Karaoke Forums

Isn't this what we forget as "professionals". This is what's great about Karaoke. While many of us, myself included, have a deep focus on quality components and such, we forget what Karaoke really is to most people. The derogatory references to the all-in-one's as Toys in this thread really shows how much people have lost perspective on it. Not everyone needs or is looking for a full PA to put in their homes. For most people something simpler is often better because it frees up their time to actually party. Few people want to throw a Karaoke party and be stuck playing KJ in front of a console all night.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Yup. I have a top-notch system, but for practice my wife prefers the VocoPro Gigman or her little portable DVD player that plays CDGs. She doesn't want the knobs or the software. She wants to stick a disk in, and she doesn't mind paging through the disks to find something to sing, either. She loves the Chartbuster Essential and DK binders, since they organize the disks by genre and era pretty well. She thumbs through them all the time looking for a disk that has possibles.

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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.

That's what I am trying to stress sometimes. Maybe this is not exactly a good place to ask for standard quality karaoke because there are too many professional kj do this for a living. What's the real purpose of karaoke? It's to have fun and allow anyone who loves to sing to have fun and you don't rally have to be good singer. If you are then you probably should be a singer instead of just karaoke. Many times I read some people will get pissed when music is not perfect, somebody singing their song, someone bad starts singing, etc. But karaokeing is not star search. Just have fun, you'll enjoy more. Also, if you are doing karaoke at home, who want to be stuck doing kj and not joining the fun? That's why I prefer the asian style of karaoke machine that let the user punch in their own song to the reserved list. You find the song, you enter it in.

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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.

I don't see how you can say that any one here made "derogatory references" to any of the all-in-ones. What was said was truth and I see nothing derogatory about it. And I don't understand why you're tearing into everyone who suggested professional equipment in conjunction with using the OP's PC. We are suggesting the best value for her money! Isn't that what SHOULD happen when we are asked advice about such things?
She came to a forum to ask the PRO's. Remember that! Should we then ignore everything we know and NOT tell her about ALL her options because YOU and others like you think we shouldn't?
As for those who wish not to have to fuss with knobs and such, you are suggesting that that is the OP's stance. The truth is, we don't KNOW whether that is the case or not, and to assume so, and then to tear into those of us who suggested and advocate pro equipnment because of it, is absurd.
She was definitely given valuable suggestions regarding the all-in-ones (the one at Sam's Club and the Vocopro).
We then expounded further to suggest a better quality setup for her money. Who cares if it's a pro setup? If she doesn't want one, then she can head to Sam's Club and pick up her all-in-one and forget the rest.
But she SHOULD know ALL the options available to her and then she can make HER choice.
But please don't knock us for helping as we were asked to do.

I'm not that far away from being a home user and for me, simplicity is the key. I don't want to have to hook up this and that, I just want to turn it on and go. I think the computer suggestions do give ideas for getting the best bang for the buck , especially as once you begin karaoke at home, you start wanting to upgrade. But I like a dedicated system rather than having to undo things when I want to use something else. I am just as happy practicing with our little Memorex ball and a Radio Shack mic rather than have the boyfriend hook up the pro system.

But a few things to consider is you start wanting key change so you can quickly outgrow a simple system. The other thing is that downloads are being made available for home users so they may want a system that can play those. I have been looking at the V2GO to give as a gift as it can play about anything but again you need some speakers.

If your heart is set on an all-in-one system, consider checking out Amazon and other sites where they have user reviews. You will soon get a feel for what breaks quickly, etc.

Calling them toys is a derogatory statement, it's condescending from us Pro KJ's who "know better". As far as the suggestions of pro gear, every one of them that I read exceeded her stated budget. Since when did Karaoke Scene become a place for only Pro KJ's?

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Sorry those little all in ones that the WalMarts sell are basically high tech toys. They can work, but are also more prone to breakage.
For the budget, even a small PA system & them using their computer would do a better job.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=630485

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

The OP already has a computer. Whether he has a mac or PC doesn't matter as there are programs for both albeit the PC has more choices and more affordable choices (Winamp is free as is autoKDJ if the OP wants rotation and song search capabilities and for a low $25 the OP can get JustKaraoke which I just had to use at a private party because CompuHost wouldn't recognize the playlist I created through winamp). The two worked out pretty good and makes me wonder why I purchased CompuHost in the first place, oh yeah JustKaraoke would crash when switching to JustKaraoke from Winamp. Lonman has an excellent suggestion and it's within the OP's price range.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I have a Memorex all-in-one MKS8590 karaoke machine. Has 2 mic capability, echo, audio and video outputs, rca type. Also has slot for memory card to (record) perfomances, 5" screen. NEVER had a problem with it for home use (practiceing). Hook it to the tv, (for an optional monitor) and away you go. The only thing I would suggest adding is a couple of pg48's mics. The player was $99 on sale at Target, 2 mics $25 each, for $150, you're sounding pretty good for a home setup. If you want to hook it up to your home stereo, even better, although it sounds pretty good by itself. As I said, I own this unit, so I'm speaking from experience with it, not what I've been told. I wish the OP would give some feedback so we know whether or not to keep giving suggestions.

Srnitynow

PS Forgot that it also has connections for guitar and keyboard (with separate volumes) and earphone jack.

I think it is a bit odd that everyone here seems extremely negative about the concept of home speakers.

Of course most home speakers are not designed to bring down a concert hall but many are totally sufficient for the size of room they are in.

The quality of home speakers is wide ranging and many are as good or better than the "professional" systems.

The main difference between a good home system and a professional system is the "Pro" system is designed for ease of transport, while that is not at all the case for the home system. Because they are designed for transport they have outside casing to handle the abuse of repeated setups and transport, as well as the potential abuse in a commercial setting.

Now you can blow out your home speaker system or not, but that is more a question of running your system far too hard, and that can happen with whatever system you have, from the cheapest to the most expensive. It is more a question of knowing your system's limits, they all have them.

Many home systems are plenty loud to get noise complaints from the neighbors long before they burn out. Others maybe not.


For the OP the question is.

Do you have a laptop, and a decent home stereo system, or even good sound on a TV? If so go with the computer system.

If you dont have a laptop, or either dont want to set up the computer at the performance are or move to the computer, or you lack a decent sound system, then the answers are different.

The main question is do you have a decent sound system and computer, if yes then go with computer karaoke. If not then an all in one is not a bad idea.

While a mic going directly into a computer may not be perfect, that can work with a small sacrifice in quality.

If buying mics at the bargin basement prices, plugging into a computer will not be the limiting factor.

For the home system, if you have a computer with a decent stero and $200 budget, buy a $30-40 mic, and go with the freeware karaoke players. (Try Tricerasoft.com for one).

I would then spend the remaining budget on karaoke songs. Karaoke can be fun with the right people even with a bad sound system. It wont be as fun if you only have 40 or 50 songs to choose from.

I also have the Memorex MKS8590 all in one Home Karaoke system and I like it alot. I recommended it to one of my karaoke singers and she likes hers too. I bought it new for $80 on e-bay. I actually did my first gig using it hooked up to my band PA and 13" TV. The gig was for my mom & dad's 50th wedding anniversary party. I recorded all the singers and made a CD for my parents so they could relive the memory.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Once again, they are NOT meant to handle the dynamics live vocals, no matter how good they are. Why would you risk it?
That would be like trying to long haul a couple of tons of gravel with a small pickup truck. You can't do it, at least not without eventually breaking your truck.
Get the right tool for the job.
Home speakers ain't it.

I've asked for this before on other forums and never once has anyone shown me an example. Anyone making this claim, please show photographic evidence along with an equipment list for any such failure. I've search the internet far and wide and while many people make this claim, I've not once found a documented example where simply running live vocals through home stereo speakers caused any damage.

You home stereo amplifier is meant to take signals all the way up to 0db just like any other amplifier and then amplify it within it's specifications. Unless you're sending a +4 db signal to a -10db consumer device, there is no dynamics issue here (and that wouldn't technically be a dynamics issue either). I've not yet even heard a solid justification for the theory that you can't run live vocals through a stereo. Still waiting.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

photographic Evidence

I've blown a few tweeters in 3 sets of speakers ranging from Bose Acoustimas series, JBL & Polk Audio. The Bose weren't even turned up that loud but we had one guy singing at our house & he hit a particularly high note & it smoked. This was before I started using a compressor on my home system & now just use my back up PA speakers when I want to have a party.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Anecdotal -- I blew my Bose 301s after repeated high-volume use at karaoke. And then I damaged another pair of Bose HT speakers as well. (I still use those, but they rattle quite a bit when pushed.)

I believe I had the gain structure right, but I can't be sure.

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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.

We are talking HOME use.


Many home speakers can play sound loud enough to be uncomfortable far before they damage themselves.

There is no need to run something at super high volume just to be karaoke, especially if you are only using it in a small room where no-one is more than a dozen feet from the speakers.

Sure if you use it at maximum it will burn out, but like any other system the amp will clip out before major damage is done.

Now can you damage speakers. SURE. But you dont have to. It is just a question of setting the volumes appropriately.

You can damage ANY speaker by running it too loud for too long.


And as for "dynamic range" most home amps do not have that much range and since you are dealing with unpowered speakers, the sound will clip out a bit before the system is damaged.

REMEMBER we are comparing this to an ALL in one system that has speakers little different from a boombox.

I have been to many home karaoke events using small speaker systems, and NO we did not destroy them.

So was I! The Bose I had weren't even turned up & the others weren't anywhere near the threshold of clipping status - just uncompressed vocal spikes.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

HEY
I ALSO WORK FOR KMART AND WE SELL AN EMERSON KARAOKE PLAYER FOR $99 AND IT WORKS VERY WELL FOR HOME USE...I KNOW BECAUSE I ALSO OWN ONE AND IT COME WITH 100 SONGS..SO FOR THE MONEY NOT BAD TO START OUT WITH