Karaoke Forums

Invest in a couple of long 12ga speaker cables, which are nice to have anyway. Then set one of the mains at some distance -- on a stand, preferably -- pointing toward the singer. That should be fine, as it is what quite a few KJs with decent sound do.

Went and got 100' of 12ga Pro Co speaker wire Saturday morning. I bought 4 of the large barrel plugs and made myself two 50 footers.

I ran across two 12" w/horn EV mains for 100.00 each, and couldn't resist the price,(well, maybe not the deal of the century) but I'll use them for monitors for now. I can still get a powered monitor later and have 4 mains to boot!  The person I'm getting them from is a musician in a Elvis tribute band, and speaks very highly of the EV brand. He boasts that the 12" EV's will sound every bit as good as my current Yamaha 15's. I'm picking them up next weekend..so we'll see!

I'm kinda glad things turned out the way they did with the Phonic/UPS episode. I'm very satisfied with the Yamaha EMX312SC mixer and 15" mains, but it WAS quite a bit more money! I hope it proves to be worth the difference in  $$$.

Jim

May be the wrong forum to ask this, but here goes:

The possibility presented itself yesterday for me to provide karaoke for our annual company Christmas party. Actual time would be about 4 hours of karaoke, so I figure my actual time would be close to six hours including setup and tear down.

There would be approx 75 people counting employees, spouses, and board members. I'll be lucky to get 15 people to participate in rotation. I don't have any professional hosting software. All I'll have is Karafun, a PC based songlist, and a couple of hard copies for the folks to look up a song. The plus is, I am a 30 year employee and know everyone personally, so professionalism isn't a deal killer. My wife is willing to help me with taking song request and keeping them in order.

I was asked to come up with a price for doing this, and I am clueless as to how much to charge!

Equipment:

Yamaha EMX312SC powered mixer (compression on 4 inputs)
4 Mics
2 Yamaha 15" mains
2 EV 12" monitors
Laptop with 25 foot VGA extension and LCD monitor for singer

Experience:
NONE!

Can I pull this off, and how much should I charge?

Jim

Well you are going to have to charge what you feel your time is worth & what you feel they will pay - also how many songs do you have?  Are they popular karaoke songs that everyone will enjoy or personal select picks for your own collection?.  Christmas parties for me are a minimum $500 & higher.

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

If you would do it for 500.00, I'll surely have to charge much less! From what I have read here and seen on your website, you are very knowledgeable and professional. I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum right now!

I have a fair variety of songs, not just my personal favorites. Another plus is the fact that I can query the employees in advance to get a feel for what their favorites are. I could then be better prepared.

Thanks, Jim.

Just don't be surprised if they don't sing after giving you their choices.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Yeah I love that!  Especially in the clubs - Man You Gotta Get {name flavor of the week here}, so you get it & the requestor will either try it one time or never.

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

I'm going on 50. Having had 3 teenagers living at home all at the same time, nothing much surprises me anymore! ...ol

On another tech note....I'm currently running my laptop to my mixer via the headphone jack. ("Y" cable to RCA jacks on mixer)

I have a desktop PC on the same table with mixer and laptop. I want to use desktop PC verses the laptop PC while at home. I plan on getting a new video card with dual VGA outs for the desktop PC so I can clone to another CRT across the room via a VGA extension cable.

The desktop soundcard has 5 holes. Left to right they are BLACK, GREEN, PINK, BLUE, YELLOW. Currently the BLACK and GREEN holes go to a set Harmon Kardon PC speakers. I'm assuming this is for "stereo" output to the PC speakers. I want to unplug the PC speaker system and connect to my mixer. Which hole(s) in the soundcard do I need to use to connect to the mixer RCA jacks? I'm sure radio Shack has adapters to get me from PC plugs to RCA plugs. I have 2 already, but I think they are reverse of what I need.

Is there any need to try to get "stereo" music output, since the vocal output is mono?

http://www.nehp.net/~jimw/PA%20pics/

Cornfused, Jim.

Jim, if you're going to go THAT low, then why bother getting paid at all.

YOU're running the show, yes?

You're bringing equipment there, yes? You need to compensate yourself for the time, trouble, and possible equipment damage. Microphones often get damaged. One reason Lonnie can charge what he charges is he's got the more expensive equipment. $500 BARELY covers the cost of a new microphone (if it's wireless)... and if it DOES break, you have to send it back for warrenty repairs or replacement. That is time you're out of that mic! This is one reason many of us have more than the standard two or three...

Are you going to print up additional books? At least try to make twice what that's going to cost.

Are you going to buy new music? Again, try to make twice what that rate is.

This is the difference between professional hosting, no matter the type of equipment and music, and friends throwing parties for friends.

I can tell you now, if you don't make $150 even at your level, you're wasting your time. Sheesh, the transportation and setup is worth the $50-$100. There are guys that just do THAT for pro companies. THey do the setup for them at a new location, and charge the company anywhere from $75-$125. Then they go back and tear it down the next day (and usually onto the next gig!) Now, I and the other mobile jocks do it all ourselves, or we have a friend to help. They're not going to do it for a song or dance.

You need to pay yourself what you're WORTH. Please don't discount your own worth, even as a fledgling newbie.

$250 would be reasonable for your services but I would not charge any less.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Matt calm down, he was responding to another question telling him not to be surprised if they don't sing the requests.  His answer was, I'm going on 50 (refering to his age). Having had 3 teenagers living at home all at the same time, nothing much surprises me anymore!  ...ol .



Actually I don't charge that because of the equipment I buy, it's a part of it, but I would charge that if I had cheaper equipment as well.  Private parties are 3-5x what I would charge in a club show.

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

$250-300 is a good starting point for a company you work at.

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

Sorry for the confusion, the 50 was an age reference.  LOL

I think I'll go with the 300.00 figure to start with. I can come down a little if necessary.

Can someone take a look at the soundcard question I had a couple of posts back? Thanks for your help.

Jim

Should be able to use this same cable on the PC coming from the green output.  Depending on your sound card configuration you may have to reset some settings in the sound setup if it doesn't work.



You want to clone your desktop?  In karaoke you usually want to extend the desktop so the words display on the secondary screen & you hosting software stays at your station.



http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=333055

This is what you are looking for.

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

I've tried the "extend desktop". It has to be slid over on every song change in KaraFun. Haven't figured out how to get the singers lyric box to open on extended monitor.

Jim

for winamp, you have to move it over just the first time when you open the program. Then it stays over there as long as you don't cancel the program.

isn't there a support board for karafun? I seem to remember seeing one at one time!

and clubdjpro initializes the secondary window and uses it automatically. Pretty much idiot proof!

Yep! When all else fails...read the directions! I got it working now.

Thanks

He was right about the EV 12's. They do sound as good as my 15" Yamaha's!

Top model EV speakers are one of the best around. and so are thier mic.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott