Karaoke Forums

Sometimes one player will be more sensitive to scratches than another.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

It could just be a dirty laser too, but still need to know about it. If I have a player I know is more sensitive to certain discs - JVC/RSQ don't like burned discs alot of the time, i'll make sure to play it in my Pioneer player.

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

Then there's the water-drinkin gal that is sooo freakin' picky...
I have her mic set perfect.. she sounds great... the monitor is up so she can hear...2 seconds into the song and she's lookin at me with a frown, pointing at the mic with her other hand. "turn up the mic' is what she means... Geez.. ok lady, I'll blast 'em out with your voice since you like the sound of your own voice so much! She should sing a Capella for petes' sake!


OH, then I have '10% Joe' .... before every song he sings, he says to me "put the mic 10% above the music". Of course, I just smile and say ok. But geeez... every single time... every single week... for the past 10 years! I got it already JOE! (also drinks nothing!) THEN if the list is too long for him..after his first song he'll come up and say "leave me in the lineup, would ya?" He goes across the street to the card club and their in-house karaoke. I kinda like it when he comes back and I've already skipped him

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

That's when you just turn the vocal in the monitor up more only. If the mains are set where you want them, don't screw that up.

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

There's the rub... with the setup I have now.... I monitor clones the sound from the main's... no turning up just vocals in the monitor.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

K, here's another one:

I got a guy that is almost totally deaf. He wears hearing aids but they don't work very well... or he doesn't turn the up enough... whatever.
He not only tells me he can't hear himself while on stage... he actually tells me at the table in the middle of the room that the 'sound sucks, you need to do something about it!"

The people that he's sitting with (aren't friends, he just asks if he can sit there), look at me and shrug or say "sounds fine to us".. which I already knew.. that's why I'm in the middle of the room to begin with!!


I think I will choke him next time!!!

Oh.. it's not use telling him that it sounds fine.. .he can't hear me!!

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

One more song won't kill me (not singing won't kill the patron either ) but I listed the "one more song crew" as a job frustration because they tend to ruin the show for others, because their 10 minute rant on why it's not fair, means that I'm delayed in calling up singers and adjusting their sound. All at the end of the night, where it tends to be busier. I don't like saying no, but at the end of the day I have (and so have the other staff running the bar) got a home to go to.

I'll explain in more detail why the "one more song crew" upset me. My short answer to the individual is "I'm really sorry but it's not fair to the other patrons who were in the queue before you, so tonight it won't be possible for you to sing another/sing your first song when you've arrived at the venue fifteen minutes before I close."

The long answer (which I wouldn't even attempt to explain to a customer but other hosts will hopefully see the reasons why the "one more song crew" upset me)....

Where ever possible I try and reach the end or a natural conclusion of rotation, even if it means working on. In ten years I have finished on time twice, except when the bar won't allow me to go over the stated time. Most nights, it's 5-8 minutes later, but on some it's up up 30 minutes later and on average in a week I finish 13 minutes after I should, (not taking into account the venues where I have to finish on the dot). I do this because many of my customers wait patiently during the busy periods and keep the beer money going over the bar during the quiet moments and as a thankyou I am happy to run the show longer so that they get an extra song in.

If a customer has decided that they have to sing with 15minutes left of the show to go, to get back round round to them I will probably have to allow another 4-8 singers to have another go in order to be fair to those waiting patiently. They could have chosen to sing at anytime before, but more often than not the beer has given them the courage to choose now.

In my experience the several times I have run over to accomodate them, they tend to create, either by accident or design more effort than other singers during the hours I should be working.

For example: One woman simply HAD to sing dance with my father in memory of her Dad, 45 minutes after I should have finished she gets to stage and promtly says "I can't do this" puts the mic down and walks off.

I had a large group of people walk in just before close and when I said I would stay on, snatched the microphone, jumped up on other peoples turns and generally complained loudly because initially I had I had told them "I'm sorry but this is the final singer". (I stayed on for them because their complaints were so loud and disruptive, I thought the final singer deserved another go in a more relaxed atmosphere so I asked the manager if I could run on, plus I don't actually enjoy saying no).

This week I had a "one more song", who had to sing - I called him up, he starts his five minute song, gets half way through and then had to change it to another five minute long song.

In all the times I have gone later for accomadate the "one more song crew", I recieved one thankyou - and that was a regular who decided ten minutes to close he wanted to sing a group song with all his mates.

I shouldn't tar everyone with same brush but in ten years I have been burnt many times: my general rule of thumb is, if you are going to stand and demand one more song and try and rationalise with me over why it doesn't hurt whilst delaying other singers and/or disturbing them in your loud voice then no I will not run on unless I was already planning to do so.

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'A genius is one who can do anything except make a living'. Joey Adams.

I tell those who want to leave but remain in the rotation that they are asking to commit a major party foul. "It's not fair to make everyone else listen to you sing if you are not willing to listen to them sing. Nobody is the special guest star of our party. The only good excuse for leaving that would keep you in the rotation is if you are making a short run to pick someone up and bring them back to the party. If you come back alone you drop to the end of the line."

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KNOW THYSELF

I totally understand and agree Marble! That's why I said if you have several people wanting to go one more time and it would extend your show too long, there's no way. But if it means just going 5-10 minutes over to make everyone happy, no big deal. I might have explained that wrong. My English is not perfect

Your english was perfect and your points made throughout the whole original post were valid , I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't complaining about the average singer just the few that hinder your overall performace as a host and the night for others.

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'A genius is one who can do anything except make a living'. Joey Adams.

Well a few that have already been listed but here are a list of thing that have made me SERIOUSLY consider literally choking someone to death with the mic cord.

1. People who are regulars and KNOW for a fact that your show starts at 9pm promptly and ends at 1am but will come at anywhere between 11 --midnight and still expect to sing as much as everyone else has

2. Anyone who tries to put up songs that are over 5 minutes long or like "My Way', 'Picture' and *Joe will back me on this one I think "Paradise By the Dashboard Light"

3. People who don't sing, they just scream into the mic for the whole song


4. Anyone who tries to mess with my equipment, usually someone trying to swing a corded mic.

5. People who come up on stage to sing when it isn't there turn. I always tell these people if they want to sing with that person then they have to ASK first *not that it does any good, I usually have to chase them away anyway*

and these one is just a personal short coming because of my mixing skills but lastly the people who sing too quietly and then I adjust for that, that's when they usually start to sing normally and I have to quickly fix that..

weird I can't seem to made the edit function work, every time I click on one of the scroll bars, all my text disappears.


n e hoo, I just remembered one more.


People who hand in 15 slips of paper when the most they are going to sing is maybe 3 songs with the current rotation i have.

at first i thought it might be because someone wants me to pick out songs for them, so I'll always ask.. But more often than not they'll just say to go in order.. Thanks for wasting all those supplies you *explitive deleted*

-James

Eww ick!

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

I doin't care if they provided they tell me. I will keep them in the rotation & provided they are back before their turn, then they are fine, if they come in after where their turn would've been, then they lose out until the next time their turn would have been in. And the picking up or driving someone home is usually the number 1 reason. If I know they are hitting another bar and expect to come back later, they will have lose their spot entirely - some are actually stupid enough to say just that!

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

Don't mind this UNLESS we have called last call for slips and someone puts something really long up for last song. I'll try to deter them - on occasion told them no if it is going to push me over time. Otherwise MANY songs - especially today are over 5 minutes.


Compressor/limiter!!! Helps on both accounts, not so much the soft singer, but will help limit the signal when they get louder.

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

We go by first come first serve as far as song selection - only once per night. So if you have a bunch of slips thinking you are going to 'reserve' those songs for you, sorry. Whatever is on top is the song you are doing, if someone puts in a song that is underneath your top slip, too bad, it goes to the other person.

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

With regard to leaving, lots of places nowadays you can't tell if they are out smoking or across the street....

As I am sure many of you are sick of hearing, I hate constant long-song submitters. I have removed many of the long song killers from my hard disk (War Pigs, SC8449 Can't You See, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald). I have been known to give a bonus song to someone who puts in two in a row that are less than 3 minutes...

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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.

How could you take Scenes and War pigs off your machine?? Those are both awesome songs. I have no problem with people singing longer songs. If I have it, you can sing it.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

But I don't have it!

I don't mind the occasional long song. But the singers I am talking about do *all* long songs. To the point that it has to be on purpose. And I won't enable them.

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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.

I have marked "TL" (too long) and removed all songs longer than 5 minutes (am considering 4 1/2 min) from from books and hard drive. No one wants to listen to anyone (even a good singer) sing a song that long. Karaoke is not just entertainment for the singer, but for the listener as well. Boredom comes into play sometime after about 4 minutes and having to continue to listen to more of the same can be torture/complacence. We are entertainers not hynotists, and the stage has only so many minutes available in an evening, so why not share it as evenly as possible.