Karaoke Forums

I just made my first bulk purchase from an individual (ok, I know it's nothing spectacular, but hey, I'm kinda excited about it). There are a couple of disc manu's I had never heard of before and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on these:

BCI Music

Tip Top Entertainment

Essential Karaoke (Export??) ( That's what's on the disc)

Thanks in advance.

Respectfully,
Kandar01

I don't know anything about BCI.

Tip Top is an old brand (back in the 90's). They are of decent/passable quality.

I think I have 1 disc from Essential Karaoke. It was given to me as a gift, and I never added it to my library because I had all of the songs listed on it already. From the looks of it, it appeared to be a compilation of current hits (at that time).

BCI - ok quality, heard better. Graphics aren't the greatest, but on the discs I have they seem to be in time.
Tip Top - ok quality, heard better. I only have laser discs to cannot comment on the graphics
Essential - don't remember where these came from, but believe they are a UK brand.

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CueBall and Lonman...

Thanks for the info. I got about 25 of the BCI and 10 of the Tip Top out of the 210 that I bought. There are some Singing Machine disc in there as well. I have no idea what I am going to do with them.......maybe skeet shoot with them, I dunno.

I have another question. Did Chartbuster make a 2nd batch of Essentials? By that I mean, I know the Originals came in vinyl cases and were sort of mauve in color. The Essentials 1, 2, and 3 that I got in this lot have a graphic to them similar to the 1st revision ( 2006 Update I believe), but the track listings are still the same as the original ones and these are dated 2003. My guess is that these are a 2nd pressing of the first series, just the disk have a different graphic on them. Would that be right, or did they make a change in the middle of making the Original Set? Any idea?

Thank You again.

Respectfully,
Kandar01

The two Singing Machine disks I have are mostly re-titled Sound Choice. I wouldn't throw them away out of hand....

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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.

Chartbuster released 10 volumes in the Essential 450 series. I'll agree with Mckyj that some of the Singing Machine tracks aren't bad. Their Motown Original Artist series was all the original tracks just minus the lead vocals.

KarenB --- Yes, there are 10 volumes. But there are revisions made to those volumes for some reason or another, and some of the tracks had to be replaced. Case in point...CB Essential 1 Disk 1 from the originial set has "Happy Trails" by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as the 3rd track. In the 2006 Updated edition, Essential 1 Disk 1 has "A Heart Full Of Love (for a handful of kisses)" by Eddy Arnold as the 3rd track. Just looks like they made a change to the disc apperance midway through their production run.

Mckyj --- You were right. I looked at the disc a bit closer this morning, and four of these disc were made by Sound Source Recording Studios in Charlotte NC. I am betting these are Sound Choice Disk, just Re-titled like you said. I have Grease Vol. 1, Movie Hits Vol. 1, and Female Country Hits Vol. 2, and Male Country Hits Vol.1...all made by Sound Source for the Singing Machine. Thank You Mckyj...you just saved these disc from Remington Entertainment...

DISCLAIMER---THERE IS NO COMPANY CALLED REMINGTON ENTERTAINMENT TO MY KNOWLEDGE. (Well, Quail and Duck hunting ARE entertaining, but I don't sing when I hunt either. I wanna attract the prey, not drive it away)

Um, put them in your book? They are still decent quality, better than some that are out there. Unless they are duplicating everything you already have, list them. If they duplicate everything, sell them off.

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Essential are a Uk brand, I suspect they are company as Easy Karaoke but I've never seen any written evidence to back it up. Regardless, a lot of hosts in the Uk use Essential and Easy owing to their prices being slightly cheaper than some of the other brands and the quality being on a par or only slightly weaker than some of the bigger Uk names (sunfly). Personally I'm not a fan, but would happily put them in my book (and have) if they turned up in a second hand collection.

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'A genius is one who can do anything except make a living'. Joey Adams.

GOOD CATCH! SC, CB, and several other brands made demo discs to be included free of charge with the purchase of several manufacturers' machines. For instance, I have VPSC8046 thru 8054. These are Sound Choice discs made for distribution with Voco-Pro equipment ( I own two Voco-Pro Duet IIs for the house.)

Chartbuster's were VPCB01-10

I know the mfrs. did this for several other brands as well, such as EZ, Emerson, etc....


If I recall correctly, the EK discs were mostly made to order customs? Not sure. I know that they were the ones to come up with that "extra track" copyright protection, which worked until they started coming out with track by track ( rather than full disc) duplicators and software, which pretty much wiped it out.

BCI makes very nice country tracks, but I have no knowledge of other genres. Tip Top is pretty much generic karaoke.

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