Karaoke Forums

Would it violate copyright to exchange song list files? I have Sound Choice Foundation I in MS Works DB format if anyone wants it? It might save someone a lot of typing , copying and pasting.

I could use the Chartbuster Country 500 song list if anyone has it?

It's only illegal if you give out the songs without the discs so no you don't violate copyrights by sharing song list files.

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

All you have to do is go to kjpro's website and browse their database for the disk. When you get into the disk with all the songs, carefully copy just the 3 columns under Artist, Title and Track Number. (only take what is under the headings, and don't take anything more than the last track number).

Take this to Microsoft Excel, Right click in the first cell, click past special, and paste TEXT.

Yer done.

There is one more trick as well. If you save your songs in "Artist - Song Title" format, then you can also follow these directions:

Put all of your mp3 files in one folder - to make it easy, use an external hard drive or create a folder right inside your computer's hard drive. (Don't use "My Documents"). If you did this right, you should be able to click on the internal hard drive (i.e. c:) or the external hard drive (i.e. h:) and see the folder you just created.

Now, follow the directions given here: http://tatooine.lbl.gov/~jsjacobsen/cgi ... Paste.html

Now, go into MS Word and paste the file names in a new document.

Once they have pasted, copy the dash mark that I assume you used to separate the artist from the song title (i.e. Tim McGraw - Just To See You Smile". This is probably NOT a normal dash mark - MS Word usually converts these to a different type of dash mark, so its easiest to copy this "modified" dash mark to your clipboard.

Then, select all of the text in the document. (Don't press copy or select, just highlight it so Word knows what text you want converted into a table.

Now, click on "Insert", then click "Table" and select "Convert Text To Table" on the drop down menu. Another small window will appear. At the very bottom right, it will ask you where you want to separate the columns. Click the empty box so your cursor is inside of it. Now right click, and select paste. (that little dash mark should now appear in the box). Look at the top where it says number of columns. It should say 2. (if not, change it to 2) Now, press ok.

If you did it right, you have two columns - but your file extension is still there. Here's how to get rid of that!

Copy your new table and paste it into an excel spreadsheet. Re-size the columns so you can see what you are doing. Now, click the column letter at the top that has the file extension names in it (should be column B). Now, hold CTRL down and press F. A window will pop up (Find & Replace) Click on the "Replace" tab at the top.

Enter .mp3 in the "Find" field. Leave the "Replace With" field empty. Click "Replace All" and the .mp3 extention will disappear.

If you are converting to a CAVS player, you will eventually need to put song numbers in. Most of us use a program called rename2, which renames your files with a number. Before you use this program, get all of your files in one folder in the Artist - Title format. Follow the instructions above FIRST. Then...

Once you have eliminated the .mp3 from the spreadsheet, Click on the first column letter to the right of the first song (Should be column C). Clicking this will highlight the entire column. Now, right click the Column letter, and select "Format Cells". Select Zip Code, and press ok. Now, go into the first cell under the column letter (Should be Column C, Row 1) and type 00001. Go into the row below it (Should be Column C, Row 2) and type in the following formula: =c1+1 and press enter.

Now, click in the field you just typed the formula (it should say 00002). Select every cell below this cell until you reach the last song. Now, from the "Home" tab in Excel, click "Fill" and then "Down". The Excel will automatically fill in the rest.

If you did it right, you just created your song book.

Now, use the Rename2 program to convert the karaoke files to numbered titles. As long as you didn't make any changes to the folder, your songs will be in perfect order and ready for your CAVS player and will correspond perfectly to the song number in your books.

Thanks for the tip! It's already saved me hours and hours of typing.

No mp3 files here. I'm still playing disks. I don't even own a usable laptop.

I think it was DannyG who turned me on to a far easier way to prepare our books...

The four programs I use are:

Audiograbber (to pull MP3 & CDG from my discs)
MP3 Tag (when necessary, to get Artist & Title in the right order)
Advanced Renamer (bulk file name editing... a real life-saver)
and
Latishaw's Song List Generator (to actually build the book all ready for commercial printing)

For a relatively minimal investment, these programs have saved me literally hundreds of hours of typing and book preparation. Even at minimum wage, I figure I've saved at least $3000 - $5000. A very good ROI in anybody's language.

The next program I'll likely add to the mix is some sort of good quality duplicate eliminator... I've tried two or three, but none seem to be intuitive enough for me.

Cheers

Earl