Karaoke Forums

I like MTU but I love Compuhost. I am not a fan of the people at MTU -- they don't take suggestions or criticism very well. Everyone there is so darned defensive, and so wedded to the way they do things.

And their upgrade policy. I haven't used the latest version because they want me to pay for the program *again*. I bought an upgrade to Microstudio which was good for *8 months*. They orphaned a version of the program in that time. Very poor form.

To my mind all this behavior has come back to haunt them. I have visited near 200 different karaoke shows, and in the last year Compuhost has been at many more than MTU Hoster. Saw my first Hoster in quite a while last week. I know my window on the industry is small, but the inertia of MTU has been hard to miss and CompuHost danced around them.

I am sure long-time hosts who run a rotation without thinking about it can find it limiting. Personally, while there are a few things I like about Hoster compared to CompuHost, but on balance it is no contest. The fit and finish of CompuHost is much better, and it makes running a fair rotation so simple that most any host can do it.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

How about, "Sorry if your statement is wrong." Will that do?

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

My first though was to tell you to go suck on sand. But I won't do that.
I'm just offended that you would imply that I am a misinformed liar.
I take exception to that and as you can see, I'm not the only one who had the same issue.
Are you going to call Lonman a misinformed liar as well?

I can call you both misinformed without calling you a liar, can't I?

I am often misinformed. It is by stating my misinformation and getting corrected that I solve that problem. Of course if I refuse to be corrected, I stay misinformed.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

But there is no correctiion needed.
I stated the truth as did Lonman.
The program didn't do it.
Period.
Maybe the full version does.
Maybe it was an issue with that particular release of the demo and they've fixed it now.
Who knows?
But I stand my ground.
I was NOT misinformed.
I stated my experience with it.
You can state yours as well without insulting me and calling my credibility into question.
It's just not necessary.

I'm sorry diafel, (and I'm NOT calling you a liar, I just want to state that very clear!) but you are definitely missinformed or got the wrong impression of Compuhost. I use it for almost two years now and even back in the day, before I took the plunge to actually buy the program, I tried it in trial mode and all three of them (Mike, tbreen and flipper) are absolutely correct about the fact, that everything works like in the full version, except the Karaoke Songs only play for 2 minutes and then fade out.

And again, even back then, the rotation was easily adjusted (even in trial mode) with the buttons to the left of the singer list (and still is). Maybe you just overlooked the buttons and/or didn't spend time to read the instructions proper. But this is a fact.

I would suggest you download the trial again and see for yourself. I would also suggest to not take it as a personal attack, just giving you the right information. Nobody is mad at you.

Alright then I am missing something. I just played with the demo again & if I select someone a couple down from the top & hit play, it immediately pops up with a window, this person is not at the top do you wish to play anyway, click no nothing happens, click yes, then the person say 3 down jumps to the top of the rotation. What I basically want is just a list that doesn't move at all. Again unless I am missing something, the list is continually moving. If it's in select mode, then it pulls someone to the top of the list from wherever they were. If it's in rotate mode, then the entire list moves automatically. THis is what turns me off.

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

To start, I am not a KJ, more a tech-savvy guy who goes to a lot of karaoke shows.

That said, I think a scrolling marquee showing the lineup of upcoming performers is absolutely essential. I find it very annoying not knowing or having to ask when I am singing next... this is especially troublesome in non-smoking bars where people are constantly outside when their song is up. I don't smoke but people who do, and are singing, often have to be retrieved from the patio. This really wastes time and can be easily avoided with a marquee.

Around here there are two types of setups I see at shows: Compuhost, and the primitive CAVS units. I haven't been to a show that used anything else but these two. Compuhost is much superior and I really think the singers prefer it.

Also, with Compuhost there is no need for song numbers in the books, or slips to fill out, as singers can just find the song in the book, walk up to the KJ and tell them what they want to sing. Then the KJ will just lookup the song in the database and queue it up. When people drink the last thing they want to be doing is tracking down a slip, tracking down a pencil, and trying to transcribe a number from a book onto a piece of paper. Also, singers can queue up numbers of songs with the KJ at once which eliminates the piles of slips sitting around the mixer.

I guess I'm just old school. I don't see how the scrolling marquee is any more a guarantee that the next person will be ready, any more than telling them to their face. I always announce the next three in rotation every time I call up a singer. The next singer will even make eye contact with me or give me a "thumbs up" or whatever. Sure as s###, the last song is over, and that next person is nowhere to be found!

The marquee may be a nice novelty factor, but I think people would eventual start ignoring it. I'd be curious to hear from people who are actually using this regularly, and can swear to me that it works.

Hoster has a great function - between singers you can run a marquee noting things like drink specials, etc., but at the bottom of the screen we have the next 3 singers or sometimes more than 3....you have to watch, though, if you start moving your rotation around - people look up once and see the screen, figure they're singing next, and then you put someone else in between and they're not next.... Other than that, people DO pay attention to the names at the bottom. I just have to figure out how to make it bigger (haven't really taken time to work with the upgrade I have now) Love hoster, though.

k

I could see how the change in rotation would cause a bit of kaos. I think I would just run promo messages and type some funny sayings to keep people engaged. Perhaps some comments about the last song that played.....but that might get me in trouble.

If anyone would like to know what compuhost can or cannot do, you can find a video tutorial by expert village. This is a comprehensive tutorial of about 25 video clips, so if ANYONE is really interested, do a yahoo search for compuhost, then look for the tutorial, by expert village. I'm sure any questions will be answered.

I use Sax and Dotties for my resident karaoke gig. Lets you go out of rotation order. Good key change. Have to admit not tried Compuhost etc. Previously used Virtual DJ, and when I go mobile ie karaoke/disco i use PCDJ/VJ can mix Karaoke tracks with music tracks that way

FWIW, I have used RoxBox for practically all my Karaoke career. I understand it isn't as fancy as some of the more expensive packages, but it has served my needs very well thus far.

I have used Sax & dottys, RoxBox, JustKaraoke and Compuhost in actual show situations. I have played with a fully licensed Hoster Lite, and demos of siglos Karaoke Professional, Swift Elite, ClubDJPro and by far the one with almost all the features that I want in a program is Compuhost. That does not mean it is a fit with everyone but It definately is a fit with me. The only thing keeping me from Siglos is that I don't like their filler player and the look of the interface. Oh I aslo played around with the demo of Weed's program and while the inerface is kinda ugly it looks better than Siglos.

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