Karaoke System
The simplest karaoke system comprises of three parts: a microphone, a karaoke player and an audio output device such as a speaker.
Karaoke players can control the pitch of the recorded sound of music, and can even attenuate or remove the original voice of the singer. This is one way of doing it, but it does not prove very effective. So another way is to use more developed machine called an audio mixer which takes inputs from vocals of the live singer and mixes it with the music. These music inputs are in various formats where some display only audio such as MP3s, some have a special tracks to embed lyrics and graphics called CD+Gs (CD plus graphics), and rest have both audio and video encoding. These systems are specially designed to suit user’s needs, so they have the ability to alter the pitch of the music in such a way that it matches the vocal range of the singer.
The simpler version of karaoke systems removes the singer's voice from the track if a standard audio CD is being played. This phenomenon is called centre removal. A well known karaoke system called Sega Saturn uses this technique to mute the vocals. This technique has not worked effectively and sometimes music at the centre gets removed along with the vocals. These issues with the quality of music have led to a decrease in manufacture of such products.
A complete karaoke system consists of an MP3 or CDG karaoke player, microphone, mixer, amplifier, and speaker as well cables to connect all these devices. A portable system is sometimes called a singing machine or karaoke machine. Such systems get very popular around occasions such as Easter, Christmas, and St. Patrick's Day. They usually have built-in mixers. All that is needed is to connect the system to the microphone, power outlet, and sing!