I came across this site by accident on Youtube.

Karafun (karaoke)

The more I read through the material, explored the site, and listened to a lot of quality demos, the more intrigued I became with it's potential.

The very first thing I thought about was these clowns that show up on a job with a good Karaoke machine and a bad voice. A common denominator, I noticed, is that they all have brand new equipment, speakers, stands, etc so you can bet the rent it's probably their first or second job out there in the field.

I honestly haven't heard a single one who moves me in any way. Don't even tap my feet to any of them. They're like basic ice cream Sundae's with no topping.

The last one I heard opened up with a lackluster rendition of Bobby Darin's Beyond the Sea. I mean, anybody who's anybody knows you don't "open up" with a hum-drum song like that (pretty song but not for a Grand Opening). It's pretty obvious, these guys (and women too) know they latched onto a good thing. They realized non-musicians can get away with it and so they're proliferating. And they're all the same...pleasant enough but bland.

Anyhow, I'm thinking again, if you can't beat them why not join them. After all, there's more to presentation than singing a song and saying a few words (like "thank you") in between songs.

Us musicians have an edge. We understand the art of presentation and how to connect to the audience.

But that was just one of my thoughts. I was thinking of other possibilities too.

Anyone else have a thought on how to make use of a site like this. It seems to do just about everything except tell you where your wife is on a Saturday night

I have two professional Karaoke machines myself and thousands of songs, but.........there's new technology around every corner......why not take advantage of it. After all, the name of the game is "entertainment," in any way, shape, or form.........NOT how many equipment cases can you carry to a gig before you end up needing an oxygen mask before you can even start the gig itself?

Your thoughts?

I use karoake version myself. I started out because I had so many requests for songs that could not be done properly live
like uptown funk so I bought it and loaded it into my pa900
and learned how to play the whole song along with the track.
I played the changes and comped like I was part of the band.
It worked out so well that I now have over 200 tracks and I can play them all. It opened up a whole new world and It allows me to be more current if I need too. It also stretches my ability to play for a younger crowd and let's face it, Sometimes that is a gig saver. If I have too I can play them totally live but the younger crowd likes to hear it like the record. The more versatile you are the more jobs you can play.

Mel

By the way, karoake version songs are all MP3+G so they will work on Korg keyboards and lyric show on screen. No need for any other equipment.

Mel

That's a great feature! Do other brands do that too?

I've gotten a few backing tracks at Karaoke Version as well.
I like that you can actually mix the tracks, eliminate or lower backing vocals, mute certain instruments.

Great to see people "MIXING IT UP" as I always said......
an arranger KB & your playing can only do so much.....you'll need many tools to build a house including the "K" word ....

I ONLY KNOW KORG PLAYS MP3+G AND i THINK THE NEW GENOS DOES TOO

MEL

My guitar playing buddy in NJ uses 'Karaoke Version' also ... He's gotten some pretty good tracks from there ...
From what I saw on 'Karafun', you can only use it with their app, not with your KB ... is that true?

I have acquired a bunch of tracks from Karaoke-Version. Great site! Over the last several years, many of the brides I play for have asked for special songs (dear to them but which I normally don't play)... thankfully for me, these songs are most often available on KV. If you pay just $1 more than the "standard MP3" fee, you get the custom version and are able to mix it yourself... as many times as you want...so you can download it w/the lead, go back and delete the lead part or as many other parts as you like, change volume levels on tracks, and download them over and over again...

Randy how much editing can you do with the 'standard' vs 'premium' mp3 version?
thanks,

For the "Standard" MP3s, all you are able to do is change the key up or down 1-2 steps. For me, the additional $1 to get the Custom Track is well worth the investment - you are able to change the volume levels on every track, silence any tracks you don't want included in the mix, and keep backing vocals if desired or eliminate any leads you want.... the KV site only allows you to transpose the tracks one or 2 steps in either direction, so when I need more of a key change, I use "Slow-Downer" which allows me to transpose the tracks to just about any key I want.

Another major benefit of Custom Tracks is being able to remix and re-download as many times as you want...for example, if there's a guitar part that you only want in your mix 1/3 of the time, you can download the guitar part by itself (along with the whole song with the guitar part muted) and then create your own mix using a program like Mixcraft Pro Audio which is what I use to manipulate tracks....

Randy, thanks ... from what you are describing, my guitar player uses the Custom Track ...
As for transposing into another key, I can do that on the KB ... just have to be careful with background vocals - raise them too high they sound like the chipmunks, too low they sound like Darth Vader ...
More and more I am thinking I have to look into MixCraft ...

Tony - I hear you on the "chipmunk" background singers! The site has made many of my weddings much easier for sure. And they have some great arrangers/performers doing the tracks.

Mixcraft Pro Audio is great! Been using Mixcraft a while now and the latest version even includes Melodyne pitch tools - a lot of capability for what you pay them.