First of all, let me say that, next to being an applied mathematician, being a KJ is one of the best jobs around. I mean... you get to listen to absolutely fabulous renditions of the most popular songs around. You get to be around people who are drunk, without having to get drunk yourself. Respect... tell me, who gets more respect than a KJ? Really. Who?
Well, ok. Most politicians get more respect than KJs. And politicians get to hang around with Sarah Palin. That's a perk.
Me? I'm in it for the groupies. I was just talking about that with Jaggar the other night. Yeah. He's envious. He wishes he would have decided to become a KJ. I told him there is still time. Naturally, he asked about the kind of equipment he might need. This series of blogs is a summary of what I told him.
What equipment do I need in order to enter the prosperous and glamorous profession of karaoke hosting?
I have been asked this question more than a few times, so I thought it might be worthwhile to dedicate a series of blogs to answering the question. I hope to put this at a level where it can be easily understood by the layman or laywoman who needs a little background into putting a system together.
Disclaimers
1. This is not a series of blogs for the sound system engineer. I have chosen at times to sacrifice less critical details in favor or succinctness and clarity. If someone corrects me on pesky facts, I will reiterate this disclaimer so that I don't have to admit my ignorance.
2. This is not intended to be a buyers guide. I will mention specific products and reference specific websites that sell stuff. Please interpret these as examples and not as endorsements. If and when some manufacturer or retailer decides to give me some money, then I will be happy to state that their equipment is the best stuff around.
3. If you wanna hang out with Sarah Palin, that's your business. I would prefer to just listen to the media poke fun at the stupid things that she says.
4. If you are confused reading these posts, just imagine how confused I am! Have a little compassion, ok?
System diagram
Below is a diagram of a generic karaoke system, indicating all the parts that must be present in a karaoke system. Karaoke systems will box these pieces into subunits in different ways, but all karaoke systems need to have these parts. In the next post, I will gives some examples of how manufacturers combine different parts together in order to confuse people and talk about how these pieces can be brought together to make a complete system.
Karaoke tunes
Just like every CD player needs CDs, and every DVD player needs DVDs, and every KJ groupie needs KJs, every karaoke system needs karaoke tunes. As a KJ, you need to decide whether a) you are gonna be a scumbag pirate who enjoys the idea of paying tens of thousands of dollars in fines when he/she is finally caught, and really doesn't mind stealing from the very people that allow them to make money, or b) you are gonna run your karaoke as a real business and an ethical business. If you decide that you actually want to deserve the incredible respect that a KJ gets, then you should realistically figger on spending thousands of dollars on tunes.
In a subsequent post, I will discuss the various formats of karaoke songs: CDG disks, DVDs, midi, mp4, bin, and mp3+cdg files. The wonderful thing about standards is there are so many to choose from. I am sure you will find that post absolutely riveting.
Music player
You will need something to play the music. Well, duh. This is analogous to a CD player or WinAmp or an iPod. I will discuss the various options in yet another absolutely riveting post. Surprisingly, the options for karaoke look a lot like a CD player, WinAmp, and an iPod.
Mics
If you want someone to sing, you probably oughta give them a microphone. Maybe this isn't essential? I suppose you could be running karaoke in someone's living room, or in a karaoke booth. Or in your shower? Maybe you won't need any mics then. But, if you are doing karaoke in the shower, you probably will need me. Give me a call, ok? Well... unless you are a guy. You probably won't need me if you are a guy.
In my post about karaoke mics, I will discuss wireless and wired mics,and also look at the trade offs between cheap, lousy mics and expensive, high quality mics. I don't wanna spoil the suspense, but cheap mics are less expensive than expensive mics. Lousy mics are not as good as expensive mics.
Mixer
My wife's mixer is a KitchenAid. She loves it. I just haven't had much luck doing karaoke with it. (Maybe I will ask her to make some karaoke bars some day. and maybe she will ask me to stop making stupid puns.)
A karaoke system needs to combine several sound sources - at least one vocal and one backup track. A mixer needs to have some way to adjust the volume on each of these. A mixer should also allow you to adjust the bass and treble kinda stuff for each sound source. A mixer should also give you the ability to separately adjust the volume to various speakers. Also, a mixer should allow you to add some special effects. I will go into each of these in, you guessed it, another post.
Amp
Microphones and iPods and CD players don't put out a lot of power, and a mixer does little to make the signal any more powerful. An amp takes the minuscule output from the mixer and converts it to a level that can actually drive the speakers. I will talk about amps in another post. Fascinating stuff, really.
Speakers
Speakers are called transducers. A transducer turns power of one sort into power of another sort. In the case of a speaker, the electrical power coming out of the amp is turned into vibrations in the air, that is, into sound. Woofers, tweeters, subwoofers - all subjects for a subsequent post.
Another thing that I will add to this post is a discussion about the monitor speakers. Very important, and often forgotten.
Technical stuff
Unfortunately, you have to know a bit of technical stuff in order to get the amp and the speakers to play well together. And to get an idea just how much power you need for a gig. This post will help? Maybe?
Lyrics generator
So far, it's all been about the sound. Lets not forget about the words. In order to get most people to sing, you need to put the words in front of their face. There needs to be a piece of software somewhere in the system that translates the words that are encrypted in one of the karaoke formats into a signal for some sort of display.
Video display
And finally, you need a display for the user to see the music. This could be a TV screen, or it could be a computer monitor. But it could be something else? To find out, you will have to read the post on video displays for karaoke systems.
Tying it all together
Cables. Forgotten, maligned, disparaged, often abused, and generally misunderstood. It's no wonder so may cables wind up in therapy.
The post on cables will discuss the three basic types of signals that cables need to transmit, and the plethora of connectors that could be put on the ends of these cables. The wonderful thing about standards is there are so many to choose from.
Menu of subsequent posts
Part 2a: Examples of all-in-one systems
Part 2b: Examples of systems, working dog category
Part 3: Formats for karaoke tunes
Part 4: Microphony for karaoke
Part 5: Mixing it up
Part 6: Karaoke system amp
Part 7: Speakers - getting those karaoke vibrations going
Part 8: Watts and RMS and Ohms, oh my!
Part 9: Getting the word out
Part 10: Tying it all together
Copyright (c) 2010, John Seymour
2 comments:
Great info!
Thanks for the feedback, Blanca! I'm glad you have found it useful.
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