Karaoke Forums

I just went to a new Thursday karaoke I heard about, as I am wont to do. I keep hoping I will find a great show that I can learn from.

Disappointment struck yet again. A pair of Peavey PR-15s woefully underpowered by a VocoPro "karaoke mixing amplifier", fronted by that self-same unit connected to some pitiful VocoPro VHF wireless microphones. If I sang normally into the mic you could hear the channel clipping, and if I held the mic far away it wavered in and out because of the poor off-axis performance of the lousy mics.

Quite frankly, the reason my stuff is the best in the area is because the competition is simply pitiful. The best shows in the area are flawed terribly equipment-wise and execution-wise. There are a few decent ones, but they are mostly in Cincinnati far from me.

I rate the karaoke in my area as fair only because we have a saving grace -- we get to sing a fair amount, and we have some appreciative crowds at times. But technically, we are really awful on average. Host-wise, we are definitely dealing in a charisma deficit. And we are not the only ones, as I have been quite a few places where it is no better or not too much better.

So how would you rate the karaoke in your area?

Pacific NW has an abundance of top quality singers. Good competition but probably the average system is rated at 70% with few exceptions. The places with great systems have fairly long rotations; those with poor systems are not busy or don't attract the good singers. The one I posted (bartender) was typical caliber for that night for me - probably 8-10 REALLY good singers, rest just having fun. I can't hang at shows where the singers and the system aren't at least decent...has to be something else to keep me there, like good friends or really strong drinks!

I can only rate my own as I don't get out often at all, but we usually get quite a bit good - great singers per night (yeah I have nights where it's i'd rather have a bullet in my head - but not regularly). System I would say is better than average on the feedback i've heard from new singers/regulars. Alot of singer so the rotation is long, on a good night expect to sing maybe 2-3 songs if you are there all night. On an avg night avg is 4-5 songs per night. Bad night you can get up to 5-6 songs.

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Well if it isn't excellent in the Puget Sound area, I don't know where it will be. That is the best I have seen (except maybe for Nashville). Maybe karaoke is excellent in SoCal or somewhere else.

Or maybe, more realistically, I have to lower my expectations and grade on a curve.

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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.

Being in Hawaii,I would say fair to good on the equipment, and singers are very good to excellent. We DO get alot of singers from washington state every month and MOST of them are very good and a few excellent.

The older long-term established karaoke shows here still use laserdiscs but the hosts have no personality and are usually asian men with no expressions and can't sing well. I love the pioneer music on the lasers.

The singers in my bar WERE awesome, but they shut down the impersonation show and my elvis, blues brothers, whitney houston, michael jackson, and elton john are all gone now! Our regulars are good-very good singers. The occasional visiting celebrity comes by and sings. (wayne brady a couple months ago, FIJI, and Don Ho's nephew every few weeks come in)

A bar down the street just closed this Tuesday so now THEIR regulars came into my 1st show tonite. Most of them are pushing 70-80 years old so alot of sinatra, humperdink, crosby, and other oldies i never even heard of were sung tonite. Kinda weird because 95% my bar crowd is 22-40 so a few were ribbing me about "did i advertise in the AARP magazine?". This show is mostly karaoke but some occasional line dancing and recent music videos. limbo contests and giveaway trivia is done.

My 2nd show is more of an older crowd and strictly karaoke. They dance to the singers music unlike my 1st show.

I am fortunate to have the best show by far in my area, (the 1st show) according to a few hundred singers and business owners, but a "diehard singer" would hate to watch line dancing and other people having fun dancing salsa or doing limbo or a conga line.

You gotta keep young folks going and the show pace UPBEAT all night or they get bored, leave and go somewhere else. HIGH ENERGY all nite long.

The 2nd show is a nice break from the young loud kids, but sometimes 10 slow songs in a row, albeit great classics, makes me drink coke just for the caffeine to stay awake.

I am thinking of buying a new powered mixer today Yamaha emx5014 to make my sound better. My mackie dfx12 sounds pretty good recently but not "great" with bar-supplied yorkville non-powered speakers and their cheezy amp, but not having compression (for my screamers) and MIDS (for the pro-singers) have been bugging me for too long now.

Thanks TO YOU ALL here for the great information you provide. You have made me realize even more just how important quality sound is. I am almost ready to go laptop and will go with compuhost in a couple of weeks. I DO like my cavs 199- it works great, never gives me a headache, doesn't have any scrolling problems KNIGHTSHOW, but you all have convinced me to try something new and exciting. ALOOOOOOOOOOHA! J.R.

There are several great shows here in SoCal. Most of the advertised shows are worth checking out (with a few exceptions). Those venues that have less than steller sound out here typically get saved by the outgoing crowds that come in.

When the piano bar phase died out, bars were quick to adapt karaoke shows. All of these shows seem to have grown over time. There are no shortage of KJ's either. I get at least 2 a month that try and undercut me at my current gig. At the end of the night, the owner and I have a drink and laugh about it!

I misread the poll and thought it meant the abundunce of Karaoke venues to go to. I meant to put pitiful. Wish there was a pititful except for mine because I have always heard that my sound blows the others away. Unbtil now I always took it as that I knew what I was doing with sound as I wasn't 100% (heck I wasn't 50%) happy with my system. Now that I have my new mixer and have had a chance to listen to it, I'm 80% happy and the customers and the owners wife commented on how much better my sytem sounded last night.

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

I'd have to say it's only fair around here. On almost any night of the week there is some karaoke show somewhere in the area, but I have yet to find any regular show that doesn't need some improvement in some respect. It isn't always the fault of the show itself; sometimes it's the bar or just the crowd.

We are fortunate to have Live Karaoke Band (formerly known as Cheezy Trio), which plays semi-regularly in the area. The song selection is a little more limited and you usually don't get to sing many times, but it is a ton of fun to sing with a live band and they do a good job encouraging people. You do need to know the songs a little better, though.

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.

Yes, I have been to a lot of karaoke in your area (my hometown). It is indeed only fair, though it tends to be of the Peavey-powered-mixer type. They use a lot of wired mics of medium quality, which I find to be a good thing compared to the awful VocoPro wireless I see everywhere else.

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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.

I answered good just because we have everything here from horrible to fantastic. I've seen good hosts with horrible equipment and bad hosts with great equipment. We have band karaoke, small bar karaoke, KJ/DJ karaoke, and karaoke every night bars in my area. We have some bars with their own sound systems that are good and bad.

There are so many types of karaoke and venues in my area I try just to focus on what works for me. I only compare myself to small bar karaoke. I don't try to compete with fancy house systems with nice dance floors in big night clubs.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Karaoke all but died in this area. It is slowly making a come back but the ones starting up are mediocre at best as far as systems. They might have an illegal karaoke library but their DJ library is non-existent. I have the time now but I dont go to other shows. They are boring and the systems sucks to put it bluntly.

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Ollie that is so sad. I hate to hear karaoke dying anywhere. You'll just have to move up by me.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

You are northern CO, right? I was in western Wyoming last spring and found like zero karaoke shows anywhere. I have been able to find karaoke almost anywhere, but not there.

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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.

We used to have karaoke 7 nights/week but folks started staying at home and singing with family. Then weekends come out to a better system. I can think maybe 4 towns in Wyoming with karaoke the rest of the state forget it. Colorado is better but not like it used to be.


In this area which is rural drives are farther and it is nothing to commute 150mi/day. (from here to Denver) I have several people that would come over from other towns but they got out of the habit when gas went up. The economy plays a large part too. I could get gigs in other towns but dont like driving very far at 2 in the morning.. So you folks in larger markets have different methods and ideas which is only natural because the situation demands it.

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Hon I would love to come and visit but I am used to the old hick slow ways again and couldnt deal with the fast pace and traffic. If you want to come out here and slow down and smell the roses you are always welcome. We do know how to party but take care of each other.

This is a mid afternoon traffic jam 2 blocks east of my penthouse apt.


jam

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Folks,

As "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", if I've learned nothing else since I became a participant here --- so is karaoke!

SPeaking of beauty - have you ever had anyone sing "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beerholder" at your show? Omigosh, it is hilarious! I had to re-read your post - I read it as that!

No, please tell us about it.

I have two funny beer songs, one of which is Tom T Hall's "I Like Beer"
the other is some oddball thing "Ode To Beer"

And if we wanted "Beauty is.....", Karen, where can it be found?

I believe it is on an ANCIENT CB multiplex. Next time I have access to my CDGs I'll check it out.

Where in Nashville?????

I am looking for good Nashville spots....since Memphis is more of a "band" town.