Karaoke Forums

While it seem the debate between the KJ's who play singers personal discs and those who don't will continue to rage on, the whole concept got me thinking about microphones.

I've been to thousands of karaoke shows.. and i've seen all kinds of different mics.. from Shure Super 55's and SM58's, to Samson, Nady, VocoPro, Audio Technica, PG58's, AKG's, even Radio Shack branded mics with molded 1/4" cords.

If a person is so particular about what track they sing to.. why wouldn't they be just as particular about what kind of mic they're singing into?

I've not ever had a person bring a mic into a show and ask to use their own.. but then again, I only get a person asking to play their own discs once every few months.

Anybody ever have someone bring their own mic? What would you say if they did?

I would embrace it. And yes, I brought my own mic to my friend's show once. Of course I asked her first and her reaction was the same as mine would be: "Sure! Bring it on!"
Not because I'm a diva or because her mics weren't good enough. I brought it because I don't want to be getting other people's sicknesses, and to be honest, I wasn't sure how often she cleans her mics, if ever.
Same reason my mic at my shows is used only by me.

We had a guy ask if we could hook up his Radio Shack headset mic because a visiting band had really played the crowd while wearing headsets so he wanted to do it, too. It was sort of a fun joke and it took some adjustments but didn't sound as bad as we feared and he got some laughter mileage out of it. Than the owner dug one out he already had and wanted to be able to sit and comment on people when they didn't know where he was. We only let him do it on the first guy as they were friends then we turned him off.

So it's been done but it was a quickly passing fad. If it isn't an imposition on others, we will try whatever floats people's boats. If someone brought in their own mic we would probably say, fine. If it was like, "Hey, I just bought this, want to test it out," who would care? Might be fun and educational. If it was, "I only sing on this," we might roll our eyes secretly but we would probably accomodate.

Yes, we have allowed visitng KJs to dicate their own mix, also. If one wanted to take over on their own song and share some hints, we would probably say OK. If one wanted to dominate the show and act like we didn't know what we were doing, it would only happen once.

Now if someone wanted to bring their own speakers, that might be too much of a hassle and we would have to decline.

If there were an easy and practical way to do it correctly, it might be more common. However, here are a couple thoughts on the subject. First, I'd never allow it at my show if someone brought one in. Rarely do I have time at my shows to stop, dig out an extra mic cable, sound check the mic and setup the dynamic processing and whatnot to deal with that situation. Second, even in this highest levels of professional touring acts, very very few singers bring their own mics to the gig. Admittedly there are a few that do but even then more often it's their engineer that's demanding it not the singer. A few will specify a specific mic in their rider (which then the production company must provide), most will list a few in order of preference that are acceptable either in the rider or on their input list, and many will just use whatever is provided for them on stage (although if you put a Nady out there they'd probably refuse to do the show).

To that end, I'd never do it. First off, it just seems silly to me to carry a microphone into a bar. They're hired to bring in the equipment, why would I bring mine. Second, if their mics bothered me that bad, it's easier for me just to choose a show elsewhere (which I have done for this reason and general audio quality reasons). Third, it would be completely impractical for me to bring in my mic, its receiver is rackmounted with the rest of my wireless receivers in a 4U road case. I ain't pulling it out or carrying that case into a bar (although the looks I would get could be fun).

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

I would probably let a competitor KJ bring in his/her speakers. Just send a lil extra wattage to the speakers and fry em like a french fry at McDonalds. Oops so sorry competitor....

I guess to me bringing your own tracks to a karaoke joint is just as silly as bringing your own microphone.

Seems to me crappy microphone would have way more impact on your overall sound than a sub par or B list canned music track.

As a patron, I have the philosophy that the bar pays the KJ to provide the equipment, music, and to MC the evening. I wouldn't bring my own mic, music, chair, or anything else into someone elses show.

If someone ever brought their own mic into one of my shows, i'd probably just laugh in their face. Might even piss myself a little from laughing so hard.

Bringing a mic vs bringing a cdg....no comparison
The hassle and potential problems of swapping numerous mics......I'll let somebody slip a screen or sanitary cover on, but I'd only swap mics on the rare failure of one of my own mics......and I'll gladly play your cd, no questions asked....

Seriously?
How hard is it to swap out a mic?
Unplug it, and then plug the other one in....
That should be pretty much it, with perhaps a tiny amount of knob turn on the EQ....

I have a couple of people that bring in their own mic. One has a Sennheiser 845, the other brings in a Shure Beta 87A. I unclip my mic & allow them to plug theirs in. The Beta is a very nice sounding mic, the other is also very nice but I do have to turn the highs down more on that one as it tends to be a little brighter - i'm eq'ing each singer anyway, can usually adjust to the new mic quickly. Actually had one guy bring in a wireless mic one night, Plugged in his receiver & connected to a spare channel (he supplied the XLR cord).
Discs I can have as many as 10 customer discs at a time per night - even bought separate little racks that hold discs with cases & single discs without them having to be laid down on the counter (disclaimer in books & at counter states to remember to pick up your disc before you leave, any disc left over 30 days becomes mine - only had 1 disc forgotten and haven't seen the gal since), I usually bring the disc back to the customer after they are done just to give a personalized 'nice job'. There isn't a night goes by that I don't have at least one disc from someone. I encourage people to get their own as I cannot always find the songs or necessarily need to buy the same version they are used to, so they bring in the songs they want or are used to version wise. If the song being sung gets interest from others, then I will actively search to find that song/version which does happen on occasion.
Have also had people bring in their music on flash drives on occasion.

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

I have my own trailer rig with my complete sound system set and ready to go. When it's my turn to sing, everyone has to go out to the parking lot to listen to me.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

I've done it, but my approach has been to give them a Behringer XM8500 as a gift. (Probably a little like a restaurant customer giving a bible tract instead of a tip, but I don't feel guilty as I am one of the few KJ tippers I know.) That mic is cheap, but pretty good sounding and solld-feeling for its price.

One guy had a cheap Vocopro VHF. I gave him the mic, he hooked it up once, never brought it again. Another woman had a no-name wired mic with absolutely terrible off-axis response, and treated my mic as if it was the second coming of Neumann. She has it up as the main mic to this day. One guy had a Nady SP5, which had an immense amount of handling noise. He thought I was insulting him and refused it.

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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.

Haha.. stop the presses.. i'm about to agree with diafel.

If it's a corded mic.. just mute the channel, unplug your existing wired mic, and plug in theirs.

Wireless mics.. plug it in the wall, plug into an empty channel, and there ya go.

Both instances would require a quick "check check 1 2 1 2" while you tweek the specific channel EQ and then rock & roll.

Roll a DJ song or two while you're hooking it up to keep the show rolling.

Seems to me like letting them use their own mic would be easier than keeping track of their discs in my all digital format.

I had a singer bring an SM58 with the proper XLR cable attached to it. I had an extra mic input so I stuck it in and that was it. Took me all of five seconds and I made a potential repeat singer.

-james

I've seen one woman who would bring her own mic and just unplug the KJ's mic and plug in her mic for her song. I believe her reasoning was based on her belief that she was getting a lot of sore throats from sharing a mic with everyone else in the bar.

There was also a guy who would get to a show early so the KJ could hook up his wireless SM58 into the KJ's system. This guy liked to walk around the crowd while he sang and the KJ didn't have any wireless mics. The guy just kept his mic in his back pocket until it was his turn to sing. On some instances I did see this guy let other people use his cordless if they asked him so I don't think he was worried about getting sick from sharing a mic.

In both cases, neither of the KJ's had a problem with making the customer happy by going the extra mile. It's called customer service...just like playing a customer's personal disc. It's the easiest way to build up a loyal customer base. If I have two options I will always choose the show that will play my discs before I go to a show that flat out refuses to do so. I've purchased a lot of karaoke backing tracks from various sources to create karaoke tracks that aren't available commercially. If I spend the time to get the graphics right, I'd like to be able to sing the song at the local karaoke night spot. I think that just about every karaoke singer has at some point wished that one of his or her favorite songs were available on a karaoke disc. I enjoy making these tracks for myself and also for some of my friends. I'll never understand why a KJ would have a problem with that.

I go to some shows that don't have the ability to change the key of a song. All that they have is a pitch controller which simply slows down the song or speeds it up. If I know that I'm going to one of those shows, I bring along a disc with my favorite songs, where I need to lower the key to sing them properly, with the music already adjusted to where I like it. I guess what I'm doing is bringing along my own key changer. I guess that must make me a diva too. The Cheese would say that I should just sing a different song instead of the one that I really want to sing.

I was taking a sip of water when I read that, and most of it shot out my nose.



It burns like hell, but it was worth it!

(you do understand I was joking, right?)

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Absolutely.

The sarcasm wasn't lost on me.. and the thought that i'm sure at least one person reading this thread thought, "(@$%&#!).. that's a great idea!" made it all the funnier.

You were?

Not even necessary to do that.
Just mute the channel you're plugging into while you have another singer up.

I knew an Elvis impersonator that would bring in his own gold plated mic. Hard to say no to the king.

I have a few discs that I bought because they were songs I enjoyed singing that the show I went to didn't have. I don't think I've met any KJ's using disc systems that wouldn't play them.

On the other hand, I tried bringing my own shower stall once because I sound best singing in the shower, but the KJ would not let me use it. Too bad, because that is one of the chief components in my sound system.