Karaoke Forums

I'm using Music Book Deluxe and want to rank the manufacturers of the discs I own so that only the best quality listings show in the books before I print new ones. Basically, I want singers to be able to choose from the top few brands for a particular song, but don't want to print the crappy brands unless it's the only brand I have for that song. MBD has a great way to do this but it means going in and individually ranking ALL the manufacturer codes. (A daunting task since I know I'm not the guru many others I'm sure here are). So I was wondering if y'all know of a manufacturers ranking list somewhere that I could start from.

Here's mine:

SC CB RS SPC DK PH SINC SINR ZM LC PS BCY BHK AS AKS AI AIG LG LS SF CAVS CKC MH KMH MM SFK SY SGB SAVA KA BS NT UB

That is all the brands I have. If they had a genre algorithm, I would select CB over SC any time it came to country.

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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.

Thank you so much. That's a start. Any one else wanna chime in with your rankings? I'll compare them all and come up with an average ranking scheme and post later.

What I need to do is categorize the manufactures into 9 levels of quality. For example...

Tier 1---Sound Choice, chartbusters, DK, ect

Tier 2---Pop Hits Monthly, Top Hits Monthly, Priddis, Pioneer, etc...

Tier 3--- you get the idea... down to Tier 9.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer!

Just a thought....... I print ALL brands. A lot of my singers practice at home, and may think THEIR version is best. This way they can choose. Maybe they LIKE Big Hitz for some reason.... If they don't have a choice, a pull the version most asked for. That's actually how I rate the manufacturers- Most Popular.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

I am going to use the Latshaw program for my next run. It puts the MFR code for all the versions you have on one line, which works well for me.

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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.

Unless the song is Ring Of Fire (where's the trumpets CB) 16 Tons (CB missed verse three) Folsom Prison (just doesn't kick butt compared to other versions) Window Up Above (just wrong!!!)...etc...

Can't tell I've been pulling down a few Fridays at an Elks lodge can you?

Anyway unlike my home room these guys often bring their own CDGs. I've been getting a real lesson in classic country karaoke. Not the material... there was a lot of this stuff on in the house when I was a kid... but the brands.

And that's the thing. I don't think you can make blanket statements about any particular brand. They all have individual strengths and weaknesses. But generally speaking I think SC does as good, and often better, classic country as CB, as well as another brand I've never heard of but this group brings it in a lot... Party Tyme.

I have seen a lot of country. There are certainly SC versions that are better than CB versions for country. Lots of them. But there are lots more that sound better on CB, in my opinion.

Now I don't base mine on "most like the original" like some people do. I base it on the fullness of accompaniment that makes a song easy and tuneful to sing to. I have almost every George Strait song, and a lot of Randy Travis songs, and a lot of Hal Ketchum songs, on both SC and CB. I pick CB 2 to 1 over SC as the version I choose to do.

In general, if a song depends on lead guitar then pick SC. If it depends on pedal steel and rhythm guitar, pick CB.

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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 won't rank the manus... because EVERY manu makes an el-stinker or three.

Now in my HEAD I may be thinking not to trust a particular brand over another on specific songs, but many times, I get surprised by a manu!

Both for the good and the bad!

I'm new to the kj business, but have been a singer (in one way or another) all of my life. I don't think it's a good idea to bundle things up into neat little packages, as to what YOU, OR I think is the best manufacturer. I think you should let your SINGERS dictate which version is better than the other. That's why there are alot of singers who prefer to bring their own discs to karaoke, because (for better or worse) the version they learned on "to them" IS the best version. Nothing worse than a singer looking in your book and either, not having "their" version, or having it at the bottom of the list, showing them what you think of their choice. Just my opinion.

Rosario

For me it's usually how accurate the version is that is most important, BUT....sometimes a version of a song can be agonizingly too accurate. For example, some songs have so much backup vocals in them that your voice gets lost (Dixieland Delight by Alabama), or sometimes you only get to sing 25% of a song while the second recorded voice sings 75% (there's a version of Life in a Northern Town where you don't get to sing the Hey Na Na Na Na part, which is the funnest part to sing ). In other words, the karaoke mfr made a song too faithful to the original, and hence not as enjoyable for the person that wants to sing the song. Some mfrs were better at making songs karaoke-able.

Speaking of Life in a Northern Town, I heard Sugarland's version the other day...blech! Give me back Dream Academy. There, off soapbox...

for my 2cents..... i find all brands have their good days and their bad days. so i tend to put al the dups in the book as well.... why because alot of my singers have become use to brand they like and i make it so they can tell what brand they are. so it all comes down to kj personal choice.... is there a best brand we could all debate twho we like more but like i stated at the start .... good bad .... im the kj with the discs so pick ur fav.... giggles cheers happy holidays btw and heres to a happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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:angel:

I list all my manu's in my book. Most of my singers don't care which version they sing, but some do and some will care after awhile if I consistently pick the same manu for them.
So, in essence, oftentimes, I control which manu my singers prefer.
However, having said that, I do have the odd singer come in looking for a particular manu that I wouldn't normally choose for a particular song.
It's usually because they either have that particular disc at home, or more often, because they are used to singing it at the other venue down the street.
If I don't list all my manu's, that person may be disappointed and I may never know it, because why would they think to ask? Some might, but most won't.

All good points. However living in a very transscient area, most folks here aren't accustomed to any particular manufacturer, but almost all want the most "original" re-creations. So I guess rather than asking for the "best manufacturers," I'm asking y'all to help me rank the most "accurate" re-creations. Now I know, there will be many different oppinions here, but after hearing from a lot of different people, I should be able to get a clearer idea on how to rank the manufacturers--in most cases--according to "accuracy" of re-creations.

I prefer Sound Choice's music but will often pick a different manufacturer's track if the song happens to be on the faster side. Sound Choice's swipes just aren't fast enough when you are trying to sing a really fast song. The next page of lyrics can't get on the screen fast enough because you have to wait for the entire previous screen to get erased before the next screen begins to be displayed. Chartbuster has now gone to using that same swiping method lately so I have been singing from mostly Pop Hits versions of songs because the top half of the current screen gets swiped while your singing the bottom half of the current screen so the next screens lyrics can get painted while you're singing the bottom half of the current screen. I have had to redo the cdg files for quite a few Sound Choice songs just so I could sing them and have the words come on the screen early enough so that I could read them. Pop Hits may sometimes have incorrect lyrics in their versions but at least I get to see the words ahead of time and if I know there is an incorrect word or two, I can make that adjustment on the fly. Every singer will like what they are used too. I never sing from a Sweet Georgia Brown disc but some people swear by them. Some people even swear by the Backstage Eagles disc over the Sound Choice one. People tend to prefer what they own.

very sensible...case in point I wanted a better version of rivers of babylon that I have (sunfly midi crap) so I went for zoom and yeah it sounded much better till I came to sing the damned thing...there is something not right in the pitch and I cannot power thru like I do with the sunfly midi crap version I have...so I am still wincing at the midi crap version but I get asked to sing it a lot

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

There seem to be close to a dozen different versions of that song, including Sound Choice, Sing To The World and a variety of other lesser known brands. Maybe one of those might be what you're looking for.

The "best manu" question is an old one, most will agree SOUNDCHOICE is the best overall and consistent. CHARTBUSTER for Country and the newer songs on TOP HITS and POP HITS monthly brands when you can find them. That being said....

If you are going to CARRY the CDG's with you and or KEEP all the versions on your hard drive ...you might as well list them for your customer to choose.
I've found that my OLDER singers prefer DK because thats what they grew up on!
My younger NON experianced karaokers could care less as long as it is decent.
And now a days..people are downloading any and all versions from the net and singing them ...and whatever they get used to is the 'best version" ..Hard for any KJ to know for sure..WHAT THE SINGERS PREFER. best to list them all and offer the option to choose for themselves.

So then I take it almost no one here makes use of the ranking option that comes with Music Book Deluxe?

for my gigs, I have a singer's songbook, where I've included what I FEEL is the best overall choice, but I also have a MASTER songbook... That's for myself and THOSE picky singers that want to see other options.

And you know, I'm that way, so I have no problems providing that option to my customers.

Mustang

This subject has beaten beaten, whipped and flagellated over and over. Just in the last few weeks there was a discussion about the wisdom in purchasing the entire Nutech/SAVA collection, with no consensus reached by those responding.

With all of the things we can do to keep our songs lists useful, ranking manus is definitely not one of them. If someone doesn't have a preference and you hold out to your singers that the SC version is the best (whether it is or isn't) which version do you suspect the singer will select? (See Diafel's post in this regard)

Also consider all of the ingredients that must be considered in evaluating a karaoke recording: arrangement, instrumentation, tempo, vocals, accuracy of lyrics, completeness, recording quality! I have SC recordings that are definitely midi, but don't ask me which ones.

And to make a point about preferences: Which word do you prefer: whipped, beaten or flagellated? I kind of like the sound of flagellate! Don't you?