Karaoke Forums

My books go through hell. I've had them stolen, ripped apart, spilled on, drawn on, etc. But I have to have them. My customers really need something to take back to their tables to peruse at their leisure.

I have two seperate rigs (with two seperate sets of discs). One is used at my semi-permanent set-up at my main bar, and one is mobile for the other three bars I do. Funny thing is, the books at the main bar get FAR more abuse than the ones in my mobile rig. I have to replace them about twice as often. Same thing with cords, mic stands, and other things that wear out or get destroyed by drunks.

I'd like to keep my books and have one kiosk. Had pretty good luck with my books so far, Pencils disappear from the books, thinking of attaching them to the book with bungee cord. Have had a couple people take the back cover and the front cover and put them together so they touch. Had a person accidentally open the rings and have the pages spill out. A few spills but never ruined a page, I keep them in sheet protectors and it's worked ok so far. My logos (which also specifies by song or artist) on the front of the book is laminated to the cover so it is spill proof.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I agree that karaoke books are a must. I wouldn't dream of not having books available for singers.

I went and bought an expensive copy machine and a Fellowes comb binder. I print and bind my own books at a fraction of the cost of having it done by a printer.

The bad thing is that this equipment sits most often and I don't really get a return on my investment. So, I listed my book making service on Ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :MESELX:IT

I'd do it, but I don't need ten books.

Bought my laser jet used on ebay, does back to back. Bought two toners online to start out, only had to have one refilled at cartridge world since I started.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

What's the make & model? I'm curious....

Not having anything like that happen to me, I can only give my initial impression of how I would respond to such an act; and that would be to refuse service.

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EveningStar Entertainment & Events
JR & Michele LaPorte
Peoria, AZ

diafel, HP LaserJet 1320

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I have a Laserjet 5500DN.... great printer. duplex & large format.... toner cartridges are a bit expensive ($900) and it's about the size of a dishwasher....

(industrial strength printer really)

I hate books.. they're constantly coming up missing, get beer dumped into them, mangled, pages torn, doodled on, they take serious abuse.

I get mine printed up and then spiral bound.. and as long as you can keep track of them, they seem to hold up decently for about a year.. but for some reason, I loose the books at about the rate of one every 3 months.

People must take them home for souvenirs or something.

But for the venues I play, books are a necessity.

I wish I could simply post my catalog online, and all my patrons could browse my collection.. or forget that.. i'd rather run Kjams on my Macbook Pro and let all my customers simply login to my virtual server via WiFi and browse my catalog AND submit their song requests via the available kJams iPhone App

But my crowd isn't that sophisticated. Many still have Motorola Razr era phones.. and i'm sure even once I implement a touch screen kiosk, i'll still have people asking for a book.

I've considered getting every page of my book laminated, and then spiral bound.. should make the book next to indestructible.. but with a catalog of 10,000+ songs, printing a two column book in a decent font size would likely be pretty pricey.. and with as often as my books seem to walk off, i'd probably have to chain the book to my DJ booth.

I don't know about the places many of you play. I can't believe some of it. Other than some spillage, we really don't get much abuse at all and we play three different venues six times a week.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Same here. I've had books fall apart due to the ring on the binders getting pulled from nightly use. But have never had pages pulled out or ripped for writing paper. Think i've lost maybe 10 books in 18 years, and many of those re-appeared at a later date so they weren't actually stolen just misplaced.

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

In the summer of 2007 a buddy of mine that ran a all cd Karaoke show called me up and told me he was tired of building Songbooks. He said he limited it to 2 times a year yet it still cost him $600 each time. Below were his complaints:

1. Singers did not fill out the request slips correctly or completely or both.
2. Singers get off on the wrong line in the Songbook and write down the wrong cd.
3. Singers carried off the pencils or pins causing him to constantly replace them.
4. Updating cds caused him to keep an added book until remake of Songbook.
5. Updating Songbooks took excessive amounts of time.
6. Singers could not read small print in books.
7. Songbooks grew so large that multiple books were required to make 1 set.

These and a few other problems made him ask me for help. Below is my solution ran on a wireless PC with a 19" LCD and a mouse or a 19" touchscreen with a receipt printer. Each action is followed by voice repeat of the action. Use instructions are not only shown but by selecting help they are read out by voice. Each song is printed out with song info and singer name which they are prompted for and use the selection buttons to enter. As the song is printed it is transferred to the player PCs hold buffer where the KJ can add it to the rotation buffer or delete it.

That would only happen for about the first month. After that, the books won't be touched again. I know because that's exactly what I did. I set up a kiosk and had a stack of 5 books next to it. After a month, no one touched the books again, including the hard-liners who swore that they'd never use anything but a book.

I'm using three ring binders now with sheet protectors, but they keep coming out. So I tape the rings which keeps them closed, but the pages get caught on the tape.
I want to go spiral bound, but they'll be beer soaked in two gigs. If I could get some music sheet stands, and attach the books to those...less beer?
Hmmmm

Buff the ends of the rings and solder them shut...hold the soldering iron on the seam of the shut ring for a minute before touching the solder to it...the molten solder will flow into the seam...only takes one small touch of solder and will not interfere with turning the pages. Easy to undo also..just hold soldering iron on the ring seam and heat to open ring.

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

Good idea RLC..OR he could just buy Spring Post binders that never come apart and have a nice smooth finish on them. google it.

For a few years i learned to superglue my binders shut and that worked well.

Spiral bound binders...BAD..1 ripped sheet and your books' NO GOOD. Food or beer on them..and they're practically ruined...WASTE..but others here will HAVE to justify their expenditures one way or another....

Lost pencils or pens have been brought up here. My fellow workers at the factory steal my pens out of my tool box all the time. My bank has pens and I just explained to them what's going on and they gave me a box of pens. The doctor's office will give you really nice pens too, they get them free from drug and medical equipment companies. Never pay for a pen when you can get them free for the asking.