Karaoke Forums

Hello, I am a Karaoke DJ and have been for a few years i have recently been djing and doing more karaoke shows i use my cds and cdgs, mackie mixer, crown power amp, cerwin vega speakers and a tripple tray player. I was interested in getting into the laptop karaoke system i would like some imput on where would be a good place to start and if there are any good programs out there i could buy for a laptop to kj or dj? im tired of bringing all my cds with me to every gig and laptop seems like an easier way! Some one help please!

I know there are other KJs on the board that are quite familiar with this - I'm not. I did though see a complete computer-based set up at the local Pro Mix shop (Chicago area). Looked pretty interesting from what I could tell, but I didn't get to check it over very well as I had the little ones tugging at me to leave. If you have any similar shops in your area, you might want to call and ask if they have something on display like this. Some of the larger online suppliers might also have something of interest to you. I am a big believer in having backup capability on the job/mobile market - suggest considering this as well regardless of what you decide to do. Good luck.

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Sounds Great! Entertainment
Bartlett, Illinois

I can tell you the way I went on this and then give you a few other options. First get yourself a decent laptop and make sure it has either a radeon or nVidia graphics chip that supports dual displays. Second pick up a program to transfer your music from CD to MP3, I recommed Audiograbber, it's free and it will do karaoke as well as standard CD's. Next is the difficult part deciding on which software to run your shows. I went the Sax-N-Dotty show hoster for Karaoke and Traktor DJ Studio for DJ. You can also get PCKJ which will do both and that is also a good way to go. I personally think Traktor us better for DJ and I love Sax-N-Dotty Show hoster for it's simplicity. The only other thing I would suggest is getting some kind of external sound device such as the Creative Labs Extigy. I'm sure when knightshow chimes in he'll agree on this point. Good Luck.

! ya got me on that one, buddy.

The only thing I'd even suggest differently is if you want to use a show hoster at all! You can get the whole winamp setup and run it off that...

Player
cdg plugin
pacemaker (for key changing, much better than any player ever could!)

I use a regular triple tray... so there's no hosting software! ! I just treat the winamp player as a replacement for my triple tray. Why make it more complicated?

Knightshow.. what do you use as a ripper? Does Winamp have one?

We've been trying out Audiograbber, but find alot of glitches occur in the graphics. Plus... soooo time consuming (massive collection of CDG's here).

What are you using as your playback format?

We are currently usuing WMA + G .. but could use MP3 + G....

Curious about this stuff.... as we get ready to try to make this kind of conversion.

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[shadow=tomato]If you want your significant other to pay attention to EVERY word you say::
  TALK IN YOUR SLEEP   [/shadow]  

wma+g or mp3+g either will have the messed up graphics. it is more in the program you use to rip them with, and the ccd drive you are using. I started out with a sony drive, and it had a lot of broken graphics.

I changed to a plextor, and they stopped. also make sure your disks are clean before rippiing, this is a killer. Fingerprints will tear up graphics on a computer.

If you want an all in one solution Mtu's Hoster will rip play, handle the rotation, show the next singer up let you put ad's in the background, and has most of the latest cdg's in their database. I believe their program is $99.00

Of course there are cheaper solutions out there, but you get what you pay for.

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

Dr. D, I am totally with you and support what you're saying. Getting the free stuff from the web is not always the best solution, due to support issues. For more information on laptop setup http://www.mtu.com/basics/karaoke-portable-pc.htm and MTU's Hoster software http://www.mtu.com/basics/karaoke-hoster.htm

Cindy,

I find Audiograbber works the best, BUT you must use a slower speed. Most ripping programs will tell you to go over an 8x will get you numerous glitches in the graphics.

I use winamp as a player

I do use cdrwin when those times I have probs with Audiograbber... but Audiograbber is the only one I use for the discs with the extra "data track" that cdrwin won't copy.

Thanks Matt...

Been ripping at 4x ... still a lot of glitches... and the discs are clean and relatively scratch free. Hmmmm?

Haven't had a lot of luck with winamp ~~ will do a bit more investigating.

Take Care Of You !! ~~~ Cindy

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[shadow=tomato]If you want your significant other to pay attention to EVERY word you say::
  TALK IN YOUR SLEEP   [/shadow]  

Dr. D hit the nail on the head earlier, you really need to get a plextor drive. I had the same problem, got a plextor, bang got no problems.

As usual the advice given here hits the nail on the head I would like to add some more for ripping cd's which comes from years of frustation and experience.

Glitches in the graphics esp from cd's that have seen a few shows and occur at the the same places are caused by scratched cds. This can be cured sometimes totally with the scratch removal compound . Remember to rub acros the tracks eg inside to out..

I have used the Cavs stuff for years with Plextors.. ive worn a few out, and use a comp that is not cluttered with a bunch of programs and is tuned for sound. When doing a batch do a disc cleanup and even reboot after 3-5 cds. This is true whether rippin or burnin.

Dirty optics or bad alignment in the drive will cause problems too. I have cleaned the optics in lot of jukeboxes and drives but wouldnt recommend doin it unless you are very technical in nature.. The shack has a kit to do both (scratches and optics) and works good.. When burnin use low speed to burn deeper to play on the cheaper machines...Just a few more.......

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Join The Karaokle Singers Social Network. Upload Your Music!!

thanks for all the great help, everyone!! We are saving for a new PC ~~ for exclusive use in the music shows... and it'll have a plextor hard drive !~~ although pricy ... I tend to think you're all right about it being the "best" solution.

Take Care All ~~

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[shadow=tomato]If you want your significant other to pay attention to EVERY word you say::
  TALK IN YOUR SLEEP   [/shadow]  

Yes, great information... thanks! I'm hoping to rip my stuff to a laptop too, for a backup at my main shows and as a more portable way to do private parties.

Just to be sure: you said "Plextor hard drive", Shotgun, and I hope it was just a slip. What you (and I) want is a Plextor CD-RW drive. Plextor doesn't make hard drives, but I bet if you asked for one at a store, they'd sell you a Maxtor hard drive.

Come to think of it, you'd probably need to buy the Plextor "internal" drive for a tower PC. I suppose they make one you could connect to a laptop, but I don't put much faith in USB being able to run fast enough not to make duds have the time. FireWire (a.k.a. IEEE 1394 or i.Link) on the other hand could do the job.

I'm still not using my laptop to do karaoke with. In the future I'm thinking I will.

For my DJ gigs I'll tell you what works for me and I highly reccomend the software. They are very helpful when it comes to any issue you may have and for the most part it's all covered on their web-site, but if you need to contact them, they get back with you right away.

I am speaking of OTS. I have been using OTSDJ for 3 years now and the software is incredibly relilable and it just keeps getting better with each upgrade. The next upgrades which are right around the corner are going to include the ability to do video (alas, for us KJ's) and auto beat mixing. Many radio stations use this software. It comes with a package of two other programs, OTS Studio, and MP3 converter so you can rip your audio cd's and do all the necessary editing and also convert your mp3's to ots files. The ots file is a great file system that gives you power at your fingertips to do many many things all of which would take too long to explain here but are very simple to learn and understand. I wouldn't go back to using cds over my laptop if someone held a gun to my head and told me I had to. Check out OTS corp. You won't be sorry you did.

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"Many is a word that only leaves you guessing" - Robert Plant

Fry's Electronics has a helluva deal going on right now on a laptop:

GQ RX-7334 CELERON 1.8GHz PROCESSOR, 128MB MEMORY, 30GB DRIVE, CD-RW/DVD-ROM DRIVE, 15" XGA TFT SCREEN, WINDOWS XP HOME

GQ:
Outpost #: 4288934


Price: $ 599.99

http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4288934

I'm unsure if the sucker works with dual display or not, but MOST all new video cards DO.

Holy mackeral...

300GB hdd for $183 at newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 391&DEPA=0

I finally got my music server computer all built and configured...I'm buying MTU Hoster for it this week. Hoster will rip and host things perfectly first time, everytime...I've seen it in action.

I've tried WinampPro and several others including Goldenhawk, Audio Grabber and several other ones I can't even remember. None work as well as Hoster.

My new server has a Plex 40, Sony DVD, 1Gig of ram, 200 Gig HD, ATI 9200 all in one dual video 128 AGP card, ATX Athlon CPU and is running Winduhs XP home.

Go get the Hoster demo and try it!

Tried Hoster, don't particularly care for it. 1 little piece of advice get xp pro or 2000 pro, don't run a show with xp home.

Okay, there's a few different facets that you're looking at here. The first is the machine. Windows Laptops are the most common way to do hosting although I've seen a guy on eBay making systems, and I could make one myself, that is rack mount. That way you just put the baby in your rack and you're good to go, just have to add a monitor, keyboard, and a trackball.

If you are going to use a laptop I believe an absolute must have is a quality external sound card. The internal sound on most laptops is going to be noisy because of all the interference. There's a number of USB and Firewire solutions out there (M-Audio being my preference but there's several).

Now, if you're crazy like me you can go the Mac route, I'm just a Mac guy (after decades as a Windows and PC guy, going back to DOS). I started with a PowerBook and have since switched to an iMac G5 for my hosting. Not as portable as the PowerBook but more powerful and gives me a lot of screen real estate that I frequently need.

Now, programs. I've used Sax n Dotty's, it's good at what it does for its price. I think they've been talking about a new version for like 4 months now and haven't seen it (though I haven't stopped over lately). PCDJ was also mentioned and has a KJ plugin. The problem with some of these more complicated apps is they can sure bog down a laptop. Sax n Dotty's is pretty forgiving with system resources and is not a resource hog. I've tried using some of the other hosters and they most definitely are. You can't have your audio dropping because your system is being taxed with searches so keep that in mind when picking a machine and a program. For Mac you have essentially one choice, kTunes.

Next step is ripping your software. I can't say this enough -- buy a Plextor. Plextor just has CDG support down, if you're having problems with artifacts, ripping speeds, etc., etc. most of them can be solved with a decent Plextor drive. I've primarily used Audiograbber because it's free and lets me tweak the ripping a bit more (I insist on 160 sample rate). I have Audiograbber rip to MP3 and CDG files and then manually zip them, there are other programs (MP3+G Toolz) that will do the whole process for you if you so desire.

Finally, is storage. Keep in mind, this external drive is going to be on the road with you, it has to be tough. I think most of the external drives out there ARE NOT designed to be tough so I recommend buying a tough enclosure and the hard drive separately. Here again, I'm a firewire guy, I know USB 2.0 claims to be faster but I haven't seen it, Firewire 400 is still the goods for me and there are a number of enclosure options out there.

Finally, some companies don't want you doing this, period, even if you own the software and just have the one copy you're hosting from -- Sound Choice and Sunfly come to mind. In fact, some Chartbuster has an interesting bug with their 15th track that you may need to work around.

Once you go computer hosting you'll never go back. Rotation management, searching, consistent quality of your software -- these are the main advantages of going computer based, there are many more and increasing by the day as the software is developed more.

Thanks for all the great info everyone. I learned a ton of stuff in just this one thread!!