The first karaoke discs were hardly more than raw recordings of amateur bands to supply music for even more amateur singers. They were mastered with minimum effects and most did not even sound like the artists commercial cd’s.  This included the background singers. As karaoke became more and more sophisticated and better singers emerged the major producers used improved techniques to improve the final product.  This included software which improved the recording process (tracking, mixing and mastering) to apply Fx during the mix down which the professionals use. (for a better understanding of different processes discussed here download the manuals using the url's at the end of this post)

 With the advent of cd’s re-mastering and techniques were developed to redo old recordings from an age that was limited by low and high frequency response and most Fx were not even invented yet. These re-mastering techniques can be applied to the older and “cheaper” karaoke discs, either during live shows or actually re-recording and mastering. Some of these methods will be discussed in this post.

 Audio processors such as the Bbe 362 and the Aphex 204 can bring life back into old recordings and also can be used to improve the quality of the karaoke discs that “need” it. The 362 separates the instruments and vocals and “blends” them for a better overall sound. The 104 (with big bottom) increases the bass without needing more power in the pa amp or taxing the bass coils. It can also pull a vocal out of the mud with the proper tweaking of the aural exciter tune and mix adjustments. There are later and more improved procs now but these were the basic pioneers. They are not hard to adjust in fact both can be used with all the controls at 12 o’clock and drastically improve the sound. They need to be properly integrated into a system observing proper gain structure and adjusting according to acoustics. Then old recordings and actually all sound is drastically improved. Thus they are essentially being used during live shows to re-master lesser quality recordings. Contrary to some beliefs they do not detract the quality of good recordings unless they are grossly mal-adjusted. Most professional recording engineers frown on their use in the mastering process but for live recorded .karaoke tracks they are limited only by talent and imagination. These methods ca also be used to re-record and re-master old mp3’s and karaoke cd’s

 Equally important but much more complex is applying Fx to different genres, situations and room acoustics.  The basic system consists of a mixer with onboard Fx and using Fx send and return thru and external such as a Microverb 4. The first step is getting a basic understanding of he different Fx (spring, plate, flange and chorus).  Then lots and lots of practice and experience must be acquired. One way is playing old recordings and different genres through the system and experimenting with different FX If a newer cd is used with Fx applying an effect will not have as much effect if it is already used  So it is possible after experience to determine which Fx were used in the original production. Then a basic idea of which ones are needed at a live show is gradually obtained. The absolute best way is recording an average to good singers’ vocal to a wav file. Then with software such as Cakewalk Home Studio, import the vocal and karaoke mp3 track and experiment with EQ and all the Fx plugins in the mix down process.  Another way is recording at a live show straight out of the mixer with all the effects applied. If they were over applied it is readily apparent when played back later. These techniques are also used when re-recording (playing back through the system and recording into a wav file) and re-mastering.

  One of the oddest aspects of this whole operation is when these techniques are applied and played back through a good system the differences are hard to detect unless the test is with lower volume and no crowd. In the heat of the moment and with crowd noise and acoustics they are sometimes not worth the time and effort. This is live re-mastering that comes with experience in all the above and applies to old mp3's for DJ and  karaoke as well.