[The last renewal of this page: Januray 10, 1999]

First of all, we have to think about the media of sources of Karaoke.

1. Media

8 Tracks Cartridge Tape
Such a old day's!!

Cassette Tape
One time, this was so popular.

CD
Audio got extremely better, but no pictures...

LD(Laser disk/Movie)
One of the greatest media so far, with a Hi-Fi digital sound and beautiful movies. However, the size of the disk, which is the same as LP record, was incovenient to handle and store, and now, LD is taking in place with smaller medias such as CDG and CDV.

CDG(CD Graphic/Static Pictures)
Onetime, this was attractive, as even a simple radio-cassett designed for CDG could output the video signals for TV-set with a CD-sized media. However, statics pictures could not get people satisfied.

CDV(Video CD/MPEG Pictures Compression Technology/Movie)
As this can play Movies, likely to the LD with a CD-sized media, and softwares are relatively cheap, there is no reason that people is not interested in. This is the most populated media, now.

Communication Karaoke
Development of personal computers and communications, offers a new media for Karaoke. By accessing to the network(like the Niftyserve, etc.), you can download the newest source music datafile, and play it. The combinated software controls the key, tempo, mixing level of the microphones.

DVD
The newest media for Karaoke. DVD accepts 7 times data as much as CD in the same sized 12centimeter disc, and as a result, contains many new functions. The DVD is expected to get more and more development for the future. They have four or five channels, each channel of which, contains orchestra(Left), orchestra(Right), guide melody, vocal #1 (and Vocal #2) respectively and separatedly. So, by controling and selecting these channels, you can enjoy Duet function(Erase one vocal for you to practice duet song alone), Harmonics function(Erase vocal #2 to play main vocal (#1) for you to sing sub-vocal for making harmonics), or Professional Karaoke function(Erase guide melody to present a real orchestra just like a professional singer). These functions are called "Hi-Fi multi multi- vocal". It also has a function to display a selection menu and help message on the screen, too.


2. Software

Multi-Vocal or not
A software with Multi-Vocal system contains a vocal sung by profsesional singer in one track of stereo with the orchestra in another track. In this case, recording is done in analogue tracks.(Digital track contains an orchestra in stereo) I am using this type of LD mainly. All you have to do is switch the player between analogue mode and digital mode to select these two styles. As I mentioned above, the DVD has more complicated tracks structures to produce more progressed functions.

Vocal by original singer? (Multi-Vocal)
Vocal recording sung by a professional singer normaly has been done well but it's so strict with the music score. If you love Kiyoshi Maekawa (a Japanese well known singer), and like to follow him, you'd better buy a software being sung by its original singer(himself), although the price is more expensive.

Orchestra in Original key or not
If you have a key changer, it is not always essential, but you'd better select the software with the closesed key to your own key. When you shift the key up, the lowest audio frequency is also shifted up, and when you shift down the key, the highest audio frequency is also shifted down, and as a result, you would complain the audio quality of the orchestra. This would happen especially when you shift the frequency more than one or two steps. ( In case you like to shift down your voice in more than a few steps as you can't sing as an orchestra is to high, it's good to shift up the orchestra in four or five steps to sing one octavo lower)

How the orchestra plays
Some software is not strict to the original music score, like avoiding the repeated part, or arranged the style from the bruce to pops, and in many cases, we don't like to sing with it. There are some, the music instruments consist the orchestra are different from the original recording, and in this case, we feel something strange. As these problems normaly depend on the publishers of the software, you should not buy many disks(softwares) at once when you start Karaoke.

Pictures
There are a few types of software, for example, one in certain story according to the songs theme, one in showing scenery or people without any relations to the theme of the song, adult pornography, and so on. This is clearly distinguished with the publishers or the title of the series, so at the beginning, you should not buy the disks at once, and you should try to find out desired brand or series.


Other than above, there are special softwares made for practice of duet or to sing with harmonics(mainly in cassette or CD). These softwares must be great help when you want special trainning.



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