Making Karaoke Worse

kaoss belt

Karaoke just isn’t fair. Not only do you have people who can’t sing choosing to belt out extremely difficult to sing songs, but the variety of songs generally isn’t that great. In an effort to make the karaoke situation at the pubs he frequents better – or worse, depending on how you look at it – [cosmic blooper] is now bringing a vocal effects processor to karaoke. Yes, now he’s got pitch shifting that takes him into [Bieber] territory, and auto tune to emulate the [T-Pain] and the Black Eyed Peas.

To bring the world of synths and effects to a karaoke party, [cosmic blooper] took a battery-powered Kaoss Pad and attached it to his belt with the help of some sheet metal. An RCA to XLR adapter connects the Kaoss Pad to the karaoke microphone, while a mic of questionable quality takes [blooper]’s voice to be transmuted into a horrifying display of effects and pitch shifters.

There’s no video of [cosmic blooper]’s karaoke machine in action, but he tells us he’ll be getting one up soon.

19 thoughts on “Making Karaoke Worse

  1. I agree, Karaoke is the worst Japanese crime against humanity since the Rape of Nanking, but on the bright side since this thing looks like a bomb maybe he’ll be shot on the way to the bar and we’ll have one less karaokist in the world.

  2. Karaoke was invented in 1906 when lyrics were first printed on player piano rolls by a minor maker in New York state. It caught on quick.
    Traditionally in Japan the band or orchestra members have no meaning or place they’re just background. It’s all about the singer, thus you become something.
    This rig could just as easily be used with instruments.

  3. Just to get the pecking order straight…..

    Karaoke where people actually use their singing voice (with or without modification) is to be spurned and made fun of….

    Playing a fake musical instrument (as in Guitar Hero and offspring) which requires no actual skill is cool and to be admired….

    At least in Karaoke, people have the chance to develop a real skill.

  4. Not much to comment on, no design or build details to speak of, with no action video. There are those things worse than who can’t sing worth a @#$ trying to sing. A person who ca,’ sing worth a !@#$, bucked up my a band who Can’t play worth a !@#$.

    1. Even worse are the band/singer combinations which are paid (at some level) to perform at events, and they utterly butcher songs everyone knows. If you can’t sing on key, don’t sing on stage.

      I’ve heard professional recording artists that couldn’t sing on key in front of an audience. Auto-tune to the rescue! They look good, that’s all that matters!

  5. Not sure what the hack is…a belt clip?

    Also, there is a lot wrong with this one, beginning with the XLR to RCA connection. If you find a real, actual Karaoke event/venue that will let you plug in your own equipment, I would be quite surprised. I’m sure that will last until you plug a heavily-effected line-level unbalanced output into their mic-level balanced cable and something pops(in an “oh shit, that speaker’s on fire” sort of way).

    1. Actually, the bar i tried it with had no problem with me plugging in my cable. I turned the input down on the kaoss pad itself, then adjusted to suit. The “hack” is making a kaoss pad portable and wearable. In it’s stock form, it requires a wall wart which obviously limits the kaoss pad’s portability. I don’t claim it’s a technologically groundbreaking hack, just something fun and easy to try if you ever want to spice up a karaoke night.

      Furthermore, it could be used to create a really decent performance if the right effects were used.

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