youtube karaoke system?

[luv2liv]

i tried setting up a cheap karaoke system at home and it sounds terrible!
the setup as follows:
1- phone with youtube app playing a song without the lyrics.
2- phone outputs audio via the 3.5mm adapter to the white/red cable to this mixer
https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-802-Premium-8-Input-Preamps/dp/B000J5XS3C/
3- mixer combines the youtube audio and my voice via a Shure mic. outputs to the home theater 5.1 AV amp
https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-VSX-530-K-Receiver-Bluetooth-Technology/dp/B0141JVEHS/

youtube music sounds fine. however, my voice or anyone's voice sounds really bad. im not sure how to describe it...maybe treble is too high with no depth in the voice.

how would you set it up? do i need a new amp, mixer, or speakers? i prefer to have youtube as the source for music because of its fast search and play instantly instead of messing with discs. my budget is within $600

 

[Jinny]

actually, i have a similar setup although i stick the computer and microphones into a mini behringer karaoke mixer. sounds OK.

i will upgrade the behringer mixer in the future but for now its fine.

 

[reallyscrued]

I have a similar setup.

First thing you're going to want is a mixer with some effects. This would be useful:

https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-Xe...&qid=1467472016&sr=8-6&keywords=mixer+effects

Ensure you have an XLR going from your Mic to the mixer, not 1/4. Clearest sound.

https://www.amazon.com/Kirlin-Cable...d=1467473170&sr=1-7&keywords=microphone+cable

Next, understand the characteristics of audio. Very rarely is anyone's voice going to set well on top of a track completely raw (esp terrible karaoke tracks which have a completely different tonal signature than the actual produced song). A little echo, reverb, or stereo effect is going to add some depth to the vocals. Your biggest hurdle is going to be to try and get the vocal to sit "correctly" on the music on the fly. This is difficult, some professionals can't get this right 100% of the time in concert settings. In a controlled setting though, this is way easier, and where you should practice.

You should try recording some songs and spend some time trying to get your vocals to "sit right" without sounding muddy or unprofessional; there are so many nuances to this it's impossible to explain but easy to learn on your own. EQing is very important. Once you figure out the techniques to get the voice to sound "right" through trial and error in a DAW (I suggest Acoustica MixCraft for use of use on PC), you can apply your skills on the fly when karaoke'ing. This will also teach you important things such as mic distance control and volume ratios. On certain rock songs, Mic/Music might be 20/80 but on slow, careful songs, Mic/Music volume ratios might need to be 60/40. All depends on the song and once you get an ear for it through producing music, you can employ this to your karaoke mixing as well.

Whenever there is a song change while YouTube karaoke'ing, I do a quick mic check to figure out where the voice "should be" in the track, both volume wise and frequency wise. Most non-pro mixers (including the one I linked) have a 3 band EQ on each channel which is actually pretty limiting, a 5 band would be better but I have a 3 band myself and I work with what I have.

A lot of karaoke tracks put a lot of sounds right in the 1khz - 4 khz range (mids) which overpowers many people's voices. I usually try to dip those frequencies on the music and boost the vocals right around the 2khz mark. If it's supposed to be a song with a thick low voice, I'll do a high-freq cut as appropriate on the vocals, but also a high-freq cut on the music to keep everything in check. Some added peak 8khz in that situations balances things out so it doesn't sound totally muddy. (Disco EQ, smiley face settings - cheap but hey, it's karaoke and it sounds good.)

Also, don't send it out from your phone. Modern phones use a very weird amp signature that changes the characteristics of the sound as you change volume. You'll get used to practicing with the volume at 7/10 on one day, then maybe have it at 8/10 the next day and your ear will be thrown off. Unfortunately, 10/10 on most phones result in distortion. Grab a laptop, set it to 100%, use its 3.5 mm out.

Also, check your AV unit that the RCA signal you're sending it isn't messed with either. All sounds sent through my front-panel Aux on my Denon sound hollow and tinny compared to if I were to send it with other methods.

Good luck.

 

[Norgaidendan]

Hmm, it sounds like you might want to upgrade your mic. My daughter recently was searching for the same thing for her YT channel. I found this website that actually reviewed them in some detail, http://musiccritic.com/equipment/10-best-karaoke-microphones/. Hope this helps you out like it did for me.

Dan

 

[umbrella39]

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