Karaoke Forums

Karaoke has gone from cassette to disc and now computer. In 15 yrs, who know how it will be run. Change is change and eventually, disc based will go the way of cassette based karaoke. Just gone. How many people insist on carrying cassette's around and demand you play them.....................and why don't you? Because it is no longer feasible and years down the road, discs will not be. Not now, but it will happen. If you are so resistant to change that you refuse to no longer participate, so be it. Only you will suffer from that. Karaoke will continue and the world won't end.

A KJ runs his business how he sees fit to and no one should demand he/she do anything. You can ask, if he/she says yes, great, if the answer if no, sing from what is available or move on. Plenty of new, young singers are joining the ranks, young and computer savvy and honestly clueless about disc based karaoke.

All in all, I think the mentality behind this comes down to what are you used to. Do you live in an area that is mostly disc based or computer? Are you a new singer/host or have you been doing this for years? That determines your comfort level and how resistant to change you are. The hosts I know are pretty flexible and had to be since disc based karaoke pretty much died out in this area years ago.

After the "other" thread though, I do wonder if this is veiled contempt for computer based host b/c they are "multi-rigging pirates". Ugh! Well, there are crooks in every field of business and always will be. When my hubby starts up next year, he will be strictly computer based and one for one. Lord knows, I am spending a fortune buying discs to build our library and then spending more time to convert those disc for play off the computer. Even though he will have his disc player as backup, he will not play someone's disc or usb..........and I doubt he would ever be asked to since it just doesn't happen around here.

This thread has NOTHING to do with Piracy, and don't even go there!!!


There are plenty of "Legal" Kjs out there who are PC-Operated who don't/can't play CDGs. This thread IS about what you AS A SINGER would do if you go to those shows.



You answered in your prior post (quoted below) that this does not apply to you. so be it.



Sorry to be rude here, but why you even bothered to say anything in that post (since you stated that you are not accustomed to bringing your own discs to another show) is beyond me. But let's keep this thread on track (now, that I've brought this back to the focus of the Singer and not the KJ).

John I agree . not playing customer cgds could alienate potential singers and I understand the singers need to sing something familiar. I think from a singers perspective --If you find a show you regularly visit it will become less of a problem.
Those singers who go from show to show will be "rolling the dice" by bringing their discs. and on vacation -- again tough call

When you consider the preceding posts which come from two different threads along with the fact that afficianados of live band karaoke are limited to 150 or so songs AND CAN'T BRING THEIR OWN SOFTWARE, you may wonder if some of today's devotees of karaoke aren't spoiled.

As I have stated, I have many ways to play discs... but I sure wish everyone would look through the books that I have and print at a significant expense. I wish that people would expand their repertoire rather than show up week in and week out to sing the same song(s). I feel like Dr Fred about maximizing the experience by trying new songs on a regular basis, even without rehearsal. What is the worst thing that can happen if you don't nail a song. Aren't there people at every karaoke show that you attend who have the stones to get up and just have fun with a song they end up not really knowing. I had two girls sing "American Pie" this weekend and they loved the experience. Why do I mention it? Well, much to my surprise they really didn't KNOW the song, but that didn't deter them from having a good time.

Now, as to accepting someones flash drive... it's not going to happen. My show computer NEVER goes on line and doesn't have any anti-virus software installed!

Until there are no CDGs around, and all karaoke files are PC based, I will play customer's discs. For those who are not equipped to, I noticed that my home DVD player (JVC XV N670) is capable of playing DVDs and CDGs - it is a very compact unit and inexpensive unit - could be easily set up for those who for want of a CDG player don't play customer's discs. I carry some karaoke DVDs (purchased via internet from Finland) and use Hoster so playing customer's discs is not an issue, but for those who don't have that convenience, this is a potential solution.

Yup, lots of computer savvy kids around but, in my experience anyway, those are the casual "get drunk and sing" singers, and most of the time are just homies in the venue, not there to sing specifically - and the serious singers have collections of their own music and 9 times out of 10 they provide a very good base of solid entertainment (to entertain those who aren't singers but appreciate good singing).

My point is to try to keep as many people happy as I can - happy people come back for more. (Again, one of the reasons I invested in MTU Hoster - the ability to play people's CDGs for them.)

While my last post was mostly off-topic, my last sentence was directly on topi and needs to be considered by those who recommended to the OP that having a flash drive is the answer to the "problem".

I would like to add that even if a KJ is not concerned about viruses most hosting software would not be able to play tracks from the thumb drive without going through a few set up steps that would seriously interfere with normal running of a show. And I would prefer not add the tracks from the singer's drive at the time when the singer comes up, so if I did enter those tracks into my system it would be long before the singer's turn arrived. That way I would have time to get ready.

Now, when the singer's turn does arrive all I can ask him for is the title of the song. Right? So, I put in the title into the search and up pops two choices. What then?

Lastly, since the titles on the flash drive have been imported into my hosting software's database but don't exist anywhere else, how do I eliminate those titles from my database so as not mistakenly believe during future searches that I have those titles to play?

I would never dream of bringing a thumb drive with a virus on it to sabotage someone's show. CRAP!! I wouldnt even know how to do it. I guess if someone had an axe to grind with a KJ , they might try to do something to ruin a KJ's show but then the KJ would know not to trust this particular person if they already had a troubled past. There just seems to be a lot of paranoia about people just wanting to find a way so they can sing their own favorite songs at a karaoke show. A person shows up with their own CDG disc one week and is told that the KJ can't play it so he shows up the next week with a thumb drive and the KJ tells him that "I don't trust you enough to connect your drive to my laptop." GREAT customer service.....NOT!!! Are the die hard karaoke singers of the world really going to sabotage a show where they DO GET TO SING???? How about if I brought my laptop and ran my anti virus software on the thumb drive before you plugged it onto your USB port? Would that be good enough or not?

How about if I just connect my laptop to your sound system and you just play the song from my PC? What will be the complaint then??? My sound card isn't as good as yours and you don't want it to seem like the sound coming out of the customer's laptop is what you usually provide as fas as sound is concerned. All a customer would have to bring is a set of cables to connect his laptop to your mixer. You wouldn't have to provide a way to connect the video. The singer could sing from his own laptop screen. My netbook weighs less than 2 pounds and has a battery that can get me through as many songs that I might get to sing in the course of a karaoke show. What would be the KJ's reservations to this solution? Hmmm, maybe I should just bring a CDG player and an A/B switch with me and ask the KJ to connect it all at the beginning of his show.......Maybe my CDG player has a built in electrical surge producer hidden inside just so I can booby trap the KJ's show. LOL

Good Grief !!!

Should a KJ not be willing or able to play my tracks from my CD or USB, I'd also have the option of asking (at the end of the night) if the KJ would consider obtaining those tracks so that I could sing them next time I attend his/her show. That would most likely be met with a negative response (if a KJ is unwilling to play my disc in the first place) but who knows, maybe a host would see it as a way to gain another regular customer. I personally wouldn't want to burden a host with the expense of buying extra tracks, especially when I already have them available, but I guess it would do no harm to ask.

On reading Bruce's post, there is another thing I could be willing to do should I not be able to use my own personal discs.... I could bring along my mp3 player or better still, my multimedia player (which is about the same size but can play WAV files) and set it to single play mode with the song queued. All the KJ would need to do is plug my cable into a spare channel and hit the play button... Actually, I have done that in the past with a regular show I used to attend and the KJ thought it was great....

My experience with PC run karaoke shows in my area is that they are mostly run by people who bought their pre loaded hard drives and never owned any CDG discs and that is why they don't have a machine to play discs. They have spent whatever they have spent to get in to the karaoke business and they don't seem to want to spend any more to improve their selection or their equipment. Many of these KJ's only know how to use the software that came with their loaded hard drive or the laptop that they bought from another KJ...who was going out of business. LOL Yeah Right! When I try to inform these KJ's that there are software programs that will allow them to play a CDG on their laptops, they don't want anything to do with these programs unless someone is willing to teach them how to use them because they really have no idea how to figure it out for themselves. They've got their hard drives with tens of thousands of songs that were up to date in 2005 or 2006 when they bought them but they haven't gotten a new song since. There are a lot of good songs that have come out in the last 3 or 4 years but you can't sing any of them at these shows that never update their song book because they can't afford to keep current when they work for next to nothing. They've undercut other KJ's to get gigs and they aren't willing to make their shows better because they can't afford to. Some of these KJ's try to make their shows better by copying songs when customers bring in their own discs, especially if you bring them on a thumb drive. LOL. I've had it happen to me so I know of what I speak. KJ kept asking me to sing songs that he didn't have and shortly thereafter, all of those songs were in his book but not the rest of the songs that were on those discs. Karaoke Pirates don't draw many lines when it comes to getting songs without paying for them. I'm not saying that every PC Based karaoke business is run by a pirate. It is just very suspicious when there are people who come out of nowhere and do their first karaoke gig with 100,000 songs....or people that have done karaoke shows for years with 5,000 songs and then the next week they have 80,000 songs. I don't stop going to these shows but I don't go in with blinders on either.

From the point of a CD based host, it is no problem to play someone's disk, and of course they see little point in the people who dont play cds. Of course, it is just as easy to play any disk in the machine.

From the point of view of people who went from CD to computer recently they dont see much difference either. They already have a system that will play disks.

From the point of view of those that started out with a computer of course disks are not convenient. They may not own a setup for running disks, and the associated wireing etc may add complexity to the system that they do not find worth it.

Now they have the option of ripping the disks at the show onto their computer, but that of course is slow and may prevent the karaoke from functioning smoothly at the same time. Not only that the files must be kept separate if the host wants to be legit. Not to mention the risk of computer viruses.

Sure the host that does not have the ablity to run cds may not keep an occasional singer, but that is not the point. We all do not keep as a regular every singer that tries our show. We make decisions that work for our shows.

Lets compare the system to a restaraunt, not only are you walking into a burger joint and asking them to cook your pizza, but you are insisting that they have a pizza oven there. Of course the people who run pizza restaraunts, and have pizaa ovens can act smug and insist it is no problem, but for the rest of us it is not worth the effort.

To take it to the extreme, how many of you can play someone's laser disk of karaoke at your shows (ie you have the laser disk player setup and ready to go). I bet very few do, even the ones that own a few old laser disks and a player. I would argue that lacking the ability to play laser disks does not make you a BAD host. It is just realistic analysis of the situation to realize it is not likely to be worth the effort.

The main point I am trying to make is that I am not a "BAD" host because I do not think it worthwhile to play outside CDs. It is just a decision I have made. I am not a lazy host either.

I have been around Karaoke long enough to know that yes different versions are often much better than others, I do my best to get the best versions possible. Some are still not the best, but if a singer knows the differences between all the versions out there for a song, then it is probably time to look around for new songs to sing. It may be that the version that the KJ has is BETTER than the one on which the singer practiced.

My main point is that my shows right now are limited by the time people can sing. My regular weekly show of 3 hours rarely finishes the second rotation lately, so I have no problem getting singers, more would come if they thought they could sing.

The local karaoke store is no longer selling karaoke laser discs or karaoke cassettes so I wouldn't expect a KJ to play one at their venue. When I go to the local karaoke store, there are shelves upon shelves of CDG discs for sale and yes; I think that the local KJ's should have a way to play the media that most songs are sold on.

And it can't be done if the person running the computer has anything resembling a brain. A computer brain, anyway. You just disable auto-play on thumb drives, which you should do anyway. Not only for those but for CDs too.

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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.

I do and DO

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Which is what it's supposed to be about - the singer (the one that comes in to SUPPORT your show. If a singer isn't enjoying their hobby/entertainment/etc. by not being allowed to sing a song they really want to do, instead of being forced to sing something else that is not as enjoyable, what is the point. Make a singer WANT to return, and if that means taking an extra player, hooking up a couple more cords & having to actually load & cue a disc ( ) then so be it. Again, I personally think it's bad business to not have the ability, but you know what they say about opinions.....

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Ah you may have just popped on to a key piece here. Serious singers DO carry their own music to shows & usually follow better than average to great sounding systems. Maybe those places that don't get these people........? Sorry just being a brat! This topic always gets me boiling - especially with some of the excuse why one don't.

EXACTLY!

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Such a simple concept - don't resist it! (speaking of being bratty )

I have people bringing in thumb drives on occasion & I know MTU Hoster is easy to work with them. I plug the drive in (I have all auto play features disabled just so it won't pop up a new window asking what I want to do with the new drive), I click on a button & it opens the drive, click the song & walla - it's loaded in the playlist. When it comes to that persons turn, I hit play & when they are done, I hand then back their drive. Absolutely no interference at all from running a normal show. Even if they did hand me the drive as they were walking on stage - takes about 5 seconds max. These tracks do not move from the drive so they don't stay on the computer.

I have found from experience that the singer handing you the disc will tell you exactly which track - so if two popped up, they will have it marked & you pick that one.

At least with my program, nothing has been imported, it's just added to a playlist that is cleared out after it plays a song, not added to any searchable database. These tracks are not even added to the computer in any manner, they are being played directly from the flash drive.

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WELL I GUESS IT'S TOO BAD THAT EVERYONE ISN'T USING MTU HOSTER, ISN'T IT?


I don't know what you're talking about Lonman, if for no other reason, possibly, then the fact you're using MTU Hoster which I have no knowledge of. I use two different programs that require that I import a song before either will play it. Once I import the song it is in my hosting software's database. And that IS NOT a file on my hard drive with the song track(s). That is a file that directs the hosting software as to where the file/track can be found!

And with the way my hosting software works, requiring an import step, I am going to import everything on the singer's drive at once. I am not going to do it after the singer selects a song to sing.

Now, with that said, I don't know what tracks I am importing. Let's say he gave me the track "Beer For My Horses". I don't know what version he gave me, but my database already has several versions of that song. To play the singer's own track, I would have to stop and research the "data path" to know which version is from the singers flash drive.



Well, I am not sure how this education in the workings of MTU Hoster has advanced the OP's inquiry or why my discussion of how my two different programs work became an integral part of this MTU workshop?

BTW, the AutoKJDJ software w
which I don't use also requires an import step!

I rarely ever go to karaoke- anywhere- without carrying atleast 10-12 of my own disks. Not that I couldn't go out without them, I have before, then I get in the mood to sing a certain song the KJ doens't have, and I get bummed cause I didn't bring them. (so why beat myself up? i just always make sure they're alteast in my vehicle in case I want one of them) But I try not to sing the same ol' stuff all the time anyhow...

But if a KJ can't play mine... I'm not THAT addicted to my own cdg's... I'll flip through the book. It's not as if I only know a handful of songs, any KJ's book can keep me busy singing for a long, long time. So I just content myself with digging out songs that are there. (and I've tried new ones that way that have ended up being some of my favs)

My regular show... if it happened that they could never play my disks any more, and did not attempt to get the new songs themselves, I imagine I'd drift off to find a new place eventually, just because I do like to have the choice.

I'm going to Vegas in a few weeks for 5 days, and plan to hit a few karaoke shows while there... I have NO intention of packing cdg's to take with me. (rather, i'll probably take my guitar for down times in my motel room, Lol)

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GAWD people quit using food in comparison to karaoke. NOT even close. Sheesh!

Me! And even get people that bring these in as well - why, because they know I can. I have 6 ld/cdg combo players that I have that at least one would go with me to every show - stationary or not! Hell for that matter if I had people still wanting to sing from cassettes, i'd have one of those available.

I don't think anyone was making that assessment on kj's that won't play customer discs.
Or though they could sing what they want......

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