Karaoke Forums

Wow - I've been able to find some really good collections of karaoke tracks available by disc and download without either of these manufacturers.

I ran a show for the past two years, 7 nights a week, at a resort, so I do have a good grasp of what singers want. Being a vacation resort, we didn't have a "regular" crowd of singers so I got to see a good cross section of singers of all races, economics and genres. Between Sweet Georgia Brown, Super Core, All Star Karaoke, Sunfly, Zoom, All Hits, Easy Hitz, Party Tyme and Karaoke Kurrents, I have been able to create a very good track collection of just about 5000 songs for less than $1200.

Why would you bother to jump through so many hoops and subject yourself to legal threats?

Well, I am not a steadfast supporter of either CB or SC, but I can tell you this you'll get a lot more misses than hits when it comes to dealing with those manus. Another thing to consider is that most other KJs have CB, SC, etc and they have become accustomed to those versions. Even if those versions are wrong, your track will be the wrong one in the minds of the singer.

Here is an example: I had a singer tell me that my "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" track by SC was wrong. I told him I had the CB version and he sang that the next time. According to him, THAT was the right one. But, this is one of the songs that I sometimes sing, and I can tell you without a doubt that the SC version is way closer than CB.

_________________
I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Resort karaoke is different from home town karaoke.
Your singers won't be returning show after show, so a library of just a few hundred could actually get you by. When you are trying to hang on to a base of regulars, and compete with the guy next door a larger library of what the singers want is helpful.

However, I don't believe any manufacturer is indispensible. The popular stuff is generally available through more than one source so I don't purchase a disk for a single song based on manufacturer. I consider what else i'm getting on the disk and it's overall value to me.

_________________
KNOW THYSELF

because of song quality is one reason my library is going to consist of nothing but SC or CB. In my personal opinion, and I had complaints when the Sweet Georgia Brown version was the only version of the song I had on hand, Sweet Georgia BRown is more miss than hit. Yes it has it's GEMS (war pigs/paranoid for example) but most just plain bite. I am dumping supercore and karaoke kurrents because it's CD+G and not MP3+G so I don't have to import them all over again. Probably the only discs in my collection that will get imported are discs that contain certain songs I can't get already converted to MP3+G.

_________________
The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Why would you dump anything, considering the cost of buying it and the time spent on ripping/renaming it? Kind of odd.

I mean hell, Lonman actually takes the time to preserve his LD's. Why would you dump something you spent so much time collecting?

Some people like Pepsi, some people like Coke.

some people are caffeine addicts and will suck on raw coffee beans. Same goes for singers, some prefer the crappier versions.

I tried getting rid of them years ago for CDG versions and got a lot of hell from my regs that preferred those versions (Pioneer). Yep I wouldn't dump anything at this point, no telling what version someone would want - although I won't list them in the books necessarily, they can always ask if I have another version - even the crappy ones, it's rare, but does happen.

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

Because of the theft of my main show laptop, external drive, and backups, I am forced to reload everything onto a new external drive and using a new laptop. Rather than reload everything I have I decided only to load the GEM series and a select few CDG's.
The only Sweet Georgia Brown cdg I own isn't worth ripping to begin with as most of the songs are in the GEM series and they are done better by SC. I would only be ripping that disc for one song and I can live without it as it is apoor version of the song, doesn't even fit with any version the band ever put out.
Thhe decision has more to do with speeding up my getting back to where I was when the theft took place. The less I load on my drive the faster I can be ready for a show without having to run both the computer and a cdg player and working with an a/b switch.

_________________
The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Then your decision is based more on what is convenient for you and less on what singers would actually use.

And that's fine because it's your business... can't fault you for that.

However, getting back to the thread, I've been running for quite some time without a couple of these brands and it's not caused a problem at all.

When I got the GEM series originally, I ran a show where I chose the GEM series version of a song they had become accustomed to singing with and got this response: "What did you do differently? Give this version from now on cause it sounds so much better with my voice."
Just goes to show that yeah you might get a crowd that doesn't know any better but you are much happier when you have a crowd that can tell the difference between a crappy version and a great one.

_________________
The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

There's a reason some of those brands are so cheap.

Sweet Georgia Brown, Super Core, All Star Karaoke, All Hits, Easy Hitz, and Karaoke Kurrents are all created by thieves that don't license the music they're using.

Why would you use brands that stole the songs you use to make money? Don't you think songwriters deserve to be paid for using their ideas?

_________________
Dave's not here.

The quality of some of the off brands is variable true. BUT durring the golden age of Karaoke when there were a lot of manus in the US many of them were probably fully legit. I mean by about 10-15 years ago, and most of those companies are long gone now for legal reasons.

However to make a karaoke track it only takes a somewhat decent sound studio and a good cover band. A cheap cover band may actually do a good job sometimes so there are some pretty good minor brand songs. THe qulity of the secondary brands is a bit less predictable.

Ric, after 22 years running shows in the Raleigh area, I've collected disks from almost 50 different manufacturers. The ones you list above included. However in order to keep the quality of music at my shows higher than most, 95% of the time I use SC or CB. It's my preference, and what I think is best. Sure I've got all the other companies, but if I didn't have the big two, I think I'd just close up shop and get out of the business. I will add that besides the big two, I've been very satisfied with Zoom, SBI, Radio Starz, and Quick Hitz.

Still my first choice is Sound Choice.

_________________
My first choice IS Sound Choice.

Like SC8125 for instance?

Among others.

Birdofsong

_________________
Birdofsong

From what I understand, SC had an agreement to legaly produce the Eagles disk. The agreement either fell through, or the Eagles changed their mind. Either way SC took the Eagles disk off the market. I still use my 8125 at almost every show. If the Eagles want to come take it away from me, let it be. And BTW, the 8125 issue has been talked to death.

I figure if SC put out 1000 disks with 15 songs each, that 15,000 songs. O-K so they jumped the gun on a SMALL HANDFUL. That shouldn't take away from the tens of thousands that they put out.

Sound Choice is STILL my first choice.

_________________
My first choice IS Sound Choice.

Right, they're only a little bit dishonest.

_________________
Birdofsong

15,000 songs on disks and how many on customs?

http://www.mykaraokecdg.com.au/customer/home.php

http://www.mykaraokecdg.com.au/customer/search.php?action=go&search_by=artist&search_for=eagles

_________________
My statements, opinions and conclusions are based on my own personal experiences, observations, research and/or just my own $.02. I'm not a "cheerleader", but that doesn't make me a Pirate.