Karaoke Forums

Hello,

I plan on buying a karaoke setup for my girlfriend's and have a few questions I was hoping some of you could answer.

First off, this is strictly for home and recreational use, and my budget is around $500.

I have been doing some research and was wondering if anyone knows how the asian karaoke boxes setup their equipment? I know they use a computer and tv with speakers but what I don't understand is how they have a remote control for changing the audio, picking tracks, and everything.

Do they also use a karaoke machine as well? Or is it just a simple DVD player? I've been reading online and most asian KTV videos are just DVDs where you can either play the track with the voice or just the background.

This is what I found out:

"Many VCD players in Southeast Asia have a built-in karaoke function. On stereo recordings, one speaker will play the music with the vocal track, and the other speaker will play the music without the vocal track. So, to sing karaoke, users play the music-only track through both speakers. "

Does this mean I will have to get 2 speakers?

Will the free karaoke software on a laptop allow me to do everything such as changing the vocal type during a song, changing key, queue tracks...

Do I even need the software or karaoke player? Will a normal dvd player suffice?

I was looking at getting a something like a Phonic PowerPod cause it was recommended in another post. What exactly does the mixer allow me to do?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Also, anyone from Toronto and know of local dealers?

With that type of budget, I would suggest you look at the Fender Passport, or the Yamaha Stagepas. You would still have to add to each of them, but at least this might be of interest to you.

Rosario
Serenity Now Karaoke

thanks for your reply!

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=630486

would that item above be something like a stagepas? is there anything you could recommend?

also, aside from the above equipment, all i would need is a laptop and some microphones?

i'm also from Toronto, Canada so I don't think musician's friend is able to ship up Fender and Yamaha products. i've never heard of the brand "Phonic" but someone on the board recommended it in another post.

Of course they can ship You'll pay duty, freight & rate but NO tax You might want to check out Steve's Music downtown Toronto, they have good deals

http://www.stevesmusic.com/index.php?ma ... ap_toronto

I am not an expert, but I'll try my best to explain what's out there.

In America, I think the most popular is CD+G. Known as CD+Graphics. It's like a CD audio with graphics embedded into the CD, but no video. You'll need special CD player that can handle the graphics and output to TV. There are program on the computer that can also play those CD.

The VCD you are talking about in Asia is basically music video Karaoke. With vocal recorded of the left or right channel. You don't need 2 set of speakers. You you need to do is select which channel you want the audio to play. Also, a lot of software can do that. There are also VCD player out there.

Next is DVD. Music video karaoke record in DVD. Vocal and nonvocal is recorded as separate tracks. So, you get true stereo without losing quality. You also get a higher quality video. Except when some company try to put too much video it become overly compressed. There's also software that allows you to choose the track to play and a lot of karaoke player let you change the track.

There are machine out there called MIDI-Karaoke player. It's a player that has about 20,000 songs with about 1 hours of video that loop over and over while the song overlay on top of the video. You use the remote to choose the song, reserve, play and all that stuff.

On the computer, there are MIDI (.kar) karaoke. Most people don't use this anymore because the audio quality isn't that great. MP3+G, this is similar to CD+G except the audio is in MP3 and the lyric is in graphic. MP3+.lrc, this is MP3 with matching lyric file. The program will load and display the text for the MP3 while playing.

Ok, I think that's all I can explain. If I explain it wrong, please let me know.

By the way, I just finish writing a karaoke software player. It doesn't have all the feature I want in it yet so I am still not making it version 1. It allow you to play MP3+.lrc and .kar files. You can record your own video and use it as the background. You can even use the camera and have the text playing on top of it live. You can get it here at http://www.walasoft.com/walaoke

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Like karaoke? I just finished writing my first karaoke software. It supports .mp3 + .lrc and .kar file with video background. You can use your own video as the background also.

thanks for the reply moonreflection!

that clarifies some things up but also gives me more questions! will i be able to change the key of the music if i play VCD or DVD discs? is that what a mixer does?

also, which package is better?

phonic powerpod 620/710 speakers

or

yamaha stagepas 150m?

Check this out they're in the GTA.
www.homekaraoke.ca
Good Luck

Hi Oro,

If it's just an easy home-singing set-up you want the Lucky Voice Party Box might be good for you (yes, I work for them, but it is genuinely easy)...

http://www.firebox.com/product/2308/Luc ... -Party-Box

It comes with leads you can connect to your computer and stereo, and you stream thousands of karaoke tracks after signing up through the online karaoke site Lucky Voice Home. The Party Box comes with a month's free access to all tracks on the site.

OK, I'll remove my sales badge now

Good luck whatever you choose, it's great to be able to enjoy karaoke at home with friends/family!

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[font=Verdana][/font]Enjoy streaming online karaoke at Lucky Voice Home

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