Customer Reviews

Les Miserables (Accompaniment 4-CD Set)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The editorial and customer reviews when I bought this CD, along with the unusual completeness and the price tag, made it seem like this CD was going to be something really special. It's not. Most of the tracks on this CD sound only a little better than MIDI files. In fact, songs like "Come to Me" sound so much like MIDI that it makes me wonder.

To say that this karaoke CD has an "orchestra" for the music is a gross overstatement. The "orchestra" sounds like either a decent synthesizer or a really bad recording of mediocre musicians, and the mixing job is generally poor. All too often, parts that should be quiet are blaring loud, and even if you know Les Miserables inside out, you'll probably have a hard time recognizing some of the music because the wrong parts are given dominance in the mix job.

In general, the music ranges from passable to poor. I don't at all feel that what I got was worth the $80 price tag. The music sounds very much like a karaoke disc, and a low quality one at that. The only thing this CD has going for it is that it has so many songs that your typical 5-10 song karaoke CDs lack, but frankly the typical 5-10 song karaoke CDs have better-quality music and cost a quarter of this one's price.

Don't bother unless you've just absolutely got to have all the songs that other Les Mis karaoke CDs lack, no matter how bad the music is.

I was so excited when I saw this CD. It had so many songs on it and already had one great review. I thought between that and the hefty price on it, it must be a fabulous karaoke cd. This was NOT the case. While this Cd does contain many songs that are not on most standard karaoke cds, the majority of them sound like midis, not well orchestrated karaoke songs. For the money I spent on this, I expected A LOT more. If there had been samples to listen to before I bought it, I would not have wasted my money. If you really like Les Miserables and want great karaoke versions of your favorite songs, this is not the disc to get. The only reason I even gave it two stars was for the fact that it had so many songs on it.
As a side note, when I received this Cd, one of the cds was missing out of the box, so I ended up having to exchange it.
A very disappointing purchase. I recommend getting a karaoke disc with fewer songs but much higher quality.

Let's start with the music quality. There is none. Once again, the Stage Stars Modus Operandi is to use music that is at least a decade old midi technology; this is absolutely inexcusable in an era when a company can buy music samples from philharmonic orchestras. Secondarily, the tempo on many of the songs is too fast. Third, and again, a major bone of contention, is if a KARAOKE company is going to take the time to produce a song with a counterpoint lyric duet, then to not include counterpoint lyric encoding is totally unacceptable.

Having seen the show on Broadway in New York several times,having heard various different cast albums from both England and the US, I must say this album is extremely well done. I find that a karaoke company, taking the time, and I'm sure the expense, to under take such a project as this, quite admirable. This album has all the songs to match up with the two different song books put out by the Hal Leonard company.
The production, with its emphasis on violins and guitar on the softer numbers like "I dreamed a dream" and "Bring him home" are a beautiful example of production expertise. The album does not have the full orchestral sound of a cast album, but what karaoke company can afford to do so. I find this production by Stage Stars Records to truly be worthy of 5 stars, just for putting together an "original cast" with very good talent.