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Anyone here do karaoke in their living room? I have a great TV and Sonos sound bar and was hoping I could just buy a wireless mic and off I go. It seems life is not that simple? Anyone got a simple set up that works?
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Aug 12, 2023 12:57
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Quizzlefish posted:Anyone here do karaoke in their living room? I have a great TV and Sonos sound bar and was hoping I could just buy a wireless mic and off I go. It seems life is not that simple? Anyone got a simple set up that works? Avoid Bluetooth stuff. A lot of it will probably work fine, but I've run into a lot of inexplicable issues from having the audio clock source of the microphone be different from the audio clock source of the output. If you're okay using only one mic (but what's karaoke without duets?) and don't mind it being relatively hard to change the input gain/volume in the middle of a song, you just need to get the mic into your computer. If you find one you like with a TS minijack output already, you're almost done. (If it's XLR, you can get XLR to TS adapters for pretty cheap.) Connect your soundbar up through a wired output. If you have a laptop that shares the headphone/mic jack over a TRRS connection (like a MacBook), the mic will occupy the jack you need for your audio output, so you'll want to split that into discrete output (TRS minijack) and input (TS minijack) first. Then you need to turn on input monitoring for your mic, which on Windows is really trivial and on Mac usually requires third-party software. If you don't like those limitations, you can also consider adding an interface. Most good UHF mics are built for hooking up to PA systems, so they use XLR connections. A good and pretty inexpensive option would be to grab something like an M-Track Solo for $50. You can hook your wireless mic into the XLR input, turn on hardware monitoring, and just set it to be your default audio output. If you want to add a second mic in the future, spend the extra $20 up front for the Duo instead of the Solo and then you have the second input available. If you want to get fancy, you can use a cheap hardware mixer that can do effects processing and stuff, but that's probably overkill for most living room setups. Most karaoke singers benefit a lot from a little compression and reverb. Vulture Culture fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Aug 21, 2023 |
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Aug 21, 2023 16:38
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Thanks that's really helpful. Yeah I had been hoping to just do YouTube straight off the smart TV, - I hadn't thought of plugging in a laptop. That would make things a lot easier! I'll check out the gear you suggest and let you know how I get on.
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Aug 21, 2023 17:35
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Anyone have experience with the TC Helicon VoiceLive Touch vocal effect units/loopers? I think one might be the final piece of my ridiculous spaceship gear setup (that I never use  ) but I'm curious why the Touch 1 seems to be so difficult to find, was it quickly replaced by the Touch 2 with much better features? Wondering if it's worth shelling out the extra few bills for the 2.
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Oct 9, 2023 14:42
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For some of us...singing is hard. So I've been working on recording some vocals. I've done a tonne of lessons and I would suggest I have decent technique for the metal sorta thing I wanna do. I'm "okay" with how my voice sounds. Sort of. The question I want to ask I'm sure has been asked a billion times. Which is more importanter? Pitch or Performance? Because I can sorta get my voice to sound how I want it to sound, but I hear how off pitch I am and it makes me immediately delete the poo poo out of everything. I'm in that (assumedly) common position of despising the sound of myself singing so unless something is flawless and I can't criticise any syllable, I immediately delete it. However I'm getting nowhere because I'm not Freddie loving Mercury and I have to sort of...be kinder to myself. ... So how "kind" can I be? If the performance is cool, how forgiving is everybody else when it comes to pitch? I'm in the ballpark, but I'll often be hitting a C instead of a D and stuff like that...
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Oct 20, 2023 07:55
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it kind of depends - first of there are genres where intonation is not important at all in general, if producing recordings is the priority, Intonation is more important, however it's possible to fix intonation in post if you have the time and ability if performing live is the priority, then kind of both- but a great *show* can definitely compensate for substandard intonation are you having intonation difficulties uniformly in your range? or is it worse at your top? what style or genre are you most interested in?
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Oct 20, 2023 08:41
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H13 posted:For some of us...singing is hard. If you're recording songs in pieces, I would really recommend not doing that. The constant back and forth loving with the DAW will take you out of the groove in a hurry, not to mention what it does to your posture, which will also wreck your breath support. Record 100 takes if you want, but give the whole song or a substantial part on each take and let someone else help you Frankenstein them together. If this improves your recordings significantly, then you've figured out that your dumb lizard brain is the big problem e: One last thing. You know when people talk about singers wrecking their bodies and doing long-term damage to their voice, especially rock/metal singers with these huge live performances? You always think of the throat and the vocal cords, but it's never the throat. It's dumb stuff. You'll carry too much tension in your hips one day and you'll tweak your piriformis and pick up a warble in your breath support that you'll never get rid of again. Trying too hard to control everything is exactly how you end up in that spot. If you want to keep doing this, you have to be kind to yourself whether other people are or not, because your body does not actually give you a choice Vulture Culture fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Oct 24, 2023 |
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Oct 24, 2023 17:14
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this is by and large good advice, especially if H13 is indeed doing take after take after take into a DAW. Vulture Culture posted:You'll carry too much tension in your hips one day and you'll tweak your piriformis and pick up a warble in your breath support that you'll never get rid of again. a "tweaked" piriformis will resolve itself within 6 weeks. you cannot do permanent damage to your vocal technique due to a skeletal muscle injury elsewhere in your body. an uneven vibrato is sometimes called a warble, but I've never heard anyone refer to a warble in breath support before referred bodily tension can definitely negatively impact singing. and in general learning to sing well involves the identification and release of inefficient bodily tension patterns, developing your proprioception, and how to direct concentration and effort towards efficient singing & performing tasks
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Oct 24, 2023 19:22
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webcams for christ posted:a "tweaked" piriformis will resolve itself within 6 weeks. you cannot do permanent damage to your vocal technique due to a skeletal muscle injury elsewhere in your body. an uneven vibrato is sometimes called a warble, but I've never heard anyone refer to a warble in breath support before If you rely on certain muscles for support, and you gently caress up those muscles or related connective tissues, or seriously impinge a nerve, you will gently caress up your support. This isn't debatable. Whatever support technique you previously relied on is not going to work anymore if one of those muscles spasms uncontrollably whenever you go near it.
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Oct 25, 2023 04:42
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first, H13, I hope things are going well for you!Vulture Culture posted:Everything about this is wrong except that some piriformis injuries will resolve within six weeks. Are you arguing that vibrato happens independently of breath support? well in my experience, there are many viable approaches to singing and teaching singing. unfortunately it's often the case that some singers or teachers will use the same term to refer to different motor tasks, sensations, concepts, etc. "breath support" (sometimes appoggio) is a big area of disagreement among voice teachers, and can refer to very different biomechanical actions and or sensations, depending on who you ask. if I had to take a stab at a broad definition, "breath support" could include inhalation, but is the active process by which you manage exhalation, which will affect subglottal pressure and phonation quality. vibrato is the observed pitch excursion present in a sound. wobble usually describes a pitch excursion that is either too slow, or where the amplitude of the lower excursion is greater than the amplitude of the upper excursion. vibrato is impacted by "breath support," phonation quality, and the musculature and tissues of the upper respiratory tract, and the tongue, jaw, and lip positions. I stand by my claim "you cannot do permanent damage to your vocal technique due to a skeletal muscle injury elsewhere in your body", with emphasis on permanent and elsewhere. I made no mention of "loving up related connective tissue, or seriously impinging a nerve." You're welcome to make up any number of hypothetical horror scenarios that would indeed be permanently bad for singing. but technique is not immutable, and can be adapted to a surprisingly wide array of injuries. in fact, the ones who manage to stay in the game the longest are the ones who can adapt their technique to changes in their body over time! webcams for christ fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Oct 25, 2023 |
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Oct 25, 2023 08:26
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H13 posted:
IMO- pitch. The dissenting opinion to this is that there are some kinds of genres and performances where pitch is less important, but I'll give my reasoning: If you consider singing in comparison to other musical instruments, for the most part on most instruments the performer has limited ways to control tone, some instruments can be made brighter or darker via the use of different finger positions or mechanical changes but many can not. for the most part what creates the performance is the players command of timing and pitch. I used to work with an Italian guy who had the most amazing whistle I'd ever heard, great power and vibrato. But you cant really control the 'tone' of a whistle since its pure air, what made his technique good was his command of pitch. Notes that are stable when they need to be, collapse into vibrato when it's desired. Dont start off flat or trail off flat unless it's intended for effect and so on. Understanding of both accurate pitch and the 'bluesy' flats and sharps the a continuous pitch instrument like voice/whistle has use of (as opposed to say, a piano which only plays discrete interval pitches). And with things like computer assisted autotune on voice if you ever try correcting a take with melodyne you'll notice that correcting a singers pitch affects strongly the perception of the 'tone' and strength of their voice too. Since someone with poor breath control may approach or end a note flat/sharp, the perception of the melodyne corrected take as hitting it dead on every time creates the impression of strength. So yeah, I think pitch is super important for a singer to understand because (outside of those particular kind of genres) pitch IS one of the central pillars of performance. The good news though is that when it comes to practicing pitch the practise of it is something that can (and probably should) be taken as a pure technique exercise divorced from worrying about the other aspects of your performance and how 'good' you sound. E.g pure scales with a piano or (or recorded equivilant), practised regularly focusing more on hitting the note with as much ease in the body as possible, and not 'performing' and trying to make a certain tone. massive spider fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Oct 25, 2023 |
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Oct 25, 2023 10:20
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Is it reasonable to want to learn basic singing just so you don't embarrass yourself at the karaoke lounge? I'm currently based in China and KTV lounges are a popular pastime here in East Asia. While I enjoy singing Frank Sinatra and similar kinds of music, I'm not good at it at all and mainly want to avoid embarrassing myself in front of other people. I also like singing for my cat.  She doesn't comprehend it but she allows it anyways.
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Apr 17, 2024 05:38
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Yes! Karaoke is a great reason! As is singing to your cat 
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Apr 17, 2024 09:05
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webcams for christ posted:Yes! Karaoke is a great reason! As is singing to your cat Thanks for the feedback. Is it weird to feel self-conscious about singing "old music" at a karaoke session? I guess if everyone's drunk it doesn't matter, but singing sober I feel weird for not singing the same pop songs everyone else does. I know logically it's okay enjoy singing the songs I like, but singing when I know I'm objectively not good at it inherently makes me vulnerable around other people. How should I deal with these feelings?
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Apr 17, 2024 09:38
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Teriyaki Koinku posted:Thanks for the feedback. It's definitely something that gets better with practice, but a skill somewhat separate from singing itself is "selling" a performance: your body language, enthusiasm, smiling, emoting, acting, etc. That adds a lot to any performance, and is especially fun and over-the-top in Karaoke settings. If there's a kind of music you love to listen to, and love to sing, then show it! People are charmed by real, genuine enthusiasm. I've had a lot of fun singing "The Quest" from Man of La Mancha at bars in between others' singing Rhianna and like, Adelle
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Apr 17, 2024 09:55
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