Karaoke Forums

If I'm using, say, Hoster software (or some other software I can download?), is it necessary to have a CDG player, or, with the lyrics display properly by just using a CDG inside my laptop's regular DVD drive?

depends ENTIRELY on the laptop drive.

I will say that I'd not want to use ANY computer cd or cdg rom/dvd rom on a continuous basis. Burn it out too darned fast!

CompuHost doesn't play from the internal CDG drive. You can buy Siglos or another player to do that, but my experience has been that there are glitches in the playing music on the computer when you do.

I would recommend an extra all-format player to use when someone wants to play their own disk. You can buy one that plays DVDs, too, so you can put up videos as well.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Ok, so, I think my workaround to this would be to buy one of the two I narrowed it down to...CompuHost or Hoster, and then purchase an additional CDG player. Right?

The cool thing about compuhost is that if you have a video capture card in your system then you can control the video through CompuHost's video switcher. You might actually be able to mix with your pc the audio as well.

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

The answer is yes. I believe Hoster won't let you play directly from the optical drive but creates a temporary folder where you can rip and play from the CD+G then erased after. I think Lonnie mentioned this in the past. I would check with their web site, www. mtu.com.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

As long as you get the full version. The lite version doesn't do it. Again I am with Knightshow on this one. Too easy to wear out the disc drive. I personally don't play discs because if a singer wants a song I can easily enough buy it, download it and load it into my show hard drive by the next show, then I have it for them all the time without having to worry about wearing out my drive or possibly damaging their disc due to poor handling, not that I would mishandle the disc but anything is possible with all the multitasking I have to do to run the show.

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

I always brought in an extra player, JUST for playing customer cdgs... and I didn't play with dual decks on my pc at the time, so I used it for mixing background music...

To me, a computer has ALWAYS been the playing device for karaoke. Storing the songs as well... I just never looked at it as the solution to all my KJ needs.

To me, the rotation is best handled by slips or a sheet.

I totally agree with you knightshow.

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

Actually the Lite version DOES import singers discs. It has for a while now. Only thing Lite won't do is make song books.
But I agree as well, I also would not use the computer drive, just have a separate player for customer discs.

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I've read a few of your posts thus far; it appears you're kinda use to the old school way of doing things manually and as basic as possible. Although I think everyone should know how to do thing such ways, I'm a techie from the new age and I find it much more efficient and effective to use a lot of the amazing new technology we have...but this has a lot to do with the way I like to do things. At this point, I know not much about the old school way, or the technical aspects of things, but, it seems to me the techie route is more appropriate for myself. I couldn't see myself doing tons of slips, although I think I may consider a sheet. The main KJ I go to now has sheets, but prefers that regulars, such as myself, just approach and tell him what I want to sing. I kinda like that...

I think you give some great advice, however; I appreciate all your input for sure!

I run my shows pretty much that way, having my singers tell me what they wanted to sing. Haven't gotten a writtten request since I went digital.

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

Yeah, with this new age, everything is changing. Although the way many folks have been doing things are perfectly fine, the new generations are always tweaking things to make them more efficient/effective. Think about the time, energy, cost for supplies, etc., over time, and it can be a bit continuously use all that paper & pencils. This is long term, of course.

Funny, who would have thought we'd see the day DJ's are mixing with CD's instead of vinyl?

Thanks for the comments, and I respect your opinion!

I don't diss the All-in-one software stuff. I've played around with it a bit. I would just rather be out working the tables and talking to customers after starting the song and adjusting the audio... than playing around with all the bells and gadjets.

I work in the IT field (in fact, way before it was EVER called IT), so I'm no stranger to the newer technologies.

You're correct that I like things a certain way. I am only NOW getting into XP full time for home use, as Win2KPro is no longer supported.

There's just something about keeping it as simple as possible that makes the troubleshooting easier. More bells and whistles is just more stuff to go wrong!

But I'm not without taking advantage of the computer for ease of use and for doing things you just never could do with pure discs in a player. I play videos off it. I make singer screens (and save them for future use), enqueue several singers in a row so I have time to talk with my customers and be a darned good host...

I just don't feel the computer needs to do MUCH more than that!

If the only issue regarding the lappy's drive is "wear and tear", do what I did. I have two external drives that were quite reasonably priced and do the trick. Additionally, I have a deck that plays DVD, CDG, VCD, MP3 and more. For a very small investment of a few hundred dollars I covered all bases!

PS: I don't think that running a show without request slips in something to "brag" about. When I am running my show the more I can concentrate on the singers and my surroundings, the better I function. I don't want to encourage guests to engage me in needless conversations about their request, particularly if said conversation arises when I am in the midst of some confusion or a problem!

We take requests by slip, multiple songs on a slip, orally or have even have taken requests by texting on the phone. If we are not busy we will do a quick search on the computer. It only takes 2 seconds. Also we can switch songs in 2 seconds. Tracking rotation is computerized and believe me it took me a year to get away from tracking with the slips. I dont like a table with a bunch of slips.

Our rigidity is bam bam bam no silence, high paced with filler that folks want to dance to. In fact the genre or pace of the filler according to the age or preference of the crowd is more important than a lot of things discussed here.

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Ollie,

As you have noted in your post - your show is comprised of "we"!

I also have help - my wife. And I know it's a lot simpler running a show with two people, in general. Specifically as to slips, my wife collects them:

What does she do with them at the show:
a) she notes who handed them to us (in case there's a question about the request)
b) she checks the request for legibility, accuracy and completeness
c) she addresses the guest when she has questions
c) she enters the request into the queue
d) she reviews and maintains the integrity of the queue making sure that is managed according to our "policy" (if nothing else, where to insert newcomers)

If I had to do all that during my show, I couldn't maintain the high-level of energy I add to the environment and engage the crowd as I would like. I'd be too busy just managing the queue.

What we do with the slips after the show:
a) retrieve e-mail addresses for marketing purposes
b) hand returning regulars a master list of everything they have sung lately
c) retain slips for our records

Knightshow...I know exactly what you mean, buddy. In fact, I would like to eventually learn the basics so I can have a better understanding of what all this fancy software will be doing for me. If it breaks down, I would be able to manually do things!

I am also scratching my head and agreeing with the poster who mentioned the convenience of USING slips; it makes sense to not want folks in your face when in the middle of a tough situation, or when there are crowds at a time.

I guess a good method would be a sign-up list. I'm really working on various ideas for rotation, but, part of the reason I want the software is so I can see everything on one screen and take from there.

We'll see...trial and error will determine this all for me!

best of luck to ya! You have the right temperment for the trade!!

I recently became a HUGE fan of big Whiteboards for customers to sign up on them.

Sing one, and then after you're done, sign back up! Works like a charm!

Thanks! And actually, I'm here with you on the sing one and sign back up when done. I think this makes the rotation fair with, "first come, first serve". Although we would love to get in first time performers who arrive five minutes before the list closes, you've gotta look out for those who have gotten in early, amassed huge bar tabs, and feel as though they should get in more songs because of such!