Karaoke Forums

I am new to the Karaoke scene, but am planning on going to one soon.   I am a keyboard entertainer, and have many midi-karoake files that I use with my keyboard.  Is there any way of using them there, since they are in my key etc.

I don't mind buying them, but I was told that you have to be sure they are in your range.  Since we have to bring our own disks, I am at a loss at what tdo.

I don't know the technical aspects of CD+G, and whether I could use midi karoake at all.

Hi Bernie
OK, here we go! I started of being a musician playing live in a full band; then switched over to a one man band, me being a guitarist, using midi files, it sounded OK at the time. With the karaoke manufactures using live backing you cannot really compare midi to live recordings, no matter which midi module you use, you will always have that tinny computer generated sound. If you do have well programmed midi files, and you want to use them in a karaoke environment, I strongly suggest you sample your midi files using pro sample sounds; otherwise it’s a no go!
Secondly, your midi files have no scrolling lyrics. Of course, that can be fixed by using one of the multiple software packages available on the market today, but the amount of time involved synchronizing the lyrics to the music, is just not worth it, unless you have a very special song not available anywhere on CDG.
A point you made regarding the key, you can take your CDG file, split it into a text and mp3 file, do a key change (within reason) and combine the 2 files again, and Viola! You have a karaoke song in your key.

I appreciate the reply.  Two questions:

1. If I don't care about the lyrics, is it practical to put a few songs on a CD-r,or RW, and will the machine there likely be able to play them  ?

2. If you advise just going out an buying some disks, will the Karoake machine be able to shift key  ?

I have to lower most files on my keyboard.  As you can see, I know virtually nothing about how these shows are run.

No problem, here to help.


If you want to sing them and know the lyrics, sure. But they will sound very much watered down compared to live backtrax


Most karaoke machines can do key changes on the fly

Just keep asking questions and reading the Tech forum.

If I am going to do this, I may as well do it right.  Eventhough I play through a good soundcard, and a Bose PAS, I have to take your advice about the difference in sound quality.  Having said that, how am I going to be able to practice songs without breaking the bank  ?

I have topflight equipment for my trade, but I guess you have to have special equipment to handle CDG, or whatever format I have to have.  

I am trying to justify an expenditure by a way I can use these Karaoke disks in my vocals on gigs without hauling a bulky player and screen.  hmmm, unless I became a KJer

Let's just say, I've been there, done that

What exactly do you mean?

Naw, not really, in principal a $300 karaoke machine will do.

A bulky player and screen can be replaced by a laptop.

I think I am loosing it. What exactly is your end goal? Setup/run a KJ show, or continue with a one man band?

I have a laptop with a CD drive.  It is a Thinkpad about 6 yrs old.  Is there anyway I can use it  ?  Of course, I would have to get software to lower the pitch in some cases, and I quess rerecord it on my harddisk recorder.  That is if it would work at all. It is starting to sound feasable unless I am missing something.  I know of a lot of entertainers that use mp3's and the like.  Maybe they are using Karaoke disks.

If you don't care about lyrics on a tv screen then all you need is a cd player to play the songs. If you need them to adjust in practice, a cdg player from like toys r us or walmart will work for you in practice situation so you can get use to it. They even have Guitaroke which is karaoke for  the guitar if you wanted to try that.
As for key stuff www.MTU.com has a program called keyrite that you can rerecord a cdg file with the key that you want so that it fits you better.  The Pro version's code was used for Hoster's keychanger.

_________________
The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Thanks, I am going to check it out.

To recap, if I buy some cdg disks, I can adjust pitch with the program you mentioned.  The sound will play on a cd player.  The only problem now is lyrics.  Will not the lyrics show up on my laptop ?  If I wanted to start a collection of disks for Karaoke, and to use them as backing tracks on a gigs, I would have to have lyrics somehow.

Yep

Yep

Only if you have a CDG compatible reader.
http://www.mtu.com/support/cdr-ide-drives.htm
If you don't have one, you can get a external USB CDR

Yep

I do that. Here's a link to some Guitaroke downloads that DannyG2006 mentioned.
http://www.guitarbt.com/index.php?page=dl_list

MTU also sells certified burners that will read and write the cdg subcode so you wouldn't have the worry of not having the lyrics.

_________________
The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Hon I am in a similar situation I think to you. I use mp3+g (cdg) as my backing when I sing at gigs. I use my laptop my cdg disks are ripped to the lappy with audiograbber it packages them nicely into zip files so as both the graphic component and the music component are together. By using winamp and a cdg plugin you can play the mp3 and the graphic comes up automatically. by adding something like sax & dottys it will play via winamp directly from the zip file without unzipping them manually.
I am currently looking for a better zip player that will play the files non-stop and remove the dead air before and after tracks, so if anyone has a suggestion feel free to lemme have it
anyway I hope that I have made some sense and that it helps

OK, quit making it difficulkt with software/hardware/mtu/ect....
Go buy a CDG disc player, and rack mount it into youir system.  Most better CDG disc players have a key change button.  Then buy the CDG discs you want, and be done with it.

Stick to a disc system, unless you are absoluty sure you want to become a PRO KJ host.  By the time you spend $200-$300 on a decent CDG disc player, you can spend double or triple that on a computer and related software/hardware.

Twansen

Thanks for the reply.  As I start getting into this, I find you are right.  I bought an RSQ MK-22, and I carry a rack for entertaining on the keyboard anyway, so I just slipped the unit in.

I now just need to learn to back up my CDG's, or copy them in a different order.  I installed a Plextor 760A into my pc.  I have seen Audiograbber and Audacity mentioned.

Any suggestions ?