Karaoke Forums

Hi, first off I would like to say that this site is awesome. Thank you for it, and everyone that posts and brings together a community of people with the common interest of karaoke.
Now here is my questions with the background information first.
I have been doing karaoke at home for 5 years and have acquired about 1500 discs.
I used a pioneer 5500 player, a 1050 vocopro mixer, a 8 channel rogue 80 watt amp and speakers, with 3 corded mics. Now I have upgraded to pyle 8000 wireless mics. and spent about 1 month, here and there converting the discs to my external 160 gig seagate harddrive. I use kjpro for my song book, all duplicates removed. I use my dell inspiron 9300 laptop w/ an external fan to keep it cool. I was using swift elite, but ordered compuhost to use, starting Tues.. My laptop has 1 gig of ram, 100 gig harddrive, 1.86 processor, upgraded sound and video card and just got an external soundblaster to use and the s video works great going to the tv. Now before I ask my questions, I have searched the forums and the internet for several hours before posting this.
Starting next week I am hosting in a local bar on Fri. and Sat. The bar usually has 100 or so people. The tvs are supplied, several small and a large screen. Lights are already setup and jbl speakers mounted on the walls, couldnt remember the model number, but they are not small. I will be using my laptop, disc player, wireless mics and a corded one for me, because the booth is seperate from the main floor, its in a corner and this is where I need help. What mixer and amp do I need to buy?Also what is the going rate min. and max. for 5 hrs. per show? Please help, Thank you

I'm not knowledgable enough to give any info but 1500 discs!

 :O  :O

We are just beginning with our karaoke experience too and I wan't to add our kudos to your messsage.  This site is awesome.  Today, in our busy world, these forums are our community.  Helpful, nice, knowledgeable, etc.etc.  Good luck with your gig, we hope to be doing the same thing soon----And thanks again to all of you that participate in this forum.

Wow 1500 discs and just starting to do a gig professionally! Pretty impressive collection for home use.

There are so many combinations to choose from. It would really help if we knew the model number of the speakers currently used at the venue. We could begin narrowing down the selection process for you.

As for what price to charge for the gig that really depends on what city you are in. Can't tell where you are from by your profile info. Probably somewhere between
$150 and $250 per show, but this varies greatly with your market, experience, and type of venue. If they have a crowd of 100 or more on the weekends they can certianly afford the higher end of that price range but it really depends on the competition and what they are charging. I would say do a little research in your area and price yourself similar to your equally equipped competitor.

It's always easier to start high and come down than to price yourself too low and get your price up.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Hello again,
First , thank you for the replies so far.
I live in the Chicagoland area, South suburbs.
The speakers are JBL JRX115 15' 2-Way Speaker Cabinet.
Any and all sugestions are welcome and I really appreciate it.
Thank you

the 115's are passive speakers meaning they need amplification. They are rated for 250 watts @ 8ohms.

Next question will be do you want to rackmount your amp and mixer or do you want an amp/mixer in one unit?

You can use a Powered Mixer (amp/mixer) combined togther I currently use a Yamaha EMX5000 that would work fine for this setup. Just replaced my old powered mixer with this unit and I'm very happy...price was $649

There are many choices for separate Amp Mixer units. I like the Mackie DFX12 series for Mixer board. I have this board on my 2nd system.

As for amplifiers I purchased a used amp for my backup system. There are plenty of KJ's on this forum that can assist you with what amp would be best for your venue.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Hi, yes I want to use a seperate amp and mixer. For right now the it will not be in a rack, beacuse there are shelves and a table in the dj booth. I am still over whelmed by which mixer to use? one with video or just to mix the mics. and music. thank you

Hi, would a VocoPro KJ-7800PRO and a crown xls 402 be a wise buy? Thanks

A Crown XLS 402 would be selling your self a bit short. I would at least go with a xls 602 Musicians Friend has them for $350.

I personally own 4 of them they are great small application amplifers and the Crown warrenty is worth it's weight in gold. 3 years if anything goes wrong, they give you a new one.

Mixer Definatly Yamaha MG 16/4 if you need effects they they have a model with onboard effects.

Thank you for the advice on the amp, I am going to definately buy it tommorrow. On the mixer I still need some help. Thank you

The mixers everyone is suggesting look good, but when adding 3 sources of video, how do i encorporate them in? The on screen for the singer using the laptop or switching to the cdg player, and the video camera when people are singing? thank you, thats why i am looking at the vocopro and the soundtech kj3000, thank you

Everyone here will tell you when it comes to any Voco Pro Gear to run the other direction.

If you were just using a computer and a cd+g player most would suggest just a simple switch from radio shack.

The true problem is that when you get into actual video mixers they are very expensive. The Voco Pro is not a true video mixer anyhow it actually just has a switch for the video one each channel it does not actually fade video sources together it just turns one off and another on.

The only true video mixer on the market right now are:

http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem. ... =NAVM01XXX

http://www.zzounds.com/item--KORKF4

Those are the 2 most popular.

You still would need to run your audio into a mixer as mentioned.

I would agree that the VOCOPRO mixer looks very attractive on paper
I've used the KJ700 in the past and it worked fine for awhile.
But then I had problems with - mic channels - effects  etc etc .
I would suggest for a table or shelve type set up - The Mackie DFX 12
It's a great little mixer with effects  - but only has a HIGH and LOW eq on the individual channles.  NOt a real big problem but ..could be .  I've used the DFX12 in the past but went to a rackable BEHRINGER 1222FX .So far  I like this mixer and have had no problems.  AS FAR AS VIDEO --I would suggest you just go to Radio Shack and get a VIDEO switcher .  If you plan to do some real video DJ'ing and mixing --Then you'll have no choice but to spend big bucks for a video mixer.

The Crown amps are a good choice-also suggest you get as big an amo as you can afford ...Just for the future not to mention a cleaner sound .

Wow you guys are awesome. Now I am getting it to sink into my head. Thank you

Hi, is it the usb model? would a usb mixer be good to use? thank you

USB mixers are fairly new on the market. I can't compare most of the usb mixers but the technology is fairly new.  I have been thinking about picking up a NuMark DJ mixer that has 2 usb onboard sound cards.

The only mixer that I can honestly say that works well is the mackie Onxy series they have a firewire card that can be bought as an add on. I do not know that it can accept input from a computer, I only used it as output. I know there are a few guys that have Mackie Onyx mixers that might be able to better answer the firewire capabilities.

Hi, has anyone used this model Alesis MultiMix 12USB Mixer, thanks
I want a mixer than can accept 2 or 3 rca inputs, any ideas, thanks

The Alesis is a copy of a Behringer and the Behringer the copy of a Mackie.

Honestly go with a Yamaha MG 16/4 you will not be disapointed.
8 Mono XLR ins and 4 1/4" Stereo in. You will just convert your rca to 1/4"with an adapter from Radio Shack.

I use 4 mic channels, 2 channels as effects return. 1 Stereo Channel for My Main Sound Card, 1 Stereo for my Monitor / secondary sound card. 1 Stereo channel for a cd+g player, and The last channel of either my back Up Pc or iPod.

Just note that the Yamaha does not have an on board EQ section whether 5 or 7 band .  You may need to go out an buy a seperate EQ unit.  Again if you are not  RACKING this could be a P in the A.

Hi, here is what i bought to try out:
qsc1450
mackie dmx6

Thank you for all of the help