Need basic info on buying a karaoke machine for an 11-year-old

October 26, 2022 10:49 AM

For a birthday present for an 11-year-old, I am thinking of buying a karaoke machine.

This person loves Broadway tunes and probably other music too. I've gone to a few karaoke events at specialized places, but I don't really even know what a karaoke machine IS. I get that you're the vocalist and you need a song track that has everything minus vocals to sing along to.

But you can find those tracks on e.g. YouTube and just sing along to them. You could own a microphone and sing into the microphone, too. But I imagine a karaoke machine is more than just a mic. And yet, it doesn't seem to have songs "in" it, or make songs available (is this true?)

I've been reading some things on the web such as this, which gets technical, but does not answer the basic question: what does a karaoke machine DO? I get that you are NOT recording your vocals as you sing (is this true?); you are using the mic to make your voice sound like somebody singing along with the background track. But --

well, yeah, so that's my question: what does a karaoke machine actually DO? if I buy one, will I also have to provide a subscription to songs that will play THROUGH this machine, is THAT the point? Do they automatically provide the lyrics on a screen? Are there good ones? (machines, not lyrics; I know there are good and bad lyrics)

NOTE: The 11-year-old I have in mind is VERY smart and has taken little courses in Computer Something and his father is an engineer whose job used to be something with computers, so this is a household where something could be a project to set up without their becoming flummoxed or enraged. And this 11-year-old identifies as a (cis) male and would not like one of the karaoke machines I'm seeing that are HOT PINK and have My Little Pony and rainbows on them. So I would need to buy a karaoke machine with MACHISMO (?) or at least geek neutrality. And/But the capability of playing Broadway tunes (like from Hamilton, a macho musical (???))

Any help and recommendations for specific machines and song availability appreciated.

OH -- BY THE WAY --- I've tried to sing along to karaoke tracks on YouTube myself, and I often find they are not in a good key for my voice. Is it too much to ask for a karaoke machine that has the ability to transcribe the keys of songs? (of course not; that's insane for this sort of thing. Just thought I'd ask.)

posted by DMelanogaster to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

We used to have a karaoke machine that used cd+g cds, but that was a long time ago. Then we used a laptop plugged into a small PA with mics and karaoke software that would play karaoke song files we had on the computer. Now, the main option is to have karaoke software where the song library is a subscription and plug that into a sound system that also has mic inputs. All karaoke software should have the built in ability to change they key of any song you are doing.
posted by snofoam at 11:47 AM on October 26, 2022

Sorry, but by “plug that” I mean the laptop or whatever device you are running the software on.
posted by snofoam at 11:48 AM on October 26, 2022

AskMe from 2020 that may clarify things.
posted by soundguy99 at 12:52 PM on October 26, 2022

Is this young person yours or someone elses? If someone else's, I'd check with those elses first.
posted by porpoise at 2:24 PM on October 26, 2022

My kids karaoke all the time and they bought something like this, a small boom box with two mikes. Except theirs is glittery gold. Get something small, Bluetooth so the mikes are wireless and make sure you have two mikes so a friend can sing too.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 4:32 PM on October 26, 2022

Response by poster: Nothing here clarifies anything. I wanted to know what a karoke machine IS. From these answers and a million googles and looking at product descriptions and reviews, I'm now gathering that, unless you spend ~$500, what they're calling a "karaoke machine" is just a speaker with a couple of mics. If you want to sing karaoke, you have to bring up a karaoke (or, as we used to call them, "Music Minus One") track on the web and read the lyrics on the phone. There is nothing about modulation to another key if the key isn't right for you, but that's WAY ahead of the basic problem that these are not "karaoke machines."

I own speakers and mics. Do I own a karaoke machine? I think not.

I'm starting to think there is a conspiracy theory for retailers to sell people a crappy bluetooth speaker and a couple of mics and a slot for a phone and stick some glitter on it and tell you it's a "karaoke machine."

I don't want a do-it-yourself project, either. I want to buy something for a nice surprise birthday present for a smart kid. I can't believe this does not exist.
posted by DMelanogaster at 9:30 AM on October 27, 2022

Response by poster: well, maybe it doesn't, and that is the point.
posted by DMelanogaster at 9:31 AM on October 27, 2022

A karaoke machine will typically have a few specific features:

• A screen or display of some sort that shows the lyrics for the current song so that you can follow along
• Microphones or microphone inputs
• Speakers or outputs to connect to an external amplifier/PA system

The screen bit is the tricky part here, and the thing that makes karaoke machines harder to deal with. You won't be able to use your own library of songs (at least if you want the lyrics screen to work), so you'll need to find CDs or other sources of music specifically designed for karaoke machines. I'm not sure what the format du juor is, but CD-based machines used CD+G discs like these. Some machines might also have a vocals filter that notches out frequencies in the music where vocals usually are if you do want to use your own music library, though of course you won't be able to have lyrics displayed and synced up with it.

I'm afraid I don't have specific recommendations here, as most of my knowledge comes from retro hardware enthusiast youtube (hence the focus on CDs).
posted by Aleyn at 4:53 PM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Not to abuse the edit window, I just noticed that site I linked has various all-in-one karaoke machines for sale. Might be a good starting spot.
posted by Aleyn at 4:56 PM on October 27, 2022

Oh - the cheap machine I linked doesn’t have lyrics but the mikes have all sorts of buttons to do reverb and tuning and stuff. My kids search YouTube for song name+karaoke and get plenty of the background tracks with lyrics. A professional job will come with a subscription and you can choose your own backgrounds and add the lyrics from the subscription library, plus the mikes and speakers are better quality. So yes - the cheap versions are speaker+mikes in a convenient package.

If there’s a good home stereo set up you may be better off looking into a karaoke subscription for a tablet that will give you high quality songs.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:02 PM on October 27, 2022