Karaoke Forums

I have a laptop that I want to use (if possible) for a karaoke player.  I have'nt purchased the PA system yet.  I need advise on which PA system has great sound for a home system and what software (if any) do I need to operate the PA system.[color=deepskyblue][/color]

We'll need a little more information before we can advise such as...
Do you intend to use multiple screens or just one?
Is this set-up just for you or will you be hosting parties?
What sort of laptop is it?  OS, CPU, RAM etc.
Do you already have your karaoke files ripped to the harddrive?
If so, in what format?
Do you ever intend to become a KJ using this system?

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Okay, who took my pants?

Hello and thanks for the reply.  I will only be using this at home for myself, so one screen is all I need.  I do not have any karaoke file ripped to the hardrive. I dont know how to do that, but would like to know where to get them and of good quality. I do not intend on ever being a KJ.  As far as the laptop goes, I am not sure if it is a OS, CPU, RAM.  How can I check this out?  All's I know is that it is a Compaq-presario 700 and has XP on it.  

I do appreciate any advise and help..

Again, Thank you
Gayle[/color][/color]

Right then, probably a 900 Mhz processor and 512 RAM.  IMHO that not even enough computer to run XP however, it's plenty to run a karaoke program but get one aimed at older machines.

Your first step is to get some karaoke files.  Assuming that you have disks you will need a ripping program.  A ripper, reads the music file and video from the CDG disk and puts them on a hard drive (you may want to get an external hard drive.)  It takes a special program because the video is held in what is called "subcode" which is something the computer was designed to ignore.  My favorite ripper is freeware called Audiograbber.

Your DVD drive might not want to read this subcode (not all of them do) so don't be too disappointed if it doesn't work.  There are a bunch of free and shareware players Karafun, Winamp with the right plug-ins, just go to a shareware site and search for "Karaoke."

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Okay, who took my pants?

I don't believe anyone on this board will reckomend downloading for free, but there are legal sites to download purchased cdg singles.  One site www.tricerasoft.com comes to mind.  It's not Sound Choice but Zoom's products come very close to being Sound Choice quality.   You might want to check out www.kjamp.com for your ripper as it will rip, name, encode and zip the song and has the only variable rate karaoke ripper on the market.  It isn't a free product but works well with multisession discs and reckognizes various drives for ripping.  I have run it with a stock dell writer and a stock dell dvd-rom drive.

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

And now a bedtime story about very smart Japanese folks.... Once upon a time the folks at Sony/Phillips went to their R&D guys and said, "Put graphics on an audio CD" and the R&D guys replied "Where?  It's already full of music."  But the R&D guys were very smart and they found some space in an unlikely place.  The timing byte which was only being used by the CD reader to tell how fast the CD was spinning. In that byte, there were six whole bits free!  And so, by using the back end of this byte that no makers of CD players in their right mind ever thought anyone would use, they were able to put a very small amount of graphic information on the CD.  So now the graphics were on the disk but there was no software to read it because no one thought it would ever be used.  So the "ripper" came into being, the software that reads that here-to-fore useless byte...  And they all lived reasonably happily ever after.  The end.  

No wonder my kids used to have nightmares...

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Okay, who took my pants?

Gayle

If you intention is just for home use and you want to purchase downloadable
MP3+G ( THIS IS THE FORMAT FOR KARAOKE FILES)  You will not need a ripper and or any special hardrives.  You will need a PLAYER program like WINAMP with the CDG pluggins or SAX and DOTTIES or any other karaoke player - Do a search either HERE or on google and download a player program.  Once you have the program installed and download some songs you are all set to go.

Obviously you should purchase your mp3+g file from a licensed distributor and you will be assured of the quality etc.

Good Luck

The external  Hard drive allows you to store your karaoke songs on a drive other than where your programs are on.   If you're not going have a lot of karaoke files you don't need this but hard drives can fill up fast and a full hard drive can slow a computer processing down. The other reason for having your songs on an external drive is that if your computer crashes and you have to replace or reformat Drive c: then your karaoke songs are safe on the external drive.

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

Are you sure the song is in a karaoke format; ie mp3+g?

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

pink it would be so much easier to read your type if it wasnt that blue colour you will need the cdg plug in. sometimes this is confused with the plug in that reads discs. From memory the correct plug in for reading cdg graphics on your puter will have a little pink top hat icon once you have that installed you do have to right click on winamp select options and then preferences and configure your plug in. There is nothing to do to configure it but you do have to click configure...jeez its all so long since I did it. Also if you can get hold of pacemaker it will allow you to change pitch timing and tempo so you dont have to struggle with a song in the wrong key
hope this has been some help

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

MorganLeFey Thank you for the tip on the blue color.  If people don't say something about my blue craze!!! I would blue everything And to think my best friend hates the color blue.  But we are still best of friends.

Thank you for helping me know how to get this going.... I'll give it a try tonight !

Look below see what I mean
\/  \/   \/  \/  \/

think nothing of it, my best friend hates me but we are still best friends

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Hi  MorganLeFey :  Wow easier said then done! I think the CDG thing I have is a disc reader, no red hat thing anywhere   Do you know if the one you are talking about is on winamp's website?  There's different ones on there, so Im not sure.

Thanks !!

I better get to sleep and stop trying to get this going tonight or tomorrow will be one longgggggg dayyyyyyy !!!

it should be pink.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Can you link me to where the download is for the CDG  with the pink hat?  I cant seem to find it  :(

Thank you
Gayle

http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=100775

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/cdgplugin/
they are both the same plugin but different sites and they are freeware

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."