Karaoke Forums

Question:

Do you put every version of every song in your books or just one version? I was looking at my book file, and I know I copied everything in Excel, so I have plenty of dupes in the books. Just wondering if it would be better to just have one version of every song. Thoughts?? I need a secretary. I hate doing books.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Songbook Generator by Latshaw...

Reads your file-names and creates the book file... can be set to remove duplicates (title, artist). It cuts down my book from 70,000 titles to 25,719.

You would have to manually enter your SC CDG's because you don't have them digitized


I've been considered creating 1 master list that would list every version along with Mfr ID and track number... may Joe will vacation in the mountains someday... that can be his book. I'll get a handcart for him to move it to his table.

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Never the same show twice!

I have one book with all dups and disc IDs, and nine books without dups. When I made the "master" book, I thought it would be used when singers or I needed to reference a particular version of a song. However, in the 2+ years I've had that master book, it has only been used when the other nine books were already gone!

My books are falling apart the last few weeks, so I need to redo books as well. I'm thinking about just grabbing a cheap laptop and doing a kiosk. I buy alot of 5-10 song All-Star download updates these days, so physical books get cluttered very quickly. Also, laptops capable of a kiosk setup can be bought cheaper than 10 books can be made these days!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

. I manually generated my entire book with Excel. I put my books together myself. Why pay a printer for what I can do at home?

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Yeah, I have been buying songs so fast I just add them to my "NEW" file. Problem is, my new file is growing and changing every week. Eventually that will have to be incorporated into my main books. FUN!! I like your idea!!

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I only list 1 version. No point in wasting paper and having the inevitable "what is the difference between these songs" with the answer always resulting in "pick me the version you think is best". So that is now what I list.

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

I do not list my duplicates in my books. I do however print 2 Master books that contain all tracks. One by Artist and one by Title. But they only seem to get used when all the other books are out. I may no longer print Master books as most people don't seem to care anyway.

Because my time is worth about $100/hour

-Chris

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-Chris

I feel the best way to cut cost of printing down is to sell ad space in your book..this has worked great for me as I only spent around $40 of my own money and thats only with 6 ads..If can get at least 12 -16 sponsor it wont cost me a cent......

YOu are a Microsoft tech. I'm not. I'm a stay at home dad, who babysits three kids by day, and is an aspiring KJ by night. Between the two, I make enough to do pretty well, along with my GF's wages. So, while all the kids are playing in my son's room, I can make my own books. As for master books, I have my book files on all my computers. I need to look something up, BAM, I pull it up.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I list and retain all versions in my books, which has brought me more new patrons than I can count.

For those who do not understand that there is variance between versions and ask "What's the difference?"- I am happy to educate them about it, or to answer any other questions in regard to karaoke. They seem to appreciate it and use the knowledge at later shows.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

3 kids = significant labor. Tell them to play "Home Publisher" and let them build your books while you play!

-Chris

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-Chris

Ditto

I use Song List Generator by Latshaw for song books. It filters out dupes to help keep books small.

I keep all dupes on the drive for the same reason most of you do - sometimes people want a specific version.

This last weekend someone requested a Springsteen track I had never heard at karaoke before. I only have All-Hits, Sweet Georgia Brown, and Ultra Sonic versions of the track. I had no clue which version was best so I chose Ultra Sonic just because I don't think I have ever listened to a US track. The singer didn't like it and asked for the All Hits version which I was able to use the "Now Playing" panel in Karma to find al versions of the same song and immediately change it for them.



-Chris

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-Chris

I have used the "now playing" dozens of times. One night a singer asked for La Bamba and when I played it he asked for an English version. I tried 5 versions, one right after another, using "Now Playing" before he was finally convinced that they are ALL Spanish. The beauty of it was that it didn't waste much time showing him. GREAT feature

when i used books i had.... | Springsteen, Bruce | Born In The USA | SC, MM, AH, SGB, CB, |
maybe a dozen times in almost 7 years someone picked a version, a dozen times a night getting "what do the versions mean?"
but at least that way it is only one line per song so no extra pages in your book necessary with all the information.
i still have all versions listed on my songbookdb books online, unfortunately still get the same questions and those that do understand that they are different manufacturers (i explain it as cover bands, some are spot on, others you are halfway through the song before you know what song they are even playing) they put in the notes "pick the best version".

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

But how do you insure they aren't stolen?

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

1 copy of each song...except duos/showtunes have it listed twice. We out grew Excel and moved to Lotus

dupes with Manu codes are available on our HD and we can search that easy enough.

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

Yes I would answer the questions stating it's like going to hear a cover band, some will sound just like the original band while others kind of just pull it off - sometimes you can make the song out, other times you don't realize they are trying to cover that song. Resulting in the 'just give the version you feel is best'. No point in listing the Casio midi sounding version when they can have the real band sounding version.

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

Whatever limitations you had with Excel have been gone for a very long time. I didn't know Lotus was even being produced or supported any longer.

I like Song List Generator from Latshaw because it allows export to Excel, to CSV, generates PDF (which is what I print from), generates HTML (for online listings), and even RTF if you are a glutton for punishment.

It generates all of this off of the file name no matter if it is ZIP'd or as separate files. It even allows for manual entry of tracks.

It even integrates with SongBooksLive to directly import your song list online.

I would not recommend it for ODB hosts though as it only supports reading filenames in bulk and there is no Import from Excel feature. If I were not using Song List Generator, I would use Excel 2007 or later.

-Chris

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-Chris