Karaoke Forums

This may have been touched on awhile ago, pardon the pun, but is anyone here currently using a touch screen on their system?

I have zero experience but have thought this would have taken off in popularity with all computerized systems. Why hasn't it?

I would think having to right mouse click everything all the time and sit down would get old very quickly, this is why i've chosen to still use a jb-199. push buttons= play songs.

Granted, a lot of hosts have their lappy systems high enough and stand during their shows, but much of what i've seen is nearly all lappy hosts sitting down. I don't like to sit down ever- there's too much going on!

I do have a 15 inch lappy set up at home with S&D, pretty old, but have never used it professionally. Just for home use and practicing at the beach during the day sometimes. I would like to get away from the jb-199 if possible but would prefer something easier like a touch screen so i have more facetime with customers.

I have also noticed my eyes are starting to fail me in the dark as i approach my mid 40's, . Squinting at a screen is the last thing i wanna do. I already had to increase the size of my songslips and now use fingerlights to see. I'm in dark rooms with lots of dj lighting, not stage lighting.

I love the 22 inch micros screens my servers use to order food and thought it's the perfect idea. scroll. touch song. play. easy as spam.

Does anyone know what the downsides and upsides are? I would think that it would run a show MUCH faster, am i wrong?

Thank you in advance for any replies my forum friends! -john

EDIT: DISREGARD THE STANDING LAPPY USERS> PLEASE REPLY TO THE TOUCH SCREEN QUESTIONS AND OPINIONS ONLY IF POSSIBLE, THANK YOU!

Depending on the venue and your set up ---You really never have to sit down while using a laptop. Currently I host at an outside patio - set up on a bar type counter they have and have my latop on top of my powered mixer and its perfect to use standing up with a wireless mouse. -- But no matter what type of rack and system you use they have so many variations of laptop stands and racks that if you want to stand ..you could. They have free standing stands and ones that hook onto your rack and now they even have pro audio racks with built in laptop stands.

So I guess the KJ's that are sitting do so because they WANT to not really HAVE TO .

oops..to answer you -- I guess with the correct hosting software touchscreen systems could be real COOL and quick. BUt you need the software to be built around the touch screen concept...would be unique

I use a SKB mini gig rig with a gig wing. On my standard table it's the perfect height to stand and use my notebook.

Hi John,

I do have a touch screen with my karaoke system, and it works out great. As jamkaraoke pointed out, it really depends on the software you use. I use Unify Karaoke, (Chinese software), somewhat similar to what I saw being used in some of the karaoke businesses in South East Asia.

For what I use it for, everything works out perfect. Very simple and easy to use (if you can check out of a self-checkout @ Home Depot, you can use my karaoke setup)...

I have not tried this with other software, so I am not sure how well it would work in different venues.

- Michael

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I have thought about it at one point but then threw the idea over board again. I use Compuhost and swear on it, so I really don't want to change to any other software. And the benefits I would have through a Touchscreen are not that major that it would justify to replace my really good Gateway Laptop with a Touchscreen system. Might be a niche market to write a good, reliable Karaoke Hosting Software for Touchscreens... hmmm...

However, I will start using a digital Songbook Software with Touchscreen starting next week. For now I will use the songfinder from dkusa. Later on I'm planning on writing my own piece of Software to replace the songfinder. I just need new books as of yesterday and don't see a reason to spend $400 on new books now, when I'm planning on going digital anyway. But my own software is not finished yet, so I go with the songfinder for now.

As far as a touch screen speeding up your hosting skills/show, it might be only slightly faster than using a laptop and typing on the keyboard. I guess it would depend on the speed of your system that you're using your touchscreen with.

I was talking to a buddy of mine about going to a digital book, and he suggested using a touch screen for that. My hope is that I can get a program written so that the singer can select their song at the touch screen panel, type in their name, and it automatically jumps into the rotation. Would make my job a lot easier ya know?

Let us know how it comes out!

Using a regular hosting program on a laptop isn't slow. You enter the singers in the rotation and you just press the song start button. Where are you losing any time? I don't see where anyone could lose time.

The only time i ever lose time is because of the dead spot before the music starts after you see the title screen. That's a disc manufacturing slowdown not mine. It was the same when i used players and discs.

Switching from players to computer didn't cost me one second of show time.

Touchscreen for hosting? Not with my program. I wrote it with point and click definitely in mind. I have picked up a few used touch screens on ebay for digital songbooks. My design is modeled on that well known touch jukebox. At the moment you can only browse or search for a song but soon I'll add singers and song history (already in the main program) and the ability to submit requests.

- Jonn

Thanks for the replies so far on this kind people.

Michael, i will look into the Unify Karaoke system you spoke of. Thanks.

You would think there would be MORE manus on this thing!

I don't see how it will save any time. I use a 17" Toshiba laptop. I don't even use a mouse. I had little experience with laptops before getting into karaoke but I found it didn't take long to get used to it. I've always been a fast typer so that helped me, I suppose if someone was a chicken (@$%&#!), touch screen would be faster. I'm on my 2nd touchscreen phone, it's not all that. Smaller of course but when you touch the item next to the item you actually wanted, you have to go back and redo.

My lights in the dark are simple. I have a flashlight hanging from one side of my rack, I have a mini squeeze light that I keep velcroed on the inside of my rack near my mic and I have a gooseneck usb light that I keep pointed on the g and h keys so I can always find the home row in the dark. The stage in my venue is kept fairly dark. Actually the whole room is fairly dark.

I am a techie and wouldn't be against trying out a touch screen. Would for sure have to see it in action before I would consider it.

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Would this be helpful? Please note there is a touch screen version...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/usb-gadgets/bfa3/