Karaoke Forums

So, I know that the top two CDG softwares we have are Karaoke Builder Studio and Karaoke CD+G Creator. I've never used the latter, simply because KBS seems to be the superior program at a glance. I've seen the arguments for Creator being better at wipes, so I may give it a shot at some point.

Are these the only two options we really have? What do the professional producers use? I know I've seen tracks that have nice block count downs like the old Chartbuster tracks or even a physical number countdown. I don't think you can do either of those with the two mentioned softwares.

Also, as technology advances, the use of CDG's is getting outdated. AVI and MP4 files tend to look much better with a lot better graphics and video backgrounds. Does anyone know of any software that creates these videos? Not the cliché lyric videos on YouTube, but your typical karaoke where the words wipe as the song progresses. Examples are Karaoke-Version MP4s and Karafun. Those files look much better than the blocky CDG format. Does anyone know what software they use, or any decent software to create videos like this?

I know Power CD+G has a converter, but converted CDG files still don't look very clean, and playing around with it I haven't been able to add background videos like it claims you can. I suppose a software that can import data from a CDG file that can be tweaked then create a video file would be better than a simple conversion software, but I don't think anything like that exists, although the K-V CGD vs. MP4 look like they were created in this fashion, as the files look almost identical.

The only other software I've stumbled upon is Kanto Video Creator and Kanto Syncro, but I haven't tried the Kanto suite yet. Any leads on any other karaoke creation software are appreciated! I'd love to be able to make a nice clean karaoke video, and I don't think the old CDG format is capable of pulling that off!

I use karaoke home Producer from mtu.com. I actually like Powerkaraoke's cdg to mp4 converter but I no longer convert. I even stopped buying the mp4 files of the manufacturers but that is to make better use of karaoke file Manager's id3tag feature. If it worked with mp4 files I would continue getting mp4 files.

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

CDG is getting outdated because CDs are outdated. However, MP3+G is far from outdated. MP3+G actually has many advantages over MP4 (or any video format). The two biggest reasons are size and speed. MP3+G files are significantly smaller because they're not videos. Videos are basically 24 (or more) full screen pictures per second, and even with compression, they take up a lot of space. MP3+G files only contain small instructions for drawing blocks on a very small grid with an even smaller color palette. Also, MP3+G files use a lot less CPU power and keep your machine running cooler and lasting longer. The MP3 audio portion has no less audio quality capabilities than the audio track of an MP4 video. Both depend on the bitrate of the audio track and utilize basically the same compression algorithms.

As a singer myself, I can tell you I don't care about how high def the lyrics are or how fancy the background is. Also, most singers want the attention on their performance. They don't want the crowd saying "hey look at that cool background on the lyrics screen". I guess it depends on who you're trying to impress. Are you trying to make your singers happy with emphasis on the performances, or are you trying to impress your KJ friends with your high def hardware and cool attention grabbing videos?

Basically, don't let the "CD" part of CDG fool you. CDs may be gone, but MP3+G files will make sense well into the future. They're a gem. Don't ever delete your MP3+G files. You will probably regret it if you do. It's like the people who tossed their vinyl records in the 1980s and now regret it. Just like vinyl records, there's a certain no-frills purity to MP3+G files. Also considering how little space they take up and how cheap hard drive space is these days, it's a no brainer.

Sound Choice made a very good decision when they made the MP3+G GEM series versions of their tracks, because they recorded all the MP3 audio at 320 kbps bitrate, which is CD quality, and even most MP4 videos don't go that high with the audio quality. Most of the MP3s tracks out there are recorded at 128 kbps. This stems from the early days of Napster when everyone wanted the smallest possible file without any noticeable difference in audio quality. The average person can't tell the difference at 128. My ear can (or I think it can) and I always made 160 kbps my minimum and preferred 192 kbps and up.

Basically, keep making MP3+G files. You can't go wrong. You can always convert them to video, but you can never convert them back from video. Remember that.

Oh yeah, I totally agree.

That said, I do miss the cheesy old Pioneer laserdisc karaoke movies. I wonder if they are archived anywhere?

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast

There is an other possible scenario that exists for MP3+G. For example, there are some songs that I produced that every time I hear them I cringe. Most of the times that was due to getting the songs out to reach a deadline, other times it was just too complex to produce within budget. Fast forward 20 years and the tools to produce music have advanced to a point where we could only dream of those resources back then. Fortunately all of our tracks were musically correct so it's just a matter of revoicing the tracks and voila, a greatly improved music track. All of these songs are out of license due to the +g files but the audio files themselves can be relicensed as phonorecords which can be "synced" to the existing +g files.

There's also the possibility of scoring a song to other producer's tracks. For example there were several Music Maestro tracks (and other producers as well so as not to single out Music Maestro) that had some pretty awful music. Here again that music can be rerecorded so that it syncs up with the original +g file for that producer and the music only licensed as a phonorecord. Just a thought but I'm willing to be that there are a number of songs that many KJs would be willing to pay a buck or two to have the music replaced with a quality audio track.

I’ve used CDG in the past too and while it’s definitely compact and easy to manage, it just doesn't have the visual polish for more modern karaoke setups. I started leaning toward video-based formats, especially when I wanted something a bit more fun for parties or events. I tried Karafun and even played around with syncing lyrics manually into MP4s using Adobe tools, but it's seriously time-consuming if you're not doing it full-time.

At some point I also needed to convert some audio clips to M4R for ringtones during one of my custom projects, and I picked up how to do that from this easy-to-use M4R converter. Might come in handy if you’re working on something that crosses into mobile formats too. You can check on https://www.movavi.com/audio-converter/ ... erter.html

Here's some tricks that I use as a pro in the business: It's easier to sync lyrics to the audio in a special app designed for making CDGs or mp3+Gs. Adobe Premiere or Final Cut are overkill and I've never been a fan of Karaoke CD+G Creator. Karaoke Builder is my go-to for 20 years, and I've even convinced Nick (the owner) to add some custom tools to it that I needed along the way. The unencoded .kbp lyric file has readable lyric and timing data that I convert to an specific XML file for other uses and conversions (I have an app for that). In Karaoke Builder, after I'm done syncing, I export as a BIN file and then separate the audio and .cdg file and keep. Next, I convert that .wav to mp3 format (I usually use 320 kbps) to use in the process of encoding video. That particular .mp3 file will be in sync with the XML file. From there, I use a custom application to encode the mp3 with the XML into an .mp4 video file that also adds my title and end screens, but with static backgrounds. To create moving background videos, I burn the video first with a green screen background instead and then import it into Final Cut to replace with a moving video (removing only the green screen) and export. Sometimes I replace the title and end screens with other Photoshop versions. It might sound like a lot of steps, but it's actually not that hard to do once you get the hang of it and are doing a bunch at once. I do have the advantage of those lyric conversion and video burning applications that are not on the market to purchase.

The Karaoke CD+G Creator has evolved into a better program that makes the lyrics look closer to MP4s. It is now AI based and has features that I think you would like.

On the other hand, their Video Creator software does what you were describing but does it a lot simpler with less steps.
Even using moving backgrounds is simpler. Just add a wide screen jpg or other picture formats and the program will pan left and right at the speed you decide. Or, you can also use videos as the background for your lyrics by simply inserting it into the program. Give it a go and see if you like it, there's demo versions of the CD+G Creator and the Video Creator that you can try.

I first used khpro from MTU for CDG files. I now use Powerkaraoke's AI Video Creator because it's actually better than Beethoven was. Never could get that to work.

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