My (basic, fun, decent sounding) Karaoke Setup

Every time I go looking for a decent Karaoke setup that falls somewhere between ‘crappy random system in a box’ and ‘professional wedding DJ’ I come up with nothing, so as a bit of a time-based challenge I decided to get a setup together that would work for us this week when family and friends would be descending on our place to hang and eat.

The guidelines I set for myself:

• The parts had to be general purpose and relatively inexpensive. I was making decisions fast, and I wasn’t about to sink a ton of cash into things I didn’t have a lot of research into.
• I wanted the setup to be durable. I was ok with a couple of things being finicky but I needed it to be pick-up-and-play. I find that with party stuff you often don’t use it as much as you would because in the times between it gets broken down or lost or whatever.
• It needed to have access to a big library of songs, preferably officially licensed. Ethics, man.
• I wanted a bit of voice sweetening. You know, for other people.

So, here’s my setup, with the caveat that I know it is probably not the be all end all. But it is a place to start for people in a similar situation. Enjoy! Feel free to ask me questions on Twitter about it.

The heart

• A Mac OR an iPad with HDMI & Mic port dongle. You can use either one but my personal setup was to have the line out of the Mac to the mixer and have the HDMI go straight to a TV for a large monitor easily viewable across the room. YMMV heavily on this one due to setup.

A word of caution: I would NOT rely on a setup that uses AirPlay. It has an unavoidable 2 second lag which will screw up audio and video sync. The exception to the rule here is if your TV is also your sound system or if your TV is connected to your sound system directly. This would allow the AirPlay audio and video to stay in sync.

• Karafun. This app was recommended to me by Dave Addey on Twitter. It’s fantastic. Tons of licensed songs, all the hits and a bunch of very cool options. One really neat one is that everyone’s device can act as a remote from their browser. They just shoot the QR code on the screen of your TV and they have access to adding songs to the queue and whatnot. There are a bunch of great options built in here that you’d find at any Karaoke joint.

Microphones

• Peavey PVI 2 Cardoid Microphone. Solid range with much better rendition than cheap mics. This one is wired because it’s piped through a voice sweetener. And it’s durable. And gold. $68
• Sound Town Wireless Mics. Two wireless mic set that’s super respectable. Not pro, but not bad. If you were going for a bare minimum setup these plus a computer or iPad and an HDMI cable to your TV would get you up and running. $105

Speakers

• Alto Professional Trouper 200W. This is a PA system so it’s not going to have a huge range, but it’s really solid overall. It’s got a 3 channel mixer on board so you can use that instead of an external mixer if you’re only going to have music and 2 mics and don’t want any more complexity. Booming sound, will easily fill a 24x24 room. You can also link them in stereo via XLR cable or bluetooth wirelessly. $200

Mixers

• Alto Professional ZMX52 5-channel mixer. It’s a mixer. It works fine. The reason this is in my setup is to tweak the EQ for a better voice sound and to make sure I can balance louder singers with quieter ones and so that the mics don’t overpower the music or the other way around. $50
• TC Helicon VoiceTone C1. This is an autotune pedal. You stomp to turn it on and stomp to turn it off. It won’t fix truly terrible singing, but it can nudge your voice into the groove if you’re close. Truly optional swag but it can make for some MUCH more bearable sessions, if you know what I mean. Requires some fiddling and dialing in, but worth it if you’re a regular. $120

Accessories

• Donner Spotlight. Cheap spotlight. Great for disco balls. $29
• Disco ball. Because duh. Get a motorized one if you want spin. $35
• 2 pack LED Disco lights. Mood. You can pipe your audio through these to get synced pulsing. $23

The basic setup is:

• Wired mic > VoiceTone > Mixer.
• Wireless Mic box > Mixer
• Mac headphone output > Mixer
• Mixer > Speaker
• Mac HDMI > TV

That’s it. Everything tucks away in a cabinet as the web interface (QR accessed) can remote control everything during a session. So there’s little to no fussiness while you’re all just wanting to have fun.