Karaoke Forums

I'm getting ready to set up a lap top  to add to my system. What do you guys recommend that I get  thats a bargain ? I'm considering getting a laptop with 512 RAM and I guess if it has a low gig hard drive it won't matter because I have to buy a 300gig external hard drive anyway..What  hosting program do you recommend(preferably) one that can convert my cdg's and cd's) Should i convert them into mp3+G or wma? I hear mp3+g is more compatable for the long run.. I have a m-audio mobile pre for recording and has a decent sound card drive with it.(Have you heard about these?)I was thinking of using it for my sound card. I was gonna get a splitter for my rca jack and hook my audio to my amplified mixer with my RSQ player. I was also going to get a splitter and adapt and run a rca cable from my lap top to my RF modulator. What do you guys think? I was gonna buy all this stuff on Ebay.

I think the consenus would be the more RAM the better. Costwise these days it might not cost that much to double the 512 ram.  Thats what I found out asking the same questions not too long ago  :)

Besides the basic lap top youwll need an External Hardrive and also I believe an external Pro soundcard ( see other topics already discussing this).

I ripped all my CDG's using a program called AUDIO GRABBER . (if you search here or google it you will get plenty of info )

 I went to PC awhile back and was using a desktop.  I went to laptop few months ago and it has its pros and cons - Obvious pros are its smaller and easier to transport. Cons are the COST and the additional soundcard you need to hook up and also the external Hardrive etc. Plus I find that damm little keyboard a PAININTHEASS.  Overall I am satisfied going from DISC to PC but found out I still need to carry my CDG player for customer discs this days.

As far as software I personally use PCDJ / KJ

http://www.mtu.com/catalog/product_info ... ucts_id=45

Search the Tech forums for a good external audio card
http://www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6904

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/pcdj-KJ.html

I'd like to recomend a thing or two as well.

My history has little to do with Karaoke hardware but I still work on desktop PCs.

I do recomend as was already mentioned going to at least 1GB of RAM. I also recomend getting some anti-virus software if you plan on playing other people's disks. Trying to play only disks that were burned by a brand name is not always as safe as it might seem either because these days a lot of people can burn disks at home that look like the original. I am open minded that I might be proven wrong on this point.

There is freeware anti-virus software available. I use some on my computer and have never upgraded to the pay version. The problem with some anti-virus software is that it can slow the computer down.

If buying hardware on ebay, in case you don't already know this, check the feedback on every seller that you consider buying from. Check the shipping costs too.

If I post more info in the future, I will try to be less wordy. Also this is a subject that I need to learn a lot more about myself because of the karaoke side of the equipment.

I hope this helps at least a little.

Very good point! I use the free AVG Anti-Virus
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-vi ... /us/tpl/v5

Playing people's cdgs on my rsq tripple tray can cause a virus on my lap top? Also, do I connect my video out  on my lap top to the rf modulator ? The audio out on my lap top goes to my splitter so I can run my rsq triple tray to my mixer amplifier? By the time I buy a program to host and audio grabber..couldn't I have just bought the mtu hosting program that does both?..or would that be much higher? Do I need to get  and external video card?

I would go with the rsq player and the switchbox to switch between the rsq and the laptop. It's worth the extra step to do so.
Reasons for doing so:
1:eliminates any virus threat from customer's discs (means I can turn off the antivirus software to free up memory for what really is important, playing the music).
2:eliminates wear and tear on your cd-rom drive so that you don't hve to replace that after months or years of use. Much cheaper to have to replace the cdg player as you can find a cheap dvd player that plays cdg to replace your rsq should it wear out on you.  As for programs, there are cheaper programs out there that can do the same job as MTU and if you go MTU then you're stuck with their proprietory format and can't use it with other programs should you find another program that better suites your needs. I am not saying that Hoster isn't a good program, it might meet your needs in the end, but best to be sure try the other program's demos before making your final decision.  Invision and RoxBox both have rippers that go beyond what AudioGrabber can do and none of them rely on the internet to name their files(another rreason to have a good antivirus program).  CDGRipper by Invision uses Fast Tracks Database to name their files while KJrip N Zip uses either their own builtin database or that of KJPRO, Airwer, or Music Book Deluxe to help name the files. Both programs also will zip the two files that make up the MP3+G format into one consolidated file. If you choose to go Hoster at a later date you can import both MP3+G zipped and unzipped with hoster.

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I agree with this ..thats what I do.

I use a New HP Lap top with 2 Gig of ram and use AudioGrabber to rip.
Troubadour to Play files on lap Top With 300 Gig external as well as 20 Inch LCD monitor. With Switch Box...and a Single Tray RSQ Player

to Make custom CD's I use CDRWIN

Thanks for the good advice. So I would hook up my video out from lap top to my rf modulator(that splits from there and can go to two tvs ? Do I need to buy all this on line or does best buy and radio shack cover most of these products I need?

also..is it cheaper to buy a notebook on ebay that has 512 or less ram and have it upgraded somewhere?

Hi we just bought the Hoster ruggedized laptop from MTU . We  just started importing yesterday hubby couldnt believe it was so easy and fast we bought it
'loaded" with everything they had + the 300 GB HD and warrenty.
a little on the pricey side, but it just seemed like alot of work bulding our own system. Although one can do this with xtra time on their hands, we dont. Karaoke is a part time job for us, ( for now) so the easier the better. And having the warrenty and the outstanding forum to help out was a big plus too.
I'll let you know how it goes. Good luck in deciding.  Kelley

Thanks for the info Kelley..When you say pricey..that kina scares me..The MTU Notebook I seen on line was $2100.00. I only do a gig every few months..so I'm trying to get out cheap as I can. I'm considering the Sax and Dotty Hosting program because the older version work well with low Ram and Processing speed..Then I can buy a lap top with 512mb of ram. Its seems the ones that come with a gig of ram are twice the price..But I feel that if you have the money and you do regular gigs then you are definitely doing the right thing..Wish I could afford one.

I have run RoxBox on a processor as low as 300 mhz and ram as low as 128mb without any headaches. With S&D you gotta go get evrything separate while ROxbox is one simple download that includes winamp and it's plugins as well. With Roxbox you get support for it. Can't say that for the older Sax & Dotty's show presenter before it was presenter. Plus you're dealing with over the pond support while with RoxBox, your support can be on the same timeline as you are give or takea couple of hours if you're on opposite sides of the country. And I've never known Frank to get snippy with customers, Paul has on occasional taken out some frustration on the forum, especially when MTU was suing him over the name of his program.

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Thanks Danny, Now you are talkin my language.. Roxbox sounds like the way to go for me..Does it have the feature to where you can have the rotation listed that comes on screen for everyone?..and have auto fire dj music that comes on between singers?

yes it doesto both questions.on the singer que it shows eveything that is in the que. what it does is opens two instances of winamp and you have two player lists. What I do is set up the playlist in the second player control screen set at mp3 and have the AP and AR set to on. Player one I turn AP and AR off and SQ (singer's que) on. When the first Karaoke song ends player two should start and when you start player one then player two should stop. You also have fade buttons under neath the search area to switch to each player quicker.
with your purchase you also get registration of Pacemaker as well, hence the fact that RoxBox costs more than S&D, but then again S&D doesn't have it's own Songlist printer program, ripper and Super CDG convertor and you don't have to do multiple downloads or if you forgot to do some of those downloads, wonder why the program doesn't work and need  support for somthing they should have provided you in the install in the first place.

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All My Files On My Hard Drive are Bin File's ...will Roxbox work with these files?

Looks like an Ok Deal for $79.00

No but it is very easy to convert them over to MP3+G Zipped by using MP3+GToolZ to convert them. By converting them you gain space on your drive so you can expand the amount of the number of songs you can have on that drive.
A Bin file can be as big as 50 mb while the same mp3+G zipped file depending on what rate of compression is used on the audio file might be 5 mb of hard drive space. Karaoke playground has links to the modern version but also has a download of version 2. I may suggest to frank to add a converter from bin to mp3+Gzipped. If he does it he will include naming capbilities in it.

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Now all I gotta do is find a good deal on  on ebay on a 512 RAM notebook thats used.. and a 250 or 300 gig external hard drive..used..should I get a used sound card?

try this site out: www.notebookmall.com they have some for $400.

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

What size hard drive will i need on the lap top?