Karaoke Forums

Hello Folks,

I was wondering if you more seasoned KJ’s could give us newbie’s a quick 101 on setting up equipment and how you handle, in general common audio (and video) issues while gigging:

Mics; setting up gain, etc.

Basic mixing issues; singer’s volume all over the map, warm rooms, hard rooms.

Even more basic like; general volume setting on the amp, mixer master volume setting in respect to channel volume settings, etc.

Speaker placement; sometime aligned with the back of the stage, sometimes in front and then using a monitor, etc.

Do you push the effects on people who just can’t carry a tune and back off on people who can?

Just thought it might be interesting and a great help to everyone on the forum.

This forum rocks!

Mark

Honestly there is no 'one magic setting', it is ALL completely dependant on the room, the equipment being used & the singers themselves - as they will be adjusted all night long from singer to singer, no set it & forget it type of deal. Each room will need to be eq'd differently, no two pieces of equipment are the same so what works for one mixer, may not apply the same to another, amps/speakers play a factor - do the amps push enough power to begin with, using subs or not. Mics play a factor is the gain structure. It's too generalized of a question without knowing more about the system itself & the rooms it is being used in.
Main thing is you don't want to clip any channel (obviously), you want the vocals just over the music but neither overpowering each other, use effects sparingly so that you can't really tell they are there but would know if they weren't - unless specific songs call for some kind of specific vocal effect as in Prince - 7 needs a long delay, or like 50's songs often use a tight back slap delay effect, most songs can use some kind of a reverb on the vocals.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

As far as effects go, it is essential that reverb/echo is set in direct correlation to the tempo of the music, therefore necessitating that you know the BPM count of every song in your catalogue. Once you have this BPM referenced for every song, it will make it a breeze to set the effects for each and every song.












happy first day of april

This is not accurate at all. Reverb SHOULD NOT be set in correlation with the music. When you're talking about reverb the delay time and decay affect the spacial aspects of the verb itself. The difference between small room and cathedral reverbs is the amount of pre-delay, the decay time and delay time. You need to choose your verb based on the effect you want on the vocals (do you want them to sound spacey, do you want them to sound like a small intimate room, etc) and choose your verb that way. Rarely does that coincide with the music tempo.

Delay on the other hand (or in layman's terms Echo) is where you want to look at matching the tempo, but here to you need to understand do you want it on the 8th notes, quarters, wholes or what. Again it's all about the effect you want.

Now back to the original post, I agree with Lon, the question is awful vague and pretty hard to answer, but here are some thoughts. One, adding more verb, delay or other effects are not going to make a bad singer sound good. It can help to a point but there are no miracles to be found there. I don't load up on verb just because someone is a below average singer. Placing speakers behind the singer should be avoided. This just invites issues with feedback and weird resonnance that can be impossible to EQ out. Get the speakers out in front and use a vocal monitor for your singers. The whole game is all about gain structure. Google the term, search this forum for the term and learn all you can. That will help you with all your level controls. With regard to the singer whose level is all over, not much you can do. A compressor can help quite a bit, but in the end you got to let the singer sink or swim. Trying to accomodate their poor mic technique will ultimately just run you into issues.

Hope that helps.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

I think this guy was speaking from a DJ perspective, in which one would often tap the effects parameters in accordance with the BPM. This is pretty much only applicable to club-style music effects, however, that you would find on a good DJ mixer (reverb, flange, phaser, delay).

Effects that you would use in karaoke would be on the vocal channels, and have very little to do with the music itself outside of a few exagerated vocal effects, like Lonman said (e.g., Prince, Purple Rain).

As a beginner, I think you should ONLY use a single reverb effect (your effects should have either a selection of vocal reverbs or a PLATE reverb...start there) and use it for all singers until you get the hang of it. Stay away from the Small Hall/Large Hall reverb effects, as they have exagerated delays/decays in the effect that wouldn't be on a typical vocal track.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Ah I think MAYBE this was an April Fools thing!!! Look in the bottom corner of the post itself in really tiny letters!

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Ahhhh... ya can't fool the Lonman!

Don't work that way mate.
(Don't make me laugh Murray)
In this game experience is 99%.
Really.

Vaaary good, vaaary good. A knod's as good as a wink to a blind bat....

But to the OP's question. You might just as well set it and forget it. Before the show starts have someone sing a warm up song while you madly dash between the acoustic center of the room and the mixer making adjustments. You can't mix what you can't hear. Even if you get a perfect mix in your booth or headphones it's probably going to sound like mud at the back of the room. That's just the nature of acoustics.

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Okay, who took my pants?