Karaoke Forums

I downloaded sax and dotty today and have so many problems I don't know where to begin. I am using the trial version while I wait for the real version to be shipped. I cannot find a user manual anywhere online at all and customer service seems to be non-existent! I have a ton of songs that we've gathered on an external hard drive.

The first problem I encountered was when downloading the plugins. Both of them gave me a message saying 'the plugin may not have been installed properly' , and I clicked on the option to reinstall. I have no way to confirm if they were installed properly.

I then get an error message every time I open Show Presenter, prompting me to send the error log to customer support. I've done that . No response. There is no phone number listed (plus they are in the UK so calling will be difficult)

I have no idea where to go from here. I am baffled that there is no user manual online. I am hoping to get some help from other KJ's who all recommended the program and gushed over it, but I'm honestly not sure where to go right now.

Our first gig is Thursday (yes, we did things somewhat backwards, booked a month of gigs as a trial at a local bar where I am in good with the manager, THEN got the equipment and songs and just downloaded the program. Yes we are cutting it close but hey at least we knew we had gigs lined up before investing all the money. That was the idea anyway. Of course we'll look stupid if we can't get things working properly).

If anyone has used Show Presenter and can give me any guidance at all, or even direct me to a user manual, it would be greatly appreciated.

A fellow newbie KJ is in dire need...help me karaoke forums , you're my only hope!

Sincerely,

3Green

you need to contact S&D directly!

Well, it doesn't appear thay you have determined that S&D isn't working. Rather, you seemed to have indicated that you don't know where to begin using the program

so....try this

Set up a folder on your PC desktop containing zip files of just a handful of your karaoke tracks.

Open S&D and (unfortunately I'm not at my show computer now) select the tab at top that offers the "import" option. Select "import" and browse until you find your desktop folder. Select that folder. When the import is complete, accept it and then "close" the window.

Now, you're back at the S&D hosting routine. Enter one of the tracks (artist, or title, or disc#) into the search window. When the list of results appear click on the desired result. Then switch to the Queue list. Select which track you would like to play.

Questions: What version of S&D did you download? ver 2.2 or ver 3
What operating system? (XP, Vista, etc)
I am assuming that you also downloaded Winamp along with the 2 plugins (Pacemaker & the MP3&G plugin)....What version of Winamp?

Here is a link to the help file for S&D ver 2.2 and I am sure most of it would also apply to ver 3 as well.

http://home.comcast.net/~karaokejustbec ... senter.chm

OOPS it appears the link does not work...my fault will get fixed fast.

Alright I am having a brain fart and can't get the link to work properly..and I have to go do some errends...so If you (or anybody else) wants this Help File, pm me with your email addy and I will send it out .

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

Thanks for the help guys! I was able to get on with S & D Directly online and it appears things are working now that I've sorted through it. Much appreciated!

s and d does take some trial and error. they do not ship you anything, they email you with registration info.
I believe that ver 2008 is all you can buy now. it works well, with a minor glitch at times saying it could not find the file when you press play. click ok and hit play again. normaly it plays. I am runing a duo core 1.8g, with xp, when I only had a gig of ram it would get some distotrion in winamp at times, at 1.5 gig its only happened on one song. i plan to go to 2 gigs sometime if it happens again. the options button is on the right now, as is the history. having added the history option is really nice, but im sure it makes the program use more memory. even with its minor startup problems for some it is a great program for $60

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the voices arent real, but they have some good ideas

one thing to be leery about withSAX....

they register the software to the individual hard drive ONE time. If you reinstall your operating system, you'll have to pay for a new license (or scream and yell and throw fits, and they STILL will probably make you pay for a new license!).

I used S n D for about a year and he was going to come out with a super and improved version which never happened. They had an active forum which died after a time. A software author's enthusiasm wanes after a period of time and the updates and improvements become less and less. Most are so rigid you cant tailor them for your preferences or a resource hog. I havnt found or tried one yet that I am totally satisfied with.

For example the sound engine in Sonar 3 is a vast improvement over Winamp media player or real player. The same is true with the sound engine in linux. The codecs (compression decomprssion) have improved a huge amount and actually onboard sound compares with good audio boards I have used the M-audio delta 44 for years and when I use the laptop the difference is hard to tell unless I bypass the audio procs and turn the volume down so room acoustics are not a factor. The same applies to bit rate at 128 or higher.

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I have not had to do it yet, but re loading can be done as long as you have the code. I had the old one on my old laptop, still do and have 2 different new laptops that i have it on. I plann to make a file on each of them with copys of the codes for all 3 so i can re load if need be.

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the voices arent real, but they have some good ideas

In keeping with the topic. I first saw SnD's in 2004 and I thought it was such a piece of S### that I wrote a better one (my opinion) on their footprint just to get in their face. It is IMHO unforgivable to write software without onboard help.

But, I would like to speak to karyoker's point. A software author's enthusiasm doesn't so much "wane" as he/she/it may become daunted by the realization that any further improvement on their product would require them to start completely over. I think this is what happened to this guy Sax (that's a guess.)

As far as programs being "rigid" I would agree. That is necessary. No software can be all things to all people. Does a TV make a terrible snowboard? In most cases yes. The only way anyone will get software that does exactly what they want it to is to write it themselves or have it written. For four years I have been asking "What would be the perfect karaoke software?" and every single karaoke host has given me a different answer.

Independent software developers are so abused (Sob....) I may have to start a support group... or maybe just find another Sheaf Stout (sob again.)

Post Script: I hate to admit to ignorance but what in the name of The Great Goolglie Mooglie is a sound engine?

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Okay, who took my pants?

Any sound can be converted into a digital format with an ADC (analogue to digital). A sound engine (DAC) reconverts the sound back into an analogue electrical signal which can be amplified and power a speaker. Your better sound engines uses drivers such as asio which blows windows away. Sonar does it as well as Linux and the difference is readily apparent on any system. google sound engine...

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