The Story Behind the First Karaoke Machine

Belt of your favorite song on pre -recorded music in a microphone in front of friends and foreigners in karaoke is a popular way for people around the world to destroy themselves after work or celebrate the birthday of a friend. The idea of ​​the karaoke machine did not come from a singer or a large entertainment company, but from Nichiden Kogyo, a small electronic assembly company in Tokyo.

The founder of the company, Shigeichi Negishi, sang for himself one day in 1967 when an employee jokes him jokingly. Personing that singing to music would help him stay on the field, Negishi began to think about how possible. He had the idea of ​​transforming one of the 8 -track decks that his company has made with what is now known as Karaoke Machine.

Later that year, he built what was going to become the first machine of this type, which he called the music box. The 30 cm cube housed an 8 -track player for four strips of instrumental records and included a microphone in which sing.

He sold his machine in 1967 to a Japanese commercial company, which then sold it to restaurants, bars and hotel banquet rooms, where they used it as entertainment.

The machine was invented karaoke In the 1970s to describe the act of singing to pre -recorded music. The term is a combination of two Japanese words: karameaning emptyAnd Okesutorameaning orchestra.

In a few years, dedicated establishments known as karaoke bars have started to open through Japan. Today, the country has more than 8,000, according to Statista.

The karaoke machine was commemorated as an IEEE milestone. The dedication ceremony took place in June in the region which shelters karaoke stands linked to the Shinagawa Prince hotel in Tokyo. Negishi’s family attended the event with the leaders of the IEEE. Negishi died last year at the age of 100.

It was grateful that people enjoy karaoke in the world, said his son, Akihiro Negishia, during the ceremony: “Although he did not imagine spreading on a global scale when he created it.”

Accidentally invent one of the favorite hobbies in the world

Shigeichi Negishi grew up in Tokyo, where his mother run a tobacco store and his father supervised the regional elections as a government official. After obtaining a baccalaureate in economics from Hosei University in Tokyo, he was drafted in the Japanese imperial army during the Second World War. He became a prisoner of war and spent two years in Singapore before being released in 1947.

He returned to Tokyo and sold cameras for the manufacturer of electrical parts Olympus Corp.

NEGISHI started every morning singing in the radio show “Pop Songs Without lyrics”, according to a Forbes article. He generally did not sing in the office, but one fateful day he did. NEGISHI was inspired to design one of the 8 -track adhesive ribbon decks that his company has made in what is now known as the karaoke machine

An 8 -track band game can play and record the audio using magnetic strip cartridges. Nichiden Kogyo’s music box was a 30 -central cube with locations to insert four 8 -track bands on the upper panel, with order buttons to play, stop or move to the next song.

Inside each rectangular 8 -track cartridge 13 centimeters long is a magnetic ribbon loop almost 1 cm wide which is wound around a circular coil, as explained in a blog article on technology. A small engine inside each cartridge pulls the ribbon on an audio head inside the reader, which reads the magnetic patterns and translates them into sound. Each strip had a metal detection strip which informed a solenoid coil located in the player when a song had ended or if a person pressed the button to go to the next song, according to an Autodesk Instratoles blog article. The coil created a magnetic field when the electricity crossed it – which turned the spindle on which the audio head was mounted to move to the next track on the strip. Each band could contain about eight songs.

NEGISHI added a microphone amplifier to the player’s upper panel, as well as a mixture circuit. The user could adjust the volume of music and microphone.

He also recorded 20 of his favorite songs on the bands and printed the lyrics on cardboard paper. He tested the machine by singing a popular ballad, “Mujo No Yume” (“The Heartless Dream”).

“It works! That’s all I thought,” Negishi told journalist Matt Alt for years later, when he was asked what thoughts were the first time he has tested the music box. Alt wrote Pure invention: how Japan has done the modern world.

In 1969, the engineers of the Commercial Company based in Tokyo, Kokusai Shohin, added an acceptor of parts to the machine, reversing the music box in the Sparko box.Dr Tomohiro Hase

The costs to file for a patent were too expensive, according to the entrance to the ETHW, so in 1967, Negishi sold the Mitsuyoshi Hamasu, a seller at Kokusai Shohin. The commercial company based in Tokyo began to sell and rent the machines by the end of the year.

In 1969, Kokusai Shohin engineers added an acceptor of parts to the machine. The company renamed Sparko Box’s music box. In six years, around 8,000 units have been sold, said Hamasu in an interview on the rise of karaoke.

Karaoke has become so popular that in the 80s, places and bars specialized in soundproofed parts called Karaoke boxes emerged. Groups could rent the rooms on time.

Negishi’s family has the first box of music he made. It still works.

The stage plate recognizing the karaoke machine is exhibited in front of the former headquarters of Nichiden Kogyo, which Negishi turned into a tobacco workshop after his retirement. The shop now belongs to her daughter. The plate can be read as follows:

“The first karaoke machine was created in 1967 by mixing live voices with pre -recorded support for public entertainment, which has led to its world popularity. Created by Shigeichi Negishi of Nichiden Kogyo, and originally called Music Box (later Spparko Box), it included a mixer, microphone, and the 8 -track cassette site, with a payment site, with a part of parts to load the singer. in Tokyo.

Administered by the IEEE History Center and supported by donors, the stage program recognizes exceptional technical developments in the world. The IEEE Tokyo section sponsored the appointment.