Karaoke Forums

Hey guys I'm new and have a few questions. I own a small restaurant. We live in a pretty rural area and theres nothing here anywhere to do. I built a 30x40 feet room on the end of our restaurant for something like a small bar setup. We are going to be serving alcohol. I built a small stage and have one big screen tv. We also have a bar plus about 12 to 15 tables. I am going to try and start with Karaoke on thursdays and music or sports on Fridays and Saturdays to start. I know myself around a PA system pretty well as I have played in a Classic rock, country band for years. My main question is 12" or 15" speakers. Our band setup is 18" Subs with 15"'s on top. Do I need 15's for karaoke. It will only be here and will not be moved. I have about 1300 dollars to spend to start with. I was thinking about one of the Berhinger PA setups with the powered mixer,speakers cords and mics. I think it is the PMP2000. To start I have to go with a player and then later a laptop. Any recommendations on a player? Also I figure I would start with Soundchoice, Foundation 2. I'll eventually get quite a bit more music. I know its alot of questions but like I said I'm new. thanks ahead of time for any info. This is all new to me.

Good luck and welcome. First of all I would go with the 15s off the bat so you don't worry about coming up short or upgrading. Behringer 15's on top of 2 18" subs is going to be plenty! Do you have the subs or is that just the band set up? If you get 12s, you will eventually change over to 15s most likely.
How much music are you going to buy? Is the f2 set all you are going to start out with? Pretty expensive set for the amount of music you get. Piece of advise, buy it from eBay. I paid $400 for both foundation sets. They are used but I've had no problems with them skipping, just the problem of some of the lyrics being off time from the music. That is a manufacturing problem.
Personally if my music budget was $350, I wouldn't buy foundation. Go to eBay and find some starter sets there. For that amount of money you could have a couple thousand songs and so far I haven't seen where sound choice is all that in comparison to other brands.
Are you starting with a player instead of a laptop due to the new price of a laptop vs the new price of a player? I paid $220 for my laptop on ebay. It's fast and gives me no problems. The only other cost then is for the software and possibly an external hard drive. Others will lead you to hosting software for $100 or less. I prefer compuhost which costs more but that's just personal preference. There are even free programs out there right Knightshow?

Basically $1300 won't get you much but if you shop around, learn the products and what they will do, I'm sure you could have shows going at your place on that budget. But mark my words, you will find yourself upgrading all of your equipment.

Your live band experience will be very helpful. Karaoke is basically a live performance situation except the performers have no idea what they're doing. I would go with the 15's and not with Berhinger. I haven't heard anything that they make that I would buy or even want for free. For a fixed installation you might consider using a desktop computer and kiosks. It will save you a ton of money over a lappy and books in the short and long run. It's hard to go wrong with Sound Choice and Chart Buster, also you might look into LEGALLY downloading music.

In short, don't panic, have fun, keep the party going at all costs. Use your strengths and what you have learned about performing. Be prepared to sing fifty songs but don't sing if you don't have to. Keep the rotation fair no matter what or there will be talk of a lynching. ...and all will be well.

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Okay, who took my pants?

You already have the important components in place, the PA system. Since it's already in place, it's a matter of plugging in your player and the mics into the board. Since you have band experience then the board should be no problem. If your board doesn't have built in effects, then an effects unit should be gotten. For a player, an RSQ or something similar will do nicely. For music check the Sound Choice site for their Bricks or Chartbuster for their Essentials. It will be enough to get you started. Good luck and have fun.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

The PMP-2000 is pretty underpowered. It does about 120w/channel into 8 ohms, which isn't much as I am sure you know.

If you can somehow spend a bit more and get a Yamaha EMX512SC. That, in combo with some Peavey or even Behringer speakers, will give you enough power to rock the place. Add a pair of speakers and that comes to about a grand. If you look on EBay, you might be able to keep it in your price range.

I would go for 15" speakers unless you were planning on a sub later. They should easily give enough bass for karaoke, and have enough oomph for the occasional dance set.

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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.

Well I disagree with you on that point. My 215's sound pretty good and especially with the Carvin sub I added! I had a local DJ check out my set up who has been in business for over 10 years and he was amazed by the sound that I had put together for the amount of money I spent. Will they last a long time? I can't answer that, only had them since November. Do agree with the computer suggestion since the set up won't be moving. Disagree with going with Sound Choice due to the budget mentioned in the OP.

I was in much the same boat as you and went with 15" tops (Yamaha S115 in my case), will add sub at a later date when money permits. However I'll leave the equipment to the more expert among us as I used a friends expertise to spec out my stuff for the room I am in.

However Music is a subject near and dear to my heart though. Check out the ChartBusters site. If you join their Gold club for $6/month you'll get 10% off their listed price when you order and they'll send you a stack of older stuff they have lying around for free. I signed up for the 10% off on orders and they sent me 10 disks that I already have. Useful if you have nothing.

They just started a subscription service that provides you with a monthly set of "Hits of the Month" disks to keep you up to date. It's $35/month to have them send you the top 30 tracks of last month style thing. I find it a good investment even if it makes keeping books up to date impossible. There's something fun about telling singers "Don't need your disk, I already have that one."

Funny thing is I used to prefer Sound Choice and still do for nearly everything made before 2003. Since then I like Chartbusters and Zoom arrangements a bit more with a good appreciation for the Priddis selections I have picked up. Of course I have my fairly large Super Core, Sweet Georgia Brown collection since they're inexpensive and easy to pick up a lot of songs. I have only had the real Karaoke divas not sing one of those songs and plenty tell me they prefer another version. But they sing it if that's all I have.

I guess the short answer for music is to pick up the best selection of middle of the road quality music to get people singing and to improve your library as you start turning profit.

I'm not going to use my current PA. I have to buy one for my new setup. I know everybodys down on Behringer but as far as I can tell nothing else is close price wise. I would really rather piece a system together. The main reason is if you buy a packaged system with enough power and large enough speakers, you end up with a 12 or 16 channel board that will never get enough use. I'd rather have a small mixer, tabletop with sliders instead of all knobs. A separate amp and speakers. I guess I'll have to do some more research. I'll definitely check out the music choices you guys mentioned above. If any body can help with some recommendations I'm eager to here them.

Well since you have nearly exactly the same specs, room size and equipment needs, as I did I'll give you my setup:

Mixer: Yamaha MG124CX. I use a minimum of 5 channels but the board has faders, not knobs, compression on channels 1-4 and good FX built in. The only down side is it doesn't have ears for mounting in a case, I needed to get a shelf for it.

Speakers: Yamaha S115V (I used the C115v, just a different cabinet finish). 15" speakers, great directional sound allows you to place it where you need sound in the room. I am careful to keep the singers area loud and the bar area quieter to allow conversation. After trying several different types (Peavy, Mackie, Bose) I decided on the lower priced Yamaha setup. I think they're fantastic and very hard to beat unless you spend 2x as much but that's just my opinion.

Amp: QSC RMX 2450. You might get away with something smaller, but probably shouldn't.

Costs:
Mixer - $250
Amp - $600 However you can get a $150 rebate on it until march 31st
Speakers - $720 ($360 ea) (Free stand if ordered from Zzounds
Cables - $150(ish)

Total - $1600(ish) Less if you get the QSC Rebate