chrisavis wrote:
Way back in 6th Grade, I was hanging out with my buddy Mike (who was in 7th grade) and he asked me if I wanted to smoke a....cigarette. I had tried smoking before, but it just wasn't my thing. But he said this was different because we would be making our own cigarettes instead of smoking a store bought one. He claimed they smelled and tasted better and I kinda looked up to him so I took him up on the offer.
My parents weren't home so I offered to use my basement. My father smoked at the time so I figured it was as safe a place as any to smoke without the smell being too much of an issue.
Mike produced some rolling papers, and some....tobacco....and proceeded to demonstrate to me how to roll a....cigarette. He rolled his on the first try with the adept grace and style of an experienced....cigarette....roller. But mine took several tries and didn't quite have the same look and feel as his. But it was smokable, and we enjoyed my first rolled cigarette in my parents basement while listening to Heart's "Dreamboat Annie" and Steve Martin's "Let's Get Small".
I should note that even though our homemade....cigarettes....weren't as polished and manufactured looking, it didn't matter to me. They looked a little different, smelled a little different, tasted a little different, and have me a much better buzz than the store bought kind, but, most importantly, *I* made it myself.
It was awesome.
Fast Forward from 1977 to 2014 and I have just finished rolling my first karaoke CD+G's using the RYOK tracks and Beethoven software package from Stellar/PHM.
Just like my first....cigarette....it took me a few attempts and about an hour and 15 mins to complete my first RYOK karaoke project.
For my first attempt, I chose "Stay The Night" by Zedd and Hayley Williams because I know and like the song (it has also been requested a few times). This song only had a 2/5 star rating for the lyrics site I used and this is where I spent most of my time trying to get things straightened out. The lyrics were not complete and included lyrics for backing vocals which took me a little time to figure out that I needed to remove.
(btw....there is a relatively short help file that walks through all of the required steps. But after the first few attempts, I no longer needed to refer to the help info)
Through a little trial and error, I figured out what changes I needed to make and I ended up with a near perfect track that I will make available for my downtown gig this weekend. As time goes on I will be happy to write up some tips and tricks, but it is way to early to start that process until I have completed a few more songs.
For my second track I chose "Tom Ford" by Jay Z. I chose this track because I have never heard the song before, it had a 5 star Lyric Rating, and I wanted to see how fast I could make the track with good lyrics. I did not have to refer to the help file at all for this track.
I started at 5:04 PM and ended at 5:17 PM. A total of 13 minutes.
I could have shaved 7 mins and 16 seconds off of this by not testing the lyrics scroll (which requires playing the full track in the editor @ 3 mins and 8 secs) and by not playing the track in Karma (which consumed 60 secs while updating the database to see the track and another 3 mins and 8 secs to play the entire track again).
Skipping the checks I could have completed in ~6 mins.
I did this in a single take and the resulting track was nearly flawless. There is a small quick rap section where the scroll was slightly out of time, but that happens in any rap song where it goes very quickly. I suspect that once people are more familiar with the tools, we will be able to make them more usable.
In short, the tools are a little klunky, but not hard to figure out by someone who is reasonably computer literate. If you are comfortable navigating the Windows file hierarchy with Windows Explorer, you are 1/2 way there. The editors themselves will take some time for anyone to really be able to tweak the files and truly nail down the swipes the way they want them. But all-in-all it is a pretty cool and easy way to create CD+G files.
I should also note that I have never made my own karaoke track before. I started playing with Karaoke Builder Studio a long time ago and became frustrated with it almost immediately. This is a night and day improvement over that product (unless they have updated it significantly in the last year).
I should also note that on both of the above tracks I changed the font and the unsung/sung word colors.
I won't have much more time to play with it again until after Saturday, but I will try to get something posted by Monday evening regarding customizations of the fonts, colors and how multiple singer (duets and 3+ singers) work.
-Chris
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
