Karaoke Forums

Stogie you obviously don't know what the heck you're talking about! READ UP- or actually get to know the NEWER MACS and THEN we'll talk.

At least sidewinder ASKED instead of runnin' off.........sheeesh!

Randy is right on his points. Macs are more stable and have many LESS crashing problems and aren't nearly as vulnerable to virus as your average pcs.  I went to MAC after having many problems with windows.   Never looked back.

Sorry it's late 5am and i just got home after a show- CRAAAAAAAAZZZZY.   gotta sleep.     i'll post more mac info tomorrow.    j.r.

So now you can make me the new sidewinder and put me down whenever I make a comment, isn't that GREAT?

Dare to say anything other than MAC is god, MAC is great and the Apple fanatics will let you have it with both barrels, sheesh. I stand by my comments.

I respect Randy's way of refuting what I said, he had some excellent facts and made a very persuasive argument. However, several features that he mentioned are of no use to me. I'm not a power user.

The laptop I bought is for playing music, not for general use. Playing music or Karaoke files isn't a demanding use. It doesn't take tremendous computing power or require state of the art internal technology. A basic laptop is fine for what I'm going to use it for.

I paid $684 for a 17" model, with an Intel 1.66mhz Core 2 Duo, 667 front side bus, 2GB DDR2 memory, 160GB HD, wireless g, nvidia 128mb graphics, DVD burner. The screen is clear and bright, the internal speakers are very good and the sound quality is very good through my mixer and speakers. I also have a USB sound card which I can use.

Normal price for my machine is probably around $900-$1000, could be $1,100. How much for a Macbook 17"? $2,200? $2,400, could be more? I won't pay that. I might if I had Apple stock and made a bundle like Randy.

Can I do everything I want with the computer I bought and more? You bet your bippy!

In a year or two it will be replaced with something newer and the "old" one will be given to a family member or donated to charity.

There are no Macs or Apple products of any kind in my future, I refuse to drink their Koolaid.

I don't like MS either and if I can get software to do what I do that runs under linux, I'll gladly switch. I love the underdog, that's why I was once a huge Macintosh fan and owned several of them.

Apple's business model is based on great marketing of high priced, high margin, low production products. It's an excellent business model if you can convince consumers that what you offer is worth much more. I'm not convinced. If I had lots of money, maybe I would buy Apple products again.  :O

Stogie:  It appears to me that you have simply outgrown karaoke.  Take off the training wheels and ride off into the world of real music.  Play it yourself or get a band or both.  Just a suggestion....

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Okay, who took my pants?

I expect that I will be singing with a band or a combo of some sort in the not so distant future. I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not? Probably sarcastic I suppose.

I have a solo singing show that I do and people seem to enjoy it. I don't think I can make any more money singing with a band, but something about it is appealing to me.

I've invested a lot of time, effort and money so you're right, I really don't want to sing Karaoke anymore, I want to get paid when I sing and I do. I got my singing start with Karaoke.

People who have seen me perform encourage and complement me. I'm not the greatest, just decent, good enough to be entertaining at the level of local bars, restaurants, VFW, Elks, American Legion etc. I'll never be anything more than that. I'm fine with that. I have heard many people who sing much better than me and I admire their talent, I'm not jealous. Be as sarcastic as you want, I really don't care.

DJ John

I've been using a program for DJ and KJ use that has all the bells and whistles you need. PCDJ RED VRM W/KJ PLUGGIN

You can review yourself at pcdj dot com

Once you get familiar with any one of the better programs you will like them

The MacBook I was speaking of was purchased for $849 not $2,000+

That sounds like a very GOOD deal! I'm very surprised!!!!! OK, now you have to tell us more. I'm more open minded that you might think. What size is the screen? When did you get it? What size HD?

I wasn't being sarcastic in the least.  Karaoke is very limiting.  It sounds to me as if you want to do your own arrangements.  Go for it!!!!  This is the next step.

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Okay, who took my pants?

I am a user of both wintel machine and Mac.  I have been a long time Mac user but I have been using Windows many years as well, beginning with Windows 3.0. So, I can give you some unbiased point of view on both platforms. Whether you are a power user or not, I believe that UI for the Mac is superior to Windows, specially for new users. I have had a few friends switched from Windows to Mac (from Mac intially) and they uniformly tell me that switch from Windows to Mac this time around was much easier than their initial switch from Mac to Windows. This is within last 5-6 years.



I have been shopping for for 17" laptop and cheapest I have seen was about $1,500 for something that was more centrino based mobile processor around 1.7 or 1.8 GHz processor from Intel or AMD processor. The higher clocked ones, like the Apple 17", current at 2.5GHz Intel with 2 GB of RAM and 250GB drive is at $2,799. Compare that with reasonably similar 17" notebook, it's about $2,000 to $3,000 range. If you compare them at similar models, you do pay about 15% more for Apple model. If the large screen is the only criteria you are selecting PC laptops, then Windows machine is the way to go. However, if you can stand 15" or even 13" laptops, Apple's models are comparable in price, very little differences.



Well, to me, it's important to have the best of both worlds. I run MTU Hoster so I need a windows machine. The Macs will run both MacOS X and Windows. I use both. I use Macs for creative stuff and email, as well as surfing the net. I feel much safer doing that than using the Windows machine. I Windows on my Mac for things like Hoster, Games or other things not available on Macs. I get teh best of both worlds for just a bit more than a lowest windows machine.




Again, I think your perception is based on lowest common denominator of large windows machines available. If you are the lowest of casual users, I can see why you would be influenced by the lower cost of the Windows machines. To me, it's all about value, best bang for the buck. I believe that Macs offer that. Again, do a comparison of features from one to other and see how they stack up. It's not all about the hardware either. You have to look at the warranty, software offered, easy of use, reliability, security, etc. before you say one is better than other.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

If the difference is only 15% then that's not very great. I thought it was much more than that. I can't use anything smaller than a 15" screen though. I'll be 50 in May and my eyesight is getting worse and worse. I got the 17" model because I will be reading lyrics off the screen without an external monitor for much of the time and I wanted the largest display I could get. Once I learn the lyrics for around 300 songs I won't even care what the music is playing on, it can be a CD player. For right now I need to see the lyrics on a screen. I imagine I could live with a laptop with a 15" screen.

Thanks exweedfarmer. I do feel limited by the Karaoke tracks. Many of them IMO aren't very good instrumentally or the backing vocals. I guess that's why I'd like to sing with real, live musicians some day. I'd love to put together a good wedding band. As I get further along I'll be DJing weddings and other events, doing some Karaoke hosting and my little one man singing show some of the time. I may be able to provide PA services too. I have a nice sound system and I know how to use it. Sometimes they just need that for an event. All I want to do is make an honest living making other people happy with music and entertainment. It's work, but a lot better than some of the things I've done for jobs or businesses I've had. I feel like I'm making the world a little better place when people come up to me and hug me or shake my hand and tell me how much they enjoyed my singing, it's a good feeling and I consider it part of my pay.

Well, then you can forget the MacBook line, they only have 13" screen but as low as $1100. You would want to get the MacBook Pro line. I just bought a MacBook Pro for a friend on ebay, mind you this was about 2 generations back, 2GHz Intel Process and 1 GB of memory and 160GB drive, was about $850 used. If you buy the laptop within the year of warranty, you can extend the warranty via Applecare for two more years for total of 3 years for about $200-$250 range. Apple will repair anything within 3 years that is not physical damage.

I would look through ebay or other sites to see what kind of deals you can get. As long as you get the one with Intel chip, you can run windows.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

Back off Stogie...you're cramping my style....  :whistle:  LMAO

Get your own forum punching bag gig....  LMAO

For whatever reason I eventually seem to become controversial wherever I post at. Sometimes I have some unpopular ideas and a very forceful way of expressing them that can get people rankled. I'm getting used to it.

I think if you check into it and compare a mac with a 17" screen with similar features to what I just bought it's going to come to over $2,000+. I can't use a laptop with a 13" screen. I'm too old, I can't see nearly as well as I could a couple of decades ago.

It really doesn't matter because as I said, I just bought a brand new Dell three weeks ago. I'm not looking anymore. I have to agree with eben though, bang for the buck and value are where it's at. For a little more I'll pay for better value, better quality and more bang for the buck, but I won't pay twice as much.

I can buy a decent, entry level 15" screen laptop for $500-$700. If an Apple is a lot better quality, has more features and it's $100 more then I'm on it like white on rice. I don't think the price difference is that small.

Ok, this whole thing made me curious so I checked the Apple store website and a Macbook Pro with a17" screen is $2,800.

It has a faster processor than mine, 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo, compared to my 1.66mhz Core 2 Duo, the nvidia graphics has 512MB, mine has a 128MB nvidia, it has a 200 MB HD, mine has a 160MB SATA drive, it has a DVD burner, mine has a DVD burner. I imagine the screen is first rate and very high quality. This laptop would probably last 5 years, maybe 6. No doubt this is a very fine machine.

For what I am going to use my laptop for it's overkill. It's also $2,100 more than what I paid and right now I don't have an extra $2,100 laying around. The $684 was painful enough after all the money I've already spent on equipment and music.

The truth is, I could have probably gotten a $500 entry level laptop with a 15" screen and it would have been fine. There is a Macbook Pro with 15" screen for $2,000. So I guess I did know what I was talking about and I was guessing at the time.  :O

Another day, another Winamp karaoke application which cannot seem to get a key change done. Yet another host who said "I put it in" and yet another time where the word didn t get to Pacemaker.

I hate seeing a Winamp-based karaoke application, especially the ever-lousy Sax and Dottys....

You're a little off-topic, but I use Sax N Dotty's and have never had a keychange problem with version 2.2,  and that's been out for over two years now.
I have KJs using this software 5 nights a week without any keychange problems.

I believe there might have been a keychange issue with the versions prior to verison 2.1.42 (or more than 3 years ago) although I've seen KJ's that use older versions without keychange problems.

Those "hosts" of yours might be running a older version that they "found" on the internet or don't know how to properly configure their software.

I've beta-tested for Sax N Dotty's and I always stress test the keychange function.

DD

Gotta love MTU Hoster for this - keychange on the fly for anything coming off my computer, and the ability to add a key change to anything I am loading from a singer's CDG. Some things about Hoster make it the best, in my opinion, and I eagerly await the rotation capability to make it truly a complete package.

I feel like a child that had to work hard for 10 years for something I wanted - the memory of that nasty glitch with Hoster that required a TON of extra work on my part initially has gone away - At the end of the night after a busy, busy show and a big rotation, I just don't feel like I've worked that hard!

k

As I stated, it's all about what your needs are. One thing you have not mentioned is your screen resolution. Although many laptops share the 15" screen, the resolution is not the same. Often the lower end laptops will only display 1280x800. The MacBook Pro at 15", along with other high end ones, will do 1440x900. It seems like it's not really a big deal but having that 26% extra pixels can make the difference, if you have used many of the Karaoke software. Things like MTU needs a bit more screen than typical laptop screen and the the Mac laptops provide that space for 15" screen, many others don't.

Secondly, many of the laptops start at 512MB and top out at 2GB memory and you can't change that. The Apple ones will let you add memory and can go up to 4GB. If you even ran a modern Operating System, like Mac OSX or XP, you know you can't effectively run them in even 1GB of memory. You need minimum of 2 GB to run it smoothly. If you are running Vista, forget about it. You will need the 4 GB max. Unfortunately, the low end ones have memory embedded on the motherboard. You can't change it.

Honestly, the processor power doesn't have that much impact on the performance of Karaoke software, just nice to have. However, the L1 cache is important to the overall performance. The Celeron based ones have almost no L1 cache, you need to Core 2 Duo level to get the performance. The differences between 2GHz and 2.2 GHz is negligible.

So, if you do a comparison of those factors, the Windows laptops will be above $1,500 range or more, which is pretty close to low end MacBook Pro at $1,999. Or you can get a used one, as I have gotten, for less than $800.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

I'm not sure you read my previous posts.

I got a 17" laptop, the screen is fine, it looks great, I don't need anything better, I'm not a power user.

Please go back and read what I said carefully and you will see I explained EVERYTHING very clearly.

This is what I said:

"Ok, this whole thing made me curious so I checked the Apple store website and a Macbook Pro with a 17" screen is $2,800.

It has a faster processor than mine, 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo, compared to my 1.66mhz Core 2 Duo, the nvidia graphics has 512MB, mine has a 128MB nvidia, it has a 200 MB HD, mine has a 160MB SATA drive, it has a DVD burner, mine has a DVD burner. I imagine the screen is first rate and very high quality. This laptop would probably last 5 years, maybe 6. No doubt this is a very fine machine.

For what I am going to use my laptop for it's overkill. It's also $2,100 more than what I paid and right now I don't have an extra $2,100 laying around. The $684 was painful enough after all the money I've already spent on equipment and music.

The truth is, I could have probably gotten a $500 entry level laptop with a 15" screen and it would have been fine. There is a Macbook Pro with 15" screen for $2,000. So I guess I did know what I was talking about and I was guessing at the time."