Karaoke Forums

Hello all, I have been reading through the forums here getting some ideas for adding a Karaoke portion to my show and just have one question.

I have been DJ'ing for 20 years and based on word of mouth referrals and repeat business I feel that I have a pretty good show but from day one people were always asking me if I could do Karaoke as well and I said I didn't and truth be told never really wanted to. To have drunk people screaming into my mic's and whatnot.. I am up here in N. Idaho and I have seen some karaoke dj's pulling their hair out at jerks getting up on stage and knocking things over, dropping mics.. etc.

With that being said, for the last 5 years I have been buying karaoke CD's and looking at songs that the KJ's around here have in their books, and to date I have about 4,000 songs ready to roll..

The question is, how many songs did you all have available to sing when you started? I plan on buying more cd's with every gig, (that's what I did with my DJ biz as well) but I have to start somewhere?

Mobile beat puts out a list.. "top 200 songs every dj should have" or something like that and I was wondering if there was a similar list for KJ's?

Thanks for your time and keep up the good work everyone! I have learned a lot in these forums just lurking

Start off buying a quality catalogue of songs from someone like Sunfly or Zoom. That should cover the bases to start with. Then as you expand,start adding other manufacturers music.

Here's a list built by combining the songs from Sound Choice Foundations 1 & 2, Chartbuster Essentials 1 & 2, and Supercore 2007:

http://duxmail.com/All.txt

That would be a pretty good list of 1700 songs, albeit without a lot of the newer stuff you might want. There you can get Chartbuster, Big Hitz, and other collections for 2005-2009 to augment.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Karaoke.com still has the entire Sound Choice foundation series on sale for around $800. That's a deal!

If you are using the computer and the bar you are at has wi-fi, check out:

http://www.sbikaraoke.com/shop.php
http://www.karaoke-version.com/karaoke/
http://www.tricerasoft.com/cgi-bin/Kara ... /index.asp
http://www.karaoke-singles.com/

Craigslist and ebay are great places to find used disk sets cheap as well.

Then, if someone asks for something you don't have you can download it on the spot.
Everyone will think you're awesome because you'll be able to get a lot of new stuff.\

SBI is awesome, and they have recently added sunfly to their library so you'll soon have access to those song as well. Tricerasoft has sunfly already.

Good luck.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Welcome Malibu,

I added Karaoke to my DJ service less than 2 years ago. I'm like you, 20+ years in the biz and never added karaoke cause I hated it. One of my DJ accounts wanted it and thats how it started for me.(Now I love karaoke !) My best advice is to think quality over quantity. My library is only about 6000 songs, with my core being Chartbuster E1-E8, SC Foundations and Bricks. Now I'm filling in the cracks with many various sources-SC,CB Backstage,Legends, phm.

Welcome to wild world of karaoke !

Best of Luck, Mojo

Thanks everyone! I knew this forum would be helpful..

I will look into getting these bricks and subscriptions you mentioned, I have only really been checking out people selling their stuff locally on craigslist and picking up deals locally..

I should probably start a new thread but I may also get a middle of the road wireless mic set, I have a spendy dual Shure UHF-R wireless mic system that I do not think I want to be handing to just anybody, and I see these KJ's with a base unit that holds 3 or 4 mics and from what I can tell sound pretty ok..

I have looked around online but have not seen the same thing, any recommendations on a nice wireless mic system?

Thanks again! - Oh, I am called malibu because when my buddy and I started he had a 64 chevy malibu and we only had a little bit of equipment that could fit in the car so we settled on the name Malibu Music.. Just in case anyone was wondering

I host a very busy 7 night a week show and do not like the drunks handling expensive mics. I use the Vocopro UHF-5800 mic system. Many here in this forum will talk s$%t about these and I am not a fan at all of this brand but a fellow KJ recomended this set up to me and with hesitation I took the plundge. I have been pleasantly surprised with this set up and for the cost I don't cringe everytime I hand one over the Scaryokes. It rack mountable out of the box as well and I haven't had any reception problems and some people walk all over the large room that I host in. Here is a link for the set up.

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... B&ZYXSEM=0

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"Don't worry. It will feel better when it quits hurtin."

That is funny King, I was just looking at they very same set on dbkaraoke.com! I like how they are color coded so you can tell at a distance who has what mic..

scaryokes.. I like that!

Here we go again. I'll say this once and I know I'm not alone. If you buy vocopro, not only will it probably not last with the drunks handling it, it will sound cheap and will not give you that high quality sound. Get a Shure, it sounds great and takes punishment.

If you have 4000 songs, you have enough to get started. I would hold off on the foundation sets and lurk at ebay, craigslist, google, wherever. You will get the sets a lot cheaper than 800 bucks. I paid 400 for 1 and 2 combined. Used, but haven't had any issues with any of the disks once I got them all ripped.

Welcome to Karaoke!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Rip, for that price you are getting 5 bricks at $99 a piece, and the core foundation for $350, and its brand new. I've never even seen used sets go for cheaper than that.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Told ya.

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"Don't worry. It will feel better when it quits hurtin."

I use the SM58's 6 nights a week, and they've been dropped and what have you without any problems. In addition, they are sectional so if you do have a problem you can replace the bad component relatively inexpensively.

When I do have top notch singers come to sing with me they love the dynamic range that the Shures have, and so do I.

Vocopro can't even compare, but its your show, you go with what you want.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Buy the SM58s and you won't ever have to think about mics again. We have 4-5 of them, 3 cordless 58s, and two headset 58s....Never had a problem with any of them, and everybody sounds great on them.

Hello All,

I think that quality is better then quantity.
You're going to get the people who sing the standards...
Summer Lovin'
My Way
Sweet Caroline etc.

Then you'll get the ones who want to sing the new stuff. Write down their reqeusts and then get them for the them in the next two weeks.

Each bar is differnt .. some are 80's, country, oldies, etc. Learn your bar and jus get the type of music they want.

Jason Christopher
accliam productions

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Jason Christopher
Want To Learn How To Grow An Outrageously Profitable KJ Business And Put An Iron Cage Around Your Customers? visit my web site below..

Malibu did you decide on your mics? Did you see this post below?

Competitor Kudo

Posted: Yesterday at 9:42 am

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Very funny but totally satisfying story from last night. We had a woman come in last night who sang very well. It was a privilege to listen to her.

After she sang a few songs she came up to the booth and told me my system was incredible and the way I mixed things for her was great as well. She wanted to know all of my components. So I'm eating all this up right and then she blew me away by telling me she worked for the pirates (alleged) in town that I have mentioned.

I listened to her tell me how their system was less than adequate and that she wished they had a decent set up. Then she asked me what kind of mics I had and then told me the pirate's mics made the voice sound muffled. I told her that I knew that they used Voco Pro and that should be expected. She confirmed that is what they still use. She has asked them to get some decent mics but they don't want to spend the money on equipment that drunks will drop and ruin. That's funny. I dropped my wired SM58 on the cement floor at my Make A Wish gig Thursday and of course it dented the grille but it keeps on going!

It was a very satisfying conversation and she ened it by telling me I had the best sound she has heard in the area. Hope she comes back!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Cheap sounding microphones will be your weakest link.

The VocoPro 5800's have always worked fine for me. Yes, mics are important (as are speakers), but to my mind, the weakest link is the mixer. A great mic can sound pretty mundane if the mixer is junk or the mix is bad.

As far as how many songs you need to start karaoke successfully, I can only relate what was told to me by a KJ whose worked here since the 80's (in LA area): "The absolute minimum would be 20,000 - 40,000 karaoke tracks to start."

...and if he has truly KJ'd since the 80s, he'd know what the rest of us who've been around that long know - there are about 500 songs that get sung...so once you've figured out what those are, you can get started. "...absolute minimum..."

You mean every KJ first starting out doesn't invest $100,000 for songs? Or is that just an LA thing?

Rather than start with a 40K library, I rather use part of that money to buy a good mic. And it will not be a VP 5800. And by the way, I don't even need a mixer to produce good sound for karaoke.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott