My new set-up

My karaoke add on is almost finished........

I've used the great help and advice on this forum to get it all up and running!!

First night out is tonight!!!!

Thanks to all who post the great info in this forum!!!

My karaoke add on is almost finished........

I've used the great help and advice on this forum to get it all up and running!!

First night out is tonight!!!!

Thanks to all who post the great info in this forum!!!

Good luck.... break a microphone!!!!

I'd say break a leg but I don't want to wish bodily harm to another ODJT poster.

Pics!! We demand pics!!

Pics!! We demand pics!!

+1 :sqwink::sqwink:

Go get 'em, PP! Then come back and tell us about it, AND the setup...:sqcool:

Sorry, no pics yet.....

It's pretty basic set-up. My 'puter, Numark Cue (Virtual DJ)
I bought a 15' flat screen for the singers monitor.

It is a client of my partners, 2 story bar, current music on main floor,
"Retro 70's 80's 90's" upstairs (this is where i was working)

Ran a few SM58's through my small mixer, patched in to the house system.

Not a totally ideal set-up.....Needs some rack gear..Verb & a bit of delay to really make the vocals great...(and talented singers)

The house rig is EAW tops, and EV subs powered by QSC rmx 4050's and 5050's on the subs.....Sounds great!

It's a new thing at this club, so it's in the building stage...Still growing in attendance..
I'll get some pic's this week wednesday for you.

I'm sorry to say but you sound like a schizophrenic. Are you a DJ or a KJ?

I have Cue (Numark gave it to me free as a part of the general ass kissing the worlds greatest KJ gets) From a DJ perspective, it's a nice toy. Play a song on the red deck, load a song on the blue deck, press play on the blue deck, hit sync. Quoting Jello Biafra YAWN, YAWN, YAWN.

Go download winamp, install autokdj and if you need help come talk to me or JW in IRC. We hang out in #karaoke or #autokdj on efnet. Cue has no rotation capabilities to speak of. Nothing about it is customer/singer oriented in the slightest. Or you can wait a year or two for those scumbags to steal our software design (I bet they name it Numark Kue)

If you don't do these thing, me and JW are gonna talk mad **** about you in chat. So in the *LEAST* you better come lurk in the room just to see if we're talking about you.

If you're worried about how smooth it runs, click here (http://www.7bamboo.com/ravaplayer/index.html)and watch for a few songs. Alternatively you might want to check the archive video. (http://uncutvideo.aol.com/users/sevenbamboovideo) Dig a few months back in the archive, we got some camera angles there that are directly over the frontend kiosk systems.

Precision I covet the science of karaoke. I don't want to turn this into a bashing match because it sounds like you have an awesome venue, and I would love to see you run your karaoke so ass kickingly well, that you leave any ideas or preconcieved notions you might have learned from the DJ world behind.

You need to realize karaoke customers are a emo/ego bunch. Sure, you can buy fancy equipment, sm58's, try to beatmatch between songs, but let me tell you the #1 question karaoke singers ask.

"When am I up?"

Without a logical, straight answer to this, they will dwell on thoughts like "I think the KJ hates me" or "The KJ is playing favorites with those people over there" Proper karaoke software (like autokdj) lets you eliminate these questions with several methods of delivering the playlist either on the CDG screen itself, or on other monitors around the club.

The second most asked question in karaoke is.

"When am I up?"

Do they care about beatmatching? Do they care about having you announce thier turn like some cheesy monster truck ralley announcer? No, and No on both counts. They want to be up there ASAP.

Whitespace in between the 10-15 minutes between karaoke songs doesn't have to be a killer either. Remember earlier how I said I have Cue? I also have a Napster subscription. Get a Napster subscription, and search albums for "House Family Vol". Grab House Family Vol 1-14 and load those into cue. There ya go, some high energy music for the small amount of in between time when autokdj moves to the next karaoke song.

Oh wait.. One last commonly asked question in karaoke.

"Why are you (the kj)singing when I haven't gotten to sing yet?"

Don't bother singing. Sure it's fine if it's a group of your regulars wanting you to join in on a group song at the end of the night, or if you're there early (empty bar) and you just want to tune things up a bit, but otherwise don't put yourself in a situation where you have to defend against this. You'll never win.

Again precision, i'll be the only guy who's gonna tell you straight up what you're doing wrong because I don't give a rats ass about "OOH REP POWAH" My only motivation here is I think it's cool when folks use our stuff. I think it's double awesome when I hear a place is succeeding because of our stuff. Being that the autokdj team is a bunch of karaoke addicts, we like having our ego's stroked once in a while too.

With all that being said, good luck, godspeed, and me and JW hope to see you in chat soon.

Dang that toqer is a windbag ain't he.... just kidding buddy! :sqwink:

He's right though.... while VDJ does do karaoke it doesn't do rotations.... and neither do some of the karaoke centric softwares... not even as close to as good as AutOKdj, trust me and him on this.... I tested them all....

Best of all it wont cost you a dime to try it and or become a believer...

Young Jedi you must let your mind go free and allow the all seeing PC eye take control of your conscience self. Use the AutOK, P.

Wow......Holy crap guys.....

O.k. maybe you guys are SORTA right...
I'll be the first to admit it....I'm not a true KJ.

I don't try to beat mix between songs or any of that crap.
I've done a ton of live sound mixing, so i do know how to make vocals sound as good as possible......

This place, and what you have going on Toqer, Are worlds apart.
I'm not stupid, But with a bit of common sense, I made everything work just fine. Like i said, There were only a handfull of singers...

Toqer is the karaoke master...no doubt about it.
But gimme a little bit of credit here, I'm mainly helping out my partner..(His Show) I really wanted nothing to do with karaoke, Because i suck at singing.
But...I have the chops to do a good job at this, if i put my mind to it.

I bought a disc collection from some hack that was going out of business,
So..I will test the waters a bit....

With enough interest....I may just have to try out your masterpiece.

I'm just going to try to make them sound better than they really are......

I'm just going to try to make them sound better than they really are......

Think you mighta bitten off more than you can handle? lol
Good luck!! Remember, in SR, it's our job to make them louder, not better. Not a lot you can do there but muddy things up a bit.

I disagree. There is a LOT you can do to make a person sound better if you know a little bit about sound.

I've seen Toqer take a really crappy singer and make them sound ten times better. Mind you it was still pretty bad, but at least it sounded better than before.

The trick is to know your singer. If they are a screamer, use a limiting gate.

If they aren't loud enough, use a vocal enhancer plugin.

You can also use an equalizer to fatten up the various high and low ends, depending on wether the singer is male or female.

I have also used a 'harmonizer'/track doubler to fatten up weak vocals.

All it takes is a good ear and a lot of practice.

With the way technology is today, you can have the equivalent of an entire professional recording studio on your pc for less than $1000.

-James

Yah sorry precision, didn't mean to come across as busting your chops, but you should give autokdj a shot. It's free, it's all nice and winampy, and you can still use Cue for your filler music running alongside it.

JC thanks for the kind words BUT...

I may be the devil, but i'm not Jesus. I can't perform miracles if someone is waving the mic around like a turd chucking ape. Here's my basic rule of thumb with singers...

If I see you using a mic properly, i'll tweak a few knobs to get you sounding better. Might be reverb, some delay, maybe a little EQ'ing and mic gain.

If you're an ape i'm going to cut your gain and run away before you fling poop at me.

you dont want a 53 foot trailered Semi tracking you down in them backwoods of AB.:sqwink:I disagree. There is a LOT you can do to make a person sound better if you know a little bit about sound.

I've seen Toqer take a really crappy singer and make them sound ten times better. Mind you it was still pretty bad, but at least it sounded better than before.

The trick is to know your singer. If they are a screamer, use a limiting gate.

If they aren't loud enough, use a vocal enhancer plugin.

You can also use an equalizer to fatten up the various high and low ends, depending on wether the singer is male or female.

I have also used a 'harmonizer'/track doubler to fatten up weak vocals.

All it takes is a good ear and a lot of practice.

With the way technology is today, you can have the equivalent of an entire professional recording studio on your pc for less than $1000.

-James

I like to set up a female mic and a male mic (tenors get the female mic). That gives me an eq starting point for singers I don't know.

Also, I hate karaoke shows where everyone sounds the same because the KJ layers on the "large hall" reverb. Give me a break. I use a small hall or plate for most singers and songs, unless I know it is a singer or song that benefits from the heavy reverb.

I like to set up a female mic and a male mic (tenors get the female mic). That gives me an eq starting point for singers I don't know.

Also, I hate karaoke shows where everyone sounds the same because the KJ layers on the "large hall" reverb. Give me a break. I use a small hall or plate for most singers and songs, unless I know it is a singer or song that benefits from the heavy reverb.




Good thoughts on both! PP, you know Toqer and I run different sorts of shows. He runs at a faster pace, and has to because of his rotation and type of venue.

Since you DON'T have to, than you may want to consider a few things. In a large, fast paced rotation, "when am I up?" may well be the most asked question, but not in more relaxed atmospheres. In these venues, it has been my experience that a) singers pay attention to how they sound, and b) so does the audience. Handling this well WILL BUILD your crowd. SM-58s are fine, but however you do it, it is important to have the ability and skills to mix vocals correctly. Not just reverb and delay, but understanding and mixing for the full gamut of vocal ranges. It may be a good idea to use an inexpensive mic effects mixer to help those less gifted singers sound good- and not telling them about it.

To build a crowd of regulars ( and I've built several) means keeping non-singers entertained as well, and they don't want to sit and listen to crappy vocals . From the singers' side, no one want to hear themselves or their friends tell them they sound bad. These mixing skills are a must.


Also, Toq is right when he says the singers have egos ( not all, but many). Thus, sometimes taking a little extra time ( which you can do at this point) to make them feel like stars is important. How? Give them just a few to enjoy the applause before calling your next singer. Give them a decent intro. Personalize it. Make every karaoke night special.

Then, if you get up to a billion singers screaming "me next!", you might switch to a speed based format, and be successful there too!

Thanks Joe.

I have some T.C. Electronics stuff in my S/R rack that would work wonders,
But,this isn't MY show.....

But i have told my partner that he needs some gear to make it a better time for all involved.
I'm not about to half-ass anything with my name on it.

If i would happen to get my own shows....It will be a different story.

Yah sorry precision, didn't mean to come across as busting your chops, but you should give autokdj a shot. It's free, it's all nice and winampy, and you can still use Cue for your filler music running alongside it.

JC thanks for the kind words BUT...

I may be the devil, but i'm not Jesus. I can't perform miracles if someone is waving the mic around like a turd chucking ape. Here's my basic rule of thumb with singers...

If I see you using a mic properly, i'll tweak a few knobs to get you sounding better. Might be reverb, some delay, maybe a little EQ'ing and mic gain.

If you're an ape i'm going to cut your gain and run away before you fling poop at me.


I never said you were Jesus, I've just watched a lot of your video feeds, and I just call it as I see/hear it. I've re-watched some of your really early broadcasts and just the fact that you upgraded to a better sound card has made a VAST difference..Then there are all the little things you've learned with reaper, believe me you can hear the difference.. :)

Of course if the person doesn't know how to use a mic properly and is acting 'apeish' there is nothing you can do.

My point was it's not that hard to make the majority of singers sound BETTER *not amazing, just better*

-James