Jando S.
Yelp
Just when I thought Noraebang style Karaoke wouldn't exist in Portland, along comes VoiceBox. Scott Simon's inspiration from karaoke adventures in NY and other places have benefited Portland's night life scene in a big way. VoiceBox combines some of the best things private room karaoke can offer and I for one, am quite impressed.
In New York, there are several different systems that dominate the karaoke scene, everything from Korea's Ziller (www.ziller.kr) to the popular Karaoke Champ (http://www.yelp.com/biz/karaoke-champ-new-york) to the Japas chain (http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Japas&find_loc=New+York%2C+NY&ns=1). Voicebox has managed to offer most of the aforementioned song selection, which has resulted in vast selection of current multilingual songs.
Voicebox has managed to utilize a very customized system that allows for everything from background voice manipulation to operating a disco ball. The sound system has been solid for the most part, nothing crazy enough to blow ear drums out but a step below award winning acoustics from Bose. They now offer wireless mics, which is a welcome change since they opened three years ago.
As far as I know, there isn't a public room for singing. This may come as heart breaking news for our gringo, public drunken karaoke friends, but VoiceBox is meant for private room singing aficionados only. Their largest rooms can accommodate more than 20 folks and the prices aren't back breaking with group rates of $40-70 and individual $4-7 per person, per hour. Tuesdays are their AYCS (all you can sing) happy hour special, which can be had for a palsy $10.
Noraebang isn't noraebang without some soju, which unfortunately VoiceBox doesn't carry. It's a sake and beer house for the most part, which given their fun variety isn't such a bad thing. The food is a bit of a yawner, consisting of Asian snacks that may or may not have been sitting in a freezer from time to time. Thankfully, most people come for the songs, not the food.
One thing Voicebox does that I've yet to see any karaoke joint in NYC do, is offer both a simultaneous individual / group rate for any given reservation. They're good about asking folks prior to starting the room and are very flexible (so as long as the bill gets paid) I've had friends who are "in and out" of karaoke parties, the staff has been very diligent about collecting whatever money they could to apply to the room charges.
Overall, Voicebox is a testament for the awesomeness of private room (aka Asian style) karaoke and they've done an outstanding job of highlighting the best aspects of any respectable KTV.