Karaoke Forums

why do some songs come with video background scenes?

are these usually good or should I just stick with lyrics?

cleansed "the newbie"

I have 3 sets of the Pioneer laser discs. 99.9% of their songs are musically perfect. I am putting mine on a hard drive as we speak. I use their versions above all of the others. My first set cost me $110 dollars for each disc. They are, in my opinion the best musically produced discs. Another benefit is crowd noise. We are a TV driven society. If the tv is on, even if it's just the test patern we will keep our eyes glued to it so we don't miss anything. Ever done scary karaoke? The crowd noise increases. Nothing to watch. Put in a CD+G the crowd noise gets smaller. Put in a laser disc and the noise is even lower. TV society thing. The non singers are being kept entertained by the video, so they shut up.  I love them. I have been waiting for technology to catch up to me. I won't switch to a laptop until I can use the lasers. That will be happening this year. If you have a good ear you will see what I'm talking about. There are some Pioneer songs I won't use because they screwed them up. The number is very small.

Most of the videos I see behind the lyrics are kiddish or out of date.
I can run any video behind the words I want, but I usually turn this feature off because most people complain they can't read the lyrics as well.

I don't think video has anything to do with the quality of song.

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The videos were generally from the laserdisc era of karaoke - the original PIoneer were pretty good, although you can't get them anymore.  Some have put videos on the VCD & DVD but these are not as common in the industry anymore.  CDG's are pretty much the standard at this time, no videos, just words - Sound Choice are generally the best quality for the most part for all genres.

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The video has nothing to do with the sound quality.    It will lower the crowd noise while they watch them.    I mentioned Pioneer lasers because musically speaking they are a very high quality.   Very professionally produced musically.     I have 2000 laser songs and they are they number listed in my song book over all the other choices for a particular song.

Where do you purchase Pioneer discs you are mentioning?

You don't, they are pretty much out of the game.  You MAY be able to find some used ones like off of e-bay.

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www.karaokewow.com or www.karaokecenter.com both have limited supplies available of new unopened laser discs from various manufacurers including pioneer, megadisc and sunfly. But those are LIMITED assortments and most are out of print and not available anymore. You may also find some here and there on ebay.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

But a question should be does he HAVE a laserdisc player or just a cdg player.  Laserdiscs won't do him any good if he don't have the player.

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When they first came out Pioneer had a package deal that they sold.   A machine and 10 Discs.    Their player only played laser discs no other format.  They wouldn't split them.    I bought about every one they made.   During this time CD+Gs started to take off.   Now Pioneer who didn't want their machine to be used by any other format jumped on the bandwagon and made machines that played lasers and CD+Gs.   They made their own CD+Gs.    Then the next big thing was going to be DVDs.   DVDs were supposed to last forever and be bigger than GOD.    They thought that every singing artist would produce a video to go with each song on their albums.   The beginning of MTV started that.   They quickly found out that they didn't want to spend that kind of money on "B" side songs that would never make the charts.   So DVD never became as popular as they thought.    None the less Pioneer before all of this, announced that they were going to turn all of their laser discs into DVDs.    They started and everyone got real excited about that and changed over to DVD players.     Pioneer made about 25 DVDs and stopped making them.   So everyone that started to convert to Pioneer DVDs got screwed.   They only made about 1/3 of the lasers into DVDs.   Yes they have been on Ebay for around $15.   You need a special machine.  Laser discs are 12 inches across.    But they were and are musically superb.   Ask around, see if you can find anyone that has any.   You owe it to yourself to hear them.

Well that is still in the "ear" of the beholder, many that learned from cdg version can't stand the Pioneer versions - it's all in what you learn & hear first, hell I know some that prefer Backstage crap over ANY other brand because it's what they knew first.  I prefer many of the Pioneer versions over any cdg - mainly because i'm used to them as well, but some of their versions stunk - albeit not many.

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I bought a set of video cd's back when I was KJ'ing from Karaoke.com.  These weren't called CDG's but they played in a regular Karaoke player.   I haven't seen many of these around.  I wouldn't mind finding some more of these.

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SAY IT WITH MUSIC!!!!

VCD is the only karaoke format here and is most Asian countries. DVD will come soon. CDG......... what?

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

VCD is what those were that I bought......they had video behind the words.  But now just about all you can find is the CDG's where it just has the music and words.  I've recently tried to find a certain VCD that has the song..."On The Wings Of A Silver Bird" by Engelbert Humperdinck but have been unable to find it on any of the Karaoke sites.   I found the DVD but it also comes in VCD format.

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SAY IT WITH MUSIC!!!!

BRAND NEW laser machines are VERY EXPENSIVE upwards of 8-900$ the Pioneer DVL 888 comes to mind. He may be able to find working used ones on ebay for around 100$.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

I base my love of the Pioneer Laser Discs on how close they sound to the originally played song on the radio.   They are very, very close.    Many people never know it's not the original song.  Listen to some of the Beatles songs.    They got'em right.     Just because someone learns to sing a song on a different company's version doesn't mean it sounds like the radio version.    Kinda like a copy cat bands.   Some are very good and others suck.    They spared no expense on excellent studio musicians.   I guess I'm a stickler for authenticity.    I only list one version of each song in my books.    I don't have to add every version to pretend I have a big library.   I list the one that sounds the closest to the one on the radio.    That is the one everyone hears and learns to sing.   Why would you list all of the crappy versions.    I have heard songs that I couldn't recognise, they sucked so bad.

I agree about the pioneer laser versions. They are the best. The other best is Soundchioice of course. But there are certaine songs/versions that the one has that the other doesnt. Pioneers version of Summertime and Moondance come to mind. Simply the best versions of those.

Other brands have certain other versions or songs taht are not availabel on other lables. For instance I always prefer the Georgia Brown version of Zoot Suit Riot--it has a grittier, grimier feel to it than the original--and I prefer to sing THAT version of it. If someone doenst have that version I will still sing it ---But I will always CHOOSE the SGB version of Zoot suit for just that reason.  Its all what you prefer and what you learned on. So in that regard, no one brand is any better than the other---its all up to personal preference.

But if I were to pick the "BEST" it would have to be Pioneer lasers and Soundchoice.

And of course the laser videos are always amusing!

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Don't get me wrong, I like most of the Pioneer library personally.  However there ARE people out there that disagree that these songs even remotley sound like the original & like version like DK or Sound Choice or even lesser brands.  It's all what most people got used to first.  1 example I had was I Hate Myself For Loving You - Joan Jett - the only version at the time I got it was on BMB/Nikkodo, had this version for almost a year before Sound Choice put it out - a VERY superior version, when I switched it out in the book for the new version (SC) everyone that normally sang it complained & wanted the crap version over the good version.  Which is why alot of companies list all versions they have for the simple reason some people like different versions simply because it's what they are used to.

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I've enjoyed singing some of the Original Footage Karaoke VCD series which the KJ at the bars I go to has a few of.  Mainly because they all seem to be in the same key as the original version so I don't get a surprise and find I can't make the notes.

Are any of the Pioneer sets for sale?  I hear it is very hard to come across them.