Culture: Karaoke
Karaoke w/ extra headphones-only tracks   (+1, -2)  [vote for, against]
Help karaoke singers by letting them "sing along" with prerecorded singer(s)

On many karaoke tracks, none of the instruments play the melody; the singer is entirely responsible for providing it on his own. Unfortunately, unless one is very familiar with a song and, in some cases, the harmonization used on the CD, it can be very difficult to always find the right notes.

It would be much easier to sing along accurately if the singer had headphones which played an audio track with someone singing the song. The audience would simply hear the singer, but the singer would be able to "sing along" with the recording.

An additional feature which could be accommodated in a multi-track karaoke recording would be the ability to selectively include or not include backup vocals. If a karaoke singer is performing solo, the backup vocals on disk are of course useful; if, however, the singer has friends to do the backup vocals the ones on disk may be superfluous.

Along with these functions, I'd also like to see more karaoke machines include a +/- 1/2 octave transpose function. While transposing an audio recording will also generally alter the tempo (unless one has special hardware/software to avoid that) it might help people avoid cracking on high notes or croaking out on low ones.
-- supercat, Jun 25 2001

Have you heard people singing along to their personal cassette players?
-- Aristotle, Jun 26 2001


If one were not a fan of Tony Bennett, that last line would be priceless: "Tony Bennett. Karaoke at its best."
-- beauxeault, Jun 26 2001


Aristotle: I have heard people singing along with their cassette recorders. They generally are deliberately not singing for an audience, however; indeed, they may be trying to avoid drawing too much undue attention to themselves. To suggest that 'helping' singers with headphones would lead to the style of singing commonly heard from people wearing walkabout stereos seems unfounded.

BTW, professional singers are often wearing (and listening to) headphones when they're recorded.

waugsqueke: I personally prefer to listen to karaoke performances which are done well, ideally offering a somewhat unique interpretation of the song while remaining faithful to its essentials. I'm sure some people (you no doubt included) enjoy bad karaoke renditions but I prefer good ones.
-- supercat, Jun 27 2001


However the professional singers that wear (and listen to) headphones when they're being recorded are generally listening to themselves and/or their backing music re-mixed. Also they are professionals.

Singing lessons would probably help more but if the people become too good it's a talent contest, not karaoke.
-- Aristotle, Jun 27 2001



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