Karaoke Forums

Yes, you like your version. But read the OP above again, this is about people who make a stink about not having their version, and interfering with the flow to reiterate their frustration. I know (or at least hope) that fellow KJs would understand, and pick another song.
It hurts when they say "But the dj up the street has it", however I love to counter that with... "Ya, but I pay for my karaoke, he doesn't".
That is often followed by a detailed story about piracy, and how it's affecting Karaoke.
Also, that if they want to continue to sing all the Party In The USAs and Call Me Maybes, they'd benefit from supporting legal karaoke in their area.

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If you're going to eat my mic, do you at least want some condiments?

[quote="michaeldiapers"][quote="
, but if you think of it, Us KJs who do sing, are being paid to sing, and seeing that this is all I do now, it's my profession, so by definition I'm a a professional Singer/host/soundman. [/quote

I buy my drinks, and food to pay for me to sing, as do the vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast majority of singers for them to sing. Customers that don't sing, pay to laugh at, and occasionally enjoy a fellow customer........for the vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast majority of us......we do not pay to hear the KJ sing......lmao......

Hey! I didn't say that. The other guy did. I've been mis quoted.

It seems that MANY KJs want singers who don't go to karaoke very often and sing at karaoke as more of a comedy open mic night. They don't seem to care for the singers who practice their favorite songs in the car and in their homes so they can give a really good performance on their one or two karaoke nights out on the town each week. They seem to prefer singers who don't care if their libraries are made up of Sound Choice tracks or Standing Ovation tracks. After all, it's just karaoke. "You divas shouldn't take it so seriously". They especially seem to dislike the singers who sing just a little bit better than the KJ himself....unless you happen to be a pretty lady. Then he becomes flirtatious and wants to sing duets with all of the gals all night as well as singing when it's his turn as well. Apparently, it's just fine and dandy for the KJ to show off his natural ability to sing but if a customer wants to do exactly that; he or she is now a water sipping diva. It's frickin' hilarious.

I have 2 "bar" systems 1 system has over 700 sc the other has a Gem + about 90 other sc disks both have full sets of dk, pioneer, top/pop hits going back to 1995, about 800 cb, dangerous , all hits, sav, nutech + some pocket, legends, mm, sunfly etc. If someone like Cueball comes in as a regular and wants a specific version of a broadway or other "fringe"song I would try to accomodate him. However, if they bitched because I have 4 versions of a song and none is SGB I would say sorry and leave it at that.

If I was runnig a show and someone wanted to sing a song fromn one of their own SGB discs instead of singing the song from My Sound Choice disc; I would be more than happy to play their disc.

The customer is always right.

I wouldn't have an issue with a sgb disc. Just Burns and zip drive.

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

having sat down and cracked my share of karaoke discs, that I was carrying in my back pockets, in the past; I guess I would be more understanding of people trying to protect their originals by carrying aound copies and or songs on a zip drive. Hurrican Sandy flooded my entire basement and I threw away countless hundreds of karaoke discs. The book binders were all slimy and I had all of my discs ripped to a hard drive. I don't plan on doing any shows so my back up hard drive is easier for me to maintain than sitting there for hours, maybe days, trying to clean up a dozen books of karaoke CDs. It was just easier to throw them all in the trash with all of the clothes and appliances that were also ruined. I don't think FEMA covers CDGs. It would be great publicity for Sound Choice though to file a law suit against a KJ who lost all of his original discs in a hurricane. Thank God it's just a hobby for me and I don't have to worry about being caught for using my back ups in my living room.

I will play customer's professionally made discs, but what I WON'T do is play their 'homemade' versions. The reason is simple, and very practical. In most cases the audio sucks. It may sound good on your stereo at home or in you headphones, but one of two things has happened to get this audio... its the actual tracks with the vocals supressed.. which always sounds horrid through a PA system, or, its a low bit rate midi burn off of YouTube or some other source.

The other folks listening don't know that that crappy sounding track is, they think its me! . So no "homemades" sorry.

Now, to the original post, i usually only carry ONE version of the song, especially the newer titles. Sorry, I don't even list manu's in my book. If I have SC, I'll play it.. I usually try to take the manu selection out of the customer's hands, UNLESS they request a particular version... because, if they know, they'll ask, if they don't know... which is most people, then who cares? As the KJ who knows your library better than you?

Now many on this forum will consider this 'sacrilege', but too bad. I've been doing it this way for years now and it works. My customers love how easy it is to put in a song. They just come up and ask.... done. Sorry, i'm one of those people that doesn't use song slips: "This is a 100% green karaoke show, no song slips required! You tell me the name of the song, and I'll get you up here to sing it!"

Now, I do get folks like those you discussed too, and I say simply, "I don't have a bunch of different versions of songs. I'll put up the best version I have, and mix you well, and make you sound good, fair enough?" Be kind, friendly, don't get defensive and use my people skills.

That works for 95% of people. I do have the snobs, that MUST have THEIR version... but usually, it goes well.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Wow! You assume an awful lot. I especially like the part about you running a GREEN Karaoke show being the reason you don't use slips or books. Anyone else see a red flag here?

I wouldn't think anything odd, it's easier just to put them in the system. If I'm running a busy show, I don't have time to stack, arrange, search for slips. Good Gracious. As for books, nope, too expensive because they get trashed and are out of date every time you get new music. Songbooklive.com right on the smart phone. It's called 2012.

Or you run a kiosk like me. No slips, no books to update, plus the ability to add your songs yourself. Sorry but it has no option for outside music.

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

I tried songbooklive.com and I got some band's site.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Most things are backwards compatible in the computer world. When you update your computer system to run a karaoke show, you should still have the capabilty to play a customer's disc. It's not like they're aren't software programs out there that allow this to happen. I would think that a competitor could use his abilty to play customer's discs to steal a show from someone who refuses to do so. If a bar owner thought that he was losing customers because of it; he might decide to go with a different KJ. Amazing how so many KJs have such an inferiority complex when it comes to playing outside music but this is the first time someone has said that they won't play a home made track because the sound quality isn't up to par. What will they think of next? What I find really funny is that the same KJ who will refuse to let me sing from a home made disc will play a track from a Sound Images disc or a Nutech disc. I usually buy my backing tracks from Amazon, I-tunes or karaokeversion.com and they sound as good as any other karaoke brands out there. The I-tunes country stuff is usually made by All Star Karaoke and there are many people on this forum who buy downloads from Karaoke version and swear by them. I can't help but come to the conclusion that some KJs just don't want to give their customers what they want. They only want to give their customers what they just happen to have.

There you go, assuming again. I, for one, have a JVC player that sits under my laptop. I play my discs on that and my files from the laptop. I don't refuse to play customer discs, unless they are burns, as I have said before. My music is all paid for, how do I know that a customer's music, that is on a CDR is paid for?? He could have pirated it. Why am I going to play pirated music for that person?? I actually haven't come across anyone who created their own karaoke music. I probably would play it. I will let you know what I did when that situation arises.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

My last post wasn't really directed towards you but thanks for responding. At least your opening your mind up to thinking that there is no threat in playing a homemade track.

You never know who you might have in your audience. A buddy of mine had the lead singer of Ratt in his audience one time. I refuse to take the chance that a music producer might be in the audience and because he heard "Trapped" played with someone other than the original artist singing the lead vocals on what he knows is karaoke night and says to himself "I know this isn't out on karaoke." sees I'm running a computer and assumes it's my track and sues me. Sorry ain't gonna happen.

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

Interesting thoughts and do's and dont's. I must say my OP is not about being a KJ that doesnt care, thinks better of themselves towards guest etc. OR that guest should like what I have and deal with it. My point is, it is impossible to have every song out there, let alone every manu for each version. People that come to our shows can clearly see that I am passionate about Karaoke, love what I do and put forth tons off effort to provide the best show I can. As far as singers?? Sure, we have many very talented people come to ours shows, many of which are in bands, have been on t.v. try outs etc. I welcome talent and 80% of them can sing MUCH better than me .
I just can't stand when someone HAS to have the exact version of music or refuses to just leave and make a stink so others can see.

To all these things I'd just add it wouldn't hurt to let the singers know that there are at least occasionally times when Sound Choice definitely is NOT the best version available and it might be worth their while to give your version a try.

I just picked up a Pioneer Disc on clearance for all of $5 the other day and made the serendipitous discovery that the Pioneer version of Christopher Cross's "Sailing" just plain kicked Sound Choice's butt - especially in the intro where the Pioneer version used a real string section vs a very cheesy synthesized version on the Sound Choice.

I'd bought the disc to accommodate a singer looking for a Roberta Flack song I didn't have and what a delight to find that not only was the requested track quite good, but that there were several other very usable tracks I didn't have...

What if you're like me, and you only have a dumb phone?