Over the years, computers seem to be able to do more and more. There is no exception when it comes to Karaoke. Karaoke songs first came to us on tape. Then came video laser discs. The CDG that most of us have for our shows made it easy to put several songs on a small disc making it relatively easy to tote around (compared to the oversized laser discs of the past). A company called CAVS has even found a way to put over 1200 songs on one disc the size of a CD, but requires their special player or a computer to make them work. But today, the computer has given us a way to store thousands of discs worth of songs so that we don't have to carry all those discs with us to every show.
Today's computer programs allow us to convert all those discs to files the computer can read, rename the files so that your songbooks look good, run a Karaoke show that requires little intervention on the part of the KJ (Karaoke Jocky), and make it easy to find a song and select a version of the song for the singers.
Programs that help us to run a Karaoke show are called Hoster Programs. There are many different programs to choose from - some free - some not. It's literally a "You get what you pay for world" and Karaoke is no exception. We will be examining many of these programs in the coming months.
WinAmp, one of the more popular music library programs for Windows, has add-ons that will show the lyrics when playing MP3+G files. These are the files that the computer uses to play the song and show the lyrics at the sames time. Other programs like Tricerasoft and KaraFun have free karaoke programs that will play the song with lyrics on a second screen, allow you to change pitch and even have photos playing in the background. Not without their own limitations, they are great for the karaoke enthusiast that has a home set-up. But to play songs on the computer, you either need to download the files off the internet or buy a program to rip them from the CDG discs.
But for the professional KJ, programs need to have a few more bells and whistles. The programs that are designed with the professional in mind have software included in the price or as add-ons to rip files from the CDG, to burn them back to a CD for archival purposes, to create a song book for your singers, and to run your shows (even automatically playing music between singers while they get ready to sing). We will be examining all of these programs in other posts on this blog as we go forward.
Other questions that I had when I got started in the age of computer karaoke was what type or size of computer do I need? Do I use a laptop or desktop? How much hard drive space will I need to handle my collection of songs? How do I hook my computer up to the sound system? How do I run a second monitor for the singers (another for the audience is also desirable)?
One other neat add-on you can purchase now allows you to set up a remote computer at your show where singers can enter their name and song and it will automatically update their song cue in the main computer program. This runs as a network and can be wired or wireless. You can even get touchscreen capability and eliminate the need for a keyboard or computer mouse. This would be great for a karaoke bar that has a huge clientele. I'll reserve judgment until I've had an opportunity to check it out and review it right here.
While laptops have portability to their advantage, they usually require external add-ons to allow them to provide quality audio output for your show and extra hard drives for your songs. Desktops are bigger and can handle additional drives, internal sound cards and video cards that allow for dual display adapters. However they are bulkier, heavier and not as aesthetically pleasing to look at unless they are stored in an equipment rack of some kind. But, to their advantage, their processors are bigger and can handle the multitasking a little better than a laptop.
It really doesn't matter which you choose, but keep in mind that there are a lot of things that can (and will) go wrong when you move computers, hard drives, and monitors. And don't forget the amps, speakers, mixers, mikes, lights, etc. Thank goodness you don't have to lug around two ton of discs anymore.
