Karaoke: Here’s What You Need to Build the Best Home Team

Some say it happened in Tokyo, in 1967, while working in an electronics factory: while Shigeichi Negishi was singing at the top of his lungs, a co-worker did what any co-worker with a predatory instinct would do knows how to do it very well. well: flirt with him. Bore him and humiliate him a little. But Negishi’s light bulb went on.

Others, however, assert that it was in Osaka, in 1971, that the musician Daisuke Inoue, supposed to host the march of a steel company, was unable to attend but had an idea to compensate for his absence: he delivered a cassette full of backing music, without vocals, that he recorded for people to sing along to. The activity was a great success.

Since neither Negishi nor Inoue patented their genius inventions, we’ll never really know who did it first. And even if the names and events differ, the result is the same: in Japan, a little over 50 years ago, the ever-popular karaoke was born.

Etymologically, the Japanese word is broken down into Karawhich means “empty” and All rightwhich is the abbreviation of okesutora, which means “orchestra” in Spanish. Here we come to the explanation: doing karaoke is essentially singing a song without an orchestra or backing band, but with a musical base recorded in the background.

Perhaps this is why it was inevitable for Sofia Coppola to include this reference in her film. Lost in Tokyo. Bill Murray, singing “More Than This” by Roxy Music, in a karaoke bar in Tokyo, alongside Scarlett Johansson, is and will be one of the emblematic scenes of cinema at the start of the millennium.

“Singing is therapeutic and liberating,” says Daniela Rojas, renowned psycho-oncologist , a psychology specialty dedicated to the treatment of cancer patients. “Singing puts you in touch with a part of yourself that is not frequently visited, which has to do with art but also with play, expression, pleasure and that is wonderful,” adds the ‘university. And he says this from experience.

Indeed, Daniela proclaims herself “queen of karaoke”, a scepter which seems very coveted and for which she has her credentials: “I really like karaoke, so much so that it is a frequent activity during meetings of family, with friends, birthdays. » and even during my son’s school trips. »

He has always loved singing, but his passion for karaoke began a few years ago with friends. “We were at a birthday party and we started singing a cappella with a cell phone in our hand,” says the psycho-oncologist. That night, they played hits like The Carpenters’ “This Masquerade,” George Michael’s “Careless Whisper,” and Lisa Stanfield’s “Around The World,” among others.

The meeting was a sort of epiphany: “Afterwards we said to ourselves: we have to get together to sing! We started very rudimentary, with a few microphones that had to be moved cables to make them work, and a computer. Later we all got excited and acquired things to make it more pro“.

There was no shortage of those who even took singing lessons. In Daniela’s case, all she needed was a retro-style microphone – “like Elvis’s” – and a speaker with karaoke functions, including a voice pitch and song speed modifier , as well as a mode of applause and booing. To this he adds a television to project the lyrics of the songs and to which he connects the speaker. “The idea is that everyone can see, participate and we end up singing together.”

“We meet up at least once a month,” says the karaoke queen. “Even though the first 30 minutes are always spent operating the equipment: the sound never comes out in the right place or the image is not visible on the screen. But it is now part of our customs.

For Carla Aros, it all started with a My First Sony, the iconic audio player and recorder from the 80s. “I loved it,” recalls the account manager of Vulcano Pro, a technology startup focused on promoting tourism in nationally. At the time, Carla was around four years old. Over time, his love for singing and performing has only grown: “I rented a karaoke machine for all my birthdays,” he admits.

Until he got his own team. “My friends at university gave me a speaker that had a microphone that also had colored lights. It was incredible, it was like going back to my childhood,” he says. Carla took advantage of the impulse and bought a projector. From that moment on, he never left his house without taking his karaoke equipment in the suitcase of his car.

“When I moved to reels and things started to pick up, I said, ‘Aaah, I have a karaoke machine in my suitcase.’ “I took out the speaker, the microphones, the lights and the projector,” he says with a laugh, which is how they nicknamed her “the talking girl”.

For an eighteen, the story took a turn: “Unbelievably, it rained and the speaker got wet. Over time, he began to chicharrear, until his death,” laments Carla.

In 2020, Carla and her partner made the decision to leave Santiago and settle in Puerto Varas, where they currently reside. There, “the girl with the loudspeaker” made her return. “I bought a new one and some lights that rotate and change color, because karaoke always needs to be bright,” he explains.

His habit of bringing karaoke everywhere he went served as a bridge for him to meet the group of friends he meets regularly today. “They invited us to a party and thanks to the speaker we met a lot of people. We formed a group of around ten great friends, called Motivación. “We even traveled around Chile and took karaoke everywhere.”

It doesn’t take much to do karaoke these days. All you need is a computer or mobile device with Internet access, go to YouTube and search for karaoke versions of your favorite songs. Daniela Rojas did something like this before deciding with her friends that it was time to turn the event into something common. And if you get into the dynamic, sooner or later you will want to incorporate an element that “professionalizes” or gives more color to the material.

“The best facility is to have good speakers, a small mixer and a pair of microphones, ideally wireless, although nothing happens if they are wired”, advises Carla Miranda, musician and sound engineer, with extensive experience in the audiovisual field and owner of Enkarga Music an online store selling musical instruments and audio equipment.

“The size of the speakers is important depending on the space in the house. For example, for an apartment, 3 or 4 inches are perfect. And that they have good definition, not only for karaoke, but also for listening to music. »

When it comes to a basic mic to start with, Miranda recommends the Shure SV-100, “which is very good value for money.” This is a wired, dynamic model with a cardioid polar pattern. This means it’s unidirectional and better picks up sound coming from directly overhead, plus it’s compatible with karaoke apps.

He mixer o mixing console allows you to independently upgrade the audio tracks involved in playback and amplification. “It is connected to the computer, but you can also connect a phone or any device to listen to music, even without it being karaoke, which expands the use of the investment,” Miranda explains.

Their advice is to choose one with at least two microphone inputs. “There is a wide range of prices and brands, from 30,000 to 400,000 pesos. “There, it depends on the qualities and the budget they expect.”

Other devices incorporate multiple features designed to make it a sort of all-in-one that makes karaoke easy. This is the case of the Sony SRS-XV800 speaker, which we tested some time ago and gave it four stars. It has a microphone input, incorporates colored lights and has IPX4 certification for water resistance, covering functions that, for example, could be useful to Carla Aros.

Showing the lyrics while each song plays is another classic and essential part of karaoke. Although using a laptop can be a solution, the size of its screen can make reading difficult, especially when located at a distance. Daniela Rojas chooses to connect the computer to the larger smart TV, although you can also access YouTube directly from it, if you have an Internet connection.

Carla Aros, for her part, prefers the use of a projector. And even though he no longer has the one he carried with him everywhere, he is considering buying a new one. If this option interests you, you can consult the advice that we leave you in a Practical Note 2022.

Finally, if the versions of karaoke songs available on YouTube are no longer enough, you can find applications and software with more sophisticated functions. Among others, Singa, Karafun, StarMaker, Smule and many others.

One last tip: No matter how much you love it, avoid singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” Especially if you go to karaoke in the Philippines. you want to know why? You may want to take a tour of the country’s cemeteries. Or maybe just search it on Google .

*Product prices in this article are current as of April 1, 2024. Values ​​and availability are subject to change.