Why did I not know about this? (Karaoke Rant)
In order to understand this post, you must know some basic information:
1) I adore Japanese-style karaoke. Lock me in a box with a good song selection for five or six hours, you will never have seen me so happy.
2) 75+% of the music I listen to and know how to sing is Japanese pop or anime music. This has been true since high school and is not likely to change.
3) Most (and they are limited) box-style karaoke places in the US that have Japanese songs, are running on Korean machines that are limited to old-style discs or monthly updates and have a limited song selection.
4) Importing the quality machines that they have in Japan (which I have researched and considered) can easily cost in the thousands of dollars - and may still require a complicated subscription to update the songs on the machine. These are meant for businesses, not personal use.
And now you can see why the the following information kept me up for an hour past my nominal bedtime tonight:
HyperJoy/Joysound has a Wii game.
It basically makes your Japanese Wii into a miniature HJoy machine.
I NEED THIS SOMEDAY.
Joysound site is here: http://joysound.com/ex/st/wii/
You can search the songs available on Wii with the subscription (see below).
The game is available from a few of the usual importing suspects, like play asia:
* http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-z3-49-en-70-3lmt.html
(This is the Newer DX version, and while the reviews on the game system are better, the only songs I recognize include Koda Kumi's "Ai no uta" and Arashi's "One Love", so basic or WiiWare seems like the best plan.)
* There is also a 'Duets' version: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-z3-49-en-70-3k15.html
(Main advantage being the two mics, because I have no idea what most of the songs they list are.)
* And acutually, regardless of rough reviews, looking at the song list from the original game package.... holy crap I would be happy with 'Hana' and 'Niji'! (And Nada Sousou, Love So Sweet, Soba ni Iru ne... HOLY CRAP)
A Japanese Wii will still run the $260 or so that I paid for my American Wii back in the olden days, but that's not bad considering the exchange rate... http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bt-49-en-70-3fe0.html
AND I COULD GET THE JAPANESE Wii-ware for other things to. Like Pokemon.
And you can play with up to 8 people on these games, which should be awesome. The only question is whether other USB mics work, but I'll translate that bit of the webpage another time.
And the AMAZING thing? With a subscription (less than $10 monthly - see other prices below) to the online library, you get most of the Joysound library. That means over 25 Nao-kun songs, over 100 Arashi songs, over 100 Amuro Namie. The list goes on. Apparently the Wii store on a Japanese Wii lets you use whatever credit card you want, so this subscription is no problem.
( There is convincing testimonial here to prove that.)
All of this is much less that $2k-6k for a professional machine that might not even work with automatic updates in the US.
[[EDIT - HOLD UP: There is ALSO a Wii-Ware version that only costs 1000 points! So you /have/ to pay for subscription, but a day is only 300 yen/points, three days is 500, and three months is only 2000!]]
That makes the cost basically moot past the Wii console.]]
Jess? Kat? How do you feel about some sort of team effort to make one of our apartments the awesome-est place in Seattle?
(In any case I think I sense a present to myself on the way come this Christmas.)
1) I adore Japanese-style karaoke. Lock me in a box with a good song selection for five or six hours, you will never have seen me so happy.
2) 75+% of the music I listen to and know how to sing is Japanese pop or anime music. This has been true since high school and is not likely to change.
3) Most (and they are limited) box-style karaoke places in the US that have Japanese songs, are running on Korean machines that are limited to old-style discs or monthly updates and have a limited song selection.
4) Importing the quality machines that they have in Japan (which I have researched and considered) can easily cost in the thousands of dollars - and may still require a complicated subscription to update the songs on the machine. These are meant for businesses, not personal use.
And now you can see why the the following information kept me up for an hour past my nominal bedtime tonight:
HyperJoy/Joysound has a Wii game.
It basically makes your Japanese Wii into a miniature HJoy machine.
I NEED THIS SOMEDAY.
Joysound site is here: http://joysound.com/ex/st/wii/
You can search the songs available on Wii with the subscription (see below).
The game is available from a few of the usual importing suspects, like play asia:
* http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-z3-49-en-70-3lmt.html
(This is the Newer DX version, and while the reviews on the game system are better, the only songs I recognize include Koda Kumi's "Ai no uta" and Arashi's "One Love", so basic or WiiWare seems like the best plan.)
* There is also a 'Duets' version: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-z3-49-en-70-3k15.html
(Main advantage being the two mics, because I have no idea what most of the songs they list are.)
* And acutually, regardless of rough reviews, looking at the song list from the original game package.... holy crap I would be happy with 'Hana' and 'Niji'! (And Nada Sousou, Love So Sweet, Soba ni Iru ne... HOLY CRAP)
A Japanese Wii will still run the $260 or so that I paid for my American Wii back in the olden days, but that's not bad considering the exchange rate... http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bt-49-en-70-3fe0.html
AND I COULD GET THE JAPANESE Wii-ware for other things to. Like Pokemon.
And you can play with up to 8 people on these games, which should be awesome. The only question is whether other USB mics work, but I'll translate that bit of the webpage another time.
And the AMAZING thing? With a subscription (less than $10 monthly - see other prices below) to the online library, you get most of the Joysound library. That means over 25 Nao-kun songs, over 100 Arashi songs, over 100 Amuro Namie. The list goes on. Apparently the Wii store on a Japanese Wii lets you use whatever credit card you want, so this subscription is no problem.
( There is convincing testimonial here to prove that.)
All of this is much less that $2k-6k for a professional machine that might not even work with automatic updates in the US.
[[EDIT - HOLD UP: There is ALSO a Wii-Ware version that only costs 1000 points! So you /have/ to pay for subscription, but a day is only 300 yen/points, three days is 500, and three months is only 2000!]]
That makes the cost basically moot past the Wii console.]]
Jess? Kat? How do you feel about some sort of team effort to make one of our apartments the awesome-est place in Seattle?
(In any case I think I sense a present to myself on the way come this Christmas.)