Karaoke Forums

I fogot to mention something in my prior post.  Here in Phoenix (and I'm sure in other cities) there are a couple of places doing karaoke with a live band.  One place calls it Rock-a-roke.  I don't remember the other one.  Haven't tried it but would love to-- I never sang with a live band and think it would be cool.  

Not sure how they actually do it though. That is, how do lyrics synch to the music-- unless they just give you a lyric sheet and you deal with it.

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For those about to rock, we salute you!!!

We have a few places here in town that do live band karaoke. The drawbacks are

#1: I'm sure it costs the owner more than regular karaoke. Would be pretty tough to split $125 4-5 ways!!
#2: You do sing off of a lyric sheet, no sweeping lyrics, so you better know the song if you are going to get up there
#3: The "book" is only about 50 or so songs, because that is all the band knows and all you should reasonably expect a decent band to be able to play and play well.

Because of all these factors, the band karaoke attracts about 25-40 people on a Thursday nights, while in comparision my regular karaoke attracts about 75-100 people on Wednesday nights and 150-200 on Saturday nights. Nio worries here about it overtaking my business anytime soon...

Band karaoke is a cool novelty, but very impractical in the long run!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

We have an actual band named Rockaraoke.  add a com to the end of that to see their site.
Very good band, fun to sing behind.  But nothing more than a regular band doing open mic night - in fact that's all it is, except they don't allow you to bring you instruments like most open nights.  THey have a computer hooked up with sync'd words to & they do play to a click track - which is only heard by their drummer & is adjustable which will reflect with the words as well.  Depending on the song, they may have a printed sheet, but for most, they use a monitor.

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In Portland we have for live-band Karaoke "Karaoke From HELL". Its a 5-piece and they have a 400-song songlist to choose from. They are actually a pretty tight band by themselves. They play two places--Mondays at Dantes downtown, adn Thursdays at The Gemini in Lake Oswego. The band leader will help you with the starts and stops and give you the 1..2..3..4. You sing off song sheets. In Salem(about an hour south) they have a diffetent live band that does it at LEFTYS Pizzeria--a full line blues club that hosts National Blues acts on weekend---I think next weekend they are having Pinetop Perkins and Willy "Big Eyes" Smith(pianist and drummer, respectivley for Muddy Waters--they are the REAL DEAL) they will be playing with the late Paul Delay (No Delay) Band.  So I plan on one night going down to Salem to try live band at Lefty's--any other KS people wanna come along?????

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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

 Got a group in our area called the Funtime Karaoke Band.  You get a lyric sheet-period.   The rush is that you're singing with a live band. The downside is that the songlist is maybe 120 titles.....

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I'll give it a go can you cruise round and pick me up bout 8?

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Marty, you can't be that old..

We used to sing along with the bouncing ball at the Saturday movies.. in the 50s..

"I'll give it a go can you cruise round and pick me up bout 8?"

Well that was one of the activities planned if ISIS ever decides to come up here!!

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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

It has been a long time since I have posted here. We have been working very hard to expand our business and all the hard work is paying off. I now have the time again to come here and learn things from all of you that have been in the business for a long time and I always learn new things even if I don't post a reply. I know this is kind of an older post but I just had to leave a little something. As of June 30, 2007 we will be celebrating our "1 Year" at Charlie's where we are every Fri. and Sat. During this year we have had the pleasure of meeting many people. During this time we have become friends with many local bands as well as signed bands such as Hemlock, New Disaster etc.  When these bands are not doing their own gig somewhere they come in to hang out with us. Sometimes they may sing and sometimes they may not. When we meet a new band we always ask them if they have a demo or CD. We now how about 12 different bands that when they come in we play a track from their CD. We let other know that they are in the house and if they want to know where they can check them out to go talk to them. Because of doing this we landed a new gig 3 weeks ago at a bar in Vegas (legendary bar mind you) that has bands 7 nights a week. Now on Sundays we go on and then 1-3 bands go on after us. I have dealt with the "Bands hate karaoke" in the past but since we have been in Vegas not so much. Maybe it is the way we approach it. I believe that regardless of what you do in the music industry that one hand washes the other and it should be a tight community. There is enough work out there for all of us and I think sometimes working together benefits us all.
Thanks for reading. I will stop babbling no!
Have a great week!
-Lynette
Bottom Line Karaoke

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"Because You Came to Sing and that's THE BOTTOM LINE!"

i have been a musician for 35 years. Both pro and semi pro. I am also a kj. I think there is enough condesending on both sides to go around. I have found that the crowds for both, bands, and karaoke shows, to be from two different worlds. Musicians know there are clubs that only want karaoke, same with kjs. They know there are clubs that only hire bands. It's really not as big a deal as it seems to be made out to be. I think both serve a purpose and are needed by the public. I have people at my kj gig, that would not go to a club or bar, sit all night and pay 4 bucks a beer. They want to participate. Same with the band people. They wouldn't sit all night, and watch people "make a fool of themselves" thinking they can sing. Where i draw the line as both a musician and kj, and i am very surprised you folks haven't been even bothered to mention it, is the use of "Artificial Instrumentation". When sound choice, chartbuster, Top Hits Monthly, and a bunch of others use "Fake" drums, fake string section, fake horns, even bass lines done on a keyboard. Not only does it put a musician out of work. But it also makes the CDG sound fake, over produced, just nasty. Anything for these big companies to turn these CDG's out on like an assembly line, the cheaper produced the better. A lot of people don't even realize this practice goes on. Nothing sounds worse then singing a song, and hearing tic tic tic tic by an electronic drummer. Or how many times have you heard a 50's or 60's song with a computer, or syth doing the horn or string section. This is what we as kj's, and musicians should be going into hysterics about. Pay $30 bucks for a sound choice cdg, and have half of it fake instrumentation is just a rip off.

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Sweet Little Me In Karaokeland........

I have found that the crowds for both, bands, and karaoke shows, to be from two different worlds

This is something I disagree with but that is my opinion and only from my own experiences. Our shows have many nights with crowds like this and they blend better than crowds that are mainly non-singers and karaoke singers.

Where i draw the line as both a musician and kj, and i am very surprised you folks haven't been even bothered to mention it, is the use of "Artificial Instrumentation". When sound choice, chartbuster, Top Hits Monthly, and a bunch of others use "Fake" drums, fake string section, fake horns, even bass lines done on a keyboard. Not only does it put a musician out of work. But it also makes the CDG sound fake, over produced, just nasty. Anything for these big companies to turn these CDG's out on like an assembly line, the cheaper produced the better. A lot of people don't even realize this practice goes on. Nothing sounds worse then singing a song, and hearing tic tic tic tic by an electronic drummer. Or how many times have you heard a 50's or 60's song with a computer, or syth doing the horn or string section.

This is where I got lost regarding what this post was about


This is what we as kj's, and musicians should be going into hysterics about. Pay $30 bucks for a sound choice cdg, and have half of it fake instrumentation is just a rip off.

Still lost??

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"Because You Came to Sing and that's THE BOTTOM LINE!"

Sure wish we had your clubs up here. They don't mix, and especially at the critter clubs.
Now let me try to explain myself a little more clearer on the rest of my post. Apparently you can't tell the difference between a sythesizer, a Vitual Orchestra synthesizer, a moog vitual conductor program, a midi generated accompanist program, and a real string, horn, wind section, drummer or bass player. I was simply trying to convey my displeasure on a large number of CDG's who use these "Artificial" means of "Copying" and most times very poorly, the instrumentation on some of these CDG productions.CB90076 cut #11 Ray Price, For The Good Times. On this miserable excuse for a rendition, the timing is not even correct for the song. If you have this disc, listen very closely to the drummer...hear anything wrong there? how about the strings? hear anything wrong there? outside of the fact instead of doing it correctly with the right instrumentation, timeing, phrasing. The song is so distorted, and recorded so poorly and out of mix and balance, it is almost unusabe, in fact i use the Sound Choice version of the song, which is a little better. And this is just one example of the production quality, and cost cutting of some CDG's. I think for the money we pay for these things we deserve better quality, and real musicians on all songs. Now i am not saying this is going on with every song they produce, but it sure is going on much to often. They are getting better. But still have a long long way to go, to make a better product, and at least hire someone who knows how these songs are suppose to go together. that's all....just my observation.

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Sweet Little Me In Karaokeland........

SC discs cost the same as everyone else now days - about $18.  They haven't been $30 for a few years now.

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it's been a while since i've purchased any sound choice disc, and i won't if i can help it. I know my Top Hits Monthly around here are 24.95 plus tax...so that makes them close to 26.45. Sound choice are real close to that if not more. So up here they are close to 30 bucks.

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Sweet Little Me In Karaokeland........

Buy on the internet, better selection & cheaper!  Even for THM, I pay about $14-17 each for them depending on the release date, newer is the higher price!  Don't know where you are, but you are paying too much even for the THM.  I'm all for supporting your local store (if that's what you are doing) - but i'm not going to cut my own throat spending more than I have to.
$24.95 is more expensive than you can get from SC own site @ $22.95.  The Spotlights retail for $17.95 in most internet sites.

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Well all i can say is. At my club when my karaoke player stopped working on me. I made a phone call to ron, and he drove to my club, and he and his wife brought me another player to use. I was down a total of 30 minutes. Heaven forbid the small business owner make a buck. I don't mind paying the extra couple of bucks. I get more in return then anyone could get from karaoke warehouse. I bought a CDG from ron. The rendition stunk..he took it back. Never heard of any of the big karaoke online stores doing that. Nope..i will continue to spend my money where i make it.

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Sweet Little Me In Karaokeland........

That's cool!
Sometimes you do have to pay quite a bit more to get that little extra 'personal' touch.  I always carry a spare player & listen to sample clips before I buy so I don't need that kind of service.

My Dad felt the same way when he used to go to one particular service station year after year.  The mechanic helped him out the first time he came in for a repair 'for free' while my dad was able to make payments back.  Didn't matter that the job never got done right (often had to bring in for repair on same thing) & he charged much more for parts than other places, dad felt the loyalty & continued going until the mechanic died.  In which he finally figured out he was paying too much for a loyalty factor.

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Not really sure what savings you're talking about. You buy a $17.00 CDG, add about 5.95 for shipping. That 17 dollar disc is $22.00. Now.....here in Michigan, we must declare everything we purchased online on our state tax return. So if you do it the correct way, and declare your online tax exempt purchases, and add the sales tax,you are actually paying more for that 17.00 disc then i am..But some people buy their CDG's at walmart the same place they but their shirts. I guess whatever makes a person happy. But that music dealer is more then a web page, he's a friend. And has helped more then with just a player. So i still think i make out better in the end.

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Sweet Little Me In Karaokeland........

Well shipping is free when you buy over $99 at most places - which I generally am able to do each buy - so there is no shipping cost.  We don't have to declare online purchases at this time.  So there is a substantial savings.  
I still go through my local (also a friend) when I need something today - but he still don't charge more than $19.99 for any disc in stock (Sound Choice, Chartbuster, THM, PHM), but as a rule I won't - mainly because he don't keep current on the brand new releases, he'll wait a few months before really ordering them - except for the Monthly series which I try to avoid unless I am really looking for a song now.  He can't get out of print stuff unless he goes on the net to find it, then he'll charge even more to the public.  When I can find the same disc at the price he pays, I am going to get it.  My last purchase happened to be a Sound Choice Spotlight closeout - 25 new in wrapper Spots for $100.  There is no way any local store is going to match that.

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I've experienced this snobbish degradation of karaoke and karaoke singers through back-handed compliments.  Usually what happens is somebody comes up to me and tells me that I am too talented of a singer to be "doing this kind of stuff." That kind of statement is breathtakingly ridiculous. I wouldn't be as seasoned a singer as I am if it weren't for karaoke, I would not have discovered that I love country music if it weren't for going to karaoke, I wouldn't have met all my girlfriends if it weren't for karaoke.  I love karaoke and I sing in a band too by the way.