Karaoke - what a splendid leisure time activity. During the past year, the ongoing situation in the world has caused a home karaoke trend, while people have found the joy of singing to lift their spirits during the stay-home era. And no wonder - singing home karaoke can be as fun as jumping on the stage at your favorite karaoke venue, if you have the right tools!
Singing home karaoke can be as fun as jumping on the stage at your favorite karaoke venue!
So, what do you need to get a top-notch karaoke experience at home? We got it covered for you. We put together a guide on setting up a proper karaoke experience at home. Here's how to do it - either the simple way or with a full gear.
Guide for the perfect home karaoke setup
Let's dig into it. First, we'll go though a simple karaoke setup for any home, and second, the one for more hard-core karaoke devotees.
1. The Simple Way - Home Karaoke to Any Home
For a simple, yet high-quality home karaoke setup, all you need is your computer, mobile device or smart TV - and of course, your voice! Now, let's get you some karaoke. You'll find easily your favorite karaoke songs from a karaoke streaming service Singa.
- Create a free account to Singa. You can navigate to singa.com with your computer, download Singa app to your mobile device or tablet, or open Singa with your Smart TV.
- Choose your favorites from thousands and thousands of karaoke songs. Transpose the pitch (up to 4 steps up or down) to match your range and preference.
- Press play and start singing!
With Singa you can enjoy singing without ads. You can sing a limited amount of songs per day for free, and to unlock more songs, you can upgrade to Singa Premium.
That's the simplest way! Here's some extra steps to level it up.
Connect an external screen
If would like to have more karaoke bar vibe, or to have a sing a long with your friends you might need a bigger screen than just your mobile phone or laptop. You can easily connect your device with Singa app to your TV screen.
Usually the easiest way to it is through HDMI cable, which looks like this.
You can also use the screen mirroring feature of your mobile device to mirror the karaoke lyrics from Singa to your smart tv.
Connect your Singa device with external speakers
You can use any regular speaker that you can connect to your device to amplify the sound of the karaoke track. Just like when you want to play music out loud.
There it is - your easy home karaoke setup. However, if this is not what you're currently looking for, read on.
2. The "All In" Way - Home Karaoke Setup with Microphone, Mixer & Sound System
Sometimes you might wanna go big or go home. Or in this case - go big AND go home. Here's what you need to set up an all-you-need, karaoke bar type of a karaoke experience at home. (Ps. Warn your neighbors! But be prepared they might wanna join the party 🎶)
Here's what you need
- A mobile phone, tablet, computer or smart tv, that you can play Singa with.
- Screen/TV, and a necessary cable to connect it with your device. Typically, this would be an HDMI cable. To connect a screen with your mobile device, you might need an additional adapter.
- Microphone or a few, a mixer, and couple of XLR cables (unless you use wireless mics). Read our professional microphone suggestions here.
- Sound amplifier system, for example active speakers or home entertainment system.
Which devices should you get for a karaoke setup?
There are lot of options and devices from all price ranges that you can consider for your karaoke set up - depending on your needs, and budget. To make it easy for you, we selected some karaoke hardware recommendations for you to check.
To make it easy for you, we selected some karaoke hardware recommendations for you to check.
For your Singa karaoke device, you're good with a typical mobile phone (iOs or Android), a laptop or other computer, or an iPad.
To find your perfect karaoke screen, you might want to consider first where you'll be locating it. A karaoke screen can be a Smart TV screen (for example, a Philips TV), a large computer screen, or for example a projector screen.
To select the perfect microphone to your home karaoke setup, you have millions of options to choose from - from wireless to wired, ranging from $20 to hundreds. A good dynamic microphone to start with is for example the classic of the classics - a Shure SM58, that you'll get with $99 from Shure. Other than Shure, check for example Sennheiser's dynamic microphones.
For a mixer for your home karaoke setup, usually a simple one does the job well. For example a simple 4 to 6 channel mixer with inbuilt effects does the job perfectly. Brands you might want to consider include Mackie, Yamaha and Behringer, to name a few. See this article for some reviews!
Then, you'll need speakers. If you have a home entertainment system with speakers, you can use these, or get specific ones to your home karaoke stage. Again, only the sky - and your karaoke budget - is the limit with the speakers, as there is a lot to choose from. See for example Sony's selection of speakers.
There are also sets designed specifically for home karaoke purpose. For example JBL PartyBox On-The-Go. With the JBL PartyBox On-The-Go you can transform any of your devices into a karaoke machine, by simply connecting your phone, tablet or computer via Bluetooth. The set includes a professional sound quality wireless microphone and an integrated mixer board, from which you can mix the vocal effects and volume to the desired level. See more info and get yours here!
How to set everything up?
Here's a simplified overview of a typical setup with a mixer and microphones. Let's get it done!
1. Connect the sound from your karaoke device to a suitable channel in the mixer with an RCA cable.
2. Connect your Singa device with an HDMI cable to your screen.
3. Plug your microphones to the suitable channels in the mixer with an HDMI cable. If you're using wireless microphones, connect the transmitter with the mixer.
4. Use the mixer to adjust the microphone volumes and add effects, such as reverb or delay.
5. Connect the outcoming sound from your mixer to your sound system or speaker.
To see how it works in practice, check this video where we connect Singa Business Pro with the necessary devices to start your Singa karaoke party.