Karaoke Forums

Seriously, I wish I could figure this out. I have no idea why, but when I walk into a venue where there's some hack KJ, DJ or FOH Engineer, I find it really annoying. Most recent case, we went to my wife's high school reunion this weekend. One of her classmate's husbands was DJ'ing. The guy sucked top to bottom. He was setup on a stage (think of your typical high school assembly hall). First thing I noticed, he had a pair of JBL JRX-125's lying on their sides at the front of the stage, both with their horns on the left. Way to go Einstein. Next, listening to tons of 90's dance tunes and of course he's got the DJ EQ going, way too much low-end (especially for those boxes) and tons of low end distortion. Strike two genius. The guy said next to nothing the whole night, didn't understand cross-fading (had plenty of dead air between songs) nor beat matching and seemed to have no plan for his music (slow songs at odd points, no real build or anything). He even repeated a couple songs. Dude seriously, a 16 year old with an iPod could do better. Ok I'm annoyed.

So we left and decided to check out Karaoke at a bar closer to home. Bar was hopping, looked like it'd be a fun night, until the bachelorette party left and the bar was only half full. KJ sounded good (nice Bose L1 system) but with a rotation of about 10 singers, he plays a block of 6 dance songs in a row. In the middle, he even talked about how he had a long list of singers that he'd "get back to in a bit". Seriously??? Only sang 2 songs in the three hours I was there after listening to two blocks of dance tunes plus a few random ones mixed in between karaoke songs. Ok, totally annoyed again.

So on the way home, I got to thinking, why does this annoy me so much? I mean obviously as a singer I was annoyed to not be able to sing because the KJ is playing DJ. But it's more than that. It annoys me to see people run a show that way. But as I think about it, shouldn't I be kind of happy they do? I mean seriously, it makes the rest of us look that much better right? And while I know that in my head, I still can't help but get frustrated when I run into folks like this. How dare they not do things the "right" way (note subtle sarcasm here)?? Thoughts?

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

It bugs you, me and any other good DJ, KJ, VJ because we know the basic rules of how to do it right and this guys never even bothered to "pay attention" at any gig, buy a book or two, and ask question while they we're coming up.

It bugs the hell out of me as well.

Lazy, period. More annoying, many think they are good and they'll tell you why, all night long.

Probably because you go to so many fewer shows than you run. You are used to hearing good sound, and so when it is bad it grates.

I don't like it much either, and tend to stay away from the places with poor sound. There are a whole bunch of shows I would go to more often if the sound were better. Some are just kits that have no hope, others are just cluelessness on settings.

I actually find the smiley-face with too little midrange to be much more common than the spike at 2.5KHz. I tend to cut my 2.5 KHz in the music channel and boost it in the vocal channel -- I find it helps intelligibility.

What I hate most is loud without clarity. I don't mind loud if it sounds real good, but that sort of knock-you-off-your-stool loud without clear instruments and vocals annoys me no end. I leave shortly after it becomes clear it's going to be that way.

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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.

So quit yer bitchin' and go pitch the next reunion already!

I hear ya! The thing that annoys me more than anything is the laziness. It's like most of these guys/gals just don't care. Aaarg!

When I'm out with friends I try to ignore it though and have a good time anyway. The funny thing is they are usually so frustrated by it I don't have to complain, they do it for me.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

My husband pretty well refuses to go out and sing with me for this very reason. I sit there for about 10 seconds, realize that there is gawdaful sound, then I start thinking about how if I had JUST ONE MINUTE I could make it sound good. He says it is no fun to hear me sit and complain.

When I train people to sub for me I always ask them what they think about the sound of the music and the singer. If I have intentionally set it "off" a little and they say, "Oh nothing! It sounds Great!" off the list they go. My excellent young woman sub has a great ear.

Most of the time these goobers don't even KNOW that it doesn't sound good. I find you can't teach that. In the meantime we just get annoyed as hell at the hacks.

absolutely. i feel the same way RIP, we work so hard to do what we do and do it right, but there are 2 examples of people getting gigs, and not all at cut rates either i bet, and they don't seem to care.

then again, they always seem to have gigs dont they? WTF?

at the same time, i wonder how many of the people at the reunion, that weren't sound engineers, noticed anything wrong. if they dont know what good sounds like, how could they know it was wrong?

either way......it seems there are laws that prevent us from seeing those DJ's / KJ's and stabbing them in the neck to save our ears.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

it is hard to sing good through this:

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

It used to bug me to go to shows like that. I also have a live sound backround and I would find myself constantly critiquing what the sound engineer was doing. I'm not sure when it happened, but finally I just gave up. I now think to myself "It's not my gig so what do I care?" If I don't get to sing, I really don't care anymore. It's not like I'm not going to get the chance in a couple days at one of my own shows. I will admit it is fun to walk into another place and win over the other KJ's crowd, but I'm over that. Honestly I work so much that if I'm in a place that has karaoke, you'll find me in another room or outside where it's quiet.

Yep.

Oh, you are so right! If I had just "1" minute...~

I picked up my daughter from her 1st homecoming, I just had to ask...So, how was the DJ? He was terrible, he didn't say ONE THING all night, only time he spoke was to say, This is the LAST song! He played all kinds of music that we didn't even know, then kept messing with the songs too, very annoying!

What is up with people, I just don't get it~

MrD

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[highlight=midnightblue]MrD - KJ/DJ Specialist
Visit MrD on facebook - mrdsentertainment
& on myspace - larrynance[/highlight]

That looks like a Yamaha.
Would only be hard if it was broke.

take a look at the eq setting..

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

In a very small venue I have had one set like that to give me the required volume without feedback but that was on a graphic for vocals.

Think this is more for vocal removal.

On the one hand, no one is born knowing it all and some may forget how they were when they first started. On the other, it IS frustrating to see people deliberately using bad set-ups and not paying attention to learning or trying to get better. And it is especially frustrating to see them keep getting jobs.

This used to frustrate me until I started getting the low down on how they get/keep these jobs. It usually turns out to be a friend/relative/neighbor or employee of the owner and either the owner thinks they are getting off cheap with "adequate" or else they are trying to help out the person. There is so much of it around here that we have started joking that we need to get drunk or arrested in order to get a job. So yes, it amazes us and we aren't even sound engineers.

exactly; that is the main eq, and singing through that system with the eq set that way is not a good experience.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

Hey, so the 5 band EQ's got the smile of death on it, maybe the guy will blow up his speakers soon. Meanwhile I wonder if we could learn anything about marketing our skills from the "hack" -- he did something right to land the gig even if it was just word of mouth.

He was talking about the typical 'dj' smily face eq settings that suck for singing.

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

The Smiley of Death - Mu Hahaha

Okay I have to know - where did that pick come from?

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Man that one is even worse than the typical smiley. I mean seriously he's got 12 dB of cut in the mid range and a full 12 dB of boost on both the high and low end? I can almost hear his PA screaming out in sheer terror. Many moons ago when the smiley was the way folks were taught, it was never taught at these extremes. I mean seriously, this would give a pink noise signal an instant 24 dB of dynamic range. Imagine how that must explode with any real program material. YIKES.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke