Hi everyone
Just looking to get a little bit of advice, I threw a karaoke party at home last year using a karaoke machine and tracks on usb took ages to find the tracks so I decided to sell my machine on and try again with a digital set up.
Im looking to find out what I need for a laptop driven set up.
So far I have my laptop Dell Inspiron 15R, I bought a software online called Sax n Dottys, I have some tracks. Its more the rest I'm trying to figure out. I have read that I shouldn't plug a microphone directly in to my laptop so from what I can gather I need a mixer?! I have seen this Behringer one (at least I think its a mixer) http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews ... ewpoints=1
It looks nice and basic for a home user like me and its under £50 so thats ideal price bracket wise. That I think would then go in to my surround sound system and I would connect my laptop to my TV using and HDMI cable. In my head I think this would work but Im not sure whether I would also need an AMP??
I think most of you are professionals and I know you get what you pay for but I would stress that I don't have a high budget and wont be using this at all ever to gig.
Id really appreciate if someone could tell me if what Im thinking is utter noob nonsense lol.
Thanks in advance
Home karaoke party setup do's and dont's?
Welcome to the forum.
It sounds like you're heading in the right direction. The mixer you are considering might not be the best one for your needs as it does not offer balanced XLR microphone inputs. These are important when using wired microphones that have long cables or for condenser microphones that require phantom power. I would recommend something like the Behringer 802 or equivalent.
You certainly need an amplifier be it the one that is currently part of your sound system or a separate one. The biggest obstacle may be the speakers. Surround sound speakers do not hold up well to live vocals, especially if you try to get much volume from them. You might want to look into getting a pair of PA speakers.
It sounds like you're heading in the right direction. The mixer you are considering might not be the best one for your needs as it does not offer balanced XLR microphone inputs. These are important when using wired microphones that have long cables or for condenser microphones that require phantom power. I would recommend something like the Behringer 802 or equivalent.
You certainly need an amplifier be it the one that is currently part of your sound system or a separate one. The biggest obstacle may be the speakers. Surround sound speakers do not hold up well to live vocals, especially if you try to get much volume from them. You might want to look into getting a pair of PA speakers.
Thanks for the reply will certainly look at the 802 as its almost identical in price so thats a great recommendation.
Do you think I should order my mixer and try my set up and then decide whether to buy an Amp or do you know of a an amp you would recommend for the home user like me?
Really good of you to take time to advise
Do you think I should order my mixer and try my set up and then decide whether to buy an Amp or do you know of a an amp you would recommend for the home user like me?
Really good of you to take time to advise
Oh yeah sorry for being vague
Its this panasonic surround sound I have
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SC-PT ... 925&sr=8-2
Does that help at all?
Its this panasonic surround sound I have
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SC-PT ... 925&sr=8-2
Does that help at all?
I set up a cheap karaoke system last year solely for family get-togethers. There will be those who sneer at the simplicity-cheapness of my setup but it does exactly what I want. I think it would suit you too. I get good sound quality from this system.
I have a laptop: Toshiba Satellite L300 but practically any laptop will suffice. The software I run is very undemanding and will run on virtually anything.
I use Karafun Player software from here http://www.karafun.com/ . It's free to download and it allows you to change both pitch and tempo of any song on the hoof.
My microphones are a Peavey PV1 & a Shure SM58.
These mics feed into a Sound Lab micro mixer. This gives what they term delay. It's effectively echo or reverb. This makes a big difference to the vocals. The mixer cost me around £18 from Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/G105C-Soundlab- ... B000LAM8X6 I see that it is currently not stocked but maybe you could find it elsewhere or find an alternative.
My loudspeaker is an active one (built-in amplifier), the Behringer Eurolive B208D. This is rated at 165 watts RMS, far more power than you will ever need in the home scene.
I made up a simple mixer lead to hook together the headphone socket of the laptop, the Sound Lab mixer output and the Behringer loudspeaker input.
I don't think domestic Karaoke can be done more cheaply than this setup. Stay away from so-called karaoke machines costing a few tens of pounds; they are just toys and you would be very disappointed.
The mixer lead is simply two readily available signal leads connected up using two resistors and it mixes the laptop sound output with the output of the mixer before feeding it into the loudspeaker. I can supply details that will allow you two construct this. It won't cost more than a few quid.
Do not be talked into spending lots of cash on a system you don't need. Most of the people who offer their solutions will be professionals and their needs are not yours.
I would be more than happy to help you further should you decide to adopt my simple setup. Trust me, the mixer cable is very simple to cobble together by anyone with basic soldering skills.
You can use the laptop display screen to show the lyrics for the singers or feed the video signal to another monitor or even your TV set. My laptop and TV both have VGA sockets and I use them very sucessfully.
Good luck whatever you decide to do.
I have a laptop: Toshiba Satellite L300 but practically any laptop will suffice. The software I run is very undemanding and will run on virtually anything.
I use Karafun Player software from here http://www.karafun.com/ . It's free to download and it allows you to change both pitch and tempo of any song on the hoof.
My microphones are a Peavey PV1 & a Shure SM58.
These mics feed into a Sound Lab micro mixer. This gives what they term delay. It's effectively echo or reverb. This makes a big difference to the vocals. The mixer cost me around £18 from Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/G105C-Soundlab- ... B000LAM8X6 I see that it is currently not stocked but maybe you could find it elsewhere or find an alternative.
My loudspeaker is an active one (built-in amplifier), the Behringer Eurolive B208D. This is rated at 165 watts RMS, far more power than you will ever need in the home scene.
I made up a simple mixer lead to hook together the headphone socket of the laptop, the Sound Lab mixer output and the Behringer loudspeaker input.
I don't think domestic Karaoke can be done more cheaply than this setup. Stay away from so-called karaoke machines costing a few tens of pounds; they are just toys and you would be very disappointed.
The mixer lead is simply two readily available signal leads connected up using two resistors and it mixes the laptop sound output with the output of the mixer before feeding it into the loudspeaker. I can supply details that will allow you two construct this. It won't cost more than a few quid.
Do not be talked into spending lots of cash on a system you don't need. Most of the people who offer their solutions will be professionals and their needs are not yours.
I would be more than happy to help you further should you decide to adopt my simple setup. Trust me, the mixer cable is very simple to cobble together by anyone with basic soldering skills.
You can use the laptop display screen to show the lyrics for the singers or feed the video signal to another monitor or even your TV set. My laptop and TV both have VGA sockets and I use them very sucessfully.
Good luck whatever you decide to do.
The Soundlab mixer is a toy and doesn't even have XLR inputs. How's the stereo sound out of that single speaker? Cheap system equals cheap sound and your system is super cheap.bwriter wrote:I set up a cheap karaoke system last year solely for family get-togethers. There will be those who sneer at the simplicity-cheapness of my setup but it does exactly what I want. I think it would suit you too. I get good sound quality from this system.
I have a laptop: Toshiba Satellite L300 but practically any laptop will suffice. The software I run is very undemanding and will run on virtually anything.
I use Karafun Player software from here http://www.karafun.com/ . It's free to download and it allows you to change both pitch and tempo of any song on the hoof.
My microphones are a Peavey PV1 & a Shure SM58.
These mics feed into a Sound Lab micro mixer. This gives what they term delay. It's effectively echo or reverb. This makes a big difference to the vocals. The mixer cost me around £18 from Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/G105C-Soundlab- ... B000LAM8X6 I see that it is currently not stocked but maybe you could find it elsewhere or find an alternative.
My loudspeaker is an active one (built-in amplifier), the Behringer Eurolive B208D. This is rated at 165 watts RMS, far more power than you will ever need in the home scene.
I made up a simple mixer lead to hook together the headphone socket of the laptop, the Sound Lab mixer output and the Behringer loudspeaker input.
I don't think domestic Karaoke can be done more cheaply than this setup. Stay away from so-called karaoke machines costing a few tens of pounds; they are just toys and you would be very disappointed.
The mixer lead is simply two readily available signal leads connected up using two resistors and it mixes the laptop sound output with the output of the mixer before feeding it into the loudspeaker. I can supply details that will allow you two construct this. It won't cost more than a few quid.
Do not be talked into spending lots of cash on a system you don't need. Most of the people who offer their solutions will be professionals and their needs are not yours.
I would be more than happy to help you further should you decide to adopt my simple setup. Trust me, the mixer cable is very simple to cobble together by anyone with basic soldering skills.
You can use the laptop display screen to show the lyrics for the singers or feed the video signal to another monitor or even your TV set. My laptop and TV both have VGA sockets and I use them very sucessfully.
Good luck whatever you decide to do.
As the posters first statement clearly says, it suits his needs and while it might not be what KJ's would look at even scathingly, if it works for him, who are we to gainsay it?wiseguy wrote:The Soundlab mixer is a toy and doesn't even have XLR inputs. How's the stereo sound out of that single speaker? Cheap system equals cheap sound and your system is super cheap.bwriter wrote:I set up a cheap karaoke system last year solely for family get-togethers. There will be those who sneer at the simplicity-cheapness of my setup but it does exactly what I want. I think it would suit you too. I get good sound quality from this system.
Sandy.
I agree with Sandy, he is only using it for home use and see nothing wrong with the speaker in question. The mixer is probably the cheapest he could get to include echo and reverb so if he was not happy with that he would not have wasted a lot of money if he were to upgrade that at a later date.mnementh wrote:As the posters first statement clearly says, it suits his needs and while it might not be what KJ's would look at even scathingly, if it works for him, who are we to gainsay it?wiseguy wrote:The Soundlab mixer is a toy and doesn't even have XLR inputs. How's the stereo sound out of that single speaker? Cheap system equals cheap sound and your system is super cheap.bwriter wrote:I set up a cheap karaoke system last year solely for family get-togethers. There will be those who sneer at the simplicity-cheapness of my setup but it does exactly what I want. I think it would suit you too. I get good sound quality from this system.
Sandy.
As far as stereo goes, I don't think stereo sound is really needed for karaoke. I often use my single line array LD maui28 speaker for small venues and have never had any complaints about the sound.
Okay, Wiseguy, so you reckon the mixer is a toy? Maybe we could discuss that a bit. Tell me about the main chip used in the circuit? Tell me about the method of achieving the delay; we both know it uses what’s known as ‘bucket brigade’ but how, exactly does that work? In what way is it inferior to the tape-based units of the 1960s?
And the mixer uses 6.25mm jack inputs rather than XLRs. Using 6 metre microphone leads, how is the signal affected? You didn’t mention the quality of the microphone cable; single, double or triple screening–or does it really matter? And how about microphony in the mic lead? Do XLR plugs influence that?
I’ve been to many karaoke events and not once have I heard a performer or member of the audience complaining about intermodulation distortion on the mics.
I’ve been involved in electronics now for a very long time–my first computer was a Dragon 32. I built my first ‘stereo’ system simply so I could hear the soundtrack LP of 2001 : A Space Odyssey (and in particular, On The Blue Danube) in glorious stereo. Do you know what? Neither of the two ladies who listened to it had any idea what this stereo thing was; and they still don’t. I’ll bet if you ask 100 people in the street to explain stereo sound to you you’ll end up getting arrested for causing a public nuisance.
People neither know nor care.
I could go on about mono, stereo, derived stereo, Dolby, surround sound et al but I fear I would bore you and everyone else.
People attending karaoke sessions (including me) do not care whether what they are hearing is stereo or not. They are unaware that even if the karaoke music track is stereo (it often is not, no matter how many speakers are being used) the vocals will invariably come from centre field, something that is pretty rare nowadays.
Finally, it’s disappointing to find that the administrators on this website can adopt such an unhelpful–dare I say, sneering– attitude towards its contributors.
I look forward to hearing your responses to the various points I made.
Groovegal, I apologise to you for the distraction from your original enquiry. My advice still stands.
And the mixer uses 6.25mm jack inputs rather than XLRs. Using 6 metre microphone leads, how is the signal affected? You didn’t mention the quality of the microphone cable; single, double or triple screening–or does it really matter? And how about microphony in the mic lead? Do XLR plugs influence that?
I’ve been to many karaoke events and not once have I heard a performer or member of the audience complaining about intermodulation distortion on the mics.
I’ve been involved in electronics now for a very long time–my first computer was a Dragon 32. I built my first ‘stereo’ system simply so I could hear the soundtrack LP of 2001 : A Space Odyssey (and in particular, On The Blue Danube) in glorious stereo. Do you know what? Neither of the two ladies who listened to it had any idea what this stereo thing was; and they still don’t. I’ll bet if you ask 100 people in the street to explain stereo sound to you you’ll end up getting arrested for causing a public nuisance.
People neither know nor care.
I could go on about mono, stereo, derived stereo, Dolby, surround sound et al but I fear I would bore you and everyone else.
People attending karaoke sessions (including me) do not care whether what they are hearing is stereo or not. They are unaware that even if the karaoke music track is stereo (it often is not, no matter how many speakers are being used) the vocals will invariably come from centre field, something that is pretty rare nowadays.
Finally, it’s disappointing to find that the administrators on this website can adopt such an unhelpful–dare I say, sneering– attitude towards its contributors.
I look forward to hearing your responses to the various points I made.
Groovegal, I apologise to you for the distraction from your original enquiry. My advice still stands.
I don't know, neither do I care, what "chip" the Soundlab mixer contains. The fact that it got only a two star rating at Amazon is a good indicator of its quality. This mixer has only volume controls for each channel. You have no choice but to send the effects to all channels at once and there are no individual tone controls for each channel. It's a toy.
Home users do not want to hear about the technical aspects of microphone cables. Most times they are going to buy the least expensive one anyway. With XLR connections they are covered if they happen to buy longer cables. And what if they want to use a condenser microphone that requires the phantom power from an XLR connection? When you're buying a mixer getting one with XLR connections is the smart thing to do.
In the OP they said that they already purchased Sax n Dotty's which is a much better featured program than Karafun. Why should they trade down?
Anyone who cannot tell mono from stereo certainly does not have a discerning ear. Try listening to a song like Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" in mono and in stereo and tell me there is no difference. I can agree that depending on the dynamics of a room performing karaoke in mono or stereo doesn't matter that much. But being that this system is going in somebody's family room they very well may use it for playing standard stereo music which will only sound properly in stereo.
You may have been to many karaoke events but I have performed thousands of karaoke events over the past 20 years. I know a little about what it takes to create good karaoke sound. I'm not going to recommend someone buy some junk components that they will regret buying later.
Your comment "Do not be talked into spending lots of cash on a system you don't need. Most of the people who offer their solutions will be professionals and their needs are not yours." implies that karaoke professionals should not be trusted to offer sound advice to the home user. I take offense to that.
Home users do not want to hear about the technical aspects of microphone cables. Most times they are going to buy the least expensive one anyway. With XLR connections they are covered if they happen to buy longer cables. And what if they want to use a condenser microphone that requires the phantom power from an XLR connection? When you're buying a mixer getting one with XLR connections is the smart thing to do.
In the OP they said that they already purchased Sax n Dotty's which is a much better featured program than Karafun. Why should they trade down?
Anyone who cannot tell mono from stereo certainly does not have a discerning ear. Try listening to a song like Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" in mono and in stereo and tell me there is no difference. I can agree that depending on the dynamics of a room performing karaoke in mono or stereo doesn't matter that much. But being that this system is going in somebody's family room they very well may use it for playing standard stereo music which will only sound properly in stereo.
You may have been to many karaoke events but I have performed thousands of karaoke events over the past 20 years. I know a little about what it takes to create good karaoke sound. I'm not going to recommend someone buy some junk components that they will regret buying later.
Your comment "Do not be talked into spending lots of cash on a system you don't need. Most of the people who offer their solutions will be professionals and their needs are not yours." implies that karaoke professionals should not be trusted to offer sound advice to the home user. I take offense to that.
