There
are four Karaoke formats
They all have instrumental
tracks with backing singers minus the lead vocalist (which you perform).
Words appear on a TV screen and change colour to help you keep in time
with the music. These discs are known as KARAOKE. The original format
was Laser disc, a 12 inch disc which was often double sided. The three
other discs are CD size and known as DVD, VCD and CDG. DVD and VCD have
full motion pictures and CDG has a blank background. All have words appearing
on a TV screen to aid you in singing a song.
CDG
is the most commonly used format worldwide
For the English
language CDG is the most common format used by professionals worldwide.
Last year a manufacturer noted that there was over 100,000 songs available
on this format. CDG will also play in a normal CD player (sound only).
So if someone was looking for a backing track to be played in a CD player,
CDG is the only format you can use. CDG is a straight backing track with no multiplex
function to learn a song. Multiplex is where a lead singer is recorded
on the disc which you can switch on to aid you in learning the song.
DVD
and VCD have full motion pictures and multiplex
DVD and VCD have
full motion pictures in the background and words displaying on a TV
screen. Using the multiplex
feature on your player you can bring the singer in to aid in learning
a song, or take the singer off so you are the lead performer. DVD Karaoke
discs often have a menu screen which makes it difficult to cue up a
song for professional users. At present there is around 15,000 songs
available on VCD and about half that on DVD.
What
do professionals prefer?
The most common
format for professional users is CDG, followed by VCD. The latest songs
always seem to come out first on CDG and the recordings are always very
close to the originals.
Spoilt
for choice
Everyone has different
needs when it comes to players, that's why at Laser Direct we stock
the lot! That way you get to choose what you want!
