Karaoke Forums

Matt

You are making my point. Sometimes there are opinions expressed that are quite strong and reflect in a derogatory fashion on those with opposing opinions.

As I just recently posted in another thread, the local "Karaoke Private Club" has a collection that is 80% Music Maestro with a smattering of everything else, including SGB. So, I guess that's not a "pro show" though it has existed for years and is dedicated to karaoke seven days a week? And, again, the group of karaoke enthusiasts I was a part of and referred to in my last post never criticized the SGB discs that made up 80% of what we had to work with!

And, again, I believe the OP is not asking for opinions based upon using the SGB discs as a professional Kj.

EDIT: I'll also refer everyone to Tom Edison's opinion about SGB that closely reflects mine regarding the $ value, as well as Bill H's thoughts. While neither poster refers to SGB as anywhere near "trash", how should I "catagorize" the opinions of those that claim it is trash. Should I simply accept that anyone who knocks a product is correct and anyone who likes a product is wrong? So, are the "nays" always right?

Gotta disagree with you on this one, my friend. Though I don't know if Nutech was involved with KJ Tools or not ( but doubt it because virtually every Nutech or SAV track I've heard is of much lesser quality, different lyrics, timing, and graphics) but take any KJ Tools track and match sound, lyrics, graphics, AND credits where available- they are identical.

SuperCore took over the label, and their original set was 12 discs as well, though they re-compiled the discs and tracks are in different locations.

You will find that when KJ Tools stopped producing, SuperCore started.

Both KJ Tools and the first 12 discs of the SuperCore sets were produced at A Major Music in Rhode Island.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I agree with what I quoted above. It IS worth $90. It DOES depend on your needs, which I don't think he stated. I also try and sub other brands for many or most of the SGB tracks.


The thing is, because I bought SGB when I started, I was able to learn what tracks were popular in my venues, thanks to the genre spread. THEN I upgraded, without having to spend big bucks for music that I would never use.

A few gems did make the set worthwhile: Son Of A Preacher Man, War Pigs Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Love Me, Cabaret, many others- all better than SC. The Jazz discs- unbelievable, hard to find tracks- that I get REQUESTS for.

Bottom line: You will get enough usage out of them to cover the cheap price many times over.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Well, don't sub Devil In Diguise- the version is so horrible even Elvis couldn't sing it.....

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Thanks--I'll preview all our "Devil" versions and choose accordingly.

I am also with you (Joe) on the SGBs being a good way to know which direction to go when you first start out. We just started hosting where we were former singers for several years and thought we knew what people wanted to sing. We were surprised by the varieties of songs people chose from the SGB collection and were able to replace/upgrade/expand as necessary.

It is understandable that a host who is in the large lounge/casino/wedding league would want only the best in their collection. But I think there is also a place for the small town bar host. There is no way the capacity would justify a $400 fee so you can't buy $10,000 worth of songs your first year--although due to being a discoholic, we may be getting there. I started out wanting only "the best" but found myself balancing that with buying cheaper sets just to test the waters and give people more variety. Some times we are pleasantly surprised. We include brand name codes for each song in our book with a key explaining the differences. So if it is important to a person, they can avoid the MMs and SGBs and pick a Sound Choice. So I feel less guilty about it because we do offer a choice as much as we can within our means. I think that puts us at "entry level" rather than "less professional." We did buy a good sound system......

I agree and I would also say that probably 3 other songs have problems with the sound quality, like some "clicks" on one chanel But overall, the Elvis Velvet collection is a must. I would be upset singing on a SC backing, it doesn't sound like the real stuff

Well... don't know abuot that last quote... I got a lot of GRIEF over many of the discs, so that is a cost factor as well. I don't have enough Diamonds in that rough to say it is worth it. Just having 700-900 songs to me isn't a great deal if most aren't playable.

I'll add a few "Gems" that I initially spoke about.

"I Hope You Dance" - Lee Ann Womak - Disc 53
"Wish You Were Here" - Pink Floyd ----- Disc 66

I don't know how many good tracks must exist in a collection to determine it is worth having. I know there are many tracks that come with collections that no one is interested in -- good bad or indifferent! On the other hand, what if the "Few" good ones include "gems" or tracks not available elsewhere, or only available at a lesser quality?

Anyway, I decided to review my SGB collection this afternoon. And much to my disappointment, I realized that I have been influenced by those on this forum who look down their noses at SGB. Much to my satisfaction, the collection is even better than I remember and I realized that I had forgotten about some tracks that I had previously preferred.

To summarize my review:

While there are 66 discs in the set, I chose two at random and two specifically to review. I specifically chose the first two discs that contain THIRTY jazz/standard tracks. They are absolutely excellent and no manu, except maybe Pocket Songs, has anything that compares.

I then, at random, reviewed a FEW tracks on discs 13 & 55. Of the ones I reviewed, I only encountered one problem – “Town Without Pity” on disc 55. It has the lead vocal (that’s strange?)

I will define the other tracks that I reviewed, at random.

Ricky Martin material:

“Shake Your Bon Bon”
“La Vida Loca”
“La Copa De La Vida”/”The Cup of Life”

Please note that I have one gentleman who performs Ricky Martin stuff and aside from “She Bangs”, which is not available on SGB, he uses the SGB versions. I perform "The Cup Of Life" and now realize that the SGB is almost as good as the CB version that I now prefer just marginally over it!

The following oldies, which I am quite familiar with, are as good as could be found, IMHO. If someone knows of a SIGNIFICANTLY better version I’d like to be informed of such:

Lonely Teardrops – Jackie Wilson
Great Pretender – Platters
Yummy Yummy Yummy – Ohio Express
Who The Bomp – Barry Mann
96 Tears – Mysterians
Where The Boys Are – Connie Francis
Lipstick On Your Collar – Connie Francis

NOW….the four discs I selected (2 at random) represents 60 tracks. Among the sixty tracks considered, I only found one significant flaw. So, it is my opinion that I would be happy to pay $20 for those 60 tracks. How much are the remaining 900 tracks in the collection worth?

Is the collection trash? Not hardly. I wouldn't call it trash if half the tracks sucked! And I base my conclusion on the tracks that I do like! Meanwhile, I don't believe that half of them suck!!!! And I'd consider myself to be quite stupid if I went out and paid for "better" versions of the 60 above discussed tracks! As to the first 30, substitutes don't even exist!

An SGB set would have to have 21 good songs in it to make it ahead of a Sound Choice Custom. (averaging $4.00/custom song with the SGB set at $80) If there are 21 good songs on that set, then you may as well have the other bizillion that come with it .

Oops. Double posted somehow. Skip to the next, please.

No, I didn't. Not sure why you thought I did. What I said was :

Just to set the record straight.
I stand by my evaluation of the Supercore 2008 set, BTW. It's great value and can be had for as little as $40 on eBay or $79 at Ace Karaoke. You get 295 songs on a 16 disc set. Well worth the money.

If you search the Ace homepage for "50% off selected disc packs," you will find the Supercore 2008 included so it matches the EBay price.

Diafel

Sorry! It was Morgan who made the positive statement about the SGB PinK Floyd material!

No worries, Eric. I must have missed her post somehow. I'll scroll back and re-read.
Cheers!

Out of something like 900 + songs, I'm certain the 21 are covered .

For 80-99 dollars, there really is no better deal.


The SuperCore 2008 set is great, but those 16 discs are an add-on to the 38 disc set, which you should also have. Just wanted clarify.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I've read several threads concerning disc (manus), and I still don't get it. -. And I don't mean that in a derogatory way. Having said that, this is how I see it. If you go to see a LIVE band, do they sound EXACTLY like the recorded version of the song? EVEN IF it is the ORIGINAL group singing the song, I'll bet the answer is NO. In my younger days, I made it to MANY concerts, and ALMOST without exception, THEY DON'T SOUND LIKE THE RECORDING. Soooo!, Why is there such a HIGH EXPECTATION on a KARAOKE PERFORMANCE.
You could have the BEST VERSION of the song, but if the person CAN'T SING A NOTE, it's still KARAOKE. That person is still having fun. Now, if you have a version that can (at least) be recognized during the intro, a GOOD SINGER can make it sound decent, that's still KARAOKE. If EVERYONE was a great singer, and EVERY track sounded like the ORIGINAL, (ALL OF US) would be OUT OF BUSINESS, because there would be NO KARAOKE. So, for all of you that think that you (have to have) the SUPERIOR brand of disc, on EVERY song, maybe you need to step back for a second, and if you can remember back that far, remember, IT'S STILL
KARAOKE.


Rosario

Rosario

IMHO, your observation is quite noteworthy. And I have found that it's not easy for the average singer to replicate the original song, even with a good track.

And I've already suggested that when all the variables (arrangement, instrumentation, backing vocals, tempo, etc) are taken into consideration, it's hard to find a karaoke version that duplicates the original, exactly.

Of course, there are the divas with their "know it all" attitudes who think they're entertaining at Carnegie Hall and nothing is good enough for them. But the average singer just wants to get through the song and have fun, as you suggested.

Personally, I find that drunks are the biggest problem when it comes to complaints. Being inebriated every and any problem they encounter is due to the KJ and/or the track! And no matter how good a track is, a seriously drunk person wouldn't know the difference!

And while I will agree that I have found tracks that I have completely discarded from my library, that so rarely happens that it isn't worth mentioning.

Let me share another thought about karaoke tracks replicating the original song.

There was a time when perfomers commonly covered each others material, most notably during the big band era and into the early 50's. So consider, who recorded: "Moon River" "Goody Goody", "This Could Be The Start Of Something Big" "Twist & Shout" "Magic Moment", "Sh-boom" "Earth Angel"? The answer is, at least two or more well known recordings exist of each.

Furthermore, when I first got involved with music, much of the material my band played was "arranged" by us. We weren't looking to sound like the original. And how could we? We were 3-4 pieces. Drums, Piano, Sax &??? I played sax and also did vocals. One of my favorite songs was "Our Day Will Come". Does anybody think I sounded like Ruby from Ruby and The Romantics or that my band sounded like the original?

Personally, I have never set "sounding like the original" as a goal when I sing karaoke. To the contrary, I try to sing in my own style! One of my favorite karaoke songs is "Tonight Could Be The Night" by the Velvets. While I can "replicate" the original I prefer to do it in my style.

My business partner, on the other hand, likes to replicate the original. He is very talented and is quite capable of sounding like the original artist - it's amazing!

Smity, while you may think it's JUST karaoke, to many of us, it's a livlihood.

If I just considered it JUST karaoke, I'd never have put the sheer amount of money into I have. Do you honestly think people like Lonnie would have a 7 day a week gig if they didn't treat this as a SERIOUS form of music entertainment.

You're entitled to your opinon, but frankly, I find the "just karaoke" people aren't as serious as I am, and I'm not even full time into this. But I treat it with respect, and look for the best tracks I possibly can have. One reason I joined the now defunct Joltforum is it offered reviews of tracks on the karaoke.com site. That in itself saved me a LOT of time and effort, once I started paying attention to it. I was pointed in that direction by techies, one or two of which are on THIS site now.

To each their own. For my usage, I'll be taking the Gray Poupon rather than plain ol' mustard! !

Knightshow, with all do respect, PLEASE don't put words in my mouth, to try and justify YOUR OPINION. NOWHERE, in my post will you find the words JUST KARAOKE. Please read the whole post again. Karaoke singers could CARE LESS about how much money the kj spent on HIS CDG COLLECTION. As long as it is recognizable, and they get to sing, AND have a good time doing it, that's all they are concerned with. If you happen to have some of the better collections, all the better FOR YOU. I personally don't believe that if ONE or TWO of the top cdg manufacturers went out of business TOMORROW, that everyone would stop singing karaoke. Soooo!!, maybe instead of worrying about having the BEST collection keeping kjs in business, that MAYBE there are OTHER FACTORS involved. Oh, and by the way, I happen to have some money invested also, though I'M SURE that it is not NEAR what YOU and LONMAN have invested. But, AGAIN, it's not what you have invested that keeps you in business, that's only ONE link in the chain.

Rosario