Karaoke Forums

I hate to be rude, but if you're just going to use a 'karaoke mixer', then why not just plug the mics straight into the player, it'd be about the same difference. I've yet to see a 'karaoke mixer' give better results than a standard mixing board.

James

_________________
I serve no man and am loyal to only one God.

Being critical of a person's success in any respect speaks volumes about the lack of your own.

Love as though you've never been hurt, Dance as though no one's watching, Sing as though God Himself were listening.

As the owner of the VocoPro KJ3000 karaoke mixer, I would have to disagree. For the $119 I paid for it (on sale), it gave me what I needed:

1. Input adjustment for mic bass/treble on two channels
2. Independent mike trim on two channels
3. Connect up to four mics
4. Routing of video for CD changer and PC inputs
5. Four basic canned effects for vocals, all of which are pretty good
6. Tunable echo/reverb for some custom effects
7. Key changer

I have moved on and now have a Behringer PMH3000 powered mixer and some external compression/effects added,  but to begin with there is no way pro equipment could have given me the same functions for anywhere near the price. And separate video switches are bulky and expensive for what you get. Even now, with my $1500 worth of pro equipment, I use the KJ3000 for that and it's key changer.

Not everyone is a pro, and for the home/casual user this type of thing can be a good fit.

To clarify, I agree with you that for home use, many things are acceptable. I think most of us on this section of the forum are professionals or at least perform professionally. For those people, I think pro gear is a must, mostly for sonic superiority and just better built machines for transportation. I use a cheap player plugged in to my receiver when a couple of us come over to sing and it's good enough but if you are getting paid to do a show, a lot of things matter, including equipment used. IMHO.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

Yes I ageee, that the "karaoke" mixers are good for home use, and small budgets.

But I was disagreeing with.......


Still waithing to here why karaoke requires a "karaoke" mixer.

I thought it was pretty clear the original poster was a home user, but looking again I am not so sure.

In my experience, the amount of sonic difference a mixer or amp makes is miniscule compared to the difference between microphones or speakers. If you have good mikes, some reasonable effects/echo settings available, and your amps can drive your speakers, you can make most anything sound pretty good.

I have found there are many KJs who work small bars who don't have real pro live-sound equipment. I know one guy who employs 10 people to do karoake who doesn't use a pro mixer in any of his gigs. He was completely Pioneer laser disk and CDG (yes, 10 Pioneer machines) with Pioneer powered karaoke amplifiers.  He has been doing this since 1992 or so, doing gigs all over my area. He has just in the past year gone to laptops, but still uses the Pioneer amps. His stuff sounds pretty good, I think, maybe not top-notch but not the worst I have ever heard. The KJ3000 is way ahead of that in function and quality, and is certainly good enough to put on a show in littler venues, or when attached to a DJ's gear.

I invited a pro KJ friend of mine -- he uses all Peavey and Yamaha gear -- and he said my KJ-3000 setup sounded great. I knew that already, because I use pro microphones and it sounds as good as the shows I go to, but it was nice to get confirmation.

I am doing some amateur shows (state park programs, my community, parties for friends and family) and decided to step up to a bigger pro-sound setup.  But the ones I did using the KJ-3000 sounded great, and a lot of people thought I was a pro.

It may be for home use only in which one of the 'karaoke' mixers may be just fine.



Depends on the models.  I can take a karaoke mixer (with everything else being equal) hook it side by side with my Mackie CFX12 & the sonic difference would be very noticeable.  Same with most 'karaoke' amps/mixer-amps.  Everything else being equal, side by side, you would notice a tremendous difference.  One thing mainly is most of those mixer/amps are very underpowered.  The most powerful one i've seen to date pushes approx 150 watts into 8 ohms.  This is far from enough to run a good sounding pro show.  My system (granted I run a larger room than probably many) pushes around 3500 watts total into 8 ohms.  But even in smaller rooms I wouldn't skimp on the amps because this is what will make better sound in lower volume levels.  A 150 watt amp would need to be turned up much louder & because of that, the fullness & sonic clarity would not be as good plus the additional possibility/probability of distortion.  Also many of them don't have good singer monitor abilities.



Some of the original Pioneer amps were workhorses & did sound good for their day.  Working the system since 92, he knows every nuance of the system & probably has it completely tweaked - a good engineer can make a crap system sound decent (you even stated it wasn't top notch, but not the worst).  A bad engineer can take the best components & make it sound like crap.



But you have stated yourself that yours is a home system.  Not trying to put it down (really), but wonder what you would have thought if your friend would have brought in his system for a side by side comparison.



If it was working for you then why would you have upgraded?  Out of curiosity.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I have compared it with my own system -- Behringer mixer, amps, and speakers. But your point could be well taken, as I maybe don't have a pro ear.

I will tell you I can tell when someone's stuff sounds like crap, and that happens more than it should at karaoke shows. My KJ3000 setup sounds better than quite a few shows I have gone to, shows with Peavey or Mackie mixers. Of course I suspect their speakers and eq, but to me that shows how important that stuff is.


Partly because there is nothing more dangerous than a middle-aged man with a new hobby. I still find myself looking at new amps and speakers (now I want a subwoofer). I can't really justify more yet, since I haven't even deployed my latest purchases for a gig.....

Other ways, it was because I couldn't fill a large room with 120w/channel. I can fill my 30x24 living room with 12 foot ceilings just fine, but anything larger is difficult. I had a borrowed PA for the two outdoor gigs I have done, but still had my KJ3000 mixer in operation.

My understanding is the thing that makes the big difference is the mic preamp, and I think the one in that mixer is pretty fair. My Behringer is better, but not by so much that it makes a huge difference. I find the difference between microphones to be much more noticable.

My point is that for home use, a karaoke mixer can replace a mixer, a key changer, an effects unit, and a video switcher. For $119, that is hard to beat as long as quality is fairly good. The original poster stated that budget is an issue, and if it is he could do worse than something like the KJ3000.

   Depends on what you mean by better sound.  If you're a Karaoke Host, The VOCALS are the priority, and in my opinion, karaoke mixers do a better job than those meant to focus on the music.

  Software keychangers aren't neccesarily all that accurate (on key ) yet, depending on the software. Also, I've been to shows where a player is used inconjuction with the computer, but the computer can't keychange anything but software based songs..

_________________
"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Sorry to say, vocals are not a karaoke mixers biggest concern.  Again, they generally do not accept balanced mic inputs, have really cheesy effects & only have bass/treble controls for eq'ing.  MOST vocal frequencies lie in the midrange frequencies - which very FEW  'karaoke' mixers have & a sweepable mid is even more desireable for good sounding vocals - and NO karaoke mixer has that feature.  Vocals are the live part of karaoke & for pro use, no karaoke mixer will match the sound quality of a 'pro' mixer designed for live use.  I have used them in the past - which is why I don't anymore, they aren't worth it for pro use, overpriced & not that great.  The ONLY thing that is good is the built in video switcher, but it's not much harder using an external video switcher that I manually punch - so even that arguement goes out the window.
Don't know where you are going with software key changers - not really talking computers here, most true karaoke players have a key changer built in - which eliminates the need for any external.  But if that were the case, they do make external key changers that attach to the player that needs it.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!