Karaoke Forums

I think you're missing the point. I realize that many of the "Serious" singers may go computer, but I talking about the casual singer. Someone who may have a few disc's is not going to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a computer and pro audio system for their 8 year old to play with. I think it's a safe bet that for every home singer who puts together a pro or semi-pro system, there are probably a thousand or more who have no interest in doing so.

While I know a number of my singers have the capability to put together their own compilations none of them are using a computer to play them. They are using an all in one similar to the Voco-Pro Duet or just a player hooked into their stereo systems, (some even just use their game machines) this includes a half dozen singers who have extensive libraries of their own (between 3 to 4 hundred Original discs, not copies). Other than being able to learn the song at home, they have no interest in building a system. As far as they're concerned, that's the KJ's job.

Hadn't looked at it that way! I think you will see home systems using SD or HD systems pretty soon which will make the systems much easier for an 8 year old. BTW my Granddaughter has been using "effectively" a computer since she was 6 years old has had her own laptop since she was 8, I think you will find that she is not the exception.

I dont think you are giving today's tech savvy consumer nearly enough credit. They can rip those CD's to MP3+G just like they did their CD collection with iTunes. They already have a computer in the house (89% of all US households according to the latest census, more than half have two or more). It's just a different audio source for their existing home system.

CD's are a dead technology and CB knows this. I will bet CD sales are WAY down at CH and it just wasn't profitable to continue anymore. It's a wise move and propels them to the top. I'll bet we see them grow exponentially from here.

I'm willing to put money on 'casual' singers using the computer MORE than discs & players - especially these days. Software is cheap (to free) for home users. Most will just connect to their home stereo anyway. ONLY thing they MIGHT need is a cheap mixer to connect a mic to, but even that can be connected through the computer with little to no money.
I know more people asking me about computer karaoke for their home use more than ever. I still have a few that bring in discs. Many of home grade cdg players have USB ports for connecting hard drives/flash cards or have hard drives built in.
Both my kids set up their own karaoke on their computers (they've had theirs since they were 3 & 7. They found the Winamp & installed it without my help and they & their friends just sing along with the computer speakers.
If you read some of the tech questions you'll see many newbies casual singers asking how to get into cheap computer karaoke using their home stereos - so it is becoming much more popular among home users.

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You can still buy the sets on CDG for a short time, but they say once there gone there gone. I have contacted CB to see if they can tell me if my SCDGs are legit and all they tell me is if you bought them in 2005 or before they are probably legit, saying this on their Web site it says 2007. I got mine in 2008 from an online seller and I am confident that they are legit. I just got my first SD's from CB and am really dissapointed that they did not do the Disc & Track #
This is my first post so I don't know if i'm putting too many topics in one post. Saying that is there a program out there that will easily allow the addition of a Disc & Track #.

Easy tag.....

But really (depending upon the program you use) you can load them to your karaoke library using just the artist and title.

yeah i've been to most every website to download easy tag and there is not one that works do you have a link to were one is good to use?

mike

I'm using Compuhost and Fast Tracks. The problem is the Gem series is the same way, so I have 14,ooo + songs in my system that are in standard format, and I load 6000 from the Gem which are just Artist & Title, and another 1000 from Chartbuster just Artist & Title that is a third of my song book that i'm guessing which version I will get. I could not find a working copy of the program that you mentioned as posted above. Do you have a link to one that works?

Just use any free renamer (Lupas is my favorite) and add SC - (SCspacedashspace) to the beginning of the file and you will have "disc - artist - title". Do the same with CB. You will be done in a flash. The track number is not necessary to function properly.

No, in my opinion it is necessary. If you want to do things the right way, that is. There is no excuse that these sets should not follow the standard file naming system. Now you would think that the Gem series being marketed at professional KJ's would follow that format. The same is true with the Essential series. So the question is how can these collections be aimed at professionals and NOT follow professional standards?
If you want to reach professionals, market your product as such.

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My statements, opinions and conclusions are based on my own personal experiences, observations, research and/or just my own $.02. I'm not a "cheerleader", but that doesn't make me a Pirate.

I will check out the product but I agree with Alan B I hope I spelled that right, If you want pros to buy your product Don't change what has been the standard by most if not all. Why mess with what works. I asked Compuhost if they have a way to edit this collasal mess, no reply yet. Chartbuster told me that all of the SD's will be in this format. Pop Hits on the other hand has remained true to what is and should be the norm. Probably gonna buy more Pop Hits. Has anybody gotten any digital songs from Sun Fly or Zoom? What is there format?

By who's standard? When you rip a CDG disc you still have to name it there are several "standards" that people use. If you want them with disc-track - artist - title then make it so if you want it disc - artist - track - title you can make it that way as well. I know KJs who use the Baltimore style and I know KJs who use the "standard" style Either way they still work, just as they will still work if you use Artist - Title or Title - Artist or Manu - Artist - Title.

But all the time I have been doing this I have never had a disc that I could drag and drop the song files to my hard drive and they were named Disc-track - artist - title, mine always involved a lot of work typing etc. where have you guys seen all of the "PRO" disc that the files were named in the "standard" that you are looking for?

If you want it all done for you, then pay someone to do it.

From reading posts on other forums I don't think disc id NOT being included is a major deterant anymore. Most of the hosts I personally know & have talked with on many forums don't even use a numbering system anymore - I personally require disc numbers because if my computer fails, I have ALL my discs to back me up, if I didn't think i'd ever run into a computer failure (only in dream land) I probably wouldn't care.

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When I decided to stop packing all of my Lazer Disc's and CDG's around and go to a lap top I spent a long time trying out different Karaoke programs. Most everyone allows you to download a free trial. I was actually looking for a song book program to start with, and came across Invicion and Fast Tracks song book program. I was hooked, I could just load the disc's that I had and it would do the rest. I was able to print song books by artist or by song title, remove duplicates and do spelling error corrections in a heart beat, again a free trial download. After using Fast Tracks for a my song books I tried there KJ program Compuhost and haven't looked back. Not saying these programs are perfect but there support team has never let me down. I just recieved 70 to 80 Zoom discs, 36 of these were not in Fast Tracks data base, one email and they let me know they will contact Zoom and get them in as soon as possible. I don't mind waiting, I couldn't manually input 700+ songs properly into my song books buy the time they update their data base. I am planning on KJing full time in the not so distant future and I will have all of my ducks in a row when the time comes. With the new era of digital and the change in how Karaoke songs are being put out it just slows the process down, and anybody new getting into the business is going to have a tough time. The world keeps changing but this is simple thing that the maufactures can correct to make it easier for those of us who use there products.

I'd settle for title and artist or artist and title, but would like to also have track #. The one custom SD card I purchased from CB, only about a 1/3 of the tracks were even named with anything recognizable. The others had letters and numbers. I had to play those files one at a time to determine what they actually were so that I could rename them.

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My statements, opinions and conclusions are based on my own personal experiences, observations, research and/or just my own $.02. I'm not a "cheerleader", but that doesn't make me a Pirate.

Alan, What is not correct about the naming? Since we don't know what cd's the songs came from (which could be from many), but we do know the disc "ID" SC or CB. Forget the old way of thinking...why would you need a track number? Following the naming DISC ID space dash space ARTIST space dash space Title. is still following the exact naming convention as DISC dash TRACK NUMBER space dash space ARTIST space dash space Title.

However using only ARTIST space dash space TITLE would NOT tell you the manufacturer.

What SD cards did you get? I bought all of the Essentials and many of the Plus sets none of them had anything but artist - title on them.

It sounds like you may have had a bad card.

Sorry, I just reread and realized that you had a custom card done.

The GEM series was just added to the Fast Tracks Auto Update last week which fixes this problem.

Lonnie,

I agree with you and I maintain a seperate book that contains the songs that I have on CDG, the problem is that we are talking about the disc and cards with digital files designed for computer use.