Karaoke Forums

Hello everyone. I am brand new to the forums and am in need of help!

I have a small bar set up in my basement and host karaoke and dance parties on a regular basis. I am very new to doing karaoke, let alone hosting it. So far things have been running smoothly, but I had some questions to help enhance the set up.

First the set up -
A P4 machine with 2 gigs of memory running windows Vista.
Soundblaster Audigy soundcard
2 cheaper mics running into a small reverb box and then into the machine.
I use Karafun as my PC karaoke program.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for a better program. I could spend some money, but as this is only for non commercial parties, I do like the free program unless there is one that is really worth the $$

Another issue I am having is getting karaoke songs on the fly. Amazon offers to pay for download on karaoke tunes, but when I buy them it only comes with the mp3. Is this normal? am I supposed to then put in the lyrics myself?

Also, I tried buying a CDG Cd, Radio Starz Van Halen Anthology, and the cd won't show lyrics in Karafun nor can i rip the CD and have the lyrics. Any ideas there?

Anyways, any help would be wonderful, as I am new to this whole KJing thing.

Thanks
mike

OK - cn't/won't comment on any of the stuff you mentioned about copying disks.

But I CAN suggest Winamp with the CDG/MP3+G plugin!

Take a look at this thread for a starter: http://www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13205
Then use the forum search...I think you will find all of your questions have been answered before and you will learn much more than just having 1 question at a time answered.
Some software (ripping & hosting) requires a cd drive capable of reading cdg to work and some of the newer software programs will work with many cd drives (cdg capable or not).

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

...don't forget to enable the Monitor facilty on your PC.....you wont get the lyrics up otherwise!

you will need the cdg disc plugin for winamp to make lyrics show in winamp...dunno bout karafun I dont use it...but winamp is a free prog and most of the plugins are also. As far as ripping your discs to a computer, get audiograbber (also free) and you will see there is an option to rip cdgs there. My audiograbber is so old that I had to add the lame codec, dunno if it comes with that installed these days or not...yell if it doesnt and I can let you have the codec

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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."

Ok so i got the music off the cd on another PC. The problem seemed to be that my dvd rom on the karaoke pc was just too old and couldn't read that data type. or thats what i assume.

now i am just needing to find a place to buy karaoke songs on the fly and download them. but i will search the forums for answers first.

thanks for the answers everyone!
mike

I only found out about this yesterday, but Tricerasoft allow you to buy CDG+MP3 files - on a one by one basis, for download

Prices are astoundingly good too!

no, it's not an "old" thing, but that you have to have the ability to read the subcode (that's where the karaoke information is from... otherwise it's like a standard cd!

the cd+G needs to be ripped using a program that is set up to do it. There are a few. Then you have to have the program to play it. Winamp works, as does karafun, but karafun has to be able to see that cdg thing.

When a karaoke cdg is successfully ripped, it has two files. One the .wav or .mp3 music file, the other the .cdg. (OR you can rip to .bin, but that's another format for keeping it intact to copy to a cdR.). Winamp or karafun or a few other programs recognize the second file (.cdg) and open up the appropriate window for the user's display.

[font=Comic Sans MS][/font]Very good and easy to understand answer...

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Gator

[schild=4 fontcolor=C0C0C0 shadowcolor=C0C0C0 shieldshadow=1]Thanks mon'!![/schild]

Spend the money on PowerKaraoke's CDG Burner. You'll get perfect rips everytime.
Also you might want to look into AutoKDJ (Free plugin for winamp) which gives you all the bells and whistles of most high end programs. If you are willing to pay money and have already ripped a number of songs in D#-T# - Artist - Title then I would look at CompuHost.

power karaoke CDG burner:
www.powerkaraoke.com

CompuHost:
www.karaokeware.com

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