Buying Guides

A MIDI keyboard is the natural second instrument of a vanBasco household. The player already shows every note of a song lighting up on its piano keyboard window; a real keyboard under your fingers turns watching into learning — play along with the melody of a .mid file, slow the tempo down, and pick out…

Plugging a microphone into a PC’s built-in sound hardware is where home karaoke audio goes to die: hiss, thin sound, and a delay between singing and hearing yourself that makes staying in time a struggle. A USB audio interface is the grown-up fix — proper microphone preamps, clean conversion and direct monitoring. With vanBasco’s Karaoke…

Here is the gap in every software karaoke setup: vanBasco’s Karaoke Player (v2.53, March 2004, Windows freeware) plays your .kar and .mid files and handles key, tempo and lyrics, and it adds no echo or reverb to your voice. Singers sound exposed and dry, and dry is unforgiving. A small mixer with built-in effects is…

Karaoke fails quietly when the speaker is too small: the music sounds thin, voices fight to be heard, and the party drifts away from the screen. With vanBasco’s Karaoke Player (v2.53, March 2004, Windows freeware) plays your .kar and .mid files and handles key, tempo and lyrics driving the lyrics and the backing, the speaker’s…

A wired microphone keeps a singer on a short leash. A wireless system lets the performance happen anywhere in the room — which is most of the fun of karaoke night. Paired with vanBasco’s Karaoke Player (v2.53, March 2004, Windows freeware) plays your .kar and .mid files and handles key, tempo and lyrics on the…

vanBasco’s Karaoke Player (v2.53, March 2004, Windows freeware) plays your .kar and .mid files and handles key, tempo and lyrics — but it does not amplify your voice. The microphone is where your side of the duet enters the system, and it is the single purchase that most changes how a home karaoke night sounds….