Question: HTPC Karaoke Built

[Serpentarius]

hello everyone, i've been thinking of building a HTPC with karaoke functions. About the specs, i have a clear idea what i need.

except for the soundcard part, i got stuck, i dun recall any soundcards with able to support 2 or more microfons ??????

additionally, how are the microfons gonna connect to the interface? again, there dun seem to have a front interface with microfon socket connectivity. maybe using remote? but how the remote gonna work?

and lastly about the speakers and subwoofer connectivity .. how it is possible? by getting digital speakers? X-FI sockets seems to geared for computer speakers ...


can anyone enlighten me? thx in advance.

[Serpentarius]

no one actually thought bout building a HTPC?

[EniGmA1987]

you can go out of the individual outputs on the sound card into power amps to power your speakers. You *could* use the mic in, and the line in on a sound card for 2 microphones, it *should* work. The best way though would be to get some sort of sound card designed for recording that has multiple inputs on it, however those inputs would be for line level signals. Although it should still work.

Are you going to use tracks that already have the words cut out, or were you planning on using the sound card for that as well? I dont know of any cards that can produce a kareoke effect on music tracks really well, although the BlueGears b-enspire sound card can cut out words decently.

[Serpentarius]

thanx for ur reply.

you can go out of the individual outputs on the sound card into power amps to power your speakers.

can creative soundcards power HT speakers? i mean the amount of power.
or should i link it with an AV receiver?


i've googled quite sometime .. it seems that there is very vague discussions on developing a karaoke HTPC .. most of them is pre-built types

i've checked on the Audigy 2 platinum which has a front I/O, but sadly it only can attach 1 microphone - 6.25 types


i wish there's anyone who can cover a topic of development of a single HTPC to act as an Amp, karaoke and DTS receiver ..

[EniGmA1987]

No sound card can power any kind of speakers, sound cards simply have line level outputs. So to answer you question, I dont know if it will work going straight in to your HT speakers. It depends on if your HT speakers have built in amps or require and external amp. If they require some kind of powered output, you will have to either send your sound card outputs into your HT receiver, or into power amps that then go into your speakers. There are 3 types of audio signal level, Mic level which is very low, Line level which is a bit higher signal level, and Powered level which is WAY high signal level that will probably destroy any input it gets plugged in to that is not designed for a powered signal (depends on wattage though, I deal in professional level power, in the several hundred to thousand watt catagory). There are also 2 different types of audio signals, Balanced, and Unbalanced. Balanced signal has a positive, negative, and ground. Unbalanced audio has a signal and a ground. What comes out of sound cards is a Line level, unbalanced, stereo signal. So a single 1/8" connection that has 2 seperate unbalanced audio signals sharing a single ground wire. You need to get a cable that goes from stereo 1/8" to either dual mono RCA or 1/4", it depends on the input you are going into. HT receivers generally have RCA rather than 1/4", real power amplifiers have 1/4" rather than RCA.

To my knowledge there just arent any good sound cards that have dual Mic inputs. It might be possible to get 2 sound cards and use the mic inputs from both cards and then go to only the output of only one of the cards. I am not positive on that though. You will also need a converter cable that goes from XLR to balanced 1/8" so you can actually go into your sound card with the microphones. Do not forget that you cannot supply phantom power through a sound card, so the mics you use will need to be lower grade mics. Your best bet would be to buy a couple Shure SM58s. SM58s work great, are incredibly durable, dont require phantom power, sound pretty good, and are cheap for professional microphones.



Here is another idea though, rather than have your mics go into a computer and run everything through the sound card, why not just use anormal PC with a high quality sound card for music playback, and run your output into a small sound boards line inputs? Get a board that has the ability to change the signal phase so you can bring the left and right channels from your computer onto the same phase so they cancel each other out. That is actually how karaoky was done in the old days. You can run any audio track with words through the sound board then and it will phase out the vocals in the track. It will sound a little funny but it will work. Then when you have an actual track for karaoke that does not have vocals, you can simply hit the phase switch to make it sound like it should. Doing it this way you can also plug in as many microphones into the sound board as it has channels.

IF you do the sound board idea you will just need to run your outputs (probably 1/4" for small boards) into your HT receiver and then have your receiver route it to all your speakers. Or if you only have 2 speakers you are going to and you dont want to have to be linked in to a HT receiver, you could run the outputs of the sound board into a stereo power amp, and have the power amp go to your 2 speakers.

[Serpentarius]

hey thx for ur reply, it's been most useful

seems that's i have to go old school with the HT, i was thinking of combining all together, u know, bit thought provoking ..

guess it solves my doubt now.. thx

[Donnie27]

hey thx for ur reply, it's been most useful

seems that's i have to go old school with the HT, i was thinking of combining all together, u know, bit thought provoking ..

guess it solves my doubt now.. thx

Check out the EMU and M-Audio cards. They ship with Multiple MIC inputs.