Karaoke Forums

Greetings.

I don't actually do Karaoke (can't sing to save myself). I am software engineer and spend most of my free time writing games. Recently I have started writing a dedicated cross-platform (Linux/Mac/PC) Karaoke player for my wife (who loves Karaoke). I have finished the mp3+g side of things and it is working well. Now I want to add some basic effects for the mic and was wondering what people typically use.

Chorus, Delay, Reverb, Compression, Pitch Shift?

What effects sound good for giving a bit of a confidence boost to less accomplished singers?

Large Plate with a smattering of Delay works pretty good for me a long as you don't Overdo it . I'ts nice if you can get a combination of those effects.

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Man Must Know His Limitations -Clint Eastwood

So I am assuming that this is meant to be an all in one player for home use where the mics will connect to the computer and you'll be using the computer to do all the mixing and output as well?

In that case a simple reverb or selection of maybe a few reverbs would be enough. Small room, large room and cathedral verb should cover most genres of music. You could look to add a delay with adjustable delay time and feedback (repeats) if you want to get a little more advanced.

Dynamics processors such as an EQ and compressor would be really nice. Adding a limiter might be cool as well.

Now if this is a player that isn't going to handle vocals through it (only play the music and display the graphics), then all you really need is an EQ and maybe a compressor. No effects needed in that case.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Correct.

So reverb, delay maybe some compression/limiting and EQ. Any others? Does chorus sound bad for vocals? How about a flanger?

The greatest thing I learned about FX lately is that the tap-tempo button is way easier to use than a dial to set delay time. If you build that FX into your program, put a button so you can click twice to set the delay time like on a nice outboard FX unit.

Cool project, GameSmith! If you really want to know what kind of effects are commonly useful, I suggest you download the instruction manuals for some popular FX processors and check out what presets they offer.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Tap tempo is nice, but at the risk of being a bit pedantic, the purists will quickly point out that your taps can be as much as 50ms inaccurate, which only really shows up with larger numbers of repeats. Tap tempo is enough to get you close which is good enough in most cases.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke