Karaoke Forums

Well, a friend and I went out to sing last night. Our plan was to go see Martine's Pro Karaoke, but we got side tracked and ended up at another bar entirely. My friend was looking into a barmaid's job, and heard there was an opening and this bar happened to have karaoke.

I'd never seen the show before, so hey why not hang? This bar was very nice. It had a section with couches and lazy chairs, a big dance floor with cool lighting effects. Wow, this should be neat, I thought. The bar was fairly crowded, and the rotation filled up right when we got there... see below!

Well, I went up to the KJ was very comfortabley seated behind his table, to add us to the rotation. This KJ doesn't use slips, you just tell him what you want to sing when he calls you.

The KJ used "filler music", and interestingly enough, took forever between singers. I don't know what took him so long, but I know that part of the problem was he had to look up the song because he didn't use slips. The non-slip methos was lame in two ways. 1) he couldn't just cue the song when the singer came up, and 2) I ended up writing my song ideas on a napkin as I perused through the book.

This guy was apparently a lead singer and guitarist in a famous local band in the 80's, and the band's name was the name of his show. He had monitor speakers for the singers, but the mix was out of balance with the singer sounding overbearing... and get this... he used his computer monitor as his karaoke monitor! This was wierd, as he had the monitor set up on his table just to his left, on the CPU... like you would have it if it was on your desk at home. The singer was at the end of the table to the far right, making looking at the monitor awkward.

When we got there, a woman named Karen was singing. We put ourselves into the rotation. Would you believe that we didn't get to sing until AFTER Karen on the NEXT rotation! That was almost an hour later.

At this point, I said lets go see Martine! So we did. Martine (who doesn't use filler music BTW), was awesome as usual, with a great sounding well balanced system, fine personality, and well run show. No lights, not dance floor, but far more enjoyable.

While I would love to add lights to my show, and I use filler music, the moral of the story is that none of that matters at all if your basic operation and hosting skills suck! All the gingerbread in the world won't help you.

_________________
Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Were people dancing between singers?

I have to admit when I go to a show and it takes forever between singers I don't go back. There was one place where I said this makes sense as people are dancing and shucking and jiving through it all but it still wasn't the place for me; I'd rather hear people sing/sing myself.

Not sure why the filler music seems to be mentioned in a manner indicating some culpability because you can go to hundreds of shows that use filler and have just as fast a rotation as non-filler places.

Was everyone having fun?

I imagine that people were having fun, but no, no one was dancing. I didn't speak to anyone else about the host, or mention that I was a KJ... that's not cool. I did see some folks there that I knew, and who recognised me, but we didn't talk about the KJ. I don't know the thoughts of other folks there... the opinions are mine alone.

The point was there are extras that can enhance a karaoke show... light effects and filler music for example... but if the basic show ain't that good, they won't actually "enhance" anything. I can excuse a sound system issue, but the length between singers, and the monitor issue just bugged the heck out of me.

_________________
Good music, good friends, howling good times!

KK
I agree the FOUNDATION of any decent karaoke show is GOOD SOUND and a personable host and FAIR rotation. The other add-ons like LIGHTS, PROPS etc are all icing on a cake ..but if the cake itself STINKS what good is it ?

I had to (we didn't have to but it made for an easier life) stop using slips and return to a sign up sheet.

I have one show (where there are multiple hosts) where the customers didn't use anyone method. . . some would hand in 30 odd slips at the start, and then change their mind about what to sing though out the evening, several who would ask me to choose, many who would want to see what was on the computer rather than read the books (the books and computer don't match at this show.... ps. not my rig) and a few who would walk up to the stage and decide what to sing at that moment.

And the other show, after six months of demanding slips. . . eventually i found out the drunks were asking the bar girls (who have more important things to do) to write them out for them. I'd lose more time explaining the slips, than if i just looked up the number myself.

This does no matter how hard I try, slow things down and limits the amount of time i can spend on the mix. . . however to the average customer it still is fast. . . I have about 30sec inbetween singers. . . which is there own doing as they walk slowly to the stage and everyonce in a while I'd get caught out by a fast song, and I haven't had time to look up a number yet.

The first venue is no ones fault, it a combination of things, and if it's busy I will go and find out what people are singing next and run the songs almost back to back (using the time to also get the next singer ready).

The second venue, well, I think thats more the clients. . . although I'm very fond of most of them. . . some do seem to think the world revolves around them, and every stereotypical problem a host has is created here on a regular basis. "I have to sing next" "just one more song" "turn it up" "Hold my drink i'm a bit wobbly" "what do you mean there's no time for me to sing.... kick one of the crap singers out".

That sounds more like my format only we enter the singer on the spot and they are in the que with that request before they turn around. It takes 2-3 seconds. We are not on the stage but on the other side of the room and easily accessible.

As stated before our filler music time depends upon the size of rotation and crowd. I do have a fairly good selection of dance music and a system that can play all genres and makes old stuff rock. At times this is more important than karaoke. Also I get a lot of weddings and private parties from singers and non singers. Sometimes in the last 30 minutes if trying to get more singers up I will click off the auto fade to fill but the next singer has to be on stage almost introducing themselves.

Some small venues cant use lights and there are no dimmers on the light switches I wont even bother. I like to use them more for DJ or special occasions.

_________________
Join The Karaokle Singers Social Network. Upload Your Music!!

The lighting effects in this place were professionally done and part of the bar's set up, not the KJs. There were LED flowers, and multi colored spots blinking on and off, black lights and a mirror ball.

_________________
Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Yea I have done these places and used their sound system only as a linear PA and bass. It takes a fairly large dance floor. I would rather get out and rock with a bunch of gals on the dance floor than sit there doing the show. We had one place that 400 could sit comfortabily. The big screen was a wall projection on one side and a wall projection of video of the singer on the other side.

It was in Windsor CO and in one dec we took over after a big Kodac xmas party. Some stayed and went nuts with the entertainment. I was singing and dancing and having a good time. One of the Kodac sups came over in his coat and tie and we got to talking He said you are good can I buy you a drink OH Im not drinking tonight. He got an incredulous look on his face and said you are doing this sober? Then he really was impressed.The next week we had a bachlerette part. OH GAWD!!!

_________________
Join The Karaokle Singers Social Network. Upload Your Music!!

I have to say, I don't use any slips/sign up sheets either. And it works great.

By the time, the singer tells me his song, grabs the mic and turns around to the screen, the song is starting. So there is no time loss caused by it, unless... they can't make up their mind. But 90% of the singers have decided on a song, before being called up.

I hear quite often, how impressed people are with my speed in queuing up songs.

Of course. You use Compuhost. Search-as-you-type, singer history, and decent search results display do wonders.

Hoster has caveman-style exact-string-only searching. And Sax 'N Dottys has terrible search speed and abysmal displays when you do find something.

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

True, Compuhost is a big factor of my speed.

But most customers don't know that...

Rox has SAYT (search as you type) and is instantaneous. There is literally no search wait. Ex cli cra and you have Patsy Cline Crazy. Right click on it and you have a popup to enter new singers name or click on the singer in the singer list below. It is qued for their next song.Takes all of 2 seconds.

_________________
Join The Karaokle Singers Social Network. Upload Your Music!!

I have never found hoster to be an albatross - but I also type for a living and am pretty adept at working my around the hosting computer - a person can change their mind about a song, they give me the name of the new song, it is typed in and up on the screen in probably less than 7 seconds...really....

It is completely archaic to do exact-string ordered searching ONLY. That was old technology a decade ago.

And until MTU's users hold them responsible for this inexplicable deficiency, it won't change.

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

He wasn't using hoster. I don't know the name of the program, but I've seen several KJ's using it. Its got a black backgroun. He had to fully type my song, click it... move the mouse over to the right to put song in cue, and then hit Play.... I know it took three mouse clicks to get the song going.

He did seem to converse with the singers a bit before he cued the music too. It was really annoying.

_________________
Good music, good friends, howling good times!

An old timer was telling ms a story about the first time he got a drivers license. In the basement of the court house way back in a corner andold guy was sitting there.

Ya Gotta Car? Yup..

Ya got insurance on it? Yup

Ya know how to drive it? Yup

Thatll be 50 cents please.. Now its a total nightmare with laws and rules and this and that .

Thats about the way I greet new singers.

Howdy what song ya want?

Whats ur name.

OK ur in..... They stand there with their chin down to their knees and I crack up. Thats when they realize they are not at a regular show. Before the nights over I know where they grew up what they do for a living What music they like and sort of tell them the simple rules I have and how I do things. They relax and have fun and are not a stranger when they leave unless they are an ^&&

_________________
Join The Karaokle Singers Social Network. Upload Your Music!!

Not sure where you get that from, I can queue up a song in under 2 seconds plus the time it takes me to type the persons name.

_________________
Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

First off, I never type in the entire song - if it is "I Will Always Love You" I quickly figure "will always love" is good criteria - up it comes. I type about 120 words a minute. I click on the song and click play. i don't put the person's name in, obviously, if they're singing it right then and there. I have just never found it to be cumbersome at all. It does do search while you type if you're ripping and adding - sometimes it's quicker for me to just type it. I think it depends on the dexterity of the host and their ability to mouse around and click. I'm very fast at it. I haven't used any other hosting program because I have this one...And it is doubtful I'll change it because that would mean re-ripping. I've been a medical transcriptionist for 25 years. I started using an IBM correcting selectric...I've used almost every software ever created and figure out really quickly the best way to produce ... which is what I do with hoster. Nothing slow about it for me. It can be painful to watch hubby do it, though. .

Actually, that depends, compuhost will import your existing MP3s.

The common format is: "SC8991-02 - Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice.zip"

It will read Mp3 or wmv format, zipped or uncompressed, or a combination thereof.

_________________
Good music, good friends, howling good times!

First of all, there isn't search-as-you-type. Second, maybe it's just the computers that run it around here but every time I see someone hit ENTER on S&D it is wait.1.2.3 results. Then the display is chopped off, and you rarely get the full song title or artist name. A good deal of the space is taken up by the file name, which is completely meaningless. You want a manufacturer or disk code, not c:\foo\bar\karaoke\SC1235-02.zip. Then on top of it, search results seem to be unsorted.

It is certainly possible that people have it poorly configured, but part of good software is choosing intelligent defaults. The defaults for S&D are terrible, and on CompuHost they are brilliant.

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