Karaoke Forums

I'd say that if you do more than 2 shows per week (per library), it is wise to buy your own equipment. I bought a $500 copy machine from Staples that also had a $250 rebate, bought $250 worth of binding equipment, and I can print my own books for about $3 each. I also don't buy the manufacturer's toner cartridges - which go for over $200. I get the same output & quality from $20 cartridges from Ebay (5,000 pages).

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

and the funny part......
i put out just 6 books right now (have more in my rack if needed) and onl;y 1 or 2 go out. i have no kiosk yet, they just come up and ask for something or look in the book at the table i put books on, not taking one back to the table, and write up a slip there.
of all things.....the "i'll never sing" people never look in a book at my shows, they just come up and ask "do you have so and so" to pop their cherry.
never thought it would happen that way myself, but i have much to lear apparently.

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

I still use books, I did buy Invicion's karaoke finder but the Dell I bought last year for about $900 still won't pick up internet signals or network connections except at home. I've been dealing with Dell since Thanksgiving over this issue, been frustrating, seems I've gotten a lot of lip service. So I want to get away from using books but have been unable to this point. I will still bring two books once I get thru this thing just so they can browse if they want.

I did buy a laser jet printer a couple years ago that prints on both sides. Using a toner is so much cheaper than ink jet cartridges and printing on both sides is faster and cheaper.

I sent my last correspondence to Dell today, letting them know give me a new laptop or I'm done with them. My local computer guru (who just shook his head when trying to figure out my connection issue) has a number of laptops that I can get for less than $600 new and then the Dell will become my new backup and my former #1 laptop is my karaoke kiosk.

It also used to be an issue not being able to have people view my available CB tracks from the KJMP at my kiosk but the folks at Invicion figured that out and now I can show those tracks.

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

I have two dell laptops, neither of which I use at karaoke. But the old one picks up wireless signals great, the newer one is hit 'n miss. The newer one also, if I use it DJing and connect to the internet, it interferes with the music (I hear a light clicking sound)... I was told the Ethernet card is located too close to the sound card. So when DJing I use my old 'work horse' Dell. It's about 8 years old.
The newer Dell also drops signals... I'll be using it at home and the signal just does away. The thing says 'no connections available' when I'm not 10 feet from the router. When I restart it, the connection is back. Yes, I've brought out Ol' Work Horse and it's connection is fine. Just something wrong with the design of the newer one. Ticks me off too, because I had it custom made for DJing. Dell did send me a new wireless card back when it was new.... but that never corrected the problem.

I had to threaten Dell to get them to send the new card. I've owned 6 Dells, and bought 2 others as gifts. They were gonna lose a good customer. I've got to say Dell tried (did the online thing with it and all, of course it worked fine then!).. but.. that one laptop just doesn't like internet!

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

You couldn't pay enough to use a Dell. They have turned to pure garbage. I have two laptops. One is my step daughter's old Compaq, which lost it's wifi, but I used a Netgear stick on it and it works great, and the other is an Acer Aspire Netbook, with works awesome for WiFi. It's a nice compact machine with an AMD duel core. Runs like a little champ and plays music very nicely. But between Dells customer service and their lousy products I will never use them. The most unfortunate thing is that Alienware has been bought out by Dell, so they will go down in quality, too.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Sometimes when the software on whatever laptop gets a bit iffy
people blame the laptop.
Often it is a file or files in the operating system that has gone corrupt.
Dell, Compac or Lenovo don't make the Operating System.
A fresh install can make a seemingly bad laptop fantastic.
As an engineer I can't fault the laptops.
Oh... except for their cheap build quality.
As long as you don't play tennis or cricket with it it's not so bad.
Usually.

My fiance's mother has a Dell. The thing is nothing but problems. I am constantly having to work on it. I have an HP Media Center desktop, and the thing has given me no problems, outside of one HDD that died. I have had it since 2007, and it runs beautifully.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Wow, I've always had good luck with Dell.. the one I'm on now is about 7 years old. The newest one (has the ethernet card problem), is about 4 years old.. the only prob it's ever had was the ethernet card. I have a desktop that's older than 7...can't remember how old!! But, I haven't bought a new computer in 4 years, so I'm sure things can change.
The work computer is an HP, and one other laptop for DJ is an HP... they have very definitely come up in the world from a few years back!

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

I have a POS Walmart special E-Machine desktop (literally it was new in the box for $189 installed with Windows XP when Vista was the 'rage') running my dj program - it's always playing in auto mode, never had a glitch and it's on the internet almost nightly (when the bar has it). Only time the program stops is when we lose power in their. Only thing I did to this one was get a better sound card & a bigger 2nd hard drive to store the music. I may have popped in a better video card that I had lying around but can't remember. It's been running for nearly 5 years straight.
My karaoke show machine is one I had built custom from motherboard, processors, hard drives, memory, sound & video cards - again this one is always on as well 7 nights - only time I ever had problems with this one was after a year of it running, the motherboard started to die along with the hard drive - replaced both & have been running strong for nearly 4 years now. It only connects to the internet to update software. The only thing on it is my karaoke hosting program, no unnecesary programs at all.
But have had Dell & HP, never a problem with either. Most computer parts are built in the same place anyway, and often are the same even between different manus - it's what the manu loads on them I think makes the difference. I always format any new computer drive (or replace with a new one) and load a clean install of Windows - never had any major issues.

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

Many people catch a virus on their computers and then blame the hardware.

I keep seeing post about printing books, song slips and the cost of them. I use a free service that sends the request to my laptop from either a smart phone or net book that I set up as a song book. it's called luv2sing check it out. I love it. My peeps love it. and you would too.
http://www.luvtosing.com/

If that thing works, holy Awesomeness Batman!!!

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

But wifi has to be accessable on a nightly basis, it is not in our club - wothout paying for a hotspot.

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

that is true that wifi is needed

That's nothing I got myself into the habit of crushing my slips after entering them because inevitably a singer will place their new request on my already entered pile. Then they wait until I am shutting down to ask me why they weren't called.

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

Ya,that would tick me off too! I have a 'riser' on my table that I put my keyboard on... I toss the slips underneath it so there is no stack for them to do that. Used to happen alot when I was disk based though.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

I make our song slips bus. card size. After I post it in the computer I have a buss card holder I place it in. Never fails if I don't keep them till nights end some wrong song hits the screen. Then when they come over all drunk afterwards I have their slip to show them it wasn't me, it was this other guy who wrote this...

Jon

I tried making ours smaller... geez, you'd have thought I killed their first born! They want to fill a slip with as many songs as they can! I finally got them used to the 3 lines instead of 4... because now they know they're lucky if they get to sing 3 songs! I don't throw them away until the night is over, I just toss them under the riser, still on top of the table, out of sight. If I need them it's not a problem to get them out. I tend to toss the same way on each one so the order is pretty much the same as what's on the computer. I think if people think they can fool me into putting them in twice, they'll try just about anything with the slips.
Right now I'm 'training' 3 women that have been coming to my show for about 6 months. They started by putting in one slip with the name '3 hot chicks', then another slip for 'LeAnn' then another for 'Cakes' (her name is Patty). That's all well and good but LeAnn is the only one who sings! I told them that if LeAnn is the only one singing, there is only one turn per round per singer. They behaved for awhile, then recently they're at it again...but they send some guy up with the slip so they don't have to talk to me! I just do what the rules are.. tired of the games.. and they do spend money so all's good unless they try to complain!!

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

In my case, purely the laptop. Every other part of the equation has been tried with other parts and everything is A OK until I bring the Dell back into the pic. It's had a new card, new drivers, 2 resets to factory state, tech visit, tech send off, tech remote evaluations, and yesterday I took it to another computer shop. I'm in the market place and will buy after I get back from my week vacation starting Tuesday in NIAGARA FALLS! A room with a view and the Mrs. What more could a guy ask from? The Dell can stay home!

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

And there again lies my problem. My main won't pick up wifis or hotspots on a consistent basis otherwise my books would go bye bye for the most part.

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