Karaoke Forums

Hi everyone!

I currently have a JVC 303 player but recently saw a Numark CDN-25G. This system looked more rugged and was rack mountable . I couldn't find any reviews on the system and wondered if anyone has one ...is it worth buying over a second JVC? Thanks! Heather

Haven't used it yet, but would like to hear reviews as well. Only drawback I see right off is the lack of a key changer.

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

it has 2 video outputs, one for each side, as opposed to the vocopro 8000.... only drawback i see

if key changing is a major thing for your singers, either keep a JVC single tray or get an off-board digital key changer

Actually, it 'could' be viewed as an advantage. Those of us that have a second monitor to que with would really need 2 sepereate outputs. FYI - I've only had to use the second monitor to que DVD's with menus (which I only have 2 of and am not buying any more ).

News!,
the VOCOpro 8000 also has video out for each side. I had one, and it lasted less than a year. with very few shows under its belt. maybe 75 shows.

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !

No not a Voc.................ahhh never mind!

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Well, I went ahead and purchased the Newmark. I can pick up a video cross fader (approx. $30-50) which will allow me to toggle between the trays. I don't usually have a large call for pitch changes but I will use my JVC 303 as a backup for that. The best part of this player, in my opinion, is that the two players are separate components within this unit as opposed to the 303 which is one component with three trays. I've heard the JVC being described as "Commerical" ...I would describe the newmark as "Industrial". Alhtough it is new to me ,there are some great features. It is made to "Go on the road". I purchased a gator case to house it in. The buttons are very large and light up for easy visability in dark venues. Another neat feature is that you can cue a song up and it will automatically pause on the screen while you are waiting for your singer to come up.... There is no remote but a very easy to use forward & backward button to scroll through the tracks. I will do my first show with it tonight and will let you know how it worked out. So far, I love it!

I saw one in a store recently and am mildly interested. Though it doesn't have a looping feature which sometimes comes in handy for DJ work. I am thinking of downsizing my rack. Numark's 200FX mixer is also of interest.

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Sounds Great! Entertainment
Bartlett, Illinois

Hey all -

Just a note to advise you that this post was moved... Didn't catch this (or many other topics fo that matter) that deal with Karaoke Equipment or Products.

All Technical Questions should be posted in the Technical Questions Forum.
1) That way everyone can find them and read the answers
- speaking of answers -
2) if all tech questions are posted in one area it will be easier for our outstanding technical advisors members (thanks folks) can answer them by visiting just the one forum.

I appreciate your understanding -

P H I L L

I am seriously considering this too, mainly because I fancy myself learning to be an electronica and hip-hop DJ and would love to have a beatmixing CD player. Sounds like it's respectable for KJ use! So, who makes video switching/distribution consoles that are worth using? I really need to hook up a booth TV.

But back to the Numark: like any respectable DJ player, it has "pitch" adjustment, which is really just playback speed, so you can match up the tempos of two songs for mixing. It doesn't have key-only adjustment, but would it work for slight key adjustments to just use the pitch (speed) control? The only hard part would be getting an exact pitch out of it if a singer expected something specific, but I could use my back-up player's key-adjust in that case, as was suggested.

Guess I just justified buying one. I'm trying to move my gear to rackmount anyway.

Well... dear colleagues... I got the Numark... really cool and rugged... set it up at a house party for the first time (BIG MISTAKE), I like to setup at home to test it first. Well... only the left side reads CD's... the right one registers the CD inside, but does not read it... I got pretty flustered at first... but I managed to handle the small party with the one side... It's a shame really, because it's so easy to use!

On Monday I'm returning it... I'm torn about replacing it or getting something else, because it's really nice... Hopefully I just got a dud!

Good luck!

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Frank
Pelican in Flight KJ/DJ
Miami, Florida

What a bummer! Set it up at home and make sure the one side is bad. I remember swearing that my sub had died when setting up for a party only to realize a day later that I had wired it incorrectly. If it is DOA, I hope they make you whole soon.

Cheers.

Every brand have a bad unit every now & again. SOme more than others. I don't know Numarks raputation in that area. I'd give it one more chance.

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ANY FURTHER UPDATES ON THE CDN25G?

Yes... I'm on my second unit... since my first unit came with one side DOA!

But this second unit has been impecable... really easy to use... no problems at all. I'm switching video with a Radio Shack video switch... which I labeled LEFT & RIGHT, so that I can figure out which side I'm working on...

I have actually used the pitch control to slow down certain songs, when people can't keep up with rapid-fire lyrics.

I like the fact that while one side is playing, I can set up the next song, even choose the track number and it will be cued and ready to go as soon as the other one finishes.

I did get a VocoPro unit in order to be able to change keys and being able to play DVD's if necessary and as a backup.

I would buy it again... as a matter of fact I did!

If you have any specific questions... you can post them here or PM me...

Good Luck!

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Frank
Pelican in Flight KJ/DJ
Miami, Florida

I use a pair of 4 input video switch boxes. I used an RCA F -> Twin RCA M cord to connect the two boxes. Each M RCA gets plugged into the box, the video cord from the player goes to the F RCA connection. I labeled one 'To Singer', and one 'DJ Booth'. I send the To singer output to an RF convertor and the DJ Booth output goes to a 5" LCD monitor I use for cueing songs (mainly from DVD/VCD since they take much longer to que up). Total cost was about $50 for the lot (cables and all) and works flawlessly.

On a side note, how does the VocoPro Key changer appear to hold up? I know they have a TERRIBLE reputation (at best) and if I go to the CDN-25 or towards the PCKJ products I'll need an external keychanger. If not VP then who else makes an external keychanger that's at least as good as the one on the JVC 333/RSQ333?

The Pioneer Laser karaoke players had an Aux input & allows the use of the players key changer.

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A few of the KJ's around here use the CDN25+G 2 tray players with the VocoPro KJ-7000 Pro digital mixing board. The board has video select switch and a key changer and 4 mic inputs.
For some reason every time one of the KJs would use the key changer for me if it had to drop more than 2 semitones it would give a strange monster voice out the speakers, like it was feeding back my vocals through the key changer as well. The KJ had real problems understanding his equipment and he still does, I don't think it was the fault of the VocoPro.

Can't comment on the reliability of the VocoPro player, since I've only used it in one gig, have owned it only a couple of weeks. But the internal key changer worked fine, no chipmunk or Darth Vader backup vocals. Again, this is a back up machine, which was bought less because of the brand and more because it was rackmountable, which it sort of is... and it has key changing...

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Frank
Pelican in Flight KJ/DJ
Miami, Florida

I just got the Numark CDN-25G and it's a huge improvement over my old player, which is now a backup. It cues up quicker, puts the track on pause ready to start, and has the second tray for my interlude music. Single-play mode is a godsend, so it doesn't keep playing if I get distracted. And one of these days, I'll use it for beatmixing on my own time.

A couple quirks though. First of all, if you leave the tray open for more than 10 seconds or so, it pulls it shut! So you have to have the disc ready when you pop it open, or you might end up setting it down a moment too late and get a disc wedged into the tray like I did once. Also, you can't eject when the disc is playing, which is actually a good thing, except that there is no "stop" button; you have to hit pause first.

Finally, when it loads up a disc and has it ready on pause, it actually reads in the first few seconds of the graphics which usually includes the song title splash screen. On my one SGB disc, it doesn't finish loading the whole thing and looks funny. It's nice seeing the song title like that. Only thing is that when you hit play, it starts the track over at the beginning, so you have to time the crossfade accordingly. Occasionally, it will start playing audio immediately without starting over, and discs without silence at the beginning will start playing immediately either way, so it can be a bit of an early start sometimes. If you select the track and push play before it's finished loading the disc, you can have it start immediately.

Altogether, it's been a good player. These quirks aren't explained in the manual, but I've gotten used to it and like it a lot. Once I hook up a video switch, I can put singers back to back with no interlude delay when it's busy at the end of the night.