Karaoke Forums

I'm sure this has been beaten senseless on this forum but forgive me, I'm new, and I'd love to see the dialog. When weighing bang for the buck for me:

1) Sound Choice: No they aren't perfect, the "Valley Girl" voice at the start of Baby Got Back is like nails across a blackboard for me but everyone makes a stinker, it's just with Sound Choice stinkers are very rare and errors in the lyrics are even rarer. One thing that Sound Choice seems to have gotten a lot better at in the last year to 18 months is having cutting edge new music as it comes out - I'd go as far as to say the "newness" of content rivals Star*Disc and Pop Hits Monthly. At $26 to $32 a disc PRICEY, but you get what you pay for (Essential Paks anyone?)

2) Karaoke Bay: I know, I know, dude you buy discs at Wal-Mart? Bang for the buck quality is just the tiniest tick below Sound Choice, great compilation discs, some modern material, and hey, you can get 8+8 discs for $11 to $13! If you haven't tried them I would suggest looking at what is out there - very surprsing quality!

3) Supercore (AmeriSing): Again it's a bang for the buck thing, the quality goes down just a hair more from Sound Choice, but overall is good. My only issues is their stinkers REALLY stink. If any Karaoke CD producers are reading this - for the love of God - PLEASE NO AWFUL FLUTE MELODY AS A VOCAL GUIDE. Supercore has this in a handful of tracks in their 2004 collection (Disc 8 is a BIG offender). HOWEVER - I will say this, Supercore has the BEST, absolute best version of Paradise By The Dashboard Light, complete with the Harry Carey narration.

4) ChartBusters: Well specifically their country music. Actually if this was JUST for Country & Western, and due to pricing, I might even, gasp, put them at the top of the list over Sound Choice. I don't understand why they can get country music soooooooo right, and the rest of it is just so-so.

5) Sweet Georgia Brown: You can get the 1 to 66 disc collection, new, not pirated, on eBay for under $100. Hard to beat due to the price but the quality goes down another tick. The SGB stuff seems to be pretty standard at many Karaoke bars I go to, and a way to quickly boost your collection. They don't do that dread guide flute, but the quality can be just really bad.

6) Backstage Karaoke: One of my favorite discs in BSK-5417. It is a personal favorite because I love every song on there and the versions are, errrr, OK. Hey for $3 to $10 a disc they're downright great (remember, this is a bang for the buck equation too). Some of their stuff is good, some of it sounds like a 14 year old kid on a Casio keyboard, and some of it, sounds like a 14 year old kid on a Casio keyboard WITH that awful guide flute.

7) Star*Disc: Real hit or miss. If the price is right - but I have to confess their January 2005 Pop collection disc is INCREDIBLE. A Karaoke store near me allows me to preview discs, it's the only way I'd buy a Star*Disc.

Top Hits Monthly (Pop, Country, Rocker, etc. etc. etc.): Their older quality was terrible, specifically the lyrics. Tons of errors and the music tracks weren't that good. I love the band Fuel and THM was about the only game in town for the song "Bad Day," but I'm glad I go the disc, it seems the quality has improved. Almost got their November 2004 disc for Bowling For Soup's 1985 -- but holding out to see if it will come out on Sound Choice. Their version of Live's Heaven is sublime! See my point about Star*Disc above and being able to review. Actually, putting them at the bottom of the pile is probably harsh.

9) Legend Series: The discs I love to hate. Why do I hate them? Because if you want a song like Garth Brook's Rodeo, they are about the only game in town. From a CONTENT stand point you look at the music and go, great compelation discs. But the quality - UGH. Mom, do I have too? For some music, sadly, frustratingly, YES. They must cut exclusive or near exclusive deals when they do rights. ARGH! If it wasn't for this and this issue alone, I wouldn't buy them. I could have gotten the Legend Series Foundation for $149.95 last month, but I passed despite the price.

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NuTech: Have a few, have them in the book, don't like it, and don't get much played off of them anyway. Save your money - BLECK.

Helluvadisc - All Hits - Ultrasonics: I THINK, THINK these are part of Sweet Georgia Brown now and are kind of "dead" brands. All Hits is pretty darn good, but their version of Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower - HORRIBLE. But Love Hurts, Love Stinks, and Dirty Laundry - sounds like you're singing with Nazareth, J Geils, and Don Henley respectively. That good. Love my Ultrasonics Sinatra disc. If you can find them onzie twozie stand alone - ehhh.

I have about a half-dozen other discs, one off from different companies. Some are good some are bad - in every case they were added to the colleciton because they had one or two songs I needed to add to the collection, and they were it to get it added.

Anyone else?

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Despite the internet rumor, Karaoke is not Japanese for "drunk buffoon with microphone."  However, "rotation," is Japanese for wait your damn turn!

I pretty much agree with your statements.

This has been a topic of many - here are some of the results.

http://www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic. ... nufacturer
http://www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic. ... nufacturer
http://www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic. ... ht=manufac
http://www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic. ... oriteturer

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

Yeah this topic has kinda been beat to death around here but I felt I had to point out a huge omission from your list.

Pop Hits Monthly is by far my favorite for new music. I understand that they had some really bad versions a few years back but everything I've gotten from them in the past 2 years has been top notch.

Rodeo is out on MANY manufacturers including Sound Choice, Radio Starz, Chartbuster & several cheaper brands.

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

Agree on Pop Hits Monthly, they are one of my onzie twozie in the collection. Just a disc or two so not a lot of background. I'd put them on their new discs from what I heard maybe around 5-1/2 or 6-1/2. The discs I've reviewed though, 8-1/2. TONS AND TONS of lyrics errors. But I have heard from others big improvement in quality.

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Despite the internet rumor, Karaoke is not Japanese for "drunk buffoon with microphone."  However, "rotation," is Japanese for wait your damn turn!

Ok this topic has been beat to death... yes...

Labels you've missed and my thoughts:

The Singing Machine - generally sub par except for the Original Artist Motown discs. The MTV discs from TSM are ususally crap.

K-Tel - Yes, the king of disco is back making karaoke discs. The quality is mediocre but there is no splash screen at the start of the song so it's likely to catch you off guard. Great for kamikaze karaoke though - they have no idea what's coming.... bwahahahaha!!!!!


On a side note, would it be legal to take a disc that has a great sound track but a flawed CDG track (misspelled words, bad swipe at one point, etc) and 'fix it', then burn it to a replacement disc? Would this require a license to 'reaffix' the track to media or are you creating a derivative work (legal for copyright, not licensing)? Do you think anyone would notice if you only fixed the bad spellings or swipe only and left the splash and everything else in place?

How about changing the words for a 'parody' of the original song? In other words, I found a song called '50 ways to kill Bin Laden' that someone did as a MP3+CDG (and funny as hell). Could I use that material and replace the words on my Sound Choice track to create a 'new' song? (I'm thinking no but I'd like to hear your thoughts). What if I wrote the 'new' lyrics myself?

Just some thoughts from out of nowhere...

Okay, I'll get dragged into this:

) Wayyy wrong. SC is consistantly in last place on getting new music out. While their versions are probably the best, the others from Pop and Top Hits Monthly are just about as good, and they come out much faster. Star Disc as well, but I think they're only good at country. And even then, not that good!

If I'm not mistaken, Karaoke Bay IS chartbusters.

hate to tell you this, but Supercore is a combination of Country Hits Monthly, Pop Hits Today and Monthly, All Hits Karaoke, Star Disc, and MANY others... including Amerising. The P.B.T.D.B.L. is from All Hits!

Quite simple: Their musicians ARE country trained!

Sorry, only a few passible songs... the rest are crap. Ditto on Backstage. And Star Disc is getting much better, but I still think they're bottom of the barrel.


I think these guys and Pop Hits Monthly are the best for the price, and their time they get the songs out! Besides THM is the only company to seriously get into the mp3g format! Legally!

I've got quite a lot of good music from Legends / Sunfly. And a lot of bad ones too! !

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Agreed

That's because they are direct rippoffs of the original songs! For the most part. And they had NOTHING to do with Sweet Georgia Brown, although I heard (can't prove) that SGB borrowed from the others on several of them.

I think my personal favorites are Pioneer (for an older core set), DK, Sing To The World, Easy Karaoke, SC, Pop and Top Hits Monthly...

Middle of the road: Star Disc, Music Maestro, Legends / Sunfly, etc.

Karaoke Bay and Chartbusters are two sepereate companies. Karaoke Bay is also Sterling (you sometimes see both names on the disc, sometimes only Karaoke Bay).

The karaokebay.com website is owned by UAV Corporation in South Carolina.

The karaokecafe.com website (Chartbuster) is owned by Tennessee Production Center in Tennessee.

Karaoke Bay uses AT&T for it's telecommunications and Chartbuster uses Sprint. If they were the same company they would likely use the same provider. Additionally, the Karaoke Bay discs are quite good in genre's outside of country as well. I have a blues disc and some Southern Rock discs that are very good.... Not quite as good as Sound Choice but many of the tracks aren't available on Sound Choice or they're spread out over 5-10 discs (or more).

ala Fred Sandford - Lizbith. I'm coming for you , having the big big one and that lazy Lamont ain't no where to be seen.

Sorry Matt, had to do it. I couldn't believe you are saying good things about THM. It's about time, they have a great product.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I have to disagree on Sound Choice being waaaaaay last. Have a great disc from them 8883 that I picked up in November with Finger 11, Maroon 5, Black Eyed Peas, etc. etc. etc. -- if you go up on the website they are getting a lot better on their new release cycle getting stuff out.

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Despite the internet rumor, Karaoke is not Japanese for "drunk buffoon with microphone."  However, "rotation," is Japanese for wait your damn turn!

You can take exception to it all you want. Doesn't change the facts:

Finger Eleven was out on Music Maestro # 6420
Finger Eleven was out on Northstar Pop # 2054
Finger Eleven was out on Pop Hits Monthly Rock Dec03 (released in November of 2003!!!)
Sing it Now also had the same song, as did Star Disc, and Top Hits Monthly Rock Apr of 04!! Released in March of 2004.

"She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5, same story, released months earlier.

"Let's Get It Started" by Black Eyed Peas - same thing.

I am a member of SC's forum, and a chief objector to their delaying of stuff... The only thing that SC is good at is releasing tracks that some don't have on the Headbanger series, and their All Made Up discs and their 70's and 80's stuff.

Their POP Hits and COUNTRY hits are ALWAYS four or five months behind.

heheh, I'm STILL a fan of Pop Hits Monthly, though, over THM. But yeah, THM has come a long way since 1995.

And I love their mp3g discs!! Man, just ordered me some of those!