Karaoke Forums

So a few months ago I landed a regular club gig at a local place that had Friday night killed by two sub-par KJ's.  I've been adding features and fun, doing games, bringing in my 3,700 song collection to supplement their collection, and two weeks ago I introduced computerized rotation.  My first few weeks were simply awful working a near empty room - under 10 singers.

I can't believe the impact that the computerized rotation and the impact of being a moderately good entertainer has had.  Last night the bar was just $85 away from a record (set on Halloween '04) and I had 29 singers.  Also had the best night ever from a tip jar stand point, and I turned down a $100 "tip" to bump up someone in the rotation.  Got to have honor in these things.  That also worked out from a karma stand point for the singer - who was able to get last song of the night - and then they too proved to be honorable giving me a fat tip for one song.

It's just been a rewarding experience over the last four months building things up.  A couple of the regulars are getting a little frustrated at the swelling rotation - 1/2 a year ago a typical Friday night would have 6 to 12 in rotation.  But we're bringing in other people and best of all, some of the older regulars who were driven away from the previous two KJ's are coming back consistently.  I made a point to go to a table of four former regulars last night and thank them for coming to my show.

The computerized rotation I'm doing is very "low" tech.  It is projected on all the screeens between songs using a scan converter and singers only see how many in rotation, approximate time the rotation takes to run, the previous singer, the current singer and the next singer.  They also see the status of these three singers (need song, active, etc.).  In the background though there is a record if someone has sung or not (new singer) and each time they do sing the database is timed stamped.  This came in real handy when one customer pulled themselves out of rotation and then came back an hour later wondering when they were singing next.  I had a record of them pulling themselves out and the exact time they did it.  They calmed down, said, "I screwed up," and I was able to tack them on the end - so it all worked out.  The system does not manage what people are singing and I do all the input - I know there are some really advance systems out there.

There were several customers I've seen from other places for Karaoke that told me they were coming due to the computerized rotation and the added library.

I love my second job - now if there was a way to get this to pay $100K a year...

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On the computerized rotation - wrote the software myself using SQL and MS Access as the backbone - once I get all the bugs worked out I'll slap it up somewhere on a FTP server for folks to download and use as open source freeware.  Maybe some minds smarter and better than mine can tweak up my work even further.

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Despite the internet rumor, Karaoke is not Japanese for "drunk buffoon with microphone."  However, "rotation," is Japanese for wait your damn turn!

Are you using the MSDE version of SQL - the same one used for Karaoke-Go-Round or are you using the full version of SQL server that requires you install it on a MS Server operating system (NT 4, Win 2000 Server, Server 2003)?

If you use the same install as karaoke go round it's a free install IIRC.

If you get a chance to post it let me know, I'm thinking about using something like this and would like to compare it to karaoke go round.  I'm playing with MP3 Tunes a lot now and am wondering if there is a way to get it to support karaoke.  It VERY nice software and free - even if he hasn't done any updating in the recent past.  The developer is talking of dropping the development on the software and I'm trying to learn enough C/C++ to maybe talk with him and try to work it into something a little more functional.  Adding some BPM counters, etc would be nice....ahh... dreams of low cost software that does everything I need... now THAT would be an Easter present!

MSDE SQL - no server required.  I'm running this off of my laptop.  The product right now is very primitive, but because I know how to cobble all the moving parts together and work around the quirks.  I need to do a whole lot of error trapping (more like logic trapping).  I did set up one button on the main UI that allows me to toggle right back to WinAmp versus doing an ALT-TAB or other keystroke/mouse clicks to get there.

I can supply some screen shots if you'd like - but again, it's primitive.  The other thing as noted is the customers are not entering in their names to get into rotation - I'm still using slips and pulling the songs the old fashioned way - the computerized part here is just keeping track of the rotation, tracking new singers and date/time stamping when people enter the rotation -- and when they sang last.  The date/time stamping being the critical piece if there are disputes.  I'm also going to now add a total song count for the evening for each singer.  Provides even more depth.  My goal here isn't as much as providing a tool that makes my life easier (although when I had 29 singers having it all listed out sure did make my life easier) as opposed to mitigating disputes and being able to provide a firm, realisitc answer of when am I singing next.

Short term the biggest thing I've picked up is this:

1)  My "no shows" on being called have dropped to next to nothing.  People know when they are coming up and actually check in when they are leaving so they can be taken off of the rotation.

2)  I don't even have to call up about 3/4 of my singers.  They know where they are and when they are coming up, so the whole rotation moves faster.

3)  When I get a lot of new singers that come in my regulars can see the process - it's transparent - and they know how I mitigate adding in new singers while mangaging the wait time of those at the top of the rotation.

4)  There is no such thing as, "you skipped me," it's impossible basically because everyone sees what is going on -- further the time stamps show when people sung and you can see the flow of who, what, and when.

5)  It's not all perfect, I have people coming up frequently asking me, "is the rotation really 92 minutes?"  Sometimes they loose sight that 92 minutes isn't from the point they asked me, but is a pretty good estimate based upon the time they last sang.

6)  I find that the technology works against me around 1:00 AM.  The rotation is still showing it is fat and people figure I'm not going to get to sing, so instead of the trickle off and the die hards staying behind, everyone starts leaving about a 1/2 hour before the music stops - they figure they won't get to sing, when if things just naturally trickled off the die-hards would get their songs in any way.

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Despite the internet rumor, Karaoke is not Japanese for "drunk buffoon with microphone."  However, "rotation," is Japanese for wait your damn turn!

If you can post some pictures if the interface I'd appreciate it.  I'd be interested in even the rough version if you don't mind letting me look at it.  I can try to help with the error trapping routines and testing if you want.

Just let me know....