It's a great little local pub, just been redecorated and looks very nice, and drinks are cheap, can highly recommend.
Went for the karaoke night. Truly wish I hadn't bothered.
As a former Karaoke Jock, I guess I always have a slightly critical eye for any karaoke show that I go to - mentally noting the good points and the bad points. TBH not many of them are what I'd call professional. But that being said, I do like a good sing song (even though I'm not very good at singing). So I look for what makes a decent night, and focus on that. Usually.
Starting with the pub itself; it's a fairly small pub. Kind of long and thin, with a pool table at one end, the bar in the middle and the karaoke at the other end. Free parking is available in the side streets around it, and it makes for a nice local with a good intimate feel about it. The staff were lovely and very pleasant. The toilets were clean (for me that's a BIG plus) although the urinals I think are meant for giants. Short arses, like myself, have no chance of reaching them. No idea of the price of beers as I drink soft drinks.
That's the nice bits.
For me, the idea of going to a karaoke is to be a 5 minute superstar. So the Karaoke Jock (KJ) should help with that by providing at least the basics. That means more than one speaker, more than one mic and at least some kind of effect on the mic as well. Also, make sure your equipment is up to people squawking at the top of their lungs, and be sure you actually know how to use said equipment.
So, imagine my slight disappointment when we went here and found the KJ had none of these attributes.
This calls for a withering review.
Let's start with one cheapo speaker which he kept having to adjust throughout any given song. One speaker. Why one? What's all that about? Get a second speaker and at least give yourself a chance of creating something with enough power that it won't clip every time someone sings a bit loud. One speaker just doesn't do it unless you're using a decent column system. The pub across the road (The Travellers) had a KJ with a column system 10 years ago, and it sounded great. One mic (it did perform reasonably well though. I'll give him that). Really need at least two so people can have a duet. Also put some reverb on the mic (most modern 'live' mixing desks have special effects on them - use it!). If you need to adjust volume and outputs, you should be doing it on the mixer, not on the speaker. An active speaker like yours should be set before the show as part of your sound check. The adjustments come from your mixing desk. Google how to set up your sound or reply to this review. I'd be happy to show you. It's quite straight forward. Also, need to remember it's a pub, not Ibiza. Playing 3 tracks over each other in different keys is really not cool. Sounds bloody awful. I can see where you were trying to go with that, so if you're going to do it, use the in built key shift to match the pitch of the songs. Three songs in different keys all at the same time is just musical toothache.
I realise not everyone is an instant expert, and people have the right to learn, so I'd say take these criticisms on board and learn from them. You have some good ideas of your own behind the decks, but they're being lost because of poor set.
Could also use a better system for getting the singers up - my mate's 5 songs to my 2 songs. Even though we came in together. Just sayin'
Here's the main issue though, and it's a real biggie: When you're getting songs that you don't already have for one of your singers, don't broadcast it to the entire pub that you're raiding YouTube. It's highly illegal and the landlady could end up losing her licence over it, as well as you getting all your gear confiscated. Use a recognised distributor such as Sunfly Karaoke, or Zoom Karaoke or (my favourite) Karaoke-Version. Sure, it it costs a couple of quid for most tracks, but you're only probably getting maybe 3 or 4 tracks at most per evening.