Karaoke Machine Buyers Guide

Karaoke is a form of entertainment where recorded music accompanies an amateur singer who sings along with the accompaniment on microphone. The music is of a well-known song in which the voice of the original singer is absent or reduced in volume. Lyrics are usually displayed on a monitor; sometimes including color changes synchronized with the music, on a music video is played to help with the sing-along.

Today, many karaoke singers seek the best karaoke machine models available for serious performers. The new karaoke machine for both personal and commercial use looks more like a DVD player. Several CD+G disks can be placed in multiple trays, eliminating the downtime between selections. An electronic key changer can raise or lower the original pitch by several keys in either direction.

Early Karaoke Machines

Early karaoke machines used cassette tapes but technological advances replaced this with CDs, VCDs, laserdiscs and, currently, DVDs. In addition, it is now common to use karaoke machines connected via fiber-optic links to provide instant high-quality music and video.

Basic Karaoke Machine

A basic karaoke machine consists of audio input, a means of altering the pitch of the music (not the singer) and an audio output. Some low-end machines attempt to provide vocal suppression so that regular songs can be fed into the machine to suppress the voice of the original singer, however this is not very effective.

Common Karaoke Machines

The most common karaoke machines are audio mixers with microphone-input built-in with CD+G, Video CD, Laser Disc, or DVD players. CD+G players use a special track called subcode to encode the lyrics and pictures displayed on the screen, while the other formats natively display both audio and video.

Most karaoke machines have technology that electronically changes the pitch of music so that amateur singers can sing along to any music source by choosing a key that is appropriate for their vocal range, while maintaining the original tempo of the song.

Kamikaze Karaoke

A popular game using karaoke is to randomly type in a number and call up a song, which participants take a turn to try to sing as much as they can. In some machines, this game is pre-programmed and may be limited to a genre so that they cannot call up an obscure national anthem that none of them can sing. This game has come to be called "Kamikaze Karaoke" in some parts of the United States and Canada.

Karaoke on Mobile Phones

In 2003, several companies started offering a karaoke service on a mobile phone. This is still a budding service and it is unclear whether this service will take root even with all advances in technology. However, today there are some interesting efforts for Mobile Karaoke with an amazing usability and compatibility.

Karaoke VCD

The takeoff of Video CDs in Southeast Asia is partly due to the cheap but tolerable quality, and partly due to the popularity of karaoke. Many VCD players have built-in Karaoke function. If users disable the singer's voice and leave the music alone, they can play karaoke. In the past, there were only pop-song karaoke VCDs. Nowadays, different types of karaoke VCD are available.

Alternative Playback Devices

As the technology behind karaoke improved, CDs with graphics capability (CD+G) replaced the earlier cassettes. The CD+G format of karaoke disc, which contains the lyrics on a specially encoded subcode track, has required special—and expensive—equipment to play it. Commercial players have come down in price, though, and some unexpected devices decode the graphics; in fact, karaoke machines, including video and sometimes recording capability, are often popular electronics items for sale in toy stores and electronics stores.

Microphone Based Karaoke Machines

In addition to CD+G and Software-based Karaoke, microphone-based Karaoke players enjoy popularity. Microphone-based Karaoke Players only need to be connected to a TV - and in some cases to a power outlet, in other cases they run on batteries. These devices often sport advanced features, such as pitch correction and special sound effects. Some companies offer Karaoke content for paid download to extend the song library in microphone-based Karaoke systems. CD+G and Microphone-based Karaoke systems are typically also used at home.

Features

Here are some basic features of karaoke machines. Remember that the more costly the machine, the more features it will have and the better the equipment and accessories will be.

·         Karaoke component decks utilize the power of what you already own (stereo systems)

·         Audio 2000

·         300 Watt

·         Portable

·         Format: DVD/CDG/MP3/VCD/CD

·         350 Watt Speakers

Speakers

The small speakers of a boom box have been replaced with 50 amp speakers capable of handling even the loudest vocalists. You may think all speakers are the same as long as they produce good sound. Not necessarily! Both Hi-fi speakers and Karaoke speakers will sound good when you just play music. But with Karaoke, your vocals play the most important part. Most Hi-fi speakers are not designed for live vocal frequencies so the vocals sometimes sound distorted or muddy and surpressed when singing loud. Also, microphone feedback is the number one killer of Hi-fi tweeters.

Microphones

Microphones are often mixed into commercial-level soundboards for better sound balance and vocal quality. You can get either corded or wireless microphones. Wireless microphones of course give you more freedom to move around. You can get additional accessories such as microphone cables and stands at an additional cost.

Display

A small television monitor may also be included on higher-end models, or the karaoke machine may have external plugs leading to a standard television screen. The karaoke singer selects a track from the disk and the lyrics appear on the screen as a guide.

Price

Expect to pay about £104.17 for a basic karaoke machine. A professional machine such as DJ’s use will coat anywhere from £377.67 to £2,967.70. A good pair of speakers will cost about £156.56 and a microphone will run about £104.18. A 200-disk organizer will cost about £259.00 These are just basic estimates, it’s best to shop around for the best deals or for a sale.