Karaoke Forums

What do I need to get to make a nice computer based karaoke rig. I would like to try and get with the PROGRAM. Lets keep it simple and concise. Baby steps if you catch my drift. Oh and money is no object. ( yeah right )... Thanks for any input

Baby Steps....A computer NEXT........

I'm Just getting Startedin the business and I decided to go the computer route myself. I would go with a laptop. I found a great laptop at BestBuy. It's an emachine m6805. So Far it works great. The most time consuming part is ripping your cds to your harddrive.

laptops would be fine for a "smaller" system.

I like using a desktop model for mine, medium sized tower, with LARGE hard drives.

I would ONLY use it as a "player"... and have a seperate dvd/cdg player seperate for playing both my dvds and customer's cdgs.

I wouldn't have installed on the pc any 'burnable" software, and only keep on there the bare necessaties!

My opinion only!

Matt

Beware Karaoke Guys- the CAVS is not looked upon too highly here. I have been using it now for almost 6mths. and I love it. Metal wouldn't like it preloaded, because there is no outright liscensing for all the tracks it is usually loaded with. (not a bad thing Metal)

However, you can buy it blank, and add your collection of CD's to it. This way, you know you have the disc for everythiung, and you are still keeping quasi legal.

For me being a compter idiot- I think it's the easiest way to go.

My $.02

_________________
Let's Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!

the problem is, there are some people who have bought them (unsuspectingly, I might add) with UNLICENSED tracks.

I've always stood by the stance that if you have the originals, then it's a matter of choice to violate the copyright. But they are still getting their legal money for the tracks, so they can't accuse you of stealing!

Matt...

the REAL problem is the artists and the producers were not getting the proper royalites and license fees for along time.. according to some issues in the industry on the Cavs units.
Lately, that seems not to be the case. It seems to be doing a correction and be getting a "little" better.. but the issue still needs some work in my opinion.

_________________
Brian D.
(BHB)

OK! How about this , Cavs or Laptop???? Pros and Cons anyone.

To answer your original question, computer based systems will require about 6 gigabytes per 1000 tracks of ripped mp3 and the accompanying cdg or mcg files.

To play them there is a choice of several programs, these are some;

Winamp -free with a cdg plugin downloadable from the web, version 3 is a poor version with too much overhead, and version before that or the new version 5 is fine. (version 5 will work with the old cdg plugin)

Wincdg. this will play direct from cdg disks or process mp3 and cdg rips. Purchase from Tricerasoft. This will also rip you disks to mp3 and cdg files. NOTE these files are 3-4meg in size compared to 30-40 megs on the original disks.

CAVS PlayCDG, purchaseable from cavs will play disks or ripped files, the graphics files must be ripped to .mcg format, this is much smaller than the .cdg files, so you do not get as many software player options. CAVS also have a supercdg software player, autorecognised on all commercial SuperCDG's. so if you have a compatible drive it will play them.

Karaoke Builder Karaoke Player will play mp3 and dcg or from the disk.

If you go the play from disks path you will need a CDG or SuperCDG compatable CD or DVD drive in the computer. Plextor and Sony seem to be the most popular.

The graphics are displayed on the standard vga screen, so if you want to buy a video splitter you can run a monitor and a performance screen. I use lcd screens nice and light and high definition in any light.

If you go the laptop route try for one with a seperate vga out option to cut a few costs and allow a second performance screen. Some have video out as well.

Audio goes from the computer to the mixer.

Hope this helps

karaokebuilder player also plays the .bin files you originally rip from the cdg, or ones you create yourself through their builder program.

Depending upon your experience in computers:
You can purchase a rack mount case and build your own system, install WIN XP Pro, and have the option of several different software programs to host karaoke. MTU has the program Hoster, PCDJ has PCDJ, coupled with the PCKJ module, and Tricerasoft has several, Mimic Audition 2, and a new program called Swift Elite. We were BETA testers for the Swift Elite program, but are still using Mimic Audition 2 on both of our rigs, with PCDJ running in the background for filler music between songs. We use the Tricerasoft products basically because they support more formats ( MTU and PCDJ support only MP3 and WMA). Our songs are all saved as .bin files, which takes far more space than an MP3 ((5) 250gb drives in each system), but I'm just weird when it comes to compressed formats. We use Echo sound cards in the machines (1/4" ins and outs), but even a good Sound Blaster card could be used in a pinch.....