Karaoke Forums

Because I am not happy with the performance of the cavs usb machine I bought on behalf of the hotel I work for, I am now looking at developing a laptop to play disco type music from....no, no cdg the cavs (slow and all as it is) will have to do for that. No what I want is a jukebox kinda thing. The hotel own all the discs that were in its now defunct jukebox, plus I would purchase a few more...but I want some recommendations as to the best softward to install on the lappy. I want to be able to play continuous music with nice segue between song. Will I need a full duplex external sound card for that? Is music match jukebox still a good prog? I have been reading some fairly yuk reviews on it. If that one is no good what prog will I look for?
Hey any advice is gratefully accepted...cheers

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Winamp with this and this is a very good and free way to go.

The AC97 codecs on new lappies now (onboard sound) are more than adequate for DJ or karaoke .

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thanks so much Ollie, that is indeed a great start...it will be to hire out to functions so I guess it will need to be idiot proof...will look into it
hugs  :hug:

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

I'll tell ya, the best bet for me is itunes.  that way if someone comeup and requests something i don't have, i donwload it and bam!  i can play it in about 3 minutes.  of course you'll have to have internet connection.  i use an air card so i have connection anywhere a mobile phone works.

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All work and no play make Homer something something

hiya Steve hugs n thanks for answering...the puter will never be connected I dont think...so that makes it kinda redundant.
there wont be a dj either so it needs to be relatively simple to navigate and source the material they want to play

I am sooo anal about letting anyone near gear but it aint mine its the hotels so I just have to reel in my feelings

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

I love that compresser for winamp but this crossfader is much better :  http://www.winamp.com/plugins/search/?q=WACF   try it out

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ROBDOG *WOOF WOOF*

Boy Ill tell you what!!!! Ive used Winamp by itself and with S&D and now Roxbox. Its made me a lot of money... Thanks Ill have to check it out !!!!

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I use WinAmp for Karaoke and DJing. I use the crossfader (you have to remember to unload it when doing karaoke tho). It works great. I make up playlists and just dump them to WinAmp and let er rip. It will run and sound like a DJ is running it...well pretty close. At one time I even put pre-packaged announcements between songs and it sounded like someone was there...even when I was out in the parking lot having a smoke

If you want to run it with requests, you just dump the request into your playlist...works great.

ok that sounds good...but what if some know it all decided he doesnt like the music playing and wants to select his own?

See I set up the external hd attached to the cavs to run continuous music and even mixed down 4 hour increments of various genres but with that unit the tv has to be there so as you can navigate...it doesnt look right and as those that have used that cavs unit know...its slow loading and is inclined to need rebooting often.

So for the weddings and other functions that are too cheap to hire a dj or a band I want to provide an alternative that they can hire

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

thanks dahlin

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

hey I like the look of the limiter Ollie

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

ok time to hang my head in shame cos I have not the first idea how to create playlists and get winamp to behave like a jukebox

I have only ever used it to play cdg

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

A few weeks ago we did a birthday party for a 16 year old The first thing I do at a party is set one the teens down and show them how to search the dj stuff and que a bunch of songs. Of course a kid  learns how in 5 seconds!!! Then I will save that in a playlist.

Usually one of us is on station to take requests but I have no problem with people sitting there and doing their own search at DJ parties. This is one of the advantages of living in rural America!!! This old man takes care of them they take care of me...

I can imagine the same exists down there  too !!!

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I'm not sure how you would do this for hire...explain that a little better. If you just want to run music for 4 hours, this will work. If someone that doesn't know what their doing messes with it...I think you'll have problems no matter what.

In WinAmp, you create a playlist by dumping songs you pick into the player. the easiest way that I have found is to drag and drop the songs I want into the player. Or you can create folders of different genres and dump the whole folder into WinAmp. Once you do that, all the songs will be loaded to the player. Then you click on folder options (I think thats right), on the right hand side of the player, and select "save as a playlist" it will give you a screen to name the playlist and allow you to put it were you want it on your hard drive. Once you have the playlist, it remembers all of the tracks when you click on that playlist, and loads them to WinAmp.

I'm not sure if I have all of the names and stuff right for WinAmp, because I don't have it on this computer...I do this so often, that it's just a natural motion. If I am DJing, and throught the night I load WinAmp with a ton of requests, I will save the requests as a playlist. If you are working the same venues over and over, you then have peoples favorites saved. You can start a show with that playlist, and then add to it as people request songs...

there will not be anyone manning the equipment...there will of course be waitresses and bar staff but the nature of those jobs is that they are transient so I cant guarantee there will be anyone on duty who would know how to work it
as well as the items you have suggested I also downloaded a free jukebox called Media Monkey..which looks ok...it has searched my entire 3 hds for music and I have spent yesterday weeding out the stuff I wouldnt include. But and its a big but for me...there doesnt appear to be a segue function and that is what I believe is needed to create that disco feel...so I guess what I need is the ease of media monkey with the segue function

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

I have an idea that might work. Not cheap tho.

I've put together some touch screen jukeboxes, that are stand alone computers. You can have a grapical screen with record icons or make your own. You set up the software with folders on the hardrive for the different icons. If you touch the icon it loads the music attached to it. You can have individual songs or albums attached to the icons. You could also set it up with folders with playlists of hundreds of songs if that's what you need.

This is pretty "idiot" proof.

The touch screen computers aren't cheap...if this interests you, I can send you some info on it. I have one right now I'm putting together to mount inside a wall in my home. It will have music, karaoke, videos, and a home made Tivo. The screen will be flush with the wall. Sort of a high tech home entertainment system  :shock:

according to what I have read regarding the software you can get something that clips on to an ordinary screen that turns it into a touch screen

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Don't mention it Honey Bunny!!!!

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ROBDOG *WOOF WOOF*

Oh witchy-poo.... How many sound cards are on the 'puter?

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Okay, who took my pants?

ello Perry  :hug: it is just a normal lappy...I work for a cheap place only one sound card but it has a yamaha xg icon in control panel soooo it may well be better than average...just booting up now to check

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."