Karaoke Forums

let me just say for the past two days i have had to KJ by CDG rather than laptop and karaoke program.  i really never realized how much easier it is with a computer based program!  i urge all of you if you have not done so, get a computer base system going.  it is WAAAAAYYYYYYYY easier!
that is all.  as you were.

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All work and no play make Homer something something

As a computer user, the one thing I would do if I got into the business is get a CDG player for singer disks. Reading disks into MTU Hoster is impossible on my laptop, as it causes glitches in the running song. I don't know what Compuhost's approach is, but I suspect it is far from foolproof. In any case, a separate player seems to make sense.

Otherwise, I agree wholeheartedly. I got compliments last night on how good my show was, and when we counted the songs sang we reached 70 for a four-hour show. There were quite a few short ones and not many of the 5 minute dirges that are popular these days, but that still means that there was little to no dead air.

Since the private party wasn't the type of thing where you enforce slips or a signup list, it helps to take an active role in polling the singers in the rotation for what they are doing ahead of time. I always had the next 3-4 singers lined up and ready to go.

Hoster has no problems with reading the cdg's, normally it is the drive it is being read from. Depending on the version of hoster you have it may require a Plextor drive.

I have been importing customers cdg files into hoster for years now. For those of you who are not familiar with the program it imports and holds the song until it has played and then dumps it from the hard drive.

I had a problem with one of their versions years ago and the free upgrade solved the problem.

If you have the space an extra player is always handy

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

I've had a local host have no issues with his one rig, but his second would crash trying to read ANY cdg or copied disc. (hence my dislike for his system... it was obvious he didn't rerip his second library, but instead, merely made a copy of his initial library from his first rig).

Oh, I have no trouble reading the CDGs as I do have a Plextor drive. My problem comes when reading them while another song is playing -- when Hoster begins writing the KMA file it glitches the playback on the in-progress song.

Basically, that makes the CDG thing useless unless I accept the dead air while I read the singer's disk.

That was the same problem I was having. Once I reinstalled with the newer version I had no problems. Perhaps this might help you. What version of hoster are you running? How long has it been since you did the free updates?

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

I am running 3.313.

WRT "free" updates, I have had trouble getting anything from MTU. I don't understand what they say, I don't understand their communications, and I don't understand their system. I can never find their download link to download a new version, and when I do I don't understand when it is free.

In addition, when I update, I usually have to re-enter all my info. I don't like to update, because they usually change some behavior of their user interface such that it causes problems for me.

In fact, I don't like much about them or their software except that it usually works. In other words, they are the worst hosting software company except for all the rest.

Wow, I find just the opposite, it's one of the easiest hosting programs IMO.  3.316 is the last version out & is a free upgrade from 3.313, you just submit a webmail support ticket
http://www.mtu.com/support/customer-support.htm
With
Your first & last name
Your registered email (that you used to sign up originally)
The product name
State that you need the download link

Sometimes can take a couple days for a response so be patient.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

See, there you go. I use dozens of software products and it is the only one that requires you ask them for a link to download. Every other one you just get there from the web site once you log in with your support account.

Maybe it is just a culture thing with me. I am perhaps set in the way I do things, having been in the computer business for 30 years. I guess I feel like I know how things should be done, and that they don't do it that way. Probably if I just went through their process without complaint it would work better.

Glad to know I'm not the only one  I'm not using hoster but microstudio and tried something they call a key changer??? I too get all confused about their upgrade procedures, but mind you, i'm not very smart, so forget what I just said!!

To be honest I do not like their upgrade and download process. It has changed considerably since purchasing the program several years ago. However most of the upgrades are free and are fairly easy to do. Yeah it's different than other upgrades but they have their reasons for doing it this way. Maybe you are right, if you don't fight it and just follow the proper procedures then you would have the update and be on to bigger and better performance. I dunno...MTU has been really good to me and great for my business. I have had very few problems.

Good Luck!

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Agree!

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Im using sax and dottys on my laptop , I know I can not read disks and I deal with it. I do have a really large collection, so usually I have the song and version somebody wants to sing. rather than lug around a player for the once a month or so I get somebody with a song I don't have I just tell em Ill buy them a drink if they hand me a disk and I don't have the song.  ive bought 3 beers this year and all were happy as punch about how I handle it. then they put up a different song and everyone had fun. sometimes we need to think about if there is a better place to invest our money.

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the voices arent real, but they have some good ideas