Karaoke Forums

The funds to purchase the Karaoke (PA system) are in, just a matter of deposit and confirm. I am leaning very heavily toward the Yamaha EMX512sc-s115V PA Package that Lonman suggested in the earlier link ($1249.99). Mainly because of all of the positive/glowing responses about the mixer and speakers. This leaves $ left over for the CDG's needed for start up. After which I will be looking at the light show system. Which leaves me these questions...

1)   Are there any better choices out there? I realize there are competitors, but
     name recognition is BIG. I honestly hadn't heard of PeaVey until I bought this
     bar. Yamaha is very well known.

2)   Will be needing 2 CDG/CD/DVD  players...need your professional  
     reccomendations here also. Reliability and value are key.

3)   Whats the better start up packages for CDG's?  Essential 450 6 CDG pack?
     I will be scouring ebay/Karaoke sites for cheapie additions to bolster library
     afterwards the inital start up package. Custom CDG's will be added also.
     Name the BAD ones to stay away from...low quality, inferior sound etc.

4)   The Karaoke salesperson said that it is wise to use a 2 light (Chauvet) setup
     with a timer because of the extreme heat that these lights put out. Have them
     on a 15 minute timer, one works 15 minutes while the other cools etc. It
     sounded logical to me. Comments? The lights are for later, just thought I'd
     mention the idea now. I really liked the Chauvet Mini line Dancer/Mini Sphere
     and the American-DJ-MiniGressor. These lights looked ideal for my purpose.
     Anyone with these systems in use now? Are you using timers?

That's it for now. As always thanks for the inputs beforehand. I will read and heed. Your opinions are much appreciated.

                                                                         bigjim56

1. Yes there ar other choices, but if you want to stick with NAME you will have to pay the price for the name.

2. Yes 2 will be needed, along with a video switch if you are switching back and for between the 2.  I used JVC brands for cdg player (have now switched to a laptop).  I never did like using a DVD player, the seek time to start a song was way to long as compared to a deciated CDG player.

3. Stick with Sound Choice or Chartbuster when getting your startup packs.  Just choose the ones you think your patrons will like the most.  I (actually the wife) started out with the Chartbuster Essential Series.

4. Lighting, now that is a complicated one.  One thing to rember is mix it up, don't just have all colored lights, have some white light too.
If I were setting up a bar dance floor ecnomically on the chauvet brand.....
line dancer
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixtures ... _fix.shtml

mushroom
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixtures ... _fix.shtml

Mirror ball and 4 pin spots (2 white, and 2 colored controled seprately)
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixture_ ... alls.shtml

Starburst (2 sets, that's 8 heads controled seperatly)
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixtures ... _fix.shtml

STROBES
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixture_ ... obes.shtml

some par cans to light up the "stage"
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixture_ ... cans.shtml

and an controler to run the lights
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixtures ... _fix.shtml

Now the advice they guy gave you was correct, but could be better.  Yes the lights have a cycle time like he stated.  They can only be ran for so long that have a cool off period, and it varies by light design.  But instead of buying 2 of each unit for say a total of 8 units, just buy 8 diferent units, and switch it up a bit.  That gives you a more light fx for about the same price.

Now you could also go with digital controls, if you wanted to get fancy.

Also on lights, never have bright flashing type lights that aim at your singer, these are designed for the dance floor, regular par can type lights are better suited for staging areas.

_________________
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Stay away from anything that seems too inexpensive. Quality costs, but doesn't have to cost TOO much. Stay away from Sweet GA Brown, Backstage, Hot Stuff, Nikkudo, etc.

A few good bargins in the set category are DANGEROUS, which contains alot of good rock songs that no one else seems to make, and SUPERCORE, which has really good oldies. I would grab those sets off of Ebay. The Dangerous set should be about $40 and the SuperCore set shouldn't be any more than $80.

I would also buy all of the DKG Encore disks karaoke.com currently has on sale for $2.50 each. For the quality, you can't go wrong with these older discs to fill out a base set.

I would also buy all of the Sing It Now discs off the same page. They are better than average quality and for $2.50 each will give you a good start on newer music:

http://www.karaoke.com/cgi-bin/WebObjec ... .0.1.0.2.1

So all that so far will run you about $250 and is a good random assortment of older and newer stuff. Now you need a real CORE set. For the $$$, the Chartbuster Essential 450 sets are going to be better than average across the board and superior for their country genres. Like I said in the other post, though, for pro use DO NOT get the 6 disc DVD set, as it has a menu that takes time to navigate and will slow down your load time SIGNIFICANTLY in a pro show. The CDG version of the same sets are 30 discs and cost about $90 more. I use the Essential 1-3 sets as my main base set and 99% of the versions are really solid if not really good. You can get the Essential 450 CDG sets on EBay for around $200 each.


So, that will give you about 2000 songs to start out with for about $850, with a good mix of old and new. That is about the best budget to quality recommendation I can give you.

From there, you can fill in individual artists that you seem to be lacking with the LEGENDS series, which are currently on sale for $10 each on karaoke.com for 10-15 songs from individual artists and usually sound pretty good.

You'll also find that the best discs out there are the SOUND CHOICE discs, and some of your patrons will settle for no less, so always be looking for good deals on bulk SC sets on EBay as well!! These guys offer a pretty good deal for filler-type older stuff that would actually make a great compliment for your BASE set:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sound-Choice-Karaok ... dZViewItem

I am also very partial to the BIG HITZ series when I am updating my books, as they are usually under $15, have the newest songs before everyone but the monthly services, and sound really good.

Chartbuster also releases a series of update CDGs every late January to early February that has the top male and female hits from the previous year for about $60-80 for each set of about 45 songs. This is a very cost-effective way to update your selection yearly with quality versions.

Good luck!!

_________________
C Mc
KJ, FL