Karaoke Forums

Since I started doing a weekly show last November I havn't been using any hosting software.
I used tricerasoft to rip my discs.
I looked at their Swift Elite program and decided it wasn't worth taking the time to learn. So I've been using song slips and winamp (just the player).
I simply created a "rotation" folder and copied tracks into from my database as requests came in. Once the track is used I just delete it from the folder.
I tack the song slips onto a Corkboard. Once I have a few singers in the rotation I start to leave an open slot between each slip for "first time singers" I think it is a Good visual aid for showing singers where they are in the rotation, and why their wait becomes longer as more first time singers come in. It also clearly illustrates to a new singer why the have to wait an hour to sing when the board shows that first 7 first time slots are allready filled along with 7 rotation singers.
I havn't much looked into hosting software because I like my Slips and Corkboard.
A comment made by lonnie earlier in this thread caused me to realize that hosting software didn't necessarily mean I needed to stop using the slips and board
I've been playing with the Compuhost Trial all day and I love what it does. I have allready ordered the program and look forward to using it.

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[font=Fantasy][/font]LIVE IN THE MOMENT

If what you do works, sometimes all you need is a player! I think Matt is one that uses Winamp in the same manner as well. Bells & whistles are fun, but not necessary 9 out of 10 times as long as the show can get done without alot of dead time or wated space.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I use compuhost.

Not experienced with MTU hoster, but I have tried a few of the stand alone systems and they seem to work fine.

The only disavantage of COMPUHOST as far as I can see is that it is a bit picky about file name formats for indexing the songs into its database and an extra or missing dash may confuse the system.

Other than that it does a good job with helping rotation and its search system is good. Usually I only type in about 3-4 letters from the artist or song titles name (or both in combination if it is a popular artist). That quickly gives me a list of the matches to the song. Changing around rotations etc also is only a few mouse clicks.

If things are going busy and a lot of slips are pileing up I can get away with spending only about 10% of my time actually keeping the list of upcoming singers up to date. The rest of the time can be spent just being a dj-announcer and trying to bring the energy to the show. Manually scrolling through thousands of songs to find the one needed is not really a good option and it slows down the show.

Like any tool a good software helps you spend your time on the other things, and I am quite happy with compuhost.