Karaoke Forums

Well I had my first try at KJ ing. Thursday night. A private gig for 30 college students in the area for community work. I'm still waiting on my beer license so no alcohol was involved. A little update on my equipment. A Behringer powered board,Behringer 15" speakers. Samson mics and a Ace Karaoke DGX 109 player. My music library is still growing,I have Supercore 2006, and 2008. Also one set of SGB. Everything went allright except the overzealous kids trampled my mic cords and two of them are now shot. The whole setup did rather well. Sound was good and no problem with rotation and song selection. There was a couple of songs requested that I didn't have but I knew that was coming. My only problem was still having discs, it was hard to find the disc quick enough. My license is coming this Monday so I have to get a book setup this week and some more songs in. Overall a pretty good night. The mic cords was the cheapos that came with my package so I'll replace those later today. Maybe in a few weeks I'll be ready to run the whole thing on my laptop.

Congrats !! on your 1st gig

How do you have your discs catergorized or stored? Are they in BINDERS or SLEEVES //do you just have them in the original jewel cases?

Having a SYSTEM will allow you to find your discs quicker and move the show long smoother. If you can stay a few songs ahead and have discs lined up to play you'll find it a snap.

CONGRATS and I'm glad everything worked out !

congrats...

I think the best disc method is alphabetically and then on the disc numbers.

AH
SC
Zoom

etc.

So if you have your manu codes in your book, it'll go quickly enough!

When I ripped my tracks to computer, I kept the same format. So it was rather seamless for me, and totally seamless for my customers.

I absolutely agree. This system with a hanging sleeve CD case... you can get two CDs to a sleeve. When I used CDs I would have the next two singer's cds elevated, but not out of the sleeve, and the song slip of the current singer in the empty sleeve slot so it could be returned quickly. Miss filing a CD when you return it is a nightmare... Two or three weeks later when you need that CD again... ack!

The amout of room this system takes on the table is also smaller.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

We have the manufacturer code in front of the disc number strictly for the singers to know what version it is. But the discs aren't sorted alphabetically by manufacturer. They are numbered as they come in. So SC-101-02 is just disc number 101 when we are looking for it. That way we don't have to shift things around as we get new discs. They just go to the end.

PS: I am thinking of having the SC, SPC, ZM codes in their own column before the number so people don't feel they have to write it down. It's hard enough for the drunks to get the correct number without having to remember a bunch of letters and dashes.

When we were still disc based, at one point I renumbered everything, starting at 1001. As I look back, really for how much time it takes to glance at the disc (which I did anyway to avoid a singer writing down the wrong song #), you really don't have to put the exact number of the song - for example, if 1001 is the Radiostarz version of the dixie chicks, and they want song #10, you really could just leave actual disc numbers in your listing instead of having actual song numbers (1001-10) - like I said, I always checked by glancing at the disc to make sure they had written down the right # anyway. When I think back on all the years I had 1000 CDGs in front of me, and people would give me the wrong number, or the wrong version, or whatever, and I had to hunt through CDGs, I'm so glad to be computer based now. Sadly, though, my brain still remembers those darned numbers.... Time to defrag the brain.

Additionally, you can buy those soft sleeves, take the cover from the original CDG, and cut it to size, then insert it into the soft sleeve in the front half (the side that shows track numbers), write the disc number on the little piece of paper that slides into the top of it, and place the CDG (with the same # written on) it into the back half of the sleeve, and presto...you can fit 1000 cdgs in two wooden cases (the kind with the hinged lids that lift off). When you add music, you just continue to add numbers instead of having any sorts of special codes on them - makes it VERY simple to find discs when you're in a hurry.

Get another disc player & cue that one up while the current singer is singing. This will speed up the show dramatically.

Mic cords - make sure you get 'lifetime warranty'. Guitar Center sells them if you have one close, then if one goes bad, just bring it in for a simple exchange! I haven't paid for mic cords in nearly 10 years.

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Excellent suggestion Karen! That's what i do with all my dj music and it has worked great for years.

defraging my brain is a problem too, ha! I sometimes remember the dj music disc number but can't find it in my karaoke discs and wonder why!

I find Monster brand cables to be great. They take a lot of abuse.

Fantastic! Welcome to the fold. Glad it went well. I'm a big digital fan, and running your music off of a laptop will definitely make your life easier. Also easier to make a book, since some software packages have songbook features.

As far as music is concerned, you might want to check e-bay for some disc sets (people do tend to love Sound Choice and DK), so you might want to consider the investment. Good quality music does make a disc, but you can find these used at a discount. Pop Hits Monthly and Top Hits are good, too. I wouldn't invest in many more SGBs. They do have some surprises, but for the most part they fall flat.

Sounds like you're on your way....

Birdofsong