Karaoke Forums

I don't copy the song perse. just the location of the song and the song's info.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I would prefer MP3+G format, unzipped if you would come to my show with a flash drive.

For many players, the use of a flashdrive usually means that you have to copy the song (for convenience) to your hard drive until that person comes up.... that is unless they bring it with them to sing immediately.

That being said, it's much different than a disc. Even programs like Hoster for example, make a temporary copy of the track off a customer's disc and play that temporary copy, but not directly off the disc in "real time." i would suspect it would have a lot to do with error-checking caused by scratches, etc. It also does that the instant you press "play" if you are playing directly off a flashdrive.

[Lonman; you can prove this by inserting a flashdrive with an mp3+g file and the when you hit play and see the first graphics on the screen, yank out the flashdrive and it will continue playing with no interruption.... because it's playing the copy - not the one off the flashdrive]

The other disadvantage to using a flashdrive to a patron is that an unscrupulous KJ can copy your entire flashdrive much faster than it takes to sing your single song.

All i'd need (and most all digital KJ's would need) to play a customers files is the .CDG and .MP3 file zipped together on a CD or a USB flash drive (provided they had an available USB port)

With that said, I don't play customers discs, and i'd be real hesitant to plug someones flash drive into my system for a variety of reasons.

Potential viruses on the drive.. dealing with nimrods accusing me of 'stealing' their song from the drive.. the potential that i'm playing somebodies pirated track.. my luck would be the one time the SoundChoice 'investigators' come in would be the time i'm playing some customers ultra rare SC track.

But I have a pretty large collection, and anymore, it's rare that a singer asks for a song that I don't have.

In cases when I don't have a song a singer wants, i'll write it down and make a strong effort to find a version of that song by next weeks show.. in the meantime, I invite the singer to try another song.

I've been doing that for years, which is how I not only build a loyal following, but also assemble a library that suits a wide range of singers.

People who get fussy about a particular manu's version of a song I just don't have time for. For every 1 person who gets their panties in a bunch about not having a specific version of a song, there are literally 100 people who simply don't give a sh!t.

If you can't switch between the Music Maestro version of a song to the SoundChoice version of the song.. or the Chartbuster version of the song.. well.. you're not nearly the singer you think you are.. and should maybe.. just maybe.. get over yourself and try and remember it's karaoke night at some dive bar, not Star Search.

Sorry that you feel that way. I've always thought of karaoke as everyone's chance to feel like a star- no matter how they sing.

This means that I try to make sure that I can help make sure the less gifted singers have a good time as well. If this means keeping all versions in my book so they might choose the one with which they are most comfortable. It also includes the option of using their own original mfrs. disc from home as well.

Despite debates here about which brand is "best", in my humble opinion, the answer is really that what the patron prefers is "best" for that patron. The most often used or most popular brand in a venue is "best" as well.

The CUSTOMERS' preferences count- not mine.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

While I agree with the legal reasons that Cheese brought up, I also see Joe's point on what is the right version.
That said I would prefer to err on the legal side than on the chance that SC, Chartbuster or PHM from coming in my show and using the customer's songs against me.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Bravo, cheer and accolades for such a fine understanding of customer service.

For all of you who are willing to insert a patron's CD or USB drive, you really should turn off Auto Play. Which is easy in Win7. Just click start, type auto play, and then click the Turn Auto Play On/Off from the list that pops up.

Actually, I turn off auto play on every computer I own. It does make you safer. You can turn it off for XP, google it, it takes a registry change, but if you get it from someplace safe, it works just fine.

i will take Cheese's custys that have a preference. some people just get used to one version and if they are not that good a singer, i couldn't care less as long as they enjoy themselves. i don't think i am gods gift to karaoke and either you do it my way or get the hell out.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Trying to keep this topic on track about using a Flash Drive and NOT turning this into another argumentative thread about "Customer Service" or how KJs feel about Singers who have a preference to specific song versions, here's another question.....

If I were to come to your show with my Flash Drive (as described before), is there any particular software program that you need to have loaded on your PC to be able to play something from it? Outside of the people in this Forum, I know that there are several KJs out there that are very PC illiterate. They have their library loaded onto a Hard Drive, and just know how to access that (and nothing else). I had asked one KJ if he could use a Flash Drive if I brought one in with me, and he said that he would have to load it into his PC either before or after the show, but not during.

i can say with Siglos, when adding a song to someone, it has a button to read the song direct form disc, or to read direct from another storage source. (play from disc, play from file) in any format it can normally read. i am sure others do as well, i just have no experience with them.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

If it's in the right format (mp3/cdg files preferred) I can play them with my software without actually having to put it on my hard drive manually. It does a temp import then deletes after play.

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

I have accepted mp3 + cdg files from known, and trusted singers... although such instances are few and far between.. The latest was a French song by Edith Piaf, supplied by one of our bilingual regular singers...

So... to answer the OP... Yes, I will allow on a very limited basis, and they must be MP3+g files. My Dell laptop can play directly from a USB thumb drive, so there's no need to copy the files.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

In most cases, the software should be able to play the tracks directly from the flash drive, with no need for the user to do anything but select the drive, then select the track.

How this is accomplished varies from program to program, and i've found some KJ's just absolutely clueless about their software and how to do much with it other than cue'ing up tracks already loaded in their database.

Others KNOW how to do it, but will say they don't, just because they don't want to hassle with it.. and it's easier and less offensive to say they don't know how or can't than it is to say they simply won't or don't want to hassle with it.

Cheese....so right you are about your last statement.

This is exactly what I mean. I realize that the software varies depending upon what program is used. And, that is also what I was saying (above), that there are KJs out there that are clueless on how to do anything other than queue up their own library. That is why I asked what program/s do/does the KJ need to have loaded on their PC in order to do accommodate the use of a Flash Drive.

You also bring up a very good point in your last statement.

A disc based KJ who has a USB port on the player (since most players with this feature are multimedia) should have no problem playing it. In this case the only thing you will neen to know is the track number on the drive, as it won't search by title or artist.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

That depends completely on what the developer thought to put in his software and which hardware and operating system the KJ is using. One way or another the KJ has to get your song into queue this may be as easy a clicking a button or as hard as rebuilding his song database which might mean restarting his hosting program and perhaps losing his rotation list. There are a lot of different hosting applications out there so the best chance you have of being able to use your flash drive is to have the songs in MP3+G format on the root directory of your flash drive and talk to the KJ about it before the show starts.

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Okay, who took my pants?

The digital KJ wouldn't need any ADDITIONAL software or programs installed on his or her system.. any modern OS will recognize a USB flash drive as a regular removable disc E: F: G:, etc.

The question is what does he or she need to do to play the tracks from the USB drive, and that's going to vary from program to program.

In VirtualDJ, all i'd have to do is navigate to the appropriate drive letter in the file explorer and every karaoke track on the USB drive would be displayed. I'd just have to drag the track to the deck or to the cue and away we go.

Other KJ hosting programs might not be so lenient. Perhaps a better question to ask would be, "What program do you use, and how would one go about playing a karaoke track from a USB drive using that specific program?"

You'll likely get as many different answers as there are players.. but the short of it is, any competent KJ (who is also inclined to play customers tracks) should be able to accommodate you.

I know for a fact that the only way to play an outside flash drive in my program choice would be to import the songs using the database and I would have to do it at the beginning of the show and hold on to the drive untill I shut down as to not interfere with the sound of the show. My computers like to make noises when unplugging a drive from the computer even with using the proper removal techniques. Another reason I dread having to use outside music. I use Compuhost.

The best program in my opinion for handling flash drives is actually Sax & Dotty's if they haven't changed the part of the program where you can access the hard drive for songs not in the database.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

There's an easy fix for that. If you're using XP (Vista location may be slightly different but you can do the very same thing), Go to Control Panel then double click on Sounds and Audio Devices if you're using Classic View, (if you're using Category view, click on Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices, then click on Sounds and Audio Devices).
Now click on the Sounds tab at the top. Under Sound Schemes, select "No Sounds" from the drop down menu. Click OK. Problem solved! No more boinks and bonks, or any other noises while you're hosting!