8/15/2019 Singing Machines

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SINGING MACHINES Take over the lead vocals with your favorite band.BY RON GOLDBERG

 The adorin crowd cla!ors its a""reciation as you ste" u" to the !icro"hone.#fter a !o!ent$ the intro swells in%%%that&s your cue. Before you know it$ you&rebeltin out your favorite nu!ber$ with a backu" band of to" !usicians "rovidin the

acco!"ani!ent. 't all sounds like one of those idle afternoon fantasies$ butso!ehow$ you&ve really doin it.

 This illusion of randeur co!es courtesy of karaoke$ a (a"aneseentertain!ent cra)e that&s slowly !akin its way into the #!erican !ainstrea!.Loosely translated as *e!"ty orchestra$+ karaoke is a technoloy that brins the!usic !inus one instru!ent conce"t to its loical e,tre!e. The "erfor!er sinsbehind "rerecorded instru!ental tracks$ often receivin a hel"in hand fro! so!evocal enhance!ent circuitry. Re!e!berin the lyrics is never a "roble! becausethey&re dis"layed on a video !onitor and hihlihted in ti!e to the !usic.

-araoke !ade its ./. debut in the late 0123s$ 4rst a""earin in sushi barsand waterin holes fre5uented by (a"anese "atrons. The conce"t was already a hitin its native country. But so!ethin about karaoke is obviously beinnin to click on

this side of the 6aci4c. Not only are karaoke bars s"rinin u" everywhere$ but thetechnoloy is now bein !arketed directly to consu!ers.

'n its early incarnations$ consu!er karaoke ca!e in the for! of "ortable ta"e%based syste!s "ackaed with an internal a!"li4er$ a !icro"hone and so!eti!es asecond ta"e well for recordin the sun "erfor!ances. These consu!er karaokesyste!s$ however$ have been larely su"erseded by o"tical !edia$ with software"rovided on both laserdisc and 7D8G 9co!"act disc "lus ra"hics: discs. Theadvantaes of these diitally based syste!s are obvious; instant son access$ hih%4delity and the addition of Digital Signal Processing 9D/6: for the instru!entaltracks as well as the vocals.

 The versatility of these D/6 functions has hel"ed !any nervous karaokenovice et !ore fun out of the e,"erience by "olishin u" an otherwise raw"erfor!ance. hen used subtly$ these can 4ll a thin vocal"erfor!ance with a rich feelin of a!bience. >hen used with a heavier hand$ theycan "rovide e,aerated$ s"acey e=ects. One of the !ore clever D/6 functions to4nd its way into the karaoke !arket is harmonizing$ a techni5ue often used in"rofessional recordin studios. By analy)in the funda!ental key bein sun$ ahar!oni)er can synthesi)e ?% or @% "art har!ony and layer the! over the live vocal.

D/6 also allows you to !ani"ulate audio sinals to "erfor! various"sychoacoustic tricks. One of the !ost co!!on D/6 e=ects is the re%creation ofdi=erent roo! a!biences$ ranin fro! a s!all Aa)) club to a full arena. This audiosleiht of hand is achieved by "layin with the sinal&s leftriht "hase infor!ationand addin various a!ounts of ti!e delay.