Karaoke is a well known form of entertainment where people sing along with a recorded music track, aided by the lyrics being displayed on a display screen. Usually the voice of the original singer is absent or reduced in volume.
As Karaoke grew in popularity and spread its wings from Japan to all the other parts of the world, the technology used to create Karaoke entertainment has also advanced drastically.
Karaoke Machines
Basic Karaoke machines consists of audio input and audio output. The vocals of the original singer are either suppressed or removed from the original song. Lower cost machines usually suppress the voice of the original singer so that regular (non-karaoke) songs can be fed into the machine.
however this often leads to the original voice echoing in the background or supporting music instruments being removed from the original song completely.
Quite often Karaoke machines allow the pitch of the music to change, so it can be adapted to the individual performing the song. The singer can choose a key that is appropriate for their vocal range, while maintaining the original tempo of the song.
Karaoke VCDs
A very popular form of Karaoke machine in Asia is the Karaoke VCDs. They consist of VCDs players which include a karaoke function.
Stereo recordings play the music with the vocal track out of one speaker and the same track without the vocals out of the other. To enable Karaoke, only the non-vocal part of the track will be played out of both speakers.
The first Karaoke machines consisted of cassette tapes, which were soon replaced by VCD, CDs and DVDs. Nowadays the high tech karaoke machines provide a fibre optic link allowing continuous music updates.
Karaoke Around The World
Karaoke exists in many forms and in many places. Kamikaze Karaoke is a form of Karaoke which can be found in the United States and Canada.
A song is randomly selected from a limited list of lyrics and the participants will try and sing as much as they can. Some machines even have this game pre-programmed as to allow random selection from a defined list.
A Karaoke Box is known in Asia as a small to medium sized room, containing Karaoke equipment, which can be rented by a group of friends or family. It provides for a more intimate and less public form of entertainment.
Karaoke bars / restaurants / clubs and lounges are simply bard, restaurants, clubs and lounges kitted out with high tech karaoke equipment allowing the customers hours of fun. Some establishments organise weekly karaoke events, while others organise karaoke shows seven nights a week.