Karaoke Forums

I have ripped my discs to a hardrive and am ready to enter the "digital operators club".
I have very little knowledge of operating software and would like advice before I make a purchase. What do you use and why? Would you purchase the same program again or something different?

I have seen static screens between songs that displays text. Scrolling bars and next in rotation. This seems to be a great way to advertise and keep the audience up to date. I don't know how much is involved in this. I know some keep a history of singers.

What features do you find useful? Which are more trouble than they are worth?

Help :

I am moving this to the Tech forum where it will get more attention

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

My preference is MTU Hoster.
Main reason is ease of use. Never had any crashes or glitches during shows.
It plays and catalogs my video files into the book - which it creates as well if desired.
Stores singers and history of their songs.
Scrolling marquee that can be adjusted on the fly to display upcoming events, reminders, etc..
Shows the next singers coming up and the time - either by elapsed time or real time stamp. Actually just started using this feature tonight, so not sure how well I will like it.
Many other features as well that I haven't really used in shows regularly and many more upcoming new features are being added within the next few months.
Would I purchase again - absolutely.

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

AutokDJ for me. It's free. It supports all the file formats I need. The dual screen support is awesome. Uses Winamp which I already love anyway. Supports Key/Tempo changing. Manages my singers list including giving new singers priority. Keeps history of past singers.

That said I am currently considering switching to VirtualDJ. I got the chance to use it recently and really liked it. Not sure if I want to pay $300 for it when what I have now is working fine, but we'll see.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

I use Compuhost. IT's pricey but worth the price for all the features it has and with it's addon kiosk it's even better. It is rather easy to use once you read the manual. I can't think of why I hadn't gotten it before I did. Oh yeah the price. But now that I have it I can't live without it. Was thinking about going back to JustKaraoke when the kiosk was added to Compuhost taking away the only reason to switch back to Justkaraoke.

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

I use CompuHost. I have run MTU Hoster, and Siglos Karaoke Professional, and CompuHost has them beat for clarity of operation. It also has the best aesthetics for the screen right out of the box -- the rotation and promo message markers for the others are clunky.

Also, CompuHost has excellent builtin tools such as the video and audio bits and filler tunes player. It's auto-fade makes it easy to cut long outros, and it has many rotation options. One I used last night, as I do most nights I do gigs, is changing the rotation mode from "rotate" to "delete" on the last round. That keeps people from thinking they are going to be singing again.

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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 have used CompuHost for almost 3 years.Once you learn some basic navigation it sure seems pretty simple and problem free.In comparison I do think it may be somewhat pricier than some other software,but based off of hearsay it's like anything else,normally you get what you pay for.

A good friend of mine has been using Compuhost for over a year - only because that is what he was trained on so he knows it pretty good. He brought in his laptop one night & we did some playing around adding the same 10 singers and 1 song song each for comparison as for ease of use, and I was up and running a playlist before he even finished loading the 3rd singer - loading same names into each system with the same songs. He is now leaning toward MTU Hoster as he also likes the fact he can use his Laserdiscs once converted (big plus for him he said).

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

Sax & Dotties because it is cheap, and easy to use, and does exactly what i want a hosting program to do

I think this is probably more the operator than the software. You have to type names, and search for songs. And searching in Compuhost is normally faster if you know what you are doing, because you can do partial words in no particular order.

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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.

Another vote for CompuHost. I couldn't live without it. I've tried all the others and CompuHost wins hands down. With CompuHost, not only do you get the best karaoke hosting program there is but you also get the best customer support should you need it.

Ive been using Siglos Player recorder for 6 years without a problem.
I have Siglos pro also but never use it in shows.

Power CD+G ripper for converting ,burning and ripping.

Ok guys I am at the same crossroad. I have been playing around with MTU and Compuhost but cannot make up my mind. The one thing that sticks out to me is the MTU program seems to do a much nicer job of ripping my cdg's. Pricewise they are comparable but the MTU seems to have a edge in the ripping area. Any good unbiased answers out there.

The biggest issue I have with MTU's software is that the format does not play elsewhere so if you discover a better player you have to reimport all your discs. the rest of the softwares use a standardized format so all you have to change is the player.

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

Ripping happens once. And as Danny pointed out, MTU Hoster rips to a proprietary format that locks you in to them. (They did add an extra-cost program a couple of years ago that they say will convert back.)

Also, it isn't clear what you mean by "nicer job of ripping". Faster? Better labeling?

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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.

Like I said he could manuever the thing pretty fast it looked to me.
The search on Hoster is fine - I do not care how 'archaic' it is, it does the job - not that CH isn't the absolutely best search system out there, I just do not get hung up on such minor issues & again in out little test I had my playlist up & running before he finished with entering the 3rd singer.

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

Well, I have used both and I don't find the speed to be any different for entering. Especially if you enter the singer name. If you just put up the songs, that's different.

Also, if he is using the mouse or touchpad, he is going to lose. There are a lot of people who don't understand that it makes zero sense to click a button with a mouse every time you do something. They mouse to do this, mouse after they type instead of hit ENTER, etc. They can't do anything fast.

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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.

Same here. Sax&Dotty. Very user friendly.

But, I will change format next year and go with the flow. Buy a Laptop Win7 64bit, 6 ram, 2TB external harddrive and maybe re-rip my discs to a high 320kbps.

Still undecided on what program: MTU Hoster or Compuhost. I hope either one is compatible with 64bit. A fellow kj said go with VirtualDJ. I don't know if that program is good for kj application.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

If you're doing a karaoke rotational show VirtualDJ is a pain but if you're doing more of a DJ show then it will work.
Compuhost claims to be win7 64bit capable.I don't know because I don't have a 64 bit machine.

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

It is, I use it on Win 7 64-bit without issues.