Karaoke Forums

Hello everyone,

Well got my first gig this Friday evening at a local sports and social club (holds around 300 people)

There is a fun fair directly outside and this happens once a year and the place is normally packed (typical! here was me hoping for a quiet night to break myself in).

Anyway, im worried about getting the rotation right, could anybody give me any tips please ?

Thanks in advance
Wayne

Congrats!

First rule about the rotation: It will ALWAYS be done wrong What I mean, is, no matter how fair and efficient you try to be, someone is going to accuse of you fixing, rigging and skipping, so just ignore the haters and do what you think is best for the gig.

My rotation is pretty fixed. I do the first 12 people to sign up as my first rotation. This is about an hour of singers. After that first hour, I start to slip in names in between the first people to sign up, and play the second rotation. I aim for an "old singer" "new singer" switch off. If there are more new singers than old, I'll slip to new, one old. Or two old one new. After that rotation is done, i will slip in new names in between the first and second rotation singers. I try to stick to this format as rigidly as possible, to ensure everyone has a chance to sing more than once.

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Wam bam thank you m'am.

Thanks for the reply and it does help!

My idea was to get a list and run through that first and as people add new songs (new singers) have one old then one new and follow on from there.

The problem is i know for certain that one of the singers that will be there will put in a huge amount of requests (in relation to otehrs) and i dont want to favour one over another.

Also, how do i work a mix whilst a singer is on, cue the next disc and be ready in time for the end of the song :S that seems too short a time!

Prep all the requests you have by disc, in order, once you get a good sound mix down. Lay them out with the request slip on top, until you have a good working order, then just plug away! Each song gives you about 2-4 minutes to prep this. You'll find that you can find a good mic/music level fairly quickly, then spend the rest of the time organizing slips and discs.

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Wam bam thank you m'am.

However you do it, make sure you stay consistant, don't do it one way this night & another way the next time, or change up throughout the night. I run mine pretty similar to roger!

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

I do mine pretty well like Roger and Lonnie and it's worked pretty successfully for me for 12 years. There will ALWAYS be someone who doesn't get it - thinks that putting in a song that they should be up soon - they may be 9 down.

What I have started doing is keeping a dry erase board on my table -- I actually physically write the rotation down on it...that way people can see the rotation (even though it shows on the big tv between the singers). I will also tell roughly how long before they sing if they ask (again, thanks to great Hoster feature). It's amazing how fewer interruptions I get by just pointing to the board. Last few times it has been FULL (27-plus singers). Dry erase allows me to simply erase the singers who leave at various times through the night. Once in a while I'll shout out how long the rotation is, and I always say it when we get to the top again, mostly to cheers. (Don't get that, but oh well.)

When I was disc based, I would pull each disc as the slips came up....laid them down on the table with the slip on top, in the order received. Sometimes I took up the entire 6-foot table. You can also ask people to "SING ONE BRING ONE" instead of offering a big pile of slips with the tacit assumption that they will sing all the songs they bring you if they do that. ( I do allow people to bring me more than one slip at a time - some like to just 'get it over with' and not have to worry about bringing slips up but that does require a little more thinking...hence the dry erase board.)

Pretty quick adjustment to mix voice volume and music, even without monitors. Again, not knowing what kind of equipment you're using, it's hard to make any hard and fast suggestions about mixing...you will get very accustomed to doing it -- and if you have someone you can send out front to hear the mix (someone with a reasonably good ear) and let you know if it needs to be adjusted, that's even better when you're starting out.

Good luck and enjoy yourself.
k

Thank you for taking the time to reply, im sure you were all in this position once

The ideas put forward seem easy enough to follow (famous last words) so thank you, especially the dry erase board, i think i may invest in one tomorrow thanks Karen.

Karen, the mixer im using is a behringer UB1222FX Pro (not the best i know) but i do have a fairly good idea of where im heading with that.

Thanks again.
Wayne

Sounds like you're well on the way. Don't get flustered, take an extra minute if you have to - have filler/bumper music available if you get 'stuck' on something and need some extra time. A smile and "You know, I'm just learning this, please be patient" goes a long way.

My only advice is try to be fair. Eventually you will make a minor mistake or two if it gets busy.

With experience the mistakes will decrease. But most of the time you will be the only one that notices.

On the other hand if it is really busy you will get accused of making mistakes in the rotation when you made no errors.

I agree on the consistency of the rotation. No matter what type of rotation you do, make sure you do the same thing, night after night. I believe there are three main ways of doing a proper rotation, any of which work if you are consistent. The first one is : sing one/bring one,,,meaning nobody has a more than one request in at a time. When it's your turn to sing, have a slip ready to had to the host. The second one is how many here have already suggested, like Lonnie, Karen and Roger. The third, is the way I do mine. First in, first to sing. All new singers to the bottom of the rotation. Sometimes this way is hard to do, because if a rotation gets longer than maybe 18-20 singers, then the wait is long for new singers. But, my belief is this, if you get there early, then you should be rewarded with the possibility of singing more songs. Get there towards the end of the night, and you actually may not get to sing (rare that this happens).

Any way you choose will be a good way of doing a fair as possible rotation, as long as everyone knows what to expect. This is my thoughts on the subject, hope it helps.

Scott

I remember my first time. She was hot and I was nervio.....oh, wait..karaoke...

I do mine like Mr. Scott and use the dry erase like Karen. I have a Sing 1 bring as many as you want. I have clothes pins on wires on one of my racks and I put all of one persons slips on a clothes pin. This way, they don't have to keep bringing there slips up. I can do about 18 singers and then I have to find other places for the slips (mixer knobs, table, etc.)

I usually will get 3 or 4 discs ready, laying them out in order of rotation with the slips underneath them (they can and will blow away). Using two players, I will put a slip high or low so I know which player a cdg is in. If I don't do that, I will press the wrong open button while the singer is singing (wish the SC player stopped after one song). If you are using a computer, this doesn't matter but I have seen more than one a computer go down in the middle of karaoke.

Do a sound check before you start the show, giving yourself plenty of time to find something that may not be connected or connected properly. Even after doing it for quite some time, there are days where I have to figure out why the graphics are not on the screen or why there is a squeel when I turn the volume up on the mic (corded and cordless plugged into the same slot, xlr and 1/4 inch).

Be fair, stay the same and stay calm (or at least don't let them see you sweat).

Good Luck!

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Kevin

Yep I do it the same as the others above. The first hour is usually my first rotation then I add in new people in between. When I was disc based I laid the discs out ahead of time on people's slips to stay organized also. Make sure you have space to do so. I use magnetic strips and magnets to hold down slips. It works great for outside parties or if your by a window on a windy day.

You have to have a thick skin when it comes to rotation and stay consistant that's the key. You'll always have people wanting to get in earlier. You'll hear every excuse in the book. My mother's here and wants to hear me sing, my taxi's here, I sing in a band and think I'm better than everyone else so I should be able to sing more etc.... I just smile and say sorry you have to wait your turn like everyone else. I can't remember who said it, but I got this saying from the forum. Liken it to a grocery line in a store. You wouldn't expect to be able to jump the line in that situation.

Think also what you're going to do with duets and multiple singers. If you'll know you'll be very busy with a lot of requests you may consider all multiple singers as one turn per rotation. But I would announce it here and there, so people have a heads up they'll have to wait an entire round before singing again.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

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I do my rotation like mrscott and Kevinper.
Last week, I did my usual sound check, had everything set properly, and then headed to the washroom. A half hour or so later, when I was ready to start, I turned everything back on and got the dreaded feedback squeal. I was flabberghasted and was checking to make sure everything was plugged in properly. I couldn't figure it out.
I finally found the problem. While I was away, some doorknob walked by and cranked the volume on my mic, as well as randomly turning a bunch of other knobs on the mics and music.
So it pays to double check when you're set to go.

Well it seems i had no need to worry!

Nobody really wanted to sing until they had enough alcohol inside themso it left me standing there looking like a lemon!

The rotation towards the end of the night (7 singers i think) each with 2 songs in was easy enough and i got into a rythym which was good!

The bar took over 300% more than it normally would for a Friday (Normally GBP 80) go figure!

Got a regular once a month gig and 2 "one offs" out of it as well

I just wanted to say thanks for all of the advice from people, really helped!

Wayne

Glad it worked out for you! It was good that you weren't slammed with a huge rotation first night. Gave you a chance to get the hang of it without too much pressure. It's always good that way. Good luck with the rest of your gigs!