|
|
|
Getting the Most From the Karaoke
Equipment No matter what karaoke venue you are at, there will always be similarities and differences. One of those will be in the type of karaoke equipment used. All of the venues of course will have the basic karaoke equipment such as disks, the karaoke player, speakers, and microphones. Some venues will also have a floor monitor. All of these pieces of karaoke equipment will differ in make and quality. For the average club singer the karaoke equipment does not really make that much of a difference as long as we have a microphone to sing into and a screen to read from. However, without getting too technical I would like to give a few tips that you may wish to incorporate or at least be aware of. The Karaoke Player The first piece of
karaoke equipment that I will mention is the karaoke player. The host is the only person that touches most pieces of karaoke equipment and will set your song and adjust your
volume and echo if needed, to appropriate levels. Unless
you are the host the only feature you will need to familiarize
yourself with is the key changer. The
key changer allows the song to be played in a higher or a lower key than the recorded song. So if the song is too high
for you to sing to in the regular key you may wish to request on your slip that it be played (for example) -1 or -2 depending
on how low you would want it taken. You would reverse the request for taking the song higher. The Speakers and Floor Monitor The next pieces of karaoke
equipment I want to mention are the speakers and the floor monitor. A floor monitor looks like a speaker but faces the singer. Very basically speaking the speakers send your voice to the audience and the monitor sends your
voice back to you. When the singer sings they are able to hear themselves. Sometimes the speakers are set
high and the singer has a hard time hearing their own voice and music. Whether there is a monitor or not the singer
should move between the pieces of karaoke equipment that are there until they can hear their voices and the music clearly.
In some venues this is not an issue at all while in others is seems to be. The Disks The disks that are used are host selected. Some hosts prefer certain brands of disks over others. There are CDGs and VDGs, here are song chips and some have their lists right on a computerized system and need no disks. You do not need to worry about these. The only reason why I am going to mention this part of the karaoke equipment is that some brands seem to be more popular than others. Because some of the brands are created in other countries, sometimes the words are misspelled or even incorrect. My tip here is to keep record of the numbers that you like to sing and you will begin to notice a trend in the numbers you like best. Sometimes there is the same song listed more than once and you will then be aware of the disk you wish to use. Also something to keep in mind, is that some hosts will allow singers to bring in disks. Some singers have home karaoke systems and have disks that the hosts may not have. Some singers have disks created with specific songs on their personalized disks, therefore allowing them to have all their personal favorites on that particular disk. While a host may allow you to bring in a disk to be used you should not bring in and use songs that the host already has. They are supplying the service and it is harder for them to have to handle and set disks that are not theirs and within their system. Some hosts will not allow disks other than theirs to be used. Best to check.
** Got a favorite kind of disk? Why not tell us what you like in a comment or a post? **
Last But Not Least These pieces of karaoke equipment that have been covered on this page are pieces that we as singers have no real control over. The host is the master of these pieces and thankfully we don't have to worry about anything but holding the microphone and singing. Which brings me to the only piece of karaoke equipment that the singer actually has any control over. Because it is a very important tool for us and there are several tips that we need to know about it. I have devoted an entire page to our last piece of karaoke equipment....the microphone.
|