Karaoke Systems For The Professional And Serious Amateur

Karaoke Systems v. All In One Machines

When it comes down to it, there really is no substitute for a building a karaoke system to your own specifications.

Why?

Let's just say it is like building your own dream house from scratch rather than settling for that nice little semi detached. (You know you love the bedroom but the garden's a bit small).

Instead of settling for what you get with an all in one machine, with a bespoke system you get to choose each component seperately. The result?

Each part is EXACTLY what you want. From the speakers to the microphone EVERYTHING is to your specification.

Something new comes along? Fine just work it into your system. All in one machines are fine for people who want a bit of fun at home but if you are really serious there is no question you need to build a system component by component. How? Read on......

System Components

Karaoke Music Player

However you intend playing the music, as CDG discs are still the most popular karaoke medium, it is desirable that you will need a method of playing cdg's. You will not want to turn down a request from a karaoke singer to play their own disc. Nowadays the best bet is a cdg compatible dvd player. This will allow you to play cdg's, dvd's and vcd's. In order to future proof the system even further you should consider a player which is also compatible with mp3+g. This would allow you to download tracks from the net and not have to worry about converting them. If you intend to start a karaoke business, then you should also consider a dual deck system which allows you to play music between singers - silence between singers would be pretty unique but probably won't get you much work! Another consideration is if whether or not you require your components to be "rack mountable". This means you can buy a rack or frame in which the components can be securely put. Rack mountable components have attachments which can be screwed to the rack.

The Vocopro DVX-580G will play cdg,dvd,vcd and mp3+g and is a bargain at around $160. It also has digital key control and progressive scan. And of course being a Vocopro you can be sure of build quality and that fact that it was built especially for karaoke. It is not rack mountable however. For this you will need to spend a bit more (about $200). Try the Vocopro DVG-480K .This has all the capability and more of the DVX-580G but is rack mountable.

Click here to check out other cdg/dvd players a HitKaraoke.com

Amplifier/Mixer

You could of course buy an ordinary run of the mill amplifier. But as the price of specialist karaoke amplifiers is hardly any different why limit yourself. Karaoke amps give you more features. You will need AT LEAST 2 microphone inputs and preferably more. You will need digital key control - this alters the pitch or key of the song without altering the tempo (speed). To play any decent size venue you will need at least 400 watts of sound output (200 watts per channel). MAKE SURE YOUR AMP CAN HANDLE THIS as well as your speakers. Karaoke systems with less power will simply sound awful and your repuatation will suffer. Consider also what inputs and outputs you will need. Are you likely to want to add a tape recorder or cd recorder? This is quite a good feature that can be added by the karaoke host. Playing back a singer's performance as they return to their seat can create an excellent response.