Karaoke Forums

I'm setting up a Karaoke style system for my daughter to use in her vocal performances. I want to use the equipment that I have but I realize that I am going to need to purchase some new items...just wanted to know what some of you thought.

WHAT I HAVE:
Samson L1200 Mixing Board
2 - Samson DB1500 Powered Subwoofers
2 - Samson LIVE Series 2X12" Powered Speakers (With Satellite Speaker Stands)
1 - Audix Twin Diversity Wireless Mic System
1 = Furman Power Conditioner

I'm looking to purchase a laptop that will be dedicated to just running her show (Will likely install KARMA or similar software to manage files)

I'm curious as to what type of soundcard I will need.

What is the best way to hook the computer into the mixing board (Would prefer to connect to a channel instead of the aux. input since this will allow me to tweek the sound using the Channel EQ)

What is the best way to hook this computer into a Television (I want her to be able to use the T.V. as a lyric prompter, since I will have the laptop with me behind the board).

How can I tell if a Laptop has the Dual Screen capability?

Thanks for you input / advice, etc.

...you really like the Samson, huh?

All you need to interface the computer to the mixer/PA is an external soundcard or I/O interface. You can even use a $5 Y cable from Radio Shack if you want, but an external soundcard / I/O will yield better sound quality.

I'll go ahead and recommend the Lexicon Alpha ($59.99) before everybody else does. This I/O interface will allow you the option of hooking the laptop to a 1/4" or RCA inputs, depending on which channel on your mixer you have available, and also has many many features that you'll find useful when recording your daughter to the computer, which sounds like the direction you are heading. This unit is pretty much the entry level PRO standard for what you are trying to accomplish.

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i- ... dium=feed&

Good luck!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

As for question #2, I assume you have a PC, correct?

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display.

If your video card has dual screen capability, there will be a monitor 1 and monitor display on this screen. If not, there will only be a monitor 1.

If you have dual monitor capability, you can connect your second monitor through the S-Video port, though newer laptops don't have this port.

If you DO NOT have dual monitor capabilities, or don't have an S-Video out, you may need to get an external video card. There are plenty of external video cards made for laptops that enable dual monitor functionality AND have either an S-Video, RCA, another VGA, or even HDMI outs for your second monitor. You'll have to research which card you need yourself, based on how fast your computer is and how much video memory you need to run whatever program you are trying to run, but there are hundreds of them between $50-100 each that should do what you need.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I think I need an external video card! I have a new Toshiba Satellite Core i5 which only has VGA and HDMI output. It's running Win 7 64 bit so I'm assuming dual screen capability is built-in. What's a recommended external video card? Or are you just talking about a VGA-to-rca converter?

If the tv you will be connecting to has hdmi and(or) vga inputs you can use them directly, if it only has rca inputs then, yes, a vga to rca converter is all that you will need.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... 1&format=2

I have a new HP laptop and tried the hdmi, worked great most of the time but every once in a while the hdmi was not recognised so I switched to vga, works great, no problems at all.

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

Sorry, I should have clarified, but at one of the venues I work at, the TV is still old-school coax or rca video input only.

Thanks for the input (pun intended )

You can get video converters.

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Any recommendation? I found one on Amazon that is an all-in-one, video and audio both, plugs into the laptop's VGA and headphone ports, and use the laptop's USB power. But then in another thread it sounded like I should use an external audio card?