Karaoke Forums

'Tis a constant battle every night. Yelling...whispering...yelling...whispering. Not to mention about 10 different karaoke publishers with a dozen or so different recording levels. I think a good KJ can find a balance within a few seconds, unless the singer is all over the place. I find this singer to be the most annoying. If they can't find a volume, I'll just turn the music down real low. It keeps them from yelling, plus you can hear them when they whisper.

I've had people in the past order me to turn up a friend's microphone. Low and behold, it is turned up at max. Then you look and see that they are holding the microphone about 2 feet from their face. At some point, you have to conceed that they just don't want to be heard.

I've been to several different karaoke shows, and there was only one I REALLY liked because he had well balanced sound . In addition, he was the only that had a vocal monitor so the singers could hear themselves. Believe me, it really helps in a loud bar! As a singer, there's nothing I hate more than not hearing myself. In a bar, with the music blasting, I can't hear myself sing AT ALL unless I can hear it thru SOME speaker. I'm a strong singer...my husband often reminds me to back off the mic when I can't hear myself, because I have a tendency to pull the mic closer in that situation. When I'm not onstage, what I really hate is poorly mixed sound...a lot of the KJs in my area don't take a lot of time before the show to set up the sound properly. My husband really understands balancing sound properly and will sometimes talk to them, but they just get annoyed...can't say I blame them since they don't know him. I think the other problem is...because most of them (in this area) don't set up their sound very well to begin with, they can't hear the total sound on stage (usually just the bass). Unless they go out into the crowd, they may not know. Also, I have had some say they simply can't make any other adjustments to make it sound any better. Some really do have the mics turned up so far that if you move an inch in either direction, you get feedback....and you still can't hear the singer. Maybe it's time to turn the track down...maybe the singer needs to be told to sing louder.

Sound balance is tough when you set up in different rooms on different nights. Hard to remember what works where. True, the best sound seems to come from KJs who take the time to fix it for the room. Even a simple system can make you sound awesome. Monitors are very important. I was at a karaoke show in Muskego where they had some cheesy Kraco 6X9s mounted in a cigar box as monitors. Yikes! Candi, where in Wisconsin do you go to karaoke?

I'm from Green Lake, so I go to shows in Princeton, Markesan, Fox Lake, Berlin, Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Waupun...wherever I can find it. The show I LOVED, that actually took the time to set up the sound was Yerup karaoke...unfortunately he has quit the biz. Most of the time, I settle for Princeton since it's close and a small crowd, so I get to sing A LOT.

Somebody's in serious trouble;)



People have been trying to sit me down and shut me up for years... it aint gonna happen.

Speaking of, when you gonna come back around Kurt?

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Returning home tomorrow after a weekend of pitiful karaoke in Champaign-Urbana, IL. One guy of four had a halfway decent setup and mix -- he tries at least. He had the best setup, an Mackie 808s and Peavey PR15s. Also the most personality and not surprisingly the best following.

The rest were just pitiful. Two were terrible equipment, terrible mix, you couldn't hear the singers. Totally high-range mix, no bass in the vocal channel at all. One poor guy was trying to sing "On The Other Hand" and had a pretty nice bass range to his voice -- you couldn't hear a thing. Cheap VocoPro VHF mics that weigh about 4 ounces, it seems like.

One guy puts on so much cheap echo you feel like you are singing underwater.

I simply can't believe how much bad karaoke there is out there. And things would be so simple to fix.

What is wrong with the hearing of all of these bad KJs? How come only good singers can tell a crappy system? This is the KJ riddle. Bad KJs have horrible hearing and it makes their system sound good.