So you wanna be a karaoke host? ( Part 6: Karaoke system amp)

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There is a big question when putting a karaoke system together. How big? How many watts do you need?

Naturally size matters. Especially if you are a guy. More horsepower... more terabytes in your iPod... more watts in your karaoke system. All that stuff. I think it's part of the natural selection process. Male peacocks with the biggest tail feathers are the most successful at attracting mates, and so it is with KJs and watts.

But how much do you really need?

Bad news
The bad news is that watts are expensive and that you probably need a lot of them.

In an earlier post on how bands got their names, I reported that Deep Purple once held the Guinness record for the loudest band. The record is currently held by KISS, with a performance that reached 136 decibels. For reference, hearing damage starts at around 120 decibels, and the "threshold of pain" is above 130. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a reference to that wattage for that concert.

Just how expensive is an amp?  The chart below is a plot of dollars per watt for a series of amps that I trust from an online vendor that I trust. As a rule of thumb, divide the wattage in half and add thirty. If you figure you need 500W, then the amp will cost about $280. I made this chart, by the way. Did I mention that I am a mathematician?

 
In future generations, this rule of thumb will become known as Seymour's Rule of Amp Pricing. In future generations, this rule of thumb will be obsoleted by inflation, and eventually, by technology. This is in accordance of Seymour's Rule of the Obsolescence of Rules.

Enthusiasts of the history of science will recognize a similarity of this rule to Stigler's law of eponymy, which states that "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." This law was first discovered by Robert Merton, so naturally, it was named after Stigler.

Enough digression. Here is an important corollary of Seymour's Rule of Amp Pricing. It is more cost effective to buy a single amp with twice the power than it is to buy two amps.

For example, the Crown XLS 202D sells for $200 and generates 300 watts. I could get 600 watts if I buy two of them, and it would cost me $400. Alternately, I could buy the Crown XLS 602D, which is rated at 600 watts, and it would cost me $300. Not only is the bigger amp cheaper, but it is less total weight and less to schlep around.


Watts and specs
Before we talk about how many watts a KJ needs, we need to set some ground rules about specing of amps. The problem is, it is confusing.

First, there is the issue of the units that one uses. Some manufacturers spec out their amps in terms of watts peak-to-peak and some use watts RMS. Peak to peak numbers are given when a manufacturer wants to artificially inflate their specs, since peak-to-peak numbers are almost six times as large as RMS numbers.

Another very helpful way that a manufacturer can confuse a prospective KJ is to speak in terms of total power rather than watts per channel. Another bad thing. Well... it's actually not all that terrible. If an amp has two channels (i.e. stereo), you just add the watts RMS. Just be careful when reading the specs.

The next confusing thing is exemplified in a spec on the Crown XLS 202D: "330W/ch @ 2 ohms, 300W/ch @ 4 ohms, 200W/ch @ 8 ohms, 660W bridged mono @ 4 ohms, 600W bridged mono @ 8 ohms." Depending on which number you look at, the amp could be rated at anywhere from 200 watts per channel to 660 watts per channel.

Isn't this deceptive advertising? Actually, not at all. The specs merely reflect the power output that you get with different configurations of speakers. You just have to know a bit about your speakers in order to properly read the specs. In particular, you need to know a bit about ohms.

Ohms
To clarify right off... I am not talking about the kind of oms involved in transcendental meditation.

Speakers are generally described in terms of their resistance, which is measured in ohms. What does that mean?  Well, I could explain it, but the simple explanation requires some explanation of electronics, and the correct explanation says that ohms are actually meaningless when you talk about speakers.

So, let's just say that a typical speaker is 8 ohms and forget the details. Generally speaking, if the speaker has one woofer, it will be 8 ohms. Not always, but usually. If you plug one speaker into each channel of the amp, then the spec from the amp that is relevant is the "watts per channel at 8 ohms" number. In the case of the Crown amplifier, this relevant number is 200W.

With this particular Crown amp (and with most decent amps, for that matter) you can plug two 8 ohm speakers into each channel without blowing up the amp. How can you tell if an amp will blow up with two sets of speakers?

When you plug two speakers in, the resistance (that is, the ohms) of the speakers gets cut in half. If you plug two 8 ohm speakers into each channel, the load for each channel becomes 4 ohms. And now the applicable spec on the amplifier is "300W/ch @ 4 ohms". Just by virtue of the fact that the amp has a power rating for 4 ohms, you know that you can plug in two 8 ohm speakers.

So... hmmmm.... we doubled the number of speakers and the power went from 200 watts per channel up to 300 watts per channel?  That doesn't seem fair! We didn't get twice the power.  :(

I agree that it's not fair, but it's reality. There is a certain amount of inefficiency when you plug two speakers into the same channel. And this leads to another important point: It is more cost effective to run a single set of speakers per channel.

These important points lead in the same direction. Buy a bigger amp, dude, and use a single set of speakers.

That said, I am going to make a case for plugging in multiple sets of speakers. You probably have noticed this, but the closer you get to a speaker, the louder it is. If I have one speaker, and try tomake it loud enough on the opposite side of the room, it will necessarily be too loud near the speaker. If I add a second speaker, with proper spacing, the overall sound levels are more consistent around the room. Each set of speakers that I scatter throughout the room makes the sound level more even.

In a larger room, I will run with two sets of speakers to get this evenness.

Caveats
For the more technically adept: I need to clear some stuff up. I have made a whole bunch of simplifications in describing this stuff above.

When I talked about the resistance for speakers plugged into the same channel, I was assuming that the speakers had the same resistance. The formula is more complicated if the speakers have different resistances.

Another simplification is thatI have assumed that the speakers are combined in parallel, rather than in series. If you go out of your way with a soldering iron you could combine speakers in series. But, if you use standard plugs and cables in the way they were intended, your speakers will be in parallel.

The third simplification was in my discussion of using multiple sets of speakers. I neglected to say that if the listening areas of the speakers overlap, you will get dead spots from phase cancellation. Analyzing this is very complicated. Don't go crazy with it.

Yet another simplification was that I completely avoided talking about the bridged mono mode for an amp. Let's agree to ignore this. Well... unless you get a passive subwoofer. Then I recommend bringing in a sound pro just to make sure.


How many watts do I need?
Boy... good question.

"It all depends" is a good answer, although probably not all that useful. But of course wattage requirements do depend on a lot of things. I should be honest, though. The real reason I say "depends" is to avoid having to accept any responsibility for my actions.

The first big question to ask is whether you want to do outdoor gigs. If a gig is outdoor, the PA is going to be a lot less efficient. A lot. I mean, a lot. There is nothing to contain the sound, so it will just get lost. Most importantly, the bass will get lost. My opinion... if you are playing a gig outside, you should look into adding a subwoofer. You only need one because the stereo effect is less pronounced at low frequencies. But you do need one.

Another important variable is the efficiency of the speakers. I will discuss this in the section about speakers.

(Now I will actually get down to giving some advice.)

The wattage requirement also depends on the size of the venue. Here is one advisor that gives a specific number: "If you intend using the machine at parties or small social events you will need at least 80 watts (2 speakers at 40 watts each)."  Sounds pretty cool. We can get off really cheap!

I am not so excited about 80 watts. The only gig that I have run where 80 watts is sufficient is my New Year's Eve party. This is maybe 20 people, in my living room. And we are generally somewhat older, so we don't need to have music quite so loud. And with 80 watts, the music doesn't interfere much with conversation.

Musician's Friend has a "PA System Buying Guide" that I recommend reading. They offer some advice on power requirements that I find more reasonable:

"The size of the venue you play in can help you determine the continuous power handling (wattage) your system will need. For example, smaller gigs, conferences, lectures, and outdoor meetings may need about 350-500 watts, while club bands, garage bands, and mobile DJs may need 500-1,000+ watts."

 
Here is a different expert who gives a number in terms of people. If we assume that karaoke fits into the category of "bands and average size venues", then 3 to 4 watts per person (in the audience) is recommended. So, if there are 50 people listening to karaoke, you need something like 150 to 200 watts.

The karaoke pundits put a slightly larger number on it. The number tossed about in this forum is around 10 watts per person. So, if you have a venue with 100 people, then they might recommend 1,000 watts.

The Crown amp that I mentioned above (the XLS 202D) puts out 200 watts per channel into a pair of 8 ohm speakers. So, with one set of speakers, you get a total of 400 watts. With two sets of speakers (the equivalent of one 4 ohm speaker per channel, the amp will put out 300 watts per channel, for a total of 600 watts.

I have this amp. I have run gigs where 400 watts (with one set of speakers) is fine. I have had other gigs where 600 watts (two sets of speakers) falls a bit short... I wind up pushing the amp a bit harder than I would like.

For larger gigs, I now bring one set of passive speakers (speakers that run from the amp) along with one set of active speakers (speakers with their own amps). My active speakers are the Behringer B212A speakers, that put out 250 watts each. Thus, I get a total of 400 watts from the passive speakers and 500 watts from the active, for a total of 900 watts. Still, I sometimes feel I would like to push a bit more. I have my eye on a Crown XLS 802D...

So, I am gonna agree with that range of 200 to 1,000 watts. To make most customers happy, I think a KJ should be set up to deliver something like that amount of power. o make the KJ happy, you need to push toward the other end.

Now for the weaselwords. If you are running outdoors, you should really consider getting a subwoofer. And more power. And if you are running a large club, then you will probably need a whole lot more power, but (my experience) large clubs usually have their own sound system. And they will usually allow you to hook into their system.

Copyright (c) 2010, John Seymour

So you wanna be a karaoke host? (Part 4: Microphony for karaoke)

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Ok, so, I was checking out the mics before a show. The club manager, Mike, was standing at the end of my row of mics. I spoke into the mic at the end and said "mic three". I spoke into the next mic and said "mic two". Then "mic one". I stepped over and looked into the manager's face and said "Mike zero". He laughed. He's a good guy. I make dumb jokes.

Trying to sell you on buying a decent mic
The requirements for a karaoke microphone are fairly simple. It must be rugged and it must not make decent singers sound bad. Oh, and it's gotta be cheap. Not much to ask! Oh yeah, one more thing: it's gotta make people look cool.

Rugged is important. Karaoke singers routinely abuse the mics. They spill beer on them, blow cigarette smoke into them, spit on them, drop them, scream into them, swing them by their cords, and every once in a while, they throw them. So you either must buy really cheap mics and consider them disposable, or you must get mics that can stand the abuse.

Really cheap mics, of course, make people sound like they are singing into a really cheap mic. Sometimes maybe that's the effect you are going for, but I'm guessing not. (Then again, this is karaoke. I mean, get real.)

Cheap mics do two things that expensive mics won't do. Well, besides being inexpensive. Cheap mics will give you a really cool "singing into a can" sound. Chicks dig that. Cheap mics will also "bottom out" - that is, they will distort badly when you sing too loud. Again, chicks dig this. There was an evolutionary advantage to this. Guys that could sing loud were just plain better at scaring away saber-toothed tigers.

Seriously, I bought a cheap wireless lapel mic for my wife (the Gypsy Songstress) for her singing gigs. It was less than $20, which was great. It sounded lousy. Which was not great. Not much of an evolutionary advantage there. I invested in a more expensive wireless mic... still not excellent sound quality, but I was only willing to put $100 into it. I'm cheap. Which is another evolutionary disadvantage for me.

How do you know if a mic is a cheap mic? Well, the price is one give-away. And the case... is it plastic? If a mic has an attached cord, rather than a detachable cord, it is likely to be lower quality. How about the plug? If it comes with a quarter inch plug or 1/8" plug (as shown below), it is likely not high quality.

Professionals use mics with what is called an XLR connector, shown below. This sort of connector and cable will reduce the chances of an unwanted hum sneaking into the system. Why? Read the post on "Tying it all together".

Decent quality mic
There are two common types of mics: dynamic and condensor. A recording studio engineer or member of Aerosmith or the guy in the music department at WalMart might tell you that you need to buy a condensor mic. Arguably, some of the best mics are condensor mics.

But for karaoke, there are reasons to go with a dynamic mic. First, condensor mics tend to be a bit more fragile than dynamic mics. Second, condensor mics need what is called "phantom power". You need to run a high voltage (but very weak) signal to the microphone for power. A decent mixer will give you this signal, but if you have an indecent mixer, you may not even be able to use a condensor mic.

Dynamic mics may not be the highest quality, but, let's face it, this is not a recording studio. This isn't even Summerfest. (Interesting thing here... I sang at Summerfest once. They had a karaoke stage. Great fun. I thought I sounded pretty good. Too bad the audience couldn't hear how fabulous I sounded inside my head.) My own opinion is that a decent dynamic mic will give you a pretty good sound.

As I have said in this tutorial, I am not about to recommend equipment, like for example, the Shure SM58. I would not think of saying anything like the Shure SM58 is a mic that gives an excellent sound and really holds up to any sort of abuse. And I certainly won't mention that I own six of these puppies. I don't. I own seven.

 
The Shure SM58 sells for $99. Shure won't allow them to be sold cheaper. If you are buying a new mic for less, then it's probably a cheap knock off. And it's likely that it does not have the sound quality or durability. I found a very good description of how to tell a real SM 58.

You may ask if I paid $99 for my Shure mics? I bought several used mics on eBay for less. I think at least one of them was a knock-off. You pays your money, you takes your chances.

Omnidirectional versus cardioid
If you happen to use a mic other than the SM 58, you should know one very important distinction about mics. This is more important than all my useless drivel about cheap versus expensive and dynamic versus condensor.

Microphones are designed to either collect sound from all directions (omnidirectional) or to collect sound preferentially from one direction (unidirectional, cardioid, or hyper-cardioid). Omnidirectional mics are great for studios, but are a big problem if they are used with PA equipment. The problem is feedback.

Think of a movie scene where someone steps up to talk into a microphone. The guy who puts the sound togerther for the movie will cue up a stock sound clip of feedback. There will momentarily be a weee-ooow. This sound is the universally accepted indication that what you will hear next is coming from a PA system. I've started noticing this in movies. Totally ruins the movies for me. 

We have all heard feedback. Feedback is that high pitched squeal that occurs when a sound is picked up by the mic, amplified and sent out to the speakers, and then picked up again by the microphone only to get amplified even further, and so on. Kinda like rumors of Sarah Palin running for president. Feedback, like Sarah Palin in the White House, is generally not considered a good thing.

One good way to assure that you will always get lots of feedback is to use an omnidirectional mic. If for some reason you or your patrons don't appreciate loud shrill noises that completely drown out the singer and the music, then I would recommend using a cardioid (or hyper-cardioid) mic.

The cardioid mic, when pointed directly at the singer's mouth, will not be particularly sensitive to the sound coming from the speakers, and feedback will be avoided. At least until the singer decides to stop pouring beer into the mic and point the mic directly at the main speakers. Wow. That's cool. A good reason for you to have one hand at all times on the volume control for the mics.

By the way singers, point the mic at your mouth, ok? Unless you wanna look cool. It looks cool to hold the mic above your mouth, pointed down at your toes. It just doesn't sound as good. Oh, and close your eyes, too.

Another way that a singer can absolutely guarantee that they generate lots of the sort of ear-splitting feedback that the audience will love is to cup the microphone. I don't quite know why, but some people mistake the ball at the end of the mic for a handle. They will wrap their hand completely around the ball of the mic so as to keep any of their lovely voice from being heard. The part of their voice that does make it into the mic will make them sound like they have their head deep in a toilet bowl. This also drives chicks wild.

On top of this, cupping the mic will disturb the very carefully engineered sound pattern of the mic. And because of this, I guarantee there will be feedback. But damn! People really look cool when they use the mic ball as a handle.

While I am on the subject of feedback, lemme put in a plug for my post "Speakers - getting those karaoke vibrations going". This post talks about how to position speakers to avoid feedback.

Keeping one hand on the volume control
Feedback is one reason to keep monitoring the volume on the mics. Another reason is that singers come in all shapes and sizes. And their voices do as well. Most audio engineers have the luxury to set mic volumes before the show. A karaoke host is paid the huge bucks because he/she must be constantly raising the volume for timid voices and dropping the volume for people with huge or excessively annoying  voices.

As you get used to your equipment, you will learn how to adjust bass and treble for each singer. I have noticed that some people sound great when you boost the bass a little, and for some people you really need to cut out some of the highs. Some people need to cut out the highs. But that's a whole 'nother subject.

Keeping the mics straight
If you run your karaoke show with only one mic, then you don't need to read this section. Of course, in my opinion, every professional karaoke host will have three mics on stage available for the singers and at least one mic for the host. But, I don't want to criticize others. BTW, I have three mics on stage available for the singers and at least one mic for the host.

If you have decided that you want to be considered a great karaoke host, then you will have several mics so that the guy and the gal each have a mic when they sing "I Got You Babe" or the naughty version of "Summer Nights". And when you have that duet singing, you will invariably need to individually adjust the volume to balance the two singers.



When I first started this great job, I put colored electrical tape on each of the mics. After the first night, I realized that I needed to put different colors of tape on the mics if I was going to tell the difference. (It really doesn't take me long to figger this stuff out. Who says I'm not the sharpest crayon in the shed?) So, the second night I wrapped different colors of tape on each mic. And I put matching tape on the ends of the mic cables.

This was great, but I eventually came to a better solution. I now put the colored tape on each end of the mic cables, and nothing on the mics. This way, I don't have the problem of trying to match the color of the mic with the color of the cable when I set up. And another bonus... when people hold a mic with tape on it, the tape will eventually slide and people's hands will get sticky. Gross.

Wireless vs wired
Another popular option for karaoke mics is the wireless mic. This mic saves time setting up, since you don't need to run the cables. There is one less cable for singers to trip on, which is good. And the singer is free to wander around the room so that they can hit on various people in the audience.

This last thing can be good or bad. Some people in the audience, believe it or not, don't appreciate some random singer hitting on them when they are trying to concentrate on drinking their beer. Go figger. People who like getting drunk shouldn't hang out at karaoke bars. Ummm.. wait. I take that back. I keep forgetting what the whole point of karaoke is.

Another bad thing about a singer wandering around through the bar with a mic is that they will be out there where the main speakers are loud. Just in case you kinda missed the whole section on feedback, this can be a problem.

Another downside to wireless mics is that, for the same quality of mic, wireless mics will be more expensive. The wireless version of my favorite Shure SM58 runs about $600. I don't have one, by the way. If I did, I would not use it for karaoke. (Note, you can find the "handheld transmitter" for a bunch less, but you still need to buy the little box that receives the signal from the mic.)

Batteries for your wireless mic
Here's a little tip about batteries. The handheld part of the wireless mic needs a 9V battery. The battery generally runs out after one night of karaoke... you need a fresh battery for every gig.

This is expensive and also a bit disturbing if you happen to have any "green" thoughts about the proper disposal of batteries. You might immediately think ":rechargeable batteries", but I have a caution. Don't use NiCad rechargeables. You just won't get any kind of battery life out of them. They won't make it through a show. I recently discovered a new type of rechargeable battery, the Ni-MH battery. To my delight, these batteries are relatively cost-effective, and they do hold a charge long enough to make it through a show.

Copyright (c) 2010, John Seymour

So you wanna be a karaoke host? (Part 3: Formats for karaoke tunes)

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A popular question in Yahoo Answers is this: "How can I remove the vocals from this song?" I think the hope is that you can send an mp3 file through a magic piece of software and the vocals will go away, leaving just the instrumental parts. Cool. I wish it would work.

Sometimes this could work. Sometimes, when the studio mixes a track, they will put some instruments and the vocal in one channel, and some other instruments and the vocal in the other channel. By subtracting one from the other, you should get just the instrumentals. It would be great if they did that all the time. I don't think it's all that common.

Another way that the vocals could be removed - kinda - is by using "sophisticated mathematical algorithms". Neural networks. Wavelets. Fourier transforms. As an applied mathematician, I have learned that if it's easy for a person to do, it's hard for a computer. It's pretty easy for a human to isolate the vocals in a song. Computers have a lot of trouble with that. 

So how do they create karaoke songs, Mr. Smarty-pants Math Dude Revelator?

One way they could do it is to remix the original tracks. Rather than add Lady Gaga into the mix, they could just leave her out. They could, but the studios aren't particularly interested in that. Karaoke is such a tiny market. And the distribution channels are different. And the original recording artists would get a cut.

So, studio musicians are hired by karaoke studios to re-create the instrumental parts of a song. For a very good karaoke studio, this is a laborious process, listening over and over to get every rift and nuance correct. For other karaoke studios, this could be some guy picking out the melody on a synthesizer.

Next, the words are typed in and sequenced with the music. The computer then knows when to display the words and when to highlight them. The music and the words are then assembled onto a CD+G format disc.

CD+G? What's that? 
I'm glad you asked. When the format for a CD was decided upon, there was a small amount of space left on the disk. Someone came up with the idea that it might be useful to stuff some low resolution graphics in that extra space. This extension to the standard CD format was called CD+G for "compact disk plus graphics". Later, someone hit on this as an ideal format for karaoke.

If you put a CD+G disk into a standard CD player, it will play just like a regular CD, only without the vocals. Naturally, the graphics part will not show up. If you play that same CD on your computer using Windows Media Player or iTunes or WinAmp, you still won't see the graphics. You need a special program to display the graphics as the music is being played. Three examples of such programs are: Siglos, RoxBox, and Karma, but I talked about these in the previous post.

A few years back, if you wanted to be a KJ, you would buy a special CD+G player. This would connect to your audio equipment and to a TV and you would be all set. Well... except that you would need the CD+G disks. And probably a lot of them. Several hundred maybe? That can be a lot of CDs to schlep around, and a lot of CDs to sort through when looking for a song.

Just like regular DJs, KJs are making the transition from CD players to computers. Enter the mp3+G format. As I mentioned before, karaoke CDs are just like regular CDs in terms of the music. Naturally, you can rip the music to an mp3 file just like a standard CD. Karaoke ripping programs will do this normal rip, but will also create a second file for the graphics that is hidden on the CD+G disk. These graphic are stored in a file with a .cdg extension.

So, if you rip your karaoke CD with Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", you will find two files: "Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit.mp3", and "Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit.cdg".

The two files, the .mp3 and the .cdg, will likely be about the same size. As for disk space, I figger about 200 songs per gigabyte for karaoke. 

Where do I find these karaoke tunes?
I have two favorite sites to buy karaoke tunes: karaoke.com and buy karaoke downloads. Here is a more complete list of where to look.

The first site sells mostly CDs, although they have downloads now as well. The cost of karaoke CDs is similar to the price of regular CDs. You can find cheap cheap CDs for a few bucks. I have paid $30 for a single CD. Their prices for downloads are currently 99 cents a song, generally.

The second site sells individual downloads for anywhere from 99 cents to two bucks, with a 20% discount after you buy five songs. They claim they have 20,000 songs, but there are a lot of songs not available. I go to karaoke.com when I can't find it at buy karaoke downloads.

The second website is great for me during a gig. If the venue has wireless, and someone asks for a song I don't have, I can often download it and have it right there. I don't know if patrons are impressed by this, but they sure should be.

Those are my two favorite sites. Here are a few others: Loud Karaoke, Ace Karaoke, and Tricerasoft. Since I have not dealt much with them, I can't recommend them.

How many songs do I need?
In order to be considered a big shot KJ, how many songs do you need? My experience has been that no matter how many songs you have, there will be people disappointed that you don't have their favorite song. My opinion - you need a few thousand songs at least.

For my first big gig, I had 3,844 songs. (Math geeks will immediately recognize this number as 62 squared.) In that first year, I was buying CDs every week. Now, I am at something over 8,200 songs, and I have slowed down the frantic buying.

At the other extreme, I visited two bars in New Orleans that offered karaoke. Each of the bars had a list of songs that was two pages long. Huh? I don't get it. Bourbon Street is not the main street of Karaokeville.

Ripping
Important point here for the KJ wannabe. This is gonna take a bunch of time. When you order a stack of CDs from karaoke.com, and they arrive in the mail, you could use them directly in your laptop. But you are gonna wanna rip them to your hard drive. Each one. One at a time.

And by the way, if you use the standard rip and burn software to copy a CD+G file, all you will get is the audio part. You will need to get a CD+G rip program. Although you can get a program from any of the companies that sell karaoke hosting programs, I would recommend Siglos' Power CD+G Burner, for $39. (Warning: I had a bad experience with a piece of freeware that was not worth what I paid for it!)

Other formats
The wonderful thing about standards is there are so many to choose from. The mp3/cdg format is not the only game in town, but it does seem to be the most popular.

Another format that I have seen is .bin, which seeks to overcome one of the disadvantages to the mp3/.cdg format. The problem is that the .cdg portion is not compressed. Given the size of disks today, this is not a big disadvantage. The benefit of leveraging the standard format has far outweighed the disadvantage of the extra file size.

Another interesting format is the midi format. This is the format that is used to communicate to midi keyboards. Basically, some of the karaoke host programs have adopted the standard midi format as one way to compose and play karaoke songs.

Like I said, this is interesting. It has the advantage of leveraging all the software that is available to compose midi files. There is a big disadvantage, however. When you play back a midi file, it sounds like, well, like a midi file.

There is one additional format for karaoke files that I consider just a bit more interesting, the mp4 format. This is standard for encoding video information. But, a karaoke song is really just a video, right? The audio track is the music and the video part is the words.

Here is where it gets interesting. Siglos sells a program called "Power CD+G to iPod Converter". For $39, you can have a program that will translate all your karaoke files into a video format that you can play on your iPod.

Hmmmm.....   Karaoke on the go?  I do gigs at retirement centers where I don't lead karaoke, I just sing. I used to carry along my laptop, a set of small speakers, and a table. With this, I don't need the laptop. Cool.

Just in case you want to feed the iPod display to your TV, all you really need is a cable. I found an iPod to TV cable on Amazon for about $9. One side of the cable plugs into your iPod, the other side has three RCA plugs for S-video. (S-video is an input that you will find on most TVs.) One of the RCA plugs is for the video, one for the right channel and one for the left. You will need to tell your iPod to send this TV output. Go to video settings on your iPod and make sure TV output is enabled.

Copyright (c) 2010, John Seymour