Karaoke Forums

is this one you paid for? The only cdg plugin I know of that works with the cdrom is $25 dollars.

I'd recommend installing audiograbber, and ripping to your hard drive.

It is $25 but the evaluation version is supposed to be limited to 60secs, however it does not workat all on my machine.

Karafun works most of the time but has some irritating foibles, sometimes it has distortion on recordings, sometimes it changes settings on the SB Audio Console.

Audio Console is fine for recording direct or with Itunes.

Otherwise the system is fine and stable, plays DVDs with excellent sound (I play through a Pioneer home cinema amp, Ruark Swordsman front speakers, Castle Pembroke rears and a Polk sub.

For reording I use Sennheiser 140 cordless phones.

As an amateur home system it sounds great, and I will try your advice about ripping, etc.

I'm still very new to this, but learning as I go

This might be reaching but try installing the latest directx.
I'm using PowerKaraoke and love it.
I've never had a problem with it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

 hello guys!  im new with karaoke software.  Don't even know where to start like what kind of software to use.  :)  Can anyone recommend me some karaoke softwares that are easy to use with many special effect like word bouncing, bouncing ball, overlay, etc..  i really want to do my own music karaoke..  Thanks for your help..

I almost sorta kinda maybe a little bit understand what you're asking...I think.  Could you give us a little more detail such as EXACTLY what you want to see and hear when you use the software?

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what i meant was if there's an easy to use softwares that i can use to build my own karaoke songs..  add in songs and karaoke text myself.  some friend tell me to use vegas but i think i cannot do the karaoke text effect with vegas.  i've tried to use karaoke builder studio but perhaps you guys can recommend a better one for a beginner.

MAYBE THIS WILL HELP.  I'VE USED IT,  AND IT'S A VERY EASY PROGRAM TO USE.  LOAD THE MP3,  LOAD THE TEXT FILE,  AND USE THE SPACE BAR ON THE KEYBOARD TO SYNC THE LYRICS.  COULDN'T GET ANY EASIER THAN THAT.

SCOTT.

http://www.mtu.com/basics/karaoke-home-producer.htm

 

What do you mean by "karaoke text effect?"  Do you mean the way that color appears to sweep across the text?  If you want to get fancy with the graphics you will have to leave the CDG format behind.  It's very limited.  If you can describe what you want it to look like maybe I can help.  I've been working on a new graphics format for karaoke.

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yeap, exactly.  i think im more interested with bouncing text effect with color sweep.  I saw it in some anime karaoke before.  BTW, as im a newbie in karaoke thingie.. im not really familiar with the term CD+G.. but im sure i will soon via this forum.  Thanks.

goatdude,

What kind of problems are you having with KB Studios.  It was hard for me too, at first. I kept at it, now it's a breeze.  I've advanced from simple CDG songs to AVI and MPEG. I'm positive I can help you with KB Studios. You may not belive me now, but that Software is AWESOME! None of the others come close to its features.

The trick is to develope a Rhythm to control the Sweep and learn a few simple Codes for your Text. So your not tapping away like a Mad Man.
With this technique, creating CDG is a Piece of Cake! Matter of Minutes.

Over the years, I've bought the following CDG Authoring software: Power, MTU, Dart, and KB Studios. Don't make the mistake I did. You don't need all of these. One has a better vocal remover, another has a better Sync Method or Recorder, Duets, etc....UGH!

tk101 suggested Karaoke Home Producer from MTU. It's very user friendly. Best part I like is it's Synchronizing Method.
Downside of KHP: You cannot Synchronize Duets
I stuck with KHP untill I got Bored of the regular looking songs.

KB Studios lets you imput slide shows or create Video Karaoke.
It will let you move the Text around to where you want it.
You can stick a Graphic, or Logo in the middle of the screen if you wanted to.
You control the Angle, Color, Font, and Size of the Text.
Change the Size of each Line or Font effortlessly
Let me know if I can help.

Warning: Don't try too many Sync Methods.
The Alogorithm varies for each Software.
It'll throw your Ryhthm off, resulting in confusion and frustration.

Kind Regards,
sw00000p

Hello,

Does anybody know how to create the Bouncing Text effect or the Bouncing Ball with a CDG authoring software?

Kind Regards,
sw00000p

How do you want them to bounce?  Up, down, sideways, the whole screen or just selected parts of it?  Are you building CDGs to sell or just something for your own show?  The reason I ask is that it would be kind of a trick to do it within the CDG format but you could make it happen in a computer based player with some ease.  There are scroll commands within the CDG specification but these functions were never popular and I doubt that most computer based players would recognize this command set.

I strongly suggest that if you need really cool graphics that you don't use CDG.

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exweedfarmer,

Thanks for your advise. No, I don't sell anything... nor do I put on shows. I have simulated these effects  with Adobe After Effects, Overlays, etc. on a computer with great ease. I'm familiar with the, "RED BOOK" of Karaoke and understand the various CDG commands.

As you said, "it would be kind of a trick to do it within the CDG format."
I'm no programmer, just trying to see if anyone has figured this part out,
Combining These Effects Within The CDG Format.

Kind Regards,
sw00000p

sw00000p:
I am a programmer and one of my current projects is a new karaoke player.  Certainly you are a very serious computer person since you spent $1000.00 on Adobe After Effects, and probably another two grand on a computer to run it.  But, if you're not a programmer how and why would you take the time to understand RedBook Audio and the CDG graphics format which is bit level stuff.  Without being a programmer you wouldn't have bit-level access.  I'm not trying to get on your case I'm just trying to understand.

I'm not sure EXACTLY you are after here.  Do you want the file with the bouncing ball and bouncing text to play on a standard CDG player when you are done?

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exweedfarmer,

My brother's a programmer. He's spent countless hours explaining basic bit-level stuff. Some of it I retain but most of it is Over My Head. I've picked up quite a bit over the years from him. I understand enough to repair any Karaoke graphics, replace lost or corrupt commands, make the background transparent, repair out of Sync... You know the simple stuff. Utilizing the text editor is a Dousy.

Yes, I've spent quite a bit on software and hardware. Funny part is I only do this for a Hobby. I also enjoy graphic designing.
It's nice to have a programmer around, especially when I get stuck.


Kind Regards,
sw00000p

Now you're just having fun with me aren't you?  A text editor???!!!!
Even if you looked at only the active packets there are about 18,000 of them in a CDG file if memory serves.  Plus, there would be no way to tell what you are XORing against unless you can keep the CLUT and the CLUT map in your head.  How do you get a text editor to print non-text like ASCII 10, 13 etc.  MSEdit maybe, but that won't align on the end of the packets....will it????

Let me guess, you're a developer and you really want to know if anyone has come up with a way to do the bouncy-ball/word thingy?  If this is the case the answer is, "I think so."  I try to keep track of what the other folks are doing with karaoke software and I do recall someone with the bouncy ball thingy but not bouncing words.  If you have developed something new and cool, more power to you.  Can't wait to see it.  Good luck.   Really

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exweedfarmer,

Sir, hats off to you! You definitely know you business. Compared to you, I'm NOT even in PRESCHOOL! Really!
Yeah, I've picked up some neat stuff from my Brother. But I'm No Way Near developing Anything!
I don't know 1/10th of whats needed.

I utilize a Powerful CDG software. It displays everything needed:
Text Editor:
Time:
Channel:
Instruction:
File Offset:

Ability to manipulate:
Load Color Table Low/High  -  Change Color Index
Border Presets
Memory Presets
Scroll Preset
Scroll Copy
Tile Block Xor / Normal
Define Color Transparency
Timeline
Change Instruction / Channel

This is what my brother has taught me to understand.
With this and Adobe After Effects, Overlays, etc. - Projects become interesting!
I create really cool graphic overlays for Video Karaoke.

I just haven't figured out how to consolidate the enhanced graphics into CDG Format!
I don't posses the skills needed to do this.

Kind Regards,
sw00000p

Okay, now I understand.  The folks at PowerKaraoke make some darn fine products and with special software you can easily edit CDG graphics but the idea that somone could do it in a plain text editor was just turning my brain to yogert trying to figure out how.

To answer your question though, you probably can't do the fancy graphics and stay within the CDG format.  It just isn't fast enough and is effectively limited to sixteen colors at any one instant and for all practical purposes it's limited to four.  When you see a line of text being erased, that's just about the maximum speed at which CDG can write to the screen.  Way too slow for effective animation.  Of course, someone will now post something that makes my opinion look totally idiotic but that's how I learn things.

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I use vanBasco karaoke player, but if you are not satisfied with it here are other karaoke software.

With any luck this little blurb will explain to the average Joe what you can and can't do in the CDG format.  Now I'm talking about standard CDG without going into he programming aspects of reading the binary file.  


Things a CDG file can do to the screen:

Blank the border with background color.
Blank the center with background color.
Not print the background color making it transparent.
Scroll up down and sideways
Print colored blocks to the screen

A "Pixel" is that little colored dot that you can see if you look at your TV screen very closely.  They make up the picture that you see from a distance.  The actual CDG picture is 300 pixels wide and 216 pixels tall.  The picture you see may be larger but that is because the karaoke player has stretched it, not because there is any more picture information.  300X216 and that's all.  There is a border around the screen 3 pixels on either side and 6 pixels on top and bottom to which text is not printed.

Text is printed in the center section of the screen by means of blocks that are 6 pixels wide and 12 pixels tall.  These blocks can be printed to the screen at a maximum rate of .0033333... seconds per block.  That seem very fast but it is very slow in terms of graphics.  The block is drawn off screen and then assigned to a particular row and column. Since there are 833 possible blocks in the center printable area (17 rows by 49 columns) at this rate it would take not quite three seconds to fill the whole screen with blocks. This is  much too slow for large animations, even a bouncing ball would be a trick.  

CDG uses one bit graphics and a color look-up table.  A color look-up table is simply a list of colors and "one bit" graphics means that only two of the listed colors are available in any single block at any one time, kind of.  The colors in the color list (look-up table) are numbered 0-15 and each pixel is assigned a color according to the number of the color and not the color itself.  If color number 1 happens to be blue and color number 1 is called then the pixel is blue.  If color 1 is red then the pixel is red.  It is possible to get more than two colors in a single block in one of two ways.  You could write a second block in the same space using one of the colors you used the first time and another. Or, by referencing the color that is already on the screen using the XOR command (which is a nifty little bit of binary math that I won't get into here).  What the XOR does is look at the number of the existing color on the screen and then reference another color according to its own bit of binary wizardry and whim.  The drawback to using the XOR type method is once an error occurs on screen, the error might not go away though the rest of the song unless the screen is blanked.

That's pretty much CDG graphics in a nutshell.  6X12 colored blocks assigned to 17 rows and 49 columns displayed at a maximum rate of .003333... seconds per block.
.

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