I am looking for a decent karaoke machine.
I want one that has a wide song selection. It doesn't need to be portable like Magic Sing - but can be if necessary…
I've seen the Kumyoung Singcus II in Manila and I was very impressed. 30,000 odd English/Tagalog songs.
Anybody have any suggestions?
I hear you on the lack of after-sales support.
The Kumyoung is made in Korea and has a hard disk. My plan would be to copy the hard disk so when it fails (hard disks always do) I have my own backup and don't need to rely on after-sales support. From the research I've done it suggests the drive is a simple FAT32 drive with data only (NO OS, that is hardware) so it shouldn't be too hard. There dont seem to be any images available for download on torrents etc.
Even if I don't go Kumyoung, assuming whatever I get is hard disk based, I'll probably try to copy the drive if it doesn't look to difficult to do…
I have amps, speakers and mics coming out of my bazoo so not a problem with those…
It sounds like you've got everything covered already and done your research.. .I guess it's now down to your own taste in song selection.
I've got an Arirang one that's about 5 years old and the only problem I have is trying to get more updated songs. I didn't put much thought into copying the hard drive or anything. The unit itself wasn't very expensive - it was less than AUD$300 and should last quite a few years. So I figured that it were to die I'd just get a newer one which I'd hope has newer music.
btw.. the neighbours are going to love ya.. NOT! hahahahhaa
The songs I want are oldies, so hopefully even a dated machine will have them (more recent might have wiped).
Guns and Roses, Deep Purple are the two bands I prefer. Pearl Jam and a few others for variety…
The Kumyoung has about 12 Deep Purple songs, Magic Sing 3.
Also on the Kumyoung (and most other higher end machines) you can play files you download separately off a USB flash drive or USB hard drive. You don't get the scoring function, but it will play them.
A lot of new songs come out on Youtube - you can download the Youtube clip and play it…
haha.. thats very different to my music selection.. :P
I'm nowhere near my machine at the moment, so I can't tell you how many of the songs they have for each of those bands.
I've always thought that the manufacturers must get all the music and videos from the same place… judging by the era that the female models they use are from! LOL
@hv:
LOL well I am a versatile singer.
I can do Madonna's "Like A Virgin", GnR's "Don't Cry" or Deep Purple's "Highway Star" equally badly.
I don't do them well, but after a few Red Horse or similar strong beer - they are passable…
who's to judge when everyone's off their face and can't remember?
It's just not right to go to karaoke straight! hahahahaha
@hv:
I've been looking for a non-private room style karaoke joint in Sydney (preferably north west Sydney).
The only thing coming up is the Pickled Possum…
http://pickledpossum.com.au/contact.html
Judging from the comments I've seen, it's an interesting crowd…
hmm.. if you're looking for a non-private place, you must be good! hahaha
I stick to the private rooms with a group of my mates and that's as far as I'll go!
So unfortunately, I can't help ya there with any specific places.
All my non-asian friends balk at the idea of "karaoke" because their idea of that is singing in front of a whole pub or bar. When they realise it's a private room, they go nuts! Based on that, i'm guessing that the non-private rooms is pretty much anywhere that advertises karaoke that's non-asian.
The most popular brand of karaoke machine I've seen around asia and the karaoke joints in aust seems to be the Arirang brand. They even have a mobile app with the lyrics! :D
I would suggest you do a search around online to see how hard it would be to find/download things like songs, lyric books, etc before splashing out on a particular machine. There doesn't seem to be no after-sales support on these things…
Edit: If you're going for anything that's not similar to the Magic Mic, don't forget to factor in the costs of the amp, speakers and mics (wired or wireless) as well - if you haven't already got those things.