Karaoke Forums

Hey all...

I have about 10 or so different CD+G cd's from all different brands. I noticed that some sound real close to the original, while others sound not so flattering. Some of the brands I have are partytyme, backstage, etc... I wondered if there is a chart or something addressing the quality about different companies. That is, are there some that are terrible, some that sound pretty close to the original, etc.... Is there any rule of thumb when it comes to this stuff?

Thanks,

Matt
(magicianstalk@hotmail.com)

Nope, it's all trial & error.
As a rule Sound Choice is the best - this is to say the least bad songs out of the bunch. They are a tad pricier than other labels but you can almost be assured you won't be getting crap.
Chartbuster is pretty great for country, but their pop/rock stuff is a little lacking - however their disco pack seems to be pretty good.
Pop Hits Monthly (not Top Hits Monthly) is the best for current stuff, their renditions are generally a little fuller.
DK are ok but have a little pan flute melody guide & sometimes record their stuff in the wrong key, no big deal if you have a key changer but irratating.
Music Maestro suck although some have said their newer stuff is a little better, I won't buy them.
Backstage suck - Eagles disc is the only one that is half worth getting, but with the new Zoom Eagles discs that came out, the BS disc isn't even worth buying the Eagles anymore.
Zoom - Good for the most part, but since they are made in the UK, some of the titles are pretty obscure for the states.
All Hits - Hit or Miss
Dangereous - Good for the most part
Party Tyme - Ok, not the greatest
Amerising - Ok
Sweet Georgia Brown - Mostly All Hits renamed
Top Tunes - So So, equal hit/miss ratio.
There are several other brands out there that are hit or miss, it's just all trial & error. If you find a song that doesn't particularly sound right, it's a good bet you'll be able to find it on another label.

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That about says it all ... Sound Choice is by far the more "consistant" brand you will find out there. I agree Chartbuster for country , Pop Hits Monthly for newer stuff ..even there country is good. I do like Music Maestro for some of their "oldies" and Doo-Wop type music .
The rest are all "decent" hit and miss ... You win some you lose some

Some karaoke music I have improved somewhat by remixing and adding effects. This stems from years of putting old recordings on cd's and trying to liven them up a little. Just curious if anybody else is trying or doing this..

Surprisingly I've never heard about it but I've looked at some rack mounts on Ebay And read Cakewalks description. Sounds like a good addition to me Do you use the rack mount or the software? Does Winamp
support the directx plugin in other words can you play mp3's or wavs and use the software maximizer for live music?

You just added another $100 or so to my wish list...

I would like to add 3 other brands to the bunch too.

PRIDDIS = Equal or better than Sound Choice, its a very good brand and has very good music, has a full sound, very good background singers etc. Its not a favorite choice among KJs though since they mostly only put 5 songs per disc (some are 15 songs) and are very pricy and do not really have any SETs of discs/like foundation sets etc.

POCKET SONGS AKA JTGs: Its a very good brand too, not quite as good as Sound Choice though, but definatly has some very good sounding music, way above average on most things. Sometimes you can get really bad songs, but definatly better than Chartbuster.

SUNFLY: Mainly a British/European brand...some songs are "plinky", mainly older stuff(Elvis etc) sounds like almost like midi, but they pretty good at newer stuff. Hit/Miss here!

Sunfly are best for 80's/90's type tracks... they have them down to a fine art

But I agree with the rest for other genres

Priddis is getting much better than they used to be.

Sunfly, after disc 190, man they just turned out to be quite excellent.

Other UK brands:

Easy Karaoke - a terrific label... but also, like Sunfly and Zoom, can be a bit obscure for us 'mericans!! !

And Sing To The World... I can't say enough about these guys. I've bought four customs from them, and in the process of building my second library, I may favor them OVER Sound Choice!! Food for Thought!

Their timing is excellent, and they have a forum that they not only listen to their customer's requests, they release songs on a monthly basis where a good 10-20% of their requests ARE FROM customers!!! They announce these, and the customer requests are highlighted in Red.

Go to singtotheworld.com and check out their online samples (about 20 seconds or so). You can even pay a very small fee to be an online streamer and watch the complete song on your computer...



Matt

Music Maestro is the only one with an almost complete (400+) Elvis catalog. The Velvet Elvis is brilliant, with only a couple of the songs being better on other brands.

(In my opinion)

Figger"d Id throw in my best CD-G maker...Ive never heard a better disc than the Legends Series I have five or six...Steely Dan is Almost perfect. as is Pink Floyd and Rod stewart....they focus on one or two artists on each disk...the music is great..... If you can put up with my singing there is a post of mine in singers showcase of Comfortably Numb by legends.

Legends threw out QUITE a lot of stinkers in their time. In fact, I have their Rolling Stones disc... the only good song on there is the one I bought the disc for! !

I guess all brands are capable of the best & worst on the same album!

I love SC but noticed that Elton John sounded better on my Pocket Song!
I have tracks on some SAV Nutech that are unique & very pleasant to listen to.

In general, SC & Chartbuster are the best.

Knight I have a nephew that does the Doors and my first cd was Back Stage & absolutely sucked Then some way I wound up with a Lost Legends & he said thats a whole lot better But by the time I get all the reverb in it the way he likes it sounds like he is in the bottom of a drydock with 2k watts........So I'll prob have lg 108 around for a long time....

Other things to consider on songs are the accuracy of the lyrics and the timing of the lyrics. While the music can be great if the lyrics aren't accurate it can be a stinker.

I have the Sound Choice Foundations and they're great. I havne't seen a stinker yet, but I do have a few tracks that look like they're missing the CDG sub coding.

I have some stuff from Karaoke Bay and I've been impressed so far. Sometimes the music is marginally of less quality than the SC discs (but not always) they seem to be pretty good quality. Great for home, still trying to decide if they're as good as SC for a show.

I have some Party Tyme discs, and for the most part I'll replace them all as soon as I can. I've not been impressed with the quality at all. For home use it might be ok, but I'll pass if I'm playing in public.

The Singing Machine also makes discs and some are ok. I've gotten a couple of the 'Original Artists' Motown discs which seem to be pretty good, but the MTV discs they put out are hit and miss. I've seen different lyrics, different mixes (not marked as such), and sound that's not very rich at all.

I just got the Sweet Georgia Brown 1-66 set and will let you know about the quality on them as well once I get a chance to play some of them (I ordered them before I read about them in another thread here).

I bought this wierd little set on ebay a couple years ago....18 disks and I paid 43.00 and shipping... I use them over and over and over everytime I do a show...The songs are all good....the name is Supercore....They have updated the set to 20 disks now and the going rate is now about 70.00 a set, but I tell you next to my sound choice disks, they are just as valuable to me...

I agree with the fact that if you are hunting a particular song you just need to experiment to find who has the best version. I recently acquired the dk set and the music is not so hot, but the song selection is unbelievable....all brands have something different to offer, just like all of us, ...Hurricane coming, you bet all my disks, whatever brand, are up high and safe (I hope)....

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When I was young, I used to believe in the concept of one best friend,  then I became an adult  and  realized  that if you allow your heart to open up, God would show you the best in many friends...

The other day I picked up a "StarDisc - Monthly 2004" I was expecting that it would be really bad, to my surprise the music quality was totally awesome. I have an old StarDisc that is a couple of years old and that one was really bad, but this new one was very very good, if not equal to Sound Choice, real instruments and full sound.

Must've got lucky, they still seem to pretty hit/miss. I was feeling the same way about their country & bought a couple more because there were several requests that I could get all on 3 discs rather than buying 6 of the more quality brand. Well out of the 3, 1 disc sounded ok & the other 2 were horrid - very muffled, no clarity & recorded very low. Now I will need to replace them anyway.

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At first I was pretty happy with my Sweet Georgia Brown 66 disc purchase - except for disc 23 which has applause tracks over most of the songs.

Unfortunately, the more I listen, the less I like. I've found another track w/ applause over the entire track, I can hear mic noise on other tracks, and people counting off when to start. Yes, for $105 it was a pretty good deal - about 10 cents per track, but when you have to replace many of them because the quality just isn't that good.... grrrrrr....

I have some Music Maestro's that I'm happy with - even though they don't rank very high on the list. I have one that gets a lot of play - MM6254, which is mostly swing music that's got pretty good recordings. I'll be sticking with Sound Choice, Karaoke Bay (a surprise considering it's a consumer brand!). The Singing Machine Motown Original Artists (only this line - the MTV stuff is garbage) and taking a chance on Priddis (based on recommendations here) and those that I can preview in the future. There's a store in Anchorage that lets you preview the discs before you buy them where I'll be buying my less well know stuff from now on.

Guess karaoke discs are truly Caveat Emptor...