Karaoke Forums

Wow, thanks!

I didn't know that yet!

Alas, I am a professional programmer and will use my own software creation which there is a .00002% chance you are using. Most people these days use PHP.

My approach will be to export the CSV history every night. My host (or I) uploads it, where my program grabs it, ignores any history it has already seen, takes the singer's name and the venue name, tries to figure out if we know who they are, then adds the song to their history. We have started using last initials in some cases, though I would love to have the neat Siglos feature of text in parentheses that doesn't show up on the screen. Some random "Bill" we have never seen will not be handled except as the anonymous singer, but "Steve T" at Froman's will be known and we will keep compiling history on him. Then it is a simple:

[pre] select distinct title,artist,key,discid,track from songs where username = 'SteveT'[/pre]

I can use the output of that in emails.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Ehm, actually the new update of Compuhost does offer that feature with the hidden info in brackets!

That must be the new version that not everyone has yet...

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I just looked and found the Beta. Boy, that is going to make my life a lot easier and my shows better.

The global hotkey is the killer. Now I can do Go/Stop by remote control, so even if I am across the room I can change the song. Of course the potential for an OOOPPS! is pretty good, too. Lord help me if the television remote changes it and some people find out....

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... good luck

I can do that with a couple people only. Most of our singers will put up when THEY are ready. Had one the other night, I put up a song (one his regular tunes) & called him up, he refused to get up because he didn't put up a song & wasn't ready to sing at that time. Happens, really!

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

I had a similar thing happen once.

Chapter 1:

I saw one of my regulars walking in the door and put her in the rotation. (I usually do it without a song and let them choose, when they're up). So anyway, her turn comes up and I call her name. She walks up to me and is PO'd big time, because I put her in without her requesting anything. (Now keep in mind, everytime she came, she sang without exception)

So I apologized to her and told her, it will not happen again. Don't even ask, what I was thinking...

Chapter 2:

A week later, she comes in again. I for sure did not put her in the rotation. That night I had a huge rotation. At around 12 she decides to put a song request in. Guess what, the rotation was more than full and I told her, that I can't guarantee for her to sing, since the rotation is full. She was PO'd again...

Go figure...

Both good points..... I've found it safer to wait until the singers approach me with a slip, or a wink of the eye. I've encountered both situations where the singer wasn't ready because they needed to drink first...or hadn't gone to the bathroom to "pretty-themselves up" before being going public.

How about putting them in the rotation, but skipping them until they want to sing? I do that quite often, just using the A/I button on CompuHost. It keeps their place but skips them.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The MORE i read your posts mckyj57, the MORE i'm tempted to go computerized and with Compuhost.

Well ,i AM computerized as far as using a jb-199 for the past few years...it's been easy, reliable, no glitches, and i like the ease of the remote control...and NO scrolling/syncing problems like everyone embellishes about. That was the old 99's.

But It certainly can't track rotation, so maybe at the end of this year i'll take 'the plunge' and invest in an entirely new system and speakers... that is... if wall street recovers and i've got anything left, .

Yeah it's a process that my singers like too. They'll open their container, spread their slips out on their table, and often with the help of friends pick what they want to sing that night. They are free to edit their own playlist simply by throwing away slips of songs they no longer want to keep.

Pretty low tech.

I really don't know how a sophisticated hosting system with no slips works. I've got to get out more. There's none around here. Maybe there's a way to do a similar thing by handing singers a playlist printout or something.

One of the advantages of working the same smallish room for years is that I get a feel for each of the regulars. I know the ones who are going to want to sing after they settle in and have a few even if they haven't officially "checked in" yet and mentally put them in rotation. If I'm unsure, I will grab their container, toss it in the air, and mindlessly catch it a few times while looking at them. If they give me the "oh all right" look, I lob it to them from the stage. But I've never put anyone up without getting their permission first.

I've been making this up as I go along folks. If it sounds weird it's because I've never done karaoke before.

I have converted 3 hosts in my area to CompuHost, and I think we have seen several go there here. I haven't seen a one that said "you SOB, you lead me astray with CompuHost". Everyone I have seen loves it.

I think you will be happy once you get there.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

When I KJ my GF usually comes with and chats with me or socialises, whatever. Or my bro has come along on occasion. Or sometimes singers take a look at what you're doing.

All of them are astounded by how easy Compuhost is.

Bill - You took the words right out of my mouth. Before someone can get their own index card they must become a regular which means I've learned their habits. I have one girl that waits exactly 45 min. before singing. Some people need at least one drink first. Most want to get into the rotation right away, so it is easy to remember who waits to sing. I also remember what people prefer to sing. Sometimes they tell me I'm psychic because I have it cued up before they tell me what song. I also keep track of key changes for people.

People want to feel special. It's like when you sit down at a bar and the bartender remembers your name and what you drink.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Mcky ?

How much can you do with compuhost? Can you keep track of key changes and tempo changes too? Can you delete songs they have tried, but don't ever want to sing again? Do you have them come up on stage when they want to look at thier list?

Although I am pretty married to the way I do things now I am intrigued.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Yup Babs that's what I get from my group too. We're the only bar that treats them like people.

I work at remembering the names of newcomers so they feel instantly at home. The bar staff works at this better than most too. And because I'm calling the names of the regulars out, everybody gets to know each other in a way they don't in the non-karaoke rooms.

Absolutely.


Yes, they just lean over our shoulder. On my new gig I have to figure out how we can do that better without bothering the singer, but at my service club it is no problem.

Pretty soon, though, I hope to have sheets printed out and/or available on the web so people can carry around their list.


I think you do great in the situation you are in. I watched you and you have CompuHost built into your brain.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

That is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

The service-oriented approach appeals to me, also. One host type was just telling us that he doesn't waste his time looking up songs for people when they write down the wrong song number. He says if they can't be sober enough to do it correctly, then he skips their turn as he has a crowd and doesn't have time for it. But we are in a smaller room with dim lights and some people in their 70s who can barely see so we don't consider it an imposition to be of help. My boyfriend runs the board so I was even thinking it would be funny to put on a slinky cocktail dress and go from table to table saying, "May I take your karaoke order?" and fill out the slips for them. As you can probably tell, we are just getting started and are doing backflips to make people feel welcome/entertained and want to return.