Karaoke Forums

Hey room

Need suggestions for building a raid setup for karaoke. I want this mountable, 2+ drives, Strong video card and sound cards, alot of memory, dual monitors, etc. I want to spend around $600 if possible

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Where were you, we were having fun with Lonewolf Karaoke......

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w ... r8kONfr7nQ

Here is how to do it. However, for a karaoke application, I don't know why you would want to. For less than $600.00, you can get a computer that is MORE than capable of running any karaoke application plus a 2TB hard drive. Why would you want to set up a complicated multi-hard drive array just for karaoke? Beyond the video demands, which is easily upgradable, karaoke is a pretty run-of-the-mill application that is not particularly resource intensive.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

With a Windows Home Server (WHS) server like a HP Mediasmart, you can simply have it keep an image of your system online at all times and backup every time you are on your home network. WHS can be easily set up for any type of redundant fault-tolerant file scheme you choose.

You can pick up a WHS server for as little as $400 at Newegg.com. I suggest one with 4 internal drive bays for easy expansion.

Why would you bother with carrying around a raid system? Simply moving it around to shows is putting it at risk anyway!

For example, I have a WHS that does all the following:

1) Hosts and streams all my video and audio media (except karaoke) to the entire network (as well as the internet when I am on the go).

2) Makes regular image backups of all computers that are connected to the network.

3) Stripes the data across multiple drives, allowing for failure of one drive at any time with no data loss.

If one of my connected computers ever has a hd failure, pop in a new drive and an image is only a few clicks away and it is just like new!

If I were super anal about my data, I could back up the entire server data to an offsite service to ensure I have a backup in an other location in case of a natural disaster.

I would never build a computer in this day and age.
There are just to many hardware compatibility issues.

I suggest buying one off the shelf and adding desired hard drive space needed.

For a mobile show I suggest a notebook, but if you are only going to use it at home a desktop will work.


In my opinion $600 is a little light to get a decent computer. Most of my notebooks are around $1000.

I'm going to assume that the reason you're talking about using a RAID array is for the fault tolerance rather than being able to span data across multiple drives for additional storage space. With the cost of drives today, my suggestion would be get two drives and just backup the data from one to the other anytime you make a change. I can't imagine you're making changes that often. This route would be a lot easier and smaller than trying to carry around an external array. At that point you might as well buy a NAS Device.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Im running on a laptop with external drive. I have one venue I do 3 times a week with the large speakers and was just going to rack it and leave it there. My setup is in a roll around case and is stolled behind locked doors and cameras when not in use. Just considering it

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Where were you, we were having fun with Lonewolf Karaoke......

I agree again with the post, buy 2 hard drives and a notebook.

Since you have that it's very portable any only takes 5 min to setup I would look what else you can upgrade vs buying a computer.

I don't know why you would want RAID, way overkill. Back up your drive and music to an inexpensive USB drive and be done with it.

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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.

RAID will kill the bugs in your system..

If you can afford it, raid is awesome. Get yourself a mobo that supports SATA raid, or a cheap SATA raid card.

Raid 1 is the cheapest you can get away with if you just want a realtime mirror of your main boot drive.

I would do it, but cost is an issue for me. Great thing about a Raid1 array is if a drive blows on you, you don't have to sit there waiting for the array to rebuild.

Oh and for the Naysayers...

If you have a firmware based raid, and installed windows to it when one of your drives blow, you can still boot off the good drive. That's why I would totally do it over a USB backup.

RAID is great for the technically competent. Not so great for most people. I have seen as many problems introduced by RAID as I have seen solved.

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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.

Raid 3 is the minimum I would use, (If I used Raid) and 3 will recover data from one failed drive in a three (4) drive system

(Drive zero (0) to boot and three for the raid.

JD: Why have a boot drive at all? Why not use hardware RAID and boot from a RAID? That's the best way of going about it.

Mickey: I've earned literally 10's of 1000's of dollars babysitting a raid rebuilding itself. My clients always felt like they saved 100's of 1000's by having a raid in place.

Trick is to get a good RAID controller. True hardware SCSI raid with health reporting on something like an IBM netfinity server blows doors over the POS softraid that comes on most ASUS mobo's. There's quite a few decent SATA raid controllers on the market now for around $100.

If you do RAID, make sure you setup the raid on the controller card FIRST, then install windows to the raid. There's a part of the Windows setup where it says "Press F6 to install additional drivers" Usually this is where you insert your disk for your raid controller, then it should be selectable when it comes time to partition your drive and format it NTFS.

I rest my case. You had to be hired, meaning it took tech expertise. It cost quite a bit, meaning there is a significant investment.

RAID has its place, it just isn't on a karaoke system. Or such is my opinion.

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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 agree this is probably a silly investment. With that said, if I was going to do it without a lot of technical knowledge, I would buy a QNAP box. It is easy to use and you can buy them in a rack mount format, or in more portable shapes. www.qnap.com

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

OH and DJ lonewolf,

I don't know if you'll be able to get a system rolling for that much unless you're willing to go with a weaker processor and mobo (think pentium3)

Just a rough guestimate..

$100 2u rackmountable case
$200 2x 1tb hard drives
$100 raid controller
$250 CPU/RAM/MOBO
$80 Case
$50 Video card

You're looking closer to 7-750 for a system like the one you want. If you want a decent sound card, tack on another $150.

I taught myself, and let's face it the entire face of the karaoke industry is going through tech heavy changes right now. Sure, showmanship is still a part of it but I think we're getting to a place where technical skill is a heavy augmentation to showmanship.

In the last few weeks I've seen threads on network kiosks, tricerasoft releasing their stuff, etc. 10 years ago setting up a network would have been an UNHEARD of skill for any DJ. As time progresses we are slowly creeping towards that fusion of skillsets where it will become necessary to know how to, or know someone who can teach it to you. (Isn't that why lonewolf is here?)

For instance, 10 years from now the mixer as we know it will not exist. I know it won't. I'm doing it today. I do amazing things with a multi IO card, software DAW and midi controllers that 10 years ago were just science fiction in this field.

It will only be a matter of time before RAID is cheap, standard, easy to use and not the tech heavy skill it is today. If lonewolf really wants to spend the money to build one, regardless of anyone's opinion he's going to spend the money to try.

Whatever ever made you think of using a RAID system for karaoke and what would be the advantage?

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Okay, who took my pants?

Agreed by an HP server engineer.