Karaoke Forums

I'm looking for a software that can work with this type of format, if it has listing or other functions included that would probably be better. I don't know which software that can open these things smoothly.

For home or professional use?

For home, I recommend using Karafun or Winamp with MP3+G and Pacemaker. Most anything will work, but those are free or cheap.

If you are a KJ planning to do shows, strongly recommend CompuHost. It costs, but it is more than worth it. It is the best out there, and I have tried them all.

I have also tried them all whether by demo or owning it and agree that CompuHost is the best out there.

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

Okay Danny, I know for sure that yours is an informed opinion (no, I'm not being sarcastic) so what is better about CompuHost?

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Okay, who took my pants?

weedy havent seen ya in ages

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

for home... I've tried some like power CDG and it lags the crap out of my sucky computer, so that's why i'm looking for something that'll run a little smoother.

clockwork247,

Absolutely Nothing will run smoothly until you get your computer in order!
By your own admission you have a sucky computer that Lags playing a CDG track...

I suggest you Check/Increase your RAM, Clean Up Registry and Defrag....
All of this will help Speed up your computer!

Power CDG works just fine. It's you sucky computer, as you stated.

Kind Regards,
sw00000p

Another vote here for Compuhost - it does the job very well.  However, as a developer myself - it has limitations that I would have expected to see fixes for.

winamp by itself (with the cdg plugin and pacemaker) for a sucky computer... well, ANY computer! !

Can you detail those things? I am also a developer, and also would like to see some improvements. But the ones it needs are far fewer than what the others need.

It would be nice if it had the MTU feature of reading a user disk a track at a time and putting it in the queue. And it would be good to have the PowerKaraoke feature of invisible identifiers in the singer name, i.e. John (red-haired). Also, it would be nice to have a drop-down or autocomplete for the singers when you type them in.

I don't know how much stock you'd have in these ideas - they are just ideas floating around my head...

But hey - seeing as you asked

Home Screen
The screen that comes up when nothing is playing - OK so you can specify fonts, colours and a background image.  How about making this editable XML so you can specify layout also?  Give each piece of text a position and so on?  I find the layout of this screen REALLY restrictive.

Clips/Pics/Vids
Allow button mappings to the quick clips/vids/sounds that you can specify.  Would certainly be of use to me.

Visualisation Support
Allow the use of a plugin such as MilkDrop.  It's not hard to implement, as most of the code is within the plugin.  Writing a module that replaces the homescreen would be easy.

Better "Filler Tunes"
Not keen on how this is managed - often tending to shell-out to Winamp when needed.

Keyboard Use
Allow more keyboard interaction - a button to be mapped to the "Go" button for example.  I work with keyboard shortcuts a LOT and love to use them where possible.

Be More Like Windows
Compuhost is a great package, but I feel that the developers try to customise too much.  They seem blinkered on the product rather than the usability.  It doesn't really conform to a lot of accepted Windows Interface "norms".  Hard to explain this one, but as a developer I guess you'll know what I mean.

Do they have a feature request function?  I mean, what drives their changes from version to version?

As one who has used 4 different softwares I will tell you which one I evolved to and why.  

Four used:

Cavs: player PE and SP (never had dual screen, could not handle zip files)

Winamp: Used 2 players and plugins to manually fade between the two. Did not handle rotation.

Sax N Dotty: First to handle rotation and zip files but only had one player.

Currently use RoxBox.  
Has 2 players. Comes with own players but I stll use winamp with plugins For example on player2 for DJ Sqrsoft cross fader. Player2 can be auto play even random. Either player can be used for cdg or mp3 If changed the search engine changes too. Separate volume and controls for players. Save and load playlist for both.

The window is standard windows and can be sized. Font can be changed or sized in search or que pane. Infimate amount of background colors.  The search engine has SAYT (search as you type) and searches virtually  take no time. In search pane one click and they are sorted by artist ascending or descending Same with title.
Full range of choices of auto fades between the players.

Singer list and history.. Reg comes up right click  on que pane. Select singer list.  Dble click on singer. Singer history comes up Dble click on song . Singer is qued in rotation.

Record:  Individual singers can be recorded or if selected every singer is recorded.

I downloaded and tried every software for years. My second choice would be Compuhost but I find it limiting as with all others. All  have a strigid operation and can not be tailored for the way I run or the way my host(s) run shows. I can tailor Rox for efficiency or operation.

This is not a chant for Rox but it is the most efficieent and easiest to use.  (I think It's about $89 now) Tech support is given freely by the developer by phone.

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Damn right with the "Rigid Operation" description.

I used to use Winamp with 2 instances, a crossfader and two instances (from 1 winamp Instance) of the CGD plugin (one maxed on 2nd display, one windowed on my display - literally create two copies of the DLL file).

Sometimes, when I'm sick of this "rigid operation" I am tempted to switch back...

I am not much of a customizer for that stuff. I find the CompuHost setup fine, though I would prefer that the lyric screen remain even if I minimize the window.


You mean custom buttons, or buttons outside the AudioBit/VideoBits screens?


This is the type of eye candy that is totally off my radar. I consider it nice to have, I suppose, but completely peripheral.


I don't use filler tunes, but I can see that the management is poor. There
should be a separate database of tunes that is searchable.


Roger this one big time. I would also love to have a mapping for a remote
control for the Go button, and I am requesting it from StreamZap (Remote
control which takes requests for apps to support).


Don't know. I met a guy who claimed to be one of their beta testers, and I
will see him again later this month. I might ask some questions...

They DO have a feature request forum on their site - just found it.

Yeah, for me th biggest thing is keyboard functionality for the GO button, as well as being able to launch the vid/pic/sounds as mentioned.

Agreed visualisation is a "nice to have" but I tend to leave a VIS playing when I shell out to Winamp for filler tunes (place I run likes a 50/50 mix of music and karaoke).

What I currently do is run Milkdrop as a desktop visualisation in Winamp, then run compuhost on top.  When I minimise the hosting window, the visualiser plays.  It's a fair compromise but still a compromise.

If Compuhost had more of a "library" type interface for music playback (fillertunes) akin to iTunes/WMP/Winamp and the ability to use visualisations - then CompuHost truly would be perfect for me.

It claims to be a "one app" solution (not requiring other apps to host a show).  This may be true if you follow their rigid processes, but it doesn't work 100% for me!

It works fine for me, since I am 100% karaoke while I am running that. When I am not running karaoke, I just use Winamp.

you might want to check out clubdjpro, as their visualizations are just supurb. There's a screenshot of what it does on another thread here!

Gotta put my 2 cents in for the Mac option... get a used Apple Intel laptop, or watch for specials

excellent karaoke software:
www.kjams.com

factory refurbs with 1-year warranty:
store.apple.com
go to lower left corner for Special Deals
note: mac mini can only drive 1 screen. All others are fine

I don't use filler tunes, but I can see that the management is poor. There
should be a separate database of tunes that is searchable.

quote]

I use the filler seldomly but still use it. If you click add and  set it to the dj folder - my songs are in folders inside the dj folder and click on the check box for looking in sub directories, you can search the dj songs as if you were searching for a karaoke song.

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

I will play with that on my new Tuesday gig, thanks. I expect it will be me and about 3 singers....and I will be doing two-fers in all likelihood.