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I've purchased an entire set of SGB and have Foundations. I think I'm going to get the bricks as well. What are the best sounding ones in everyones humble opinion, and where is the best place to buy them?
Thanks all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

SoundChoice for everything, Chartbuster for country and oldies. DK and Supercore for price/performance, i.e. good-sounding versions for not too much money. Pop Hits (on sale, a year or more behind the times) for recent stuff.

All will have some clinkers, but SoundChoice has the fewest followed by DK and Pop Hits. Chartbuster recent rock can be pitiful, but their country often beats SoundChoice in my opinion.

I would go with as much sound choice as you can. They generally do a good job on most songs, but as always they let some bad ones through.

Beyond that you need to know your regulars, and see what kind of music they like. Some songs cant be found on sound choice.

For me the next choice would be Zoom, as they make a lot of harder to find songs and doo a pretty good job on them. But on the really hard to find songs just do a search on one of the databases like the one on this site to find who makes a song.

SBI another company in UK has a small list of very good but hard to find songs.

I personally will only take MM as a very last choice. Sunfly did poorly on some of their early songs but now their more recent quality is getting better.

For current songs pop hits monthly does a decent job and gets more of the recent stuff out there.

For buying sound choice, look for specials but be careful to not buy pirated disks. If a deal looks unreasonably cheap it probably is a copy. That said you can sometimes buy from clearance sales or e-bay sound choice disks at about $5-8 each, but unless you are quick many of the best song titles are not at such sales.

Just curious.....no one mentioned Top Hits Monthly.   Are those considered "less than" by you karaoke savvy people?

Top Hits monthly:

Some like them, I have not bought many of their songs yet because of overlap of songs with other makers. From what I have heard I have few complaints. To limit duplicate songs it is most cost effective to concentrate on only one or two companies. Since I THM is mainly current songs, and I am already trying to get the PHM up to date (I have about 75% of their Pop and Rock lines) I decided that there was just too much overlap in song titles with my list to work on their song list. I want to get most of SC, Zooms and PHM songs first.

A lot of their songs that are only slightly out of date can be bought/downloaded at tricerasoft.

For hits of the 70's and 80's I have found that Monster Hits easily rivals the best out there, a clunker will sneak in here and there, but they are usually done really well. Just google Monster Hits and look for the best prices.

see, and I couldn't disagree more!

For hits of the 70's ad 80's, SC put out 76 volumes!! I've got almost ALL of 'em!

Plus they have a megapack of many of these since more than a few of these discs are discontinued.

Sound Choice for most, Chartbuster for country, PHM/THM for current stuff - both have their hits & misses, SGB i'd personally leave out of the equation for the majority, they have a handful of hits as compared to misses.

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Well it depends on what you disagree with, I wasn't talking quantity, I was talking about quality. I tend to sing 80's songs and although without a doubt SC are the most consistent, I have heard quite a few 80's songs that were literally butchered by SC. I have better luck with MH but that's just me. Plus I am sure I don't have a fraction of the CDG's you have, mine is just a personal collection of songs that I enjoy doing.

Maybe another reason I favor the Monster Hits is because alot of times I tend to like their collection of songs on each individual CDG, alot of times I end up being able to do 4 to 6 songs on each CDG. Just my opinion.

While I'm not a KJ, most of my colletion is SC custom.  I do have a lot of MM, because I'm an oldies buff and they had a great selection, some good, a lot not so good.  Chartbuster also did a pretty good job on their early 60's package, and Monster has a few also.  Motown is great for original artist...if anyone is good enough to match Smokey/Four Tops/Tempts and the gang.  K-Tel is coming out with 300 original artist tracks very soon.  I already have a few downloads...not too bad, but SC is still by far, my favorite.

As you can see, you will get as many answers as posts.  Whatever you do to START your library, the only BEST versions are the ones that your customers prefer.  


  and for 2 cents:  The SuperCore collection is a GREAT start. Quality, Price, and good selection.  I am one of the few to tell you NOT to use Sound Choice as a STARTER, though adding later is OK.  They are a quality mfr., but are way  overpriced, and have plenty of stinkers.  Zoom matches their quality and are more affordable.  Later, as you figure out what type of music is popular at your shows, you might consider Sound Choice for some of the most popular, if not available on Zoom or Chartbuster.

  Chartbuster does a terrific job with country,

  DK for the classics

  Music Maestro for oldies.

   Monster Hits and Radio Starz for 70s and 80s

  .....and a surprise:  When starting, go ahead and pick up the Sweet Georgia Brown collection ( over 1000 songs at under $100.)  No, they are NOT top quality. Why buy them?   1)  They carry some titles that no one else has, and 2) the selection at so cheap a price will help you get a feel for what your crowd likes. You can then go out and get better versions without wasting good startup money on what you don't need.

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What are you basing this on, nowdays, SC discs are right in line with every other manufacturer out there.  Nearly every internet retailer sells them for 17.95 per disc (Spotlight series).  Same price for Chartbuster, the monthlies, even Zoom which retails at that or higher at most internet sites even some of the inferior brands.  SGB is probably one of the worst - the Weird Al disc comes to mind immediately, yes they have a handful of diamond in the rough gems, but when you have to replace most of their tracks with better quality later why bother, it's money not well spent - after a good core is built then buy it as a supplement for those songs that aren't available anywhere else?  Every brand have stinkers, this is true, but SC has a better ratio of good vs bad than most other brands out on the market today.

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Sound Choice owns all ... Top hits and Pop hits are decent.

SGB is complete crap...  seriously... C R A P

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negative... there ARE a few good ones in the SGB collection. But I'll admit they are more hit than miss.

and by no means does SC own all. I've heard some supremely great tracks from UK manus that blow some SC tracks away.

The first three Jazz Standards discs in the SGB 1-66 set are SUPRISINGLY good.  For the most part, I do agree, however, that SGB IS crap.  I would NEVER recommend the SGB 1-66 set as a credible core set for a beginning KJ - would be a better investment to spend the 100 bucks on REAL music.  There are a FEW worthwhile discs to get in this set such as the South Park disc, the Alice Cooper disc and a few others to get songs unavailable elsewhere.  

Although Sound Choice is the best of the current manufacturers, SC versions are not ALWAYS the best.  There are some versions on DK, Pioneer, Zoom, THM, Chartbuster, and even Music Maestro (don't laugh - compare "Vogue" - Madonna MM to SC and you'll agree)  that are superior to the Sound Choice versions IMHO.

But out of those you mentioned, DK, Pioneer & Music Maestro are not in business anymore.  You can still find the DK Millenium set at a few places, Pioneer are pretty much out of the equation & Music Maestro are getting to be out of the equation.  Which for good cores are only a couple of decent manus.  Sound Choice, Chartbuster (although I think most of their rock/pop renditions are crap).  Zoom targets more the UK audience, but still have many many viable songs that would be used over here, don't know if they have enough to do a 'core' library in the US.

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Well...it always depends on WHAT it is.  Generally, I like Pocket Songs and Priddis - especially the more recent recordings they've been putting out. Billboard is good, too.  Sound Choice is usually pretty good.

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Sound Choice by far

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Except for country. There, Chartbuster is often better.

Well, I feel OVERALL SC is better. Since I'm not a country fan or even a snob like I am on 70s and 80s pop/rock, I feel SC does a great job on their country stuff. It's still their best selling stuff by a sizeable factor according to their Production Manager.