to sound more bassy by decreasing top, and mid, as opposed to increasing bottom.

Good luck.
 
A couple more points.

Create an area for the singers behind your speakers.

Watch out for the rare drunken menace who starts very quietly, and then suddenly starts shouting loudly.
Respond quickly by reducing their mic volume.
This type of behavior can damage your speakers
 
Doing karaoke? Use a compressor/limiter!

All the money in the world would not tempt me to do karaoke.
 
I have got one, but don't use it.
Yet another item to carry, and go wrong.
My amp is supposed to have a built in limiter, I thought it might work well, and ignored the clipping warning lights.
I blew a driver.
I'm busy trying to get in, and out fast with a lightweight rig,

Thinking about it, that would help him enormously, and me.
I'll have to bring mine back into service.
 
I have a mixer now that has pan on each of the mics which is great for karaoke, wish i had it years ago.
 
I do a weekly karaoke night which is very successful.

My advice is this: buy as large of a collection of your own as you can afford before you start. Get as many of the obvious hits as you can. You can supplement this with a VDJ subscription, but DO NOT rely on this as the basis of your business - you will fail. (Songs go missing from the library and quite often I'll download one and it won't load. )

Take a portion of your weekly take and invest it in new songs. Try to stay current with the new hits and pay attention to common requests you get. After a few months of weekly gigs you will have a solid collection.

Here are the companies whose karaoke tracks I like best:
ZOOM
SBI
Abraxa
Sunfly
Music Maestro
KaraokeVersion
 
Lots to think about....

Thanks for the input :-)

Rob G
 
 


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