Karaoke Forums

Ok gang, perhaps I am doing this backwards, thing is i am a soloist who is looking to do some karaoke as an addation to my entertainment company. i have no cdg disks and really do not want to buy and convert them. what i want is advise on what I have already have and how it needs to be improved to be a KJ. and also what software would fit what i have  and finnally some help on the how and where of downloading the song invetory i want off the internet (sites and such) so here is what i have any knowledge, advice  and other kind of help is much appreceiated.

sound system:
A Yamaha EMX512SC 8-channel, 2x500W powered mixer with digital effects; 2 Yamaha BR15 15" 2-way speakers, samsong mikes

Laptop:
-Windows XP Media Center!!
- Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo processor T2050 (1.60 GHz)
- 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen!!
- 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7400
- HP Imprint Finish + Microphone
- 2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
-  80GB 5400RPM
-  80GB USB hardrive external
- DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
- 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery



P.S. any other info needed to advise me, can be provided thanks again to all who reply
 DD

You won't get any advice here if all you want is information on how or where to download songs.  You need to invest in a good CDG collection if you want to be a legitimate KJ and run your business legally.  You may want to check out the sponsors of this site as shown in the banner above.  I'm quite sure that they sell karaoke songs at great prices.

Good luck.

Yeah, what's a soloist?

Ditto on the downloading. There are no shortcuts for Karaoke Music...legally.
There are some legal downloads but the legal sites have a limited selection. As long as you do not use the illegal downloads in your shows you have no problems, however if you do, you should be aware of the potential liabilities you put yourself and your venue in. While they are not currently cracking down on public playing of downloaded songs I believe that it will not be long before they find a way to enforce it.

As for your laptop setup....you will need a decent Soundblaster or Echo Indigo sound card. Normally a stock sound card that comes in a laptop has so...so...sound.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

hey, guys, you got me wrong.  I'm NOT looking for FREE or ILLEGAL downloads.  I've paid for over 500 cd soundtracks and have paid musicians to play for me and record backup music in the past.  I started doing concerts doing concerts at 9 years old.  I recorded in Nashville when I was 13.  However, I became more involved in theatre and later became a music minister.  Long story short, I took a great paying  job outside of entertainment andoutside of ministry for many years.  I hated every minute of it and now I have returned to what  I love doing best.  I live in a retirement/resort community and sing at festivals, private parties, beach parties, and other venues here as well as churches.  I just want to get into the digital arena and add some DJ/KJ for variety.  I've been using a multiple CD player and want to use the laptop and DJ/KJ software.  I don't want to have to keep chasing around for backup/DJ/KJ music  if I can purchase & download from net.  But I don't want to get fleeced either.  Just looking for places where I won't end up with spyware, virues.  Oh well..... I thought you guys were the most knowledgable and helpful but if I'm in the wrong place .  I mean anyone in any part of the music industry knows what the term soloist means.  not trying to be a smart alec. but in case this was a meaning full question and not a sarcastic remark i simply ment when i preform it is usually alone. thank you
dd

There are a few legal download sites, but you are talking like $1.25-3.00 a song. To build a passable professional karaoke library, you are talking about a SIGNIFICANT investment taking this route. You'll save literally thousands of dollars by buying the CDGs and converting them to digital yourself. You can get decent starter sets of CDGs to build a 2500-3500 song starter library for around $1000, while to download the exact same songs in digital format is going to cost you around $4000-5000, so you can see how you may have to bite the bullet and do the digital conversion yourself.

And you can also see why so many digital KJs out there purchase an illegal library of songs preloaded with 10,000+ illegal songs off Ebay for around $100-200. The market has definately outpriced itself!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

sounds like what you want is a DJ program for playing backing tracks and some fill in music, not karaoke.

That is a totally different deal. There are some great DJ programs out there:

Ots DJ
Virtual DJ
PCDJ
WinAmp

Those are just a few out of many that are available. I suggest you download their demo programs and find what works best for you.

I have a couple of musician friends that utilize backing tracks for their performances If you PM me I will give you their weblinks and maybe you can converse with them to see what they use. I will be happy to share that info with you.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Dennis,

Don't worry about otheres comments about downloading songs.  When some read that, that automatically assume that the poster is looking for freebies.  There are a few legitimated download site, but bar far the best way to go about it is to purchase the CDG discs, and convert them to your PC.  I say that becasue it allows you to set the quality (ie bitrate) of the songs you are putting on your PC.  ANd if for some reason, your PC DIES, you still have your discs!  Also there is a far greater selection of songs if you are purchasing discs rather than downloads.

AS for download sites of karaoke tracks....
http://www.cavsusa.com/mp3g_karaoke_cds_and_songs.htm
http://www.tricerasoft.com/karaoke_songs/songs.html
http://www.karaoke.cc/

Thank you very much to flipper, topherM, and twansenne. your comments have been very helpfull. Flipper was very observant and realised i intend atleast for now to use the downloads as background music for performances here in my new home town. as one most muscians i know live in my old locale and i can charge less to the folks here if i do solo performance. I do plan on adding karaoke for parties and small events here in the resort. but as i stated to flipper, the demographics here are much different then many of the gigs most here propably do, it may be closer to wedding djing, Its more old fashion supper clubs and out door fair type events here , so while singer songwriters, and crooners and oldies go well here, heavy metal , rap and most modern music with the exception of country i really dont need in my inventory, plus i have no idea how to convert the cdg format to pc. but i am willing to learn
thanks again all
DD

His post did come across to me as someone wanting to download karaoke songs from the internet for free.   He stated so unequivocably that he does not want to buy CDGs and convert them.  However, he did not state that he was willing to pay for the songs.

Anyway, Dennis, I hope there are no hard feelings here.  Your laptop is good enough for hosting karaoke and MP3 music.  I agree with the suggestion that you buy CDGs and rip them yourself for the same reasons they have explained to you.  
In order to rip the CDGs, you need a CD player that can decipher the subcode in those files.  Plextor is well known for having this capability, although there are others that are also capable of it.  Once you have ripped the CDG, you will see two files: one with .CDG and another with .MP3 file extension.  

To conserve on space and make the hoster software really happy, you need to zip the two files using MP3GToolz.  You will also need to rename the files to a standard format.  To do that, you may use CDG Autoname along with KJPro database.  For hosting, I use Roxbox, but you can try others like Sax n Dotty, Sack O Nuts (soon to be discontinued), MP3 Karaoke, etc.

I assume that you already have the CDs for your music collection.  You can rip those easily using Audiograbber.  If those albums are pretty standard and not a mix, Audiograbber will rename them for you.  Make sure that you rip them to at least 128 KB.  

Have fun!

True, I just didn't want the newbie to get scared about posting.

ok point taken, although i dont mind paying the internet down load prices(sheet music has cost more then this for years) I can see your points about getting my own cdg disks also. i just need to make sure i get good bang for my buck by purchasing themed disksed ( such as elvis or sinatra only disks and such)
Thanks again to all for the help. i will definatly post here for problems i seem to be ashured of ripping cd's to the laptop. I have read some other forums and the procedure seems duanting
thanks gang
Dennis

Actualy it is about as easy as ripping a regular CD to your PC.  Some people just make it WAY too difficult.

if you already haback up tracks you like, you could look into a program like power karaoke to add the lyrics to the songs.  It's a fairly easy to do just download the lyrics from any lyrics site paste it into the program and then play the back up track then you just hit the space bar where you want the words highligted.  Granted 500 tracks would take sometime, but it's another option.