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I'm really gonna put the cat among the pigeons with this post! I recently bought a Honky Cat disc and I must say I'm rather chuffed with it. I'm a sucker for the obscure songs anyway, and the music they put out seems to be more my taste that what Pop Hits Monthly have been offering for a while.

I was pleasantly surprised mostly due to the fact that a search of this here Forum yielded very little about the brand, apart from pungent damning reports (mostly from Mr. Lonman ) so I just had to check it out for myself. Sure, it's low end MIDI and some of the rock tracks suck as do ones that rely heavily on backup vocals, but in my honest opinion, even the greatest howlers are no worse than some of the bile Sunfly put out in their early days, or some Music Maestro, Priddis or Starmaker. I for one am looking forward to singing from my Honky Cat disc, and I reckon on a decent system with just the right amount of reverb, and in a venue with good acoustics, it will sound pretty good. Maybe I feel this way because I had a Casio toy keyboard as a kid and got years of fun out of it!

By the way, click here for a really good recording using a Honky Cat track.

And finally, this is especially for Lonnie...



(Runs for cover from the angry mob that are coming to tear me limb from limb for my impertinence at posting such a confounded thread)

< yeah I paid the money (like a sucker), I will not even list them in my books. Even those songs that were never made by quality companies - aren't worth putting in the crap sound that these produce.

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You really hate them don't you Lon?

Believe it or not I sang a song off that disc last night and it sounded really good (apart from my caterwauling over it!), probably because the KJ was using a very nice set of equipment. This cements further my view that even the worst karaoke track can sound alright on a decent system with the right settings. I once sang along to this truly dreadful quality backing track and was astounded at how well it sounded over the KJ's system - the extra reverb and bass undoubtedly helped. And I rate all the tracks on my Honky Cat disc as better quality than this.
It's all subjective of course, like any opinion. $22 a bit steep perhaps.

With all due respect, if you can call that backing track of ruby baby 'really good' then you must have damaged your hearing from playing the music too loud.

All due respect to you too, allow me to repeat my earlier statement...And my opinion is that track does sound really good and Kurt rocked on it. I am aware there aren't many people on here who will agree with me.
I think my hearing is sound, the music isn't too loud anyway. Of course, I can only based that on my own hearing, and if I had damaged it I wouldn't know any better and that would be my answer anyway!

point taken. After thinking about it, I feel as if I overstepped the bounds of good form when I expressed my opinion the way i did. For that, i would like to apologize.

However, i still stand by my opinion on the actual track.. I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

cheers

-James

I have not heard one useable song - including the ones that weren't made anywhere else and bad enough that they are not even worth listing in my books - I did put them in once & took them out shortly after when I got complaints from people singing them stating it doesn't sound like the original or they couldn't follow along (which I agreed). Nope, even at $22, that's too much . Yes I really hate midified $59 Casio keyboard recordings. Which includes that Music Maestro link you put up a bit ago. That was not a good recording, didn't even sound like real instruments.

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@JClaydon - No hard feelings. I don't subscribe to your view of the track, but respect that it is your view. This would be a pretty dull Forum if we all agreed with each other!

@lonman - Now you've explained it all sounds far more reasonable. That's a different kettle of fish entirely if you pulled them due to complaints from your singers. But hypothetically, and purely out of interest, if you were to get a singer who knew of any "ex-directory" tracks you may have and were set on these versions, would you be able/prepared to accommodate them?
As you correctly state, the MM track I linked to sounds dire normally (worse than Honky Cat), the drums in particular are piss poor. Bad MIDI. So imagine my surprise when I got up to sing to it at a live show and the quality was good. I had only gone for the MM over the (arguably better quality and closer to the original) Sunfly version because I preferred the subtle arrangement change to feature more organ in the MM.
By the way, I would advise you to stay away from Kwizoke, you'd hate it. All MIDI, no backing vocals. Some songs are really good but a good many are terrible. Although their "Maggie May" is abridged. Small mercies.

I pulled them out of the book and my computer, so no I don't even carry them anymore. The original discs I tossed in the garbage - no point and no resale value. Can't go from consistently using tracks with real instruments (or primarily real - a drum machine I don't count as not real as they still sample real drums) to something that sounds like it was originally designed to be a ringtone for a late 90's cell phone.

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I too have the Honky Cat set. Disc #1 is absoulute synthed out garbage. Dont bother even listening to it....just toss it out.

As to the other discs....I go the set because they are the only brand that produced cuts off the Donald Fagen NIGHTFLY record, Steely Dan's TWO AGAINST NATURE CD, and several other older Steely Dan cuts that dont appear on RadioStarzz Steely Dan comp disc or other brand discs.

For me it is the unique Steely Dan/Fagen assorment. I have no interest in the other stuff on HK CDG's.

Ive recorded and posted a bunch of Fagen/Steely Dan tunes from HCAT on Singer's Showcase. Ive found both the sound quality and performances to be more than accurate representations of those artists tunes....certainly equal to RadioStarzz(which I have recorded off of and posted to SS also).

Ive only spent time listening/singing to the Steely Dan/Fagen cuts...so have no opinion on the others.

But for my uses and listening....they are more than a match than other brand Steely Dan/Fagen CDG songs.

And I have in fact sang from one at Lonnie's Show---Steely Dan "What a Shame About Me", and you can only imagine the look of STENCH Lonnie made when I handed the disc to him and made him TOUCH IT!! HAHAHAHAH!!! PRICELESS!!

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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

Tee hee..... I still would play it if you bring it, no I won't like it

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You're just TOO FUSSY!!

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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 purchased a Radio Starz disc recently (same time as the Honky Cat one in fact) and although it is my only experience with the brand, I think the tracks are VERY good. That reminds me, I've been meaning to put some of them on the Showcase.

II have severaal radiostarzz comp discs in my library..steelly dan, pearl.jam, several other...excellent additions

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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

Radio Starz are on the lines with Pop Hits Monthly (if I recall they made them - could be thinking of something else) - I have several myself that get used often. 100% better music quality than Honky Cat.

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Something we can both agree on.