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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: online karaoke

  • SingSnap brings people together

    SingSnap brings people together

    This week, I’ve found out how SingSnap brings people together

    Next week, I will be in the midst of a move. The packers are coming to gather up our belongings on Tuesday, and by Friday, all our stuff will be on its way to Texas. Consequently, it’s unlikely that I’ll be writing nearly as much next week. But this week, I have enjoyed some creative pursuits, including much time spent on SingSnap.com. On Tuesday this week, I was unusually prolific on SingSnap and a man from Norway ran across my recording of Don McLean’s “Vincent”. I had done it in a lower key and it turned out pretty nice. He left me a comment and then listened to a few of my other recordings, on which he also left comments.

    I was curious about my new Norwegian follower, so I went to his SingSnap page. Turns out he has a very nice voice himself and even writes songs. He didn’t have many recordings up; in fact, over the past week, he’s more than doubled what was on his page the first time I visited. But I noticed that he had an “open duet” available, Don Williams’ and Emmylou Harris’ cover of the Townes Van Zandt song, “If I Needed You”. I actually had only heard Lyle Lovett’s take on that song.


    Emmylou Harris and Don Williams sing “If I Needed You”.


    Lyle Lovett’s version of “If I Needed You”.

    And I will admit that I pretty much guessed how Emmylou Harris would sing her part in the duet. I didn’t listen to her version of the song before I recorded my part. Consequently, my version is probably more like Lyle’s done in Emmylou’s key.

    Anyway, I joined “brumm101” on that song and it turned out nicely. I posted it on Facebook and much to my surprise, several friends listened and enjoyed it. In fact, a former English professor of mine, now retired from many years of teaching at Longwood University listened to our recording and wanted to know how we did it. I explained how on SingSnap, you can sing your part, post it, and others can join you if you give them that option.

    Another online friend, who lives in Texas and sings, vows that there WILL be karaoke when we finally meet. I “met” him and his wife on Epinions.com roughly eight or nine years ago. I actually met his wife in person at an Epinions Meet & Greet in Washington, DC. I understand he’s quite the singer and, in fact, used to write excellent music reviews on Epinions. We’ve kept in touch over the years, despite my many moves. He offered his take on my duet with the Norwegian, too. And so did another “friend” I’ve never met in person, but who is a musician and mutual friends with a chef I used to work with years ago. He offered some suggestions and checked out some other stuff I did. It was a nice bonding moment.

    Yesterday, SingSnap had a duet challenge asking members to sing duets with people from other countries. Since I am American and brumm101 is Norwegian, it worked out well for us. We sang Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe”. I think I might have found a new friend!

    “brumm101” and I sing an old hit by Sonny and Cher.

    Making and sharing music is exciting to me, even if I’m only doing it on an online karaoke site. If I manage to make new friends and find good duet partners in the process, that’s a good thing.

    I hope everyone has a good weekend. I’ll try to post next week before my computer gets packed up for the move. If I don’t manage to, I’ll be back when I’m no longer in transit to Texas.

  • SingSnap’s latest cool feature… infinite duets!

    SingSnap’s latest cool feature… infinite duets!

    I’ve been having a great time with SingSnap’s latest cool feature… infinite duets!

    If you’ve read Pop Rock Nation since I started writing here in January, you may know that I am a karaoke enthusiast. These days, I do a lot of my karaoke online at SingSnap.com. Though it’s not quite the same as singing live for an appreciative crowd in a bar, online karaoke has its own advantages over live performances. Online karaoke gives you a lot of freedoms you don’t have in a bar. In fact, I was reminded of this on my recent trip to San Antonio, Texas, when my husband Bill and I happened to be in a bar that was hosting a karaoke show.

    It was about 10:00pm when the show started. A couple of women started playing music and invited an older gentleman to come up and sing. He got up, did a decent job, got some half-hearted applause, and then sat down. Then another older man got up and sang and wasn’t as good. He sat down and then the two karaoke jocks did a duet of George Benson’s 1981 hit song, “Turn Your Love Around”. The KJs were decent singers and harmonized with each other nicely. But then they said to the bar patrons, “We promise the show will get better. It’s not going to be like this all night.” I was pretty turned off by that comment. Karaoke isn’t necessarily about singers sounding good, though it’s great when someone who can sing does. Bill and I left quickly because I got the sense that these two karaoke jocks weren’t very nice.

    When we got back from Texas, I found out that SingSnap.com had added a new feature to their online karaoke service– “infinite duets”. In the past, you could record a song and then harmonize once to it, or offer it as an “open duet” so other singers could join you. I have done a few duets on SingSnap and have enjoyed the experience, bonding with perfect strangers from anywhere in the world. The infinite duet feature takes that capability a step further. It allows you to record as many harmony tracks as you want. Since you can also change the key of a song if you want (or need) to, online karaoke almost gives you a basic sense of what it feels like to be a music producer.

    This week, I’ve had a good time experimenting with infinite duets. I’d sing the melody. Then I’d record a harmony line. Then I’d record another one and perhaps another until I had all the harmonies I wanted. The end results have been very interesting. I have a few examples posted which I will share here.

    Here’s my harmonized version of “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”. I changed the key so it’s higher, then recorded three parts so the final product is in three part harmony.

    I got a little carried away with “Love Me Tender”, which I gave five parts to. That one was my first effort and I got a little carried away with it, but I was just experimenting.

    I posted these two recordings on my personal music blog and a reader asked me to sing “The Rose”, a song made popular by Bette Midler in 1980. I was never a big fan of that song. I probably got sick of it because it was on the radio too much when I was growing up. Also, while I love Bette Midler as an actress, I was never the biggest fan of her singing, even as I recognize her immense talent for music. But after recording “The Rose” yesterday, I have a new appreciation for it. I only harmonized parts of the song and was doing so during a rainstorm, so I was a bit challenged. It’s hard to get the recordings just right because of Internet speeds and such. Still, I think this turned out pretty decently.

    One thing to remember with these infinite duets is that if the recording already has backing singers, you can’t erase them. It’s best to pick songs that don’t have backing singers or they’re subtle. I also think the infinite duets work best when you use short, simple songs. The longer and more complicated the song, the harder it is to get it right.

    Just for kicks, here’s a duet I did of “Leather and Lace” with some guy on SingSnap. I was very impressed with him because he actually sounds a bit like Don Henley.

    Anyway, I think this new infinite duets feature is a lot of fun and allows singers a great chance to be creative and make the songs their own. I’m going to play with it as much as possible until it’s time to pack everything up and start the road trip to Texas.

    Have a great weekend everyone!

  • Rediscovering karaoke on SingSnap.com!

    SingSnap is an online karaoke service that I rediscovered yesterday after a long absence…

    Several years ago, my husband Bill and I lived on an Army post in northern Virginia. Back then, I was more social than I am today. I used to clamor for Friday night karaoke at the officer’s club. We’d go; I’d get drunk; and I’d sing for about four hours straight because it wasn’t always a particularly well-attended activity. I got really hooked on karaoke. There was a group that met every Friday and we’d socialize and sing for hours. The Vietnamese bartender who worked at the club, Tieng, loved it. When Bill was deployed to Iraq, she’d call me every Friday to “invite” me to karaoke! It was a great source of support at a time when I was alone a lot.

    Sometime around 2005 or so, a karaoke Web site called kSolo.com was launched. kSolo.com was affiliated with Sound Choice, a karaoke manufacturer based in Charlotte, North Carolina. kSolo.com is now defunct, but it was a site where people all over the Internet could sing karaoke songs and upload them for the world to hear. For awhile, it was quite a diversion for me and a great place to practice and get feedback from other would-be superstars. Of course, people weren’t always nice, but it was fun while it lasted.

    The following year, a competing site called SingSnap was created. I was one of the first people to join SingSnap. I liked it better than kSolo.com, mainly because the people who ran it had a broader selection of songs and used a variety of karaoke tracks. Anyone who has done karaoke regularly knows that karaoke songs can vary widely in quality. The best songs tend to be made by Sound Choice or Chartbuster, a label that recently went out of business but made some great karaoke tracks, particularly for those of us who like bluegrass music! But sometimes even those two labels put out clunkers that another label did a better job with. SingSnap seemed to recognize this fact and offered a wider variety and better quality songs that appealed to broader tastes. SingSnap also allowed people to change the key and use their Web cams for the whole performance, something kSolo.com never did.

    For several years, I sang quite faithfully on SingSnap.com. I became a “gold member”, which means I was a paid member of the site and got full access to all its songs and features. It was a fun way to pass particularly boring afternoons. Then in 2009, I quit hanging out on SingSnap because my subscription ran out and SingSnap dramatically raised their prices to the point at which I didn’t think it was worth it anymore. After all, I have my own karaoke player at home and a large collection of discs. I don’t make a habit of promoting my performances, either.

    Then yesterday, I wrote on my personal blog about my prior career plans and how they led me to where I am today. I explained that if I had to do it over again, I might have considered studying music. It’s something that comes easily to me and I enjoy it immensely. I have a regular reader from Ireland who was curious about my voice. I was feeling a bit bashful, but he persisted and promised that he would keep nagging until I gave in and uploaded a video of me singing on YouTube. So then I tried to figure out how I was going to appease my new Irish friend. I didn’t mind letting him hear a recording of me, but I really didn’t want to film myself singing. And then I remembered SingSnap.com.

    I logged into my long forgotten account and looked at the free songs they had available. I wondered if my computer would work well with SingSnap. Since the last time I “performed” on SingSnap, I had switched from a PC to a Mac, which doesn’t have an external microphone. I needn’t have worried. After a few easy adjustments, my computer was able to record my voice somewhat decently. Finally, I decided to give it a go and sang the one free version of “Danny Boy”. It was okay… basically, it was the Elvis Presley version. Since I was no longer a gold member, I couldn’t try a different version or change the key. Of course, being a total karaoke junkie, my addiction was quickly reignited and I found myself checking out SingSnap’s prices for their gold subscription. They had come down significantly since I last checked, so I re-subscribed and made a couple of new recordings. I opted for the year subscription, which is $80 payable by credit card or PayPal. Monthly subscriptions run $15.

    Here is one of the recordings I made yesterday on SingSnap.

    You will notice there is a fixed image on the video. That’s because I don’t usually wear makeup and don’t want to subject people to what I look like on a regular day! Before I uploaded that picture, I had a photo of one of my beagles on my recordings.

    One of the cool things about SingSnap is that the system allows paying users to make duets, harmonize, and create groups. In that sense, it kind of allows regular people to get a very rudimentary experience of recording their own music. You are free to listen or not listen to other peoples’ songs. You can make your recordings public, restrict them, or make them totally private. You can allow people to rate or make comments on your recordings, or you can disable those features. SingSnap also has contests. I haven’t entered any of them, but for those who like that sort of thing, contests are available and seem to be quite popular.

    I had so much fun playing with SingSnap yesterday that I imagine I’ll experiment more with it today. It’s just one more thing to prevent me from mowing the lawn.

    Edited to add…. I just plugged in a real mic. BIG difference in how it sounds!