Karaoke Forums

As stated in a recent post, I'm a disc-based KJ who's making the leap to digital, and in my review of threads on this and the Archived forums (why no SEARCH function?) for the best hosting s/w, it appears that Invicion's Compuhost is preferred by many of the members for "cost is no object" hosting sw. There are a smattering of users for MTU Hoster, Tricerasoft's JustKaraoke, Siglos, and a number of the WinAmp-based sw like Sax's and AutOKJ. And universal dislike for PCDJ's Karoaki, .

But I'm wondering why I can't find any mention of members using Tricerasoft's Swift Elite 4? Or Latishaw's Karma?

Once again I'm requesting your experienced opinions, this time on what's wrong with Swift Elite 4?

Here's my thinking:

I'm willing to spend money to get the best possible, cost-no-object hosting software, and in my research it seems that Compuhost and Swift Elite 4 both have lots of powerful functions that meet all of my current hosting needs, as well as allow me to "grow" into future capabilities.

I would have gone with Compuhost, but it scares me away in the lack of ability to play customer's CDG's. At my shows, it's a rare night where I don't get one or more customers that bring in their own discs, and my policy of happily playing them isn't going to change. Sure, I can play around with Compuhost's claim to be able to accept external video from a CDG player but I don't want to have to bring a CDG player with me to my gigs.

I'm going to be working as a cruise ship DJ on a Central America + Panama Canal voyage later this holiday, so I really would like to NOT have to fly to/from the ship with a player!

That alone rules out Compuhost, although I like everything else about it (esp the good customer svc), and leaves Swift Elite 4 as the remaining "heavyweight" contender.

I also like Swift Elite's ability to run DMX light controls (there will be lighting on the cruise gig) as well as its ability to run customer CDG's and support for remote kiosk. For my private gigs (not weekly show) I usually have a "pretty assistant" running around helping guests choose a song, and if I can give her a tablet to enter songs directly to my laptop then that's a future capability I want.

So has anyone heard anything negative about Swift Elite 4 that I should know about? Since no one on the forum is using it, there must've been some folks who tried it and rejected it for some reason?

For reference, my new laptop is a Toshiba Satellite E205 running Windows 7 64bit on Intel iCore5, with 4 gb RAM and 500 gb HDD. Both Compuhost and Swift Elite 4 claims to run on Win 7 which is a critical requirement for me.

TIA for your input!

Depends on how you want to run a show.

I like leaving as much as possible in the singers hands (which is why we created autokdj) I think we're still the only solution that will allow singers to queue songs up from any web enabled device (think iphones/androids etc connecting through a wifi router you bring with you)

For DMX you're probably going to be stuck using what the cruise ship uses. Having never been on a cruise ship I can't say this for a fact, but I'm fairly sure they have a nice DMX controller in place so you might want to forget about software for the moment

Have you looked at MTU Hoster? It has cdg capability as well.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Actually, I have looked at MTU Hoster. Btw, are you the same Lonman from the old Jolt forum back on karaoke.com in the early part of this decade?

The 2 things that turned me off about Hoster were:

1. proprietary KMA file format. This means that if I were to change my mind in the future and use another hosting sw, I'm stuck re-ripping all my discs to the more common MP3+G format unless the replacement sw can read KMA. Is my thinking correct on this one?

2. posters on MTU's own forum seem to be alarmed at the frequently-reported issues Hoster is having with the newer version of Windows. My new laptop came with Win 7 so this is a deal breaker.

Have you looked at Swift Elite 4 and what was your opinion of it?

TIA.

Who says you can't play customers CD's? They've made it so you can. From their manual:

The External Lyrics Source feature has been included to allow the use of a CD+G Disc Player in conjunction with CompuHost. This allows for the video lyrics display from any external source to be routed through CompuHost and displayed onscreen while at the same time, continuing to display the "Scrolling Rotation" (VRS) on the Performer's (Auxiliary) Screen.

Now, if you want the absolute best, their is no question it's CompuHost. I've tried every other program you list and could never use anything less. CompuHost is the best, hands down karaoke hosting program there is.

Thanks for replying, Alan, but the point I made in my original post was that I didn't want to have to carry around an external CDG player once I go digital. To quote myself:

"...Sure, I can play around with Compuhost's claim to be able to accept external video from a CDG player but I don't want to have to bring a CDG player with me to my gigs.

I'm going to be working as a cruise ship DJ on a Central America + Panama Canal voyage later this holiday, so I really would like to NOT have to fly to/from the ship with a player!

That alone rules out Compuhost, although I like everything else about it (esp the good customer svc), and leaves Swift Elite 4 as the remaining "heavyweight" contender."

I agree with you that otherwise Compuhost is (among the) best, but would you say that Swift Elite 4 offers the same amount of power/capability, plus DMX lighting control and remote kiosk integration (and can play customer CDG w/o an external player)?

If you say "no, SE4 isn't as good as Compuhost", can you please let me know what it is that you feel is weaker about SE4 compared to Compuhost? This isn't a challenge of your statement, I'm genuinely looking for reasons why I shouldn't buy SE4! I just can't find any opinions on it, good or bad!

Thanks again Alan.

have no experience with SE4, but i use siglos and i can play CDG from my internal drive live without ripping it to a file just like if i had an external player. i can play mp3+g, KMA, WMA+g, i use WAV+g.

it does not have the quick sounds that hoster does, nor the EQ of Karma. it DOES have the scrolling marquee of Compuhost and Hoster, but not in a separate "window" under the lyrics.

same as in the other threads, download them and try them yourself. all mare good programs, just see which has the right combination of features for you. i personally like the customizability of Siglos over any of the others, Lon likes Hoster, both are right answers.....for us. try them, they all have demo versions. what is right for YOUR business?

_________________
Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

With their kiosk software, I don't see why SWift Elite 4 would be a bad choice at all since it loads the songs vi the kiosk. Odds are though on a cruise you won't run into the CDG carrying customer so I would suggest relooking at Compuhost.

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

You may want to look at the new features such as the control of Swift Elite 4 through the iPhone, the Super Remote Request Tool server (as Danny mentioned), and most of the fully automated features. It is the first all-in-one program to include karaoke, audio, and video mixing and carries the direct disc playback from the original WinCDG (first player to play MP3+G AND play direct CD+G discs). The disc playback today has error correction and deinterleaving support (more drives support and clean playback).

We were on the Mobilebeat East Cruise (Carnival Cruises) a few years back and was asked to run the karaoke show - we introduced the free remote request tool at the time - managed over 1000 people and 3 days of shows. Used a shuttle unit for the server and an old Dell Inspiron as the request unit. But surprise, surprise a lady comes up to the stage and pulls out a disc from her purse - she brought it with her on the cruise...

I guarantee that all of our Swift Elite 4 customers will not comment on the forum because they are much too busy working. It basically comes down to, if you need the features and you are comfortable with the learning curve, you won't regret learning it - but the choice is yours. The 10-day trial is there for you to try with full features enabled - contact us if you are trying it on 64-bit to enable the special mode or use it in trial mode. Swift Elite 4 is meant for the general DJ/KJ/VJ, so it may be overwhleming for the regular KJ or beginner, this is why we find that most KJs moving into digital go with JustKaraoke (usually a combination with Song Book Creator and CDG Ripper) and the DJ/VJ that performs occasional karaoke and wants pizzazz and automation goes with Swift Elite 4.

History: the starting package in 1996 was WinCDG and they moved up into Mimic Audition. We still have the WinCDG genre, but we learned so much and created JustKaraoke which became the favorite. The "move up" step is now one of the Swift Elite 4 versions (LITE, Solution Download, or Solution Physical).

Standalone products you may wish to look into - Song Book Creator, Super Remote Request Tool, and the Karaoke Downloads. These work with any TriceraSoft or third party product.

But I don't want to get a life!

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

Lol

Sorry, I must have overlooked that. Well then, this changes things. Maybe SE might be the way to go for you. I know as a whole Tricerasoft is great. I tried out their remote request tool and it's really good and of course, I use them for my downloads.

, my Dad brings some of his discs when they go on a cruise.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

And actually, when I was a passenger on my last cruise, I heard they had karaoke nights and so I did bring some of my discs

It's so great to be able to talk with the Manufacturer right here on the forum! I'm really glad you posted here because I wasn't getting very far trying to decide if I'm the right target market for SE4 using the info on your website and forum.

Since I will have to be pure DJ for about 2/3 of the nights on the cruise, and karaoke the other 1/3, SE4 might be the right solution for the cruise. Once home, however, my needs are going to be 95% KJ so I need to know if SE4 can fulfill that mission?

I can't tell, for example, from the screenshots on your website if there are discrete buttons for key changer, or just the sliders that I can see in the screenshots? Or is that configurable via a "skin" that I can apply?

Also, the screenshots show me two decks with songs listed in them, but I can't see if there is a way to see the singers listing? Would I need to scroll to the right in those windows to see the Singer column?

I've been running a manual rotation with a clipboard all these years so I don't really "need" a singer-focused rotation display, but is that possible with SE4? If not, then I guess SE4 will be just a replacement for my manually swapping of discs currently. That would still be a huge time-saver, mind you, but I can't tell if SE4 can do more in that area.

I know, I can download and play around w/ it for 10 days, but if I can get those answers here on this forum that'll save me the hassle of downloading it and learning it to come to the same conclusion.

Thanks in advance!

For the cruise it would be Swift Elite 4 for the full management and playlist rotations allowing you to switch venue types at an instant - the singer name is on the right but the columns can be moved and resized (just drag it over). If you need to split the screen, switch over to the Dual (2) Playlist skin (I recommend the semi-advanced) and do with the second playlist as you wish. Refer to "Vegas Configuration" on our information forum if you require details on how to split the player down the center. For home you can use Swift Elite 4 with it's karaoke functions, but if it must have near 100% karaoke this is where JustKaraoke excels but remember no direct disc playback (but you are home and it is only your own MP3+Gs) - for "just" karaoke it is quick and easy. They both have a Singer History, but JustKaraoke for the purpose of "Absolute" karaoke rotation features a Singer Rotation -- no more CLIPBOARD! - I only perform with Swift Elite 4 because I am most comfortable with it, I either micro manage the singers in the playlist (I take requests direct from the Remote client) or in certain circumstances I use the Remote Server tool to manage the rotation and drag/drop the songs in, in other words you can do exactly what is in JustKaraoke and way more with Swift Elite 4. Either way if you decide one or both they do complement one another and you can use the same books (using Song Book Creator) and tools i.e. the Super Remote Tool for the remote kiosk (for either product when appropriate - so no more PAPER SLIPS! ). You can also use the ripping tools to convert songs in Swift Elite 4, take advantage of the built-in ripping tools and list the songs in both programs. In the 10-day trial, if you need anything, come by the support ticket system and drop us a few questions or give us a call 11 am to 6 pm EST, Monday ot Friday. We generally don't post on the open forums, we can get to you immediately on the support ticket system and give you an exact answer with full details. If you are in 64-bit contact us for the special tool. Don't forget the database below is where you list all your songs and manage them, the playlist (or playlists) are where you perform your live rotation, manage requests, build a new list, etc.

the starting package in 1996 was WinCDG and they moved up into Mimic Audition. We still have the WinCDG genre, but we learned so much and created JustKaraoke which became the favorite. The "move up" step is now one of the Swift Elite 4 versions

Great, thanks for the additional information there, Tricerasoft1 (and icedream).

I'm very surprised to hear that JustKaraoke does not support direct CDG playback, as back home in my shows I get customer discs every time, so that's a must-have capability. I thougth JK would have it but I must be confusing it with SE4.

I'll definitely be trial-ing SE4 to see if the karaoke function is "good enough" for my use. But I do have a 64-bit Win 7 OS though so will need to generate a Support Ticket to get your help in setting that up.

Thanks again, I'm happy to be able to discuss directly with the OEM here, and the info has been very valuable.

I no longer use KARMA .....never have a problem with it cause they have NO customer support. it wouldn't load on my computer anymore after the 2011 update was installed so the solution was WIPE OUT MY DRIVE BACK TO factory specs like his is the only program on my computer. STAY CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Karma Sucks!

Never saw this post and it's late but I run it both on Vista & Win 7 without any issues at all. Just FYI!

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!