Karaoke Forums

What backup items do you consider essential?

I'm almost ready to go digital, but I'll still take my discs & CDG player, they've never let me down. Other than that, I have a backup of pretty much everything else. For the PA, I only take a spare amp with me though.
A spare speaker cable, a little tool kit and some electrical tape are great life savers. I had a speakon cable let go on me once, so I had to cut it in half cos I didn't know which end had gone, then cut up a jack lead to extend it and take the back panel off the speaker to connect the bare wire to the terminals. What a pain!

For me, all my discs & a player (not only for backup but for customer discs) are a must. I do not bring in a separate computer for back up & can be up in & running within SECONDS if the computer locks up rather than minutes to get everything fired back up. This is MY personal preference for a back up. I do now have a laptopn with the program I run ready to go, but still can do so while I am switching them out without a second of down time in between! When I have a computer glitch 9 out of 10 times no one even notices - I run a tight show so when the computer DOES glith (which theyWILL), I can have the disc pulled & the sing cued up within seconds.

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Whatever it takes to keep the show running. Computer, cables, harddrives.

For backup I keep 1 extra mic cable, 1 extra speaker cable, 1 extra RCA cable, some random splitters and fuses in my rig. You be amazed how many technical problems a few random splitters can solve if you know what you're doing.

Some more backup items at home, which is only 6 miles from my gig. The extra mic cable and one fuse that blew are the only backups I've ever had to use in 6 years (knock on wood).

I run a tri-amped system, so if there were an amp problem, I could just reconfigure the remaining amps to handle that.

I am computer based, and keep my CDG player in my rack and my discs in my car, just in case. If the computer were to go down, I'd be back running in about 2-3 minutes following some filler, and no one would probably notice.

Also like to keep the discs in the car in case the karaoke police just so happen to snoop around. I would LOVEEEEEEE for BMI or ASCAP to come in and hastle me about my digital files, then take them to my car and WHAAAAAP, 892 discs in 1 to 1 ratio to my digital files. Would be even better if they wasted the manpower to actually check them out.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Having your discs with you is not going to deter any snoopers. They will not interupt your show but you may one day get an envelope in the mail stating that you have been named in a lawsuit and that they have collected evidence that proves that you are illegally using their trademark based solely on the fact that someone came to your show, saw that you were using a computer and took a picture of their trademark on the TV screen. Have fun with the inconvience that causes.

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"Don't worry. It will feel better when it quits hurtin."

They would get laughed out of court once I showed the 1 to 1 discs to digital files.

Simple format shifting is not what is getting people fines in court, and not what the karaoke police are going after these days, they are after clear cut PIRATES.

Owning the original discs CERTAINLY does make a difference.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Topher, one thing I've learned in my career is never second guess what a judge may do. I've seen people get acquitted when they shouldn't have been and those convicted on shaky evidence. So the judge may"Jjust not laugh it out of court".

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I totally agree that having the discs proves that you are legit but that is the situation some of the named KJ's in the current SC lawsuit are in. They own all the discs but are having to seek legal concil because they are being accused of be pirates when they are not. They are not clear cut pirates at all. Does not sound like fun to me.

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"Don't worry. It will feel better when it quits hurtin."

How legal will you be when someone steals all your discs from the car OR THEY GET WARPED FROM THE EXTREME HEAT? Most insane thing i HAVE EVER HEARD.

ASCAP and BMI have nothing to do with your legality.