Karaoke Forums

Just started posting here, , and left plenty.  I'm fairly experienced with live sound and karaoke, 20+ years of DJ'ing.  Finally want to get some karaoke on my laptop.

I have some questions and any help would be greatly appreciated.

I guess I need ripping software to rip my discs to the laptop, I've experimented with a few, with mixed results.  I like Audiograbber, especially since it's free.  What advice can you give for playing back the files and what format should I be ripping to.

We use BPM-Studio for MP3 playback and I'm pretty sure they don't sell any karaoke add-ons.  I'm not currently working clubs so I don't need show hosting type software, just a simple player that will play the video and audio properly with the correct file format (ie. karaoke at parties which is not a non-stop singing affair).

I like the idea of being able to compile a printable and sharable list of the titles, no more book printing for me, a 2nd or 3rd cheap laptop will work to hold the searchable word document with all my titles.

I'm finding that many of my older discs, though in reasonable condition the visual lyrics aren't looking so good after ripping.  I have nearly 1,000 discs to rip, including the original DK series 1-99, Sound Choice foundation set, and few other series and countless discs from different manufacturers.  I'd rather do the ripping process right once than have to redo it after fouling things up.

Thanks.

Selecting the CD-ROM drive is part of the process

You can download Winamp for free along with the AutoKJDJ plugin.  

Your files must be in "ZIP" format for playing on most, if not all, karaoke hosting programs

Much of the other software you will need is "free"

So:

 Step 1 - make sure you have the right CD-ROM drive
 Step 2 - get the right software for ripping
 Step 3 - get MP3Toolz(?) , which is free, in order to convert the "BIN" files ripped from your discs into "ZIP" files
 Step 4 - test your results with Winamp, which requires ZIP files to play karaoke

you don't need mp3toolz... with audiograbber, you can just rip straight to mp3

Okay, I'm lost.

Matt, how does ripping to MP3 help him play his karaoke files (with graphics)?

if you are just beginning transfer of your discs to mp3+g, audio grabber is a fine and free tool. nice features: selectable mp3 compression rate, ripping speed, and volume normalizing. i suggest you decide what you want your string to look like (disc number-track number - artist - song title), then keep it consistent so all your files look the same in whatever file manager you are going to use. also, i suggest using mp3+g toolz to zip your mp3+g files to a zip file. zipping your mp3+g files saves you approx 20% in hard drive space. both of these programs are freeware and super simple to learn/use. also, before you get too far into your ripping, decide on the player you will use. ripp a disc or two and then play the tracks to get an idea of what your finished product will look like. as far as players go, i have no suggestions concerning freeware. initially i tried winamp with the video plugin, and while it worked fine, it wasn't what i wanted. i also used pcdj with the karaoke plugin and sax n dotty for a short while, but finally settled on virtual dj. a lot of folks i talk to don't want to spend $300 for their playback, but for me virtual dj is the bomb. dual players that play any audio, karaoke, and video file. vdj makes it super simple to carry a ton of stuff and locate a requested file/song in seconds. i was instantly able to provide my customers with superior professional service. what you are beginning to do takes some time and there is a learning curve, but your result will be well worth the work you put into it.

with Audiograbber with the right discs, you can rip to mp3 (PLUS graphics)... ripping to bin, and then converting that with mp3toolz is a wasted effort in my opinion, IF the tool you originally rip with will also rip to mp3g

Matt

One of us might be confused.

Here's how I see it.  When you open up Grabber the first menu line offers "CD" as tab to click on.

When clicked, "CD" offers the option to "Grab CDG Tracks (Karaoke)"

When that option is selected, there are four more options:
      "Grab to BIN"
      "Grab to CDG"
      "Grab to CDG + WAV"
      "Grab to CDG * compressed file"

Frankly, I don't know what that last option represents, but I always select the first option and convert with MP3Toolz.  Where am I going wrong?  I'd love to save a step!

You are both on the right track...the last option Eric mentioned ("Grab to CDG * compressed file") will rip the track to an mp3 file and a matching cdg file...but then that is where MP3Toolz comes in...as you would use MP3toolz to zip those two files.

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

One thing you may need to keep in mind when using AudioGrabber is that it has no error correction, so if your CD+G is scratched you may end up with bad rips. Lowering rip speed helps most times, but not always. Dedicated CD+G ripping software (like *shameless plug* Power CD+G Burner) has error correction that help getting perfect rips with higher speeds.

does audiograbber now include the lame codec? it didnt used to  and consequently unless it was added, the mp3s were very very small and low quality

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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."

It is available at the audiograbber site as a seperate download...also has extremely easy instructions to install the codec.

about half way down the page--> http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

Why bother with audiograbber and Mp3+gToolz when Powerkaraoke's CD+G burner will do all the work for you.  It is realatively inexspensive at $39. It also does a better job at faster speed than Audiograbber does. www.powerkaraoke.com

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

I am sure it (Powerkaraoke's CD+G burner ) is a very fine product Danny, but from reading up on it you still will need a way to zip the files...correct?
If it would also zip the files ,then yes it would be the choice hands down for anyone new to use to rip their discs.

_________________
Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

It does it all including naming, unless the disc isn't in freedb.  It will zip it. I've ripped three discs with it so far and did not have to use an outside program to do anything.

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

Well then, this is the software to use, by all means. If it does indeed zip the files as well it is the complete package.
It is because I read through the online manual  for this software and no where does it mention the word "zip" that I was lead to believe it did not "zip" the files as well.
You would think they would want that feature to be known as well, wouldn't you?
(maybe powerkaraoke will read this) LOL

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

The online help is out-of-date, I know We will change it this week.

As others pointed out Eric, ripping to the CDG + conpressed file is the mp3+g option. Now I download LAME and put it in the regular audiograbber folder, and use that as my compression format (under the mp3 settings tab.) I also change the compression rate from the standard 128kbps to 192.

And yes, the database renaming option is nice... but as others pointed out, sometimes the disc isn't in the database!

I need to get ahold of audiograbber when this happens!

I have to agree with powerkaraoke on this one.  Their ripper and MTU's are the only rippers with error corection.  I have tested both and prefer the PowerKaraoke only because I am not using KMA's as my file type for my system.
Not that Hoster isn't a good program, I just like the added bells and whistles that CompuHost has.

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

!diputs si selif ekoarak gnippiZ

Just in case it's me who has my thinking backwards.

If I build a CDG format that is smaller than the zipped files and doesn't need to be uncompressed will you stop zipping them?  I must stop this unabashed stupidity somehow!!!!

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Okay, who took my pants?

One good reason for zipping files is that you only have one file instead of two as for MP3+G. It is easier to manage them that way.