Karaoke Forums

I am new....How many are computer KJ's?

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Thanks For Listening

I'm not a computer KJ, I am a real person ;c)

Welcome Silverdale from Tacoma!

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

I'm a real person.. but I have only 1 manufacturer's media on PC as per Permission from them..
As I have been told all other forms of media other than Priddis Media are considered Illigal as to copyright on PC systems unless you have permission to do so.. Priddis is the only Media company in the US allowing "Fair Use" Contact your Karaoke media manufacturers personally for details.

Don't be caught being Illigit!

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Brian D.
(BHB)

Brian you are the only one using a computer with Priddis only. God bless you. Everybody else is a pirate lackey and they MUST perish. Begone all you filthy heathens as I banish you all to Hades. On a lighter note, My St. Paddys gig was freakin nutted up. If your gig on 3-17-04 was not cracking then you really need to take alook at your biz........

Welcome!

I would also be interested in seeing how many KJ's are running shows with a PC only...

I'm currently converting my library over to mp3+g. Hardware is in place. Still working on the dual video angle.

Will keep you appraised!

Matt

P.S on metalgod

The hardest thing to do is to get everything onto your computer. I spent weeks just doing that. I've been using Sax and Dotty's Show hoster for a little over a month now and it works flawlessly.

Knight, as far as the dual monitor angle is concerened, make sure you are getting an ATI or Nvidia graphics card. They make both laptop and desktop versions. Also make sure that it has some sort of video out besides VGA. Mine has S-Video. Then you get a RF modulator, these can be found at anywhere (Best buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack) I found one online for only $10. You run the S-video into the RF modulator, then the Co-Axial out into any Cable ready TV. If you want to run more than 1 TV as I do simply get a co-axial splitter. It sounds like a lot of work however it is actually really simple.

If you want my recommendation on a computer, I just purchased and Emachine M6805 at Best Buy. Works like a champ.

Here's what I've got so far:

* Kingston 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz (2 x 512MB) (1 gig of memory)
* 2 Maxtor 60GB EIDE HD 7200/2MB/ATA-133 (for my mp3s and OS, sax n dolly's software, and pcdj red)
* AMD Athlon XP2800+ CPU 333FSB Barton Core and heatsink (processor)
* 2 Seagate 160GB EIDE HD 7200/2MB/ATA-100 (for my mp3gs, one will be a direct mirror of the other... it will NOT be raided.)
* Connect3D Radeon 9200se 128MB DDR AGP w/ TV Out (vid card)
* Artec 56X CD-ROM
* Soyo Dragon KT400 Black Socket A Barebone Silver (case)

I still haven't gotten the sound card, nor the video monitor. I have a basic monitor I'm planning on using, but if the right opporunity for the flat screen monitor avails itself, then I'll go with that!

Still going to use my RSQ505 dvd/cdg player, as well as my mackie mixer and my akj7000 mixer amp.

Knight,
It sounds like you're pretty well set. Let me make a suggestion for the sound card. The Hercules Muse sound card it has a lower signal to noise ratio than most and is also inexpensive. Whatever you do don't get a creative labs card. They are extremely noisy, they are great for games at home but stink for anything professional.

I've been looking... does anybody have a link?

I'm still wondering if I'm the only lonely KJ in here that still holds the secret to HDTV PC based video yet?? i know it's still extremely expensive at $1,700.00 for the video card & $3,500.00 converter but I'm still curious if anybody else has seen them around yet?

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Brian D.
(BHB)

I don't use the computer. Still using a 3-drawer and have no problems with it. Might be nice to convert, but don't wanna get caught up in the copywright bit. Until the other mfgs start thinking like Priddis I'll stay with the players.

I want to convert my KJ show over to the PC. I have about 3000 songs all legal on mostly DK and SC. It seems like everyojne is going with the mp3 format. I also see one can convert the songs to .bin but they take up alot more space. My questions are: What are the advantage of using these or possible other computer formats? and as long as I bring my original disks to the gig what kind of trouble could I get in? Thanks

We did something last night that may have changed the way Karaoke will be done in the future...

Yesterday had a "Slight" Emergency...Last night in Gallup, NM I had a show, but NO PC backup for my DJ music or Priddis Media or PCKJ...
All I had in the truck was my small note book the software to load and run the PCKJ & PCDJ and we had a wedding with only master media and 2 working machines.. due to alot of systems being out last night. (12 shows a good thing) So I had the monumental task of removing the recording system software and re-configuring my recording computer to A/V computers.. which I have not told anybody here what I use...
anyway the total time of configuration on-site was 3 hours from set up to soundcheck and had to add 1 video card..

I love these "Alienware" Ozma 4200 Extreme computers these have AMD 64 Athelon 2800 + and didn't skip a beat on the video end which was my biggest worry. the audio is all firewire in and out. 100% digital.

If anybody is interested in more info on these PC's Contact me by Personal Messanger "PM" I do not sell these. but can help you find a web link.

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Brian D.
(BHB)

Outstanding replies!!!

I am using Swift Elite from Tricerasoft. Works well!

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Thanks For Listening

Sproket,
I find the best insurance is "Norton Ghost 2003" and a small "c" drive with 1 hot backup drive, and a compressed image of the "c" drive on one of the other drives.

If I have a boot drive corrupt I can reimage and be back up in 15 minutes, or if the drive actually crapped out. unplug it, and plug in the spare "hot drive".

Hardly ever does a drive crash other than the "c" drive. I may not Know audio equipment like you do, but I engineer and build computers to automate plants with, I can tell you a little in that respect.

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !

Dr. D,
My real problem was I keep all the master Software without music media on the notebooks and operating software for the sound systems for the ETA & DBX crossovers, and Martin Speaker system and many other A/V things on on my Notebooks.. just no karaoke media and also carry the Discs in the system as well, but needed a large system to run the show that could handle all the Audio & video of a show.. I didn't have that in the right places, my notebook would have seriously crashed.

So it was a spin to get it all to work.

My PC tech gave me a real hard time this morning and now it just cost me another PC to add to the recording studio. because I just lost the license to the recording software I just found out. :::Shakes head:::

It's easier and less expensive to buy another pc in this case with recording software pre-loaded than to sit here and do it ourselves.
Less conflicts and all we have to do then is just "plug in".

If ya really look at the drives and all it has all the "plextor" drives and all the fun trick things that make it go zoom. i'll tel ya i just have yet to see anything like this that made us look & sound so good . It seperates us from the rest.

And in this industry I already know we are ahead of our time.

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Brian D.
(BHB)

Ask you pc guy about making an image of your hard drive for the future.

seriously, I can rebuild a hard drive on a laptop in 15 minutes, and you dont have to reload the software and remember the serial numbers.

My laptop has a 2-1/2" hard drive and Heck, I carry a spare clone of it with me in case I crash the one inside the machine. that is a 3 minute fis, and a spare hard drive for a laptop is peanuts. compared to loosing that kind of time.

But I do understand what you are saying. I hate to hear about crashes. I beta test software, and without being able to reimage, WHen a beta software crashes it could take me upwards if 6 hours to reload everything.


Good Luck!!!

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !

To all who are interested in PC Karaoke, A Company called MTU has developed a professional KJ program called Hoster, this program was developed by KJ beta testers, and they have worked out just about all of the bugs that would confront a KJ, when you load your songs there is a 200,000 song database to insure your disc can be loaded quickly and easily. This company has been doing computer music since 1988. You can go to their site and download a free demo of the product, but as far as computer Karaoke goes I haven't seen anything out there that is better.
Just look up MTU IE: Micro Technology Unlimited
Dave

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They call me Mr. Karaoke Here in Phoenix
Because we brought Karaoke in to the world
of computers for the home user as well as the Professional KJ.

Dave,
I am a Beta tester for Hoster, and It is not. It has been tested, and supported By us. MTU has Professional Programmers Writing the software. They respect our input, and Listen to their customers and beta testers before they add or delete features.

Hoster is the Ultimate Karaoke computer software. I have been Using it for over a year now, and I could never go back to the Manual Karaoke.

Thanks for the Post, and comments tho.

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The future is here and we are it!

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !