Karaoke Forums

michel, would this work?

http://www.centrance.com/products/mp/

or this ...

http://www.zzounds.com/item--BALICICLE

Depends on the software however I haven't seen one yet that does a good job.[/quote]


Me either, that's why I was asking. I didn't want to say it because, being disc based, I didn't want to be accused of PC bashing.... That doesn't mean there isn't a decent program out there, but.....

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" Disc based and loving it..."

Which of the Soundblaster cards support this?

My ProFX8 was $200 with tax. in the grand scheme of things with what he has spent on the rest of the system thats no big deal. heck I plug more than $200 in mics into it.

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Not sure it works but honestly, not something I would consider... For studio recording, I don't see anything else but a Tube preamp, most mic preamp on mixers are for live performance will not give you the richness of a good external tube preamp. See what you can get for the same price:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--ARTTMPUSB

http://www.zzounds.com/item--ARTV3

You can connect your mic into this device and go directly to the line in of your audio card. I would spend my money toward a good preamp and a decent sound card For the fx, you can use the EAX from Creative that come's with the audio card.

http://www.soundblaster.com/technology/ ... asp?j1=eax


And that would be the recommended card for your studio recording:

http://us.creative.com/products/product ... duct=17927

It comes with EAX 5.0 which means you get all the effects in real time, the best key changer and Wave Studio recording for your multitrack recordings, it supports Asio and VST BTW

Well thanks so much everyone for the suggestions. This is certainly one of the more helpful all-around forums I've been to in a while. Now that I'm armed with some good advice, I will look into all of this and report back on how things turn out.

Think I'm gonna get a Soundblaster card to start with, as it would improve the audio on all of the other stuff I do on my computer regardlessly. By then, they should have the new Mackey boards in stock @ the music store, and I'll grab that mixer as well. Should get by for under $350 for everything.

I'm just anxious to sing some karaoke again!

Cheers.

As you are pretty committed to running the mic through your laptop you might consider the Line 6 products. I use the UX-1. It's a recording interface that connects to the computer via usb. It comes with software called Gearbox which contains every effect you could want including compression plus lots of options for setting up emulations of pre-amps, mics, etc.

I've been using this for a couple of years now for recording and I couldn't have asked for a better sounding a more reliable setup.

It's very verstile and it's also reasonably priced.

Larry

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I just went out and got the creative soundblaster X-fi Titanium and all I have to say is that it works absolutely beautiful with the mic running into it. I have reverb, delay, and compression processed through the soundcard's hardware and it sounds fantastic. Mind you I am picky about sound quality. It did take a little time/adjustment to get the sound just right, but the features this thing has are very nice. Looks like I wont even need the mixer, other than a cheap one maybe for the purpose of adding another mic or two later on.

It's good to hear EAX is simply incredible, it's superior than many on board FX found on mixers and talk about their key changer, you'll be amazed on how precise it is, it doesn't get any better! Yes, I forgot to say how complex it could be at first, but once you figure out all the potential, you're in business

2 weeks now with it and so far it has been awesome.

The learning curve wasn't too bad. Just took a little playing around with the effects to get it right. I'm amazed with how far they have come with these sound cards in the past few years. Listening to music and doing games is far better as well. Its also great having all the music right on a separate hard drive where people can just ctrl/f search for the songs they want with one monitor, while someone sings the playing song's lyrics off of the other one.

Friends have been coming over, saying they like the sound quality much better than anywhere else. Glad I took your advice on that Xfi card! Best purchase I've made in a while. Thanks so much.

This is what i noticed.If this is a home theater stereo speaker system,i don't think i would run my karaoke system through that.I did this when i first started and blew out a nice set of pioneer speakers,Home speakers aren't made for singing.[/quote]

[/quote]

So you only listen to instrumental tracks on your home theater system now?

They're not made to run with excessive amplifier line input voltages and clipping. No speaker is; some are just made to withstand more of it than others. Speakers get blown because people exceed these limits (which causes excessive heat in the speaker) not because they are singing through them.

Does any of the software have any decent sounding tube preamp emulation?
Or does the mic level actually need to be boosted first? I wouldn't have even considered it.

I take it that software mixing versus a mixer IS a good alternative for live sound mixer from what I'm reading. And there are minimal issues with sound playback under optimal conditions and hardware. No problem with that Mickster?

BTW Line 6 have a good lead in tube emulation software and have licensed to Alesis.
It's about the closest you can get to tube but not quite the same as the real thing.

So you only listen to instrumental tracks on your home theater system now?

They're not made to run with excessive amplifier line input voltages and clipping. No speaker is; some are just made to withstand more of it than others. Speakers get blown because people exceed these limits (which causes excessive heat in the speaker) not because they are singing through them.[/quote]

Regular home speakers aren't designed for singing mainly because they are voiced to reproduce compressed signals such as cd's, dvd - movies & music, all signals that go through on air or recorded process are compressed. Live vocals are not compressed & have transient spikes that are the main culprits of blowing the speakers - usually the tweeter, but once in a while the woofer as well. Overdriving (exceeding the limits) is also a big culprit, but singing through an overdriven system will do it faster than a plain music cd at the same level.

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I've tried many vst tube emulation but you still need the richness of a good tube preamp from start Most mixers have decent mic preamp for live but once you connect a condenser mic, man, it's sounds so dry, no richness... Plugins are great but I'm still one of them that don't record dry, I need my Lexicon fx in my mix

If you're considering the Mackie, also consider the Yamaha MG124cx. You can probably get it for around the same price if you look around