Karaoke Forums

I emailed karaokestar and it kicked back as undeliverable.

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

I just called the toll free number for them, and the guy I spoke with confirmed that the listing was a mistake (with regard to it being a CDG). He is aware that it is the new product which Bastiat told us about, and he said he has to make corrections on the website.

I guess they were "Out of the Loop" after all. Yesterday they said it was definitely a CD+G disc. Even the retailers don't keep up with the new stuff.

Maybe Bastiat called them and let them know. Too bad he hasn't been around here today to let us know what the scoop is on RYOK and Beethoven.

So Bastiat, Are the new products flying off the shelves or are people shying away from having to Roll Their Own?

What about the people who have subscribed to PHM for years who don't own a computer or lack the skills to even use the Beethoven software? Are they just $hit out of luck?... or will they be driven to the illegal sharing sites to get their PHM fix?

Yes, the new RYOK Tracks are already being shared by the masses.

I know a guy who knows a guy whose cousin's boyfriend's uncle knows a guy who is a karaoke pirate. He had all of these RYOK songs the day after they came out. What's up with that? It takes 5 minutes to roll your own and 2 seconds for someone to rip it off when you hand it to them on a thumb drive at their show.

How is someone with no computer and no computer skills going to be driven to a sharing site? Are you suggesting that RYOK is going to cause a run on computer sales and training? Maybe we should all take out stock in Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Google and the computer OEM's is anticipation of the run up! Pay attention to New Horizons and other software training companies too! [Note - I am not a stock analyst and the previous heavy sarcasm was brought to you by the Foundation Against Extreme Stupidity. Please consult a qualified investment adviser before investing in anything.]

I am just guessing here, but I don't think the intent of RYOK was ever to reduce piracy. I am pretty sure we all know the pirates will steal anything they can. I suspect new stuff is particularly attractive just for the ego points. The RYOK tracks and the necessary software will end up out in the wild where people will use it without compensating Stellar......exactly the same way they are stealing the PHM products now.

-Chris

_________________
-Chris

There will be some people who will find it easier to buy the finished RYOK products from a friendly KJ rather than buy the product from Stellar and have to figure out how to make it work. It's human nature to find the path of least resistance.

Well lots of things to address since I was on last. First I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hopefully it will be better than last year. As much as I hate to discuss the topic, I guess the first order of business would be for me to address the legal question. I do want to remind everyone again that I'm not a lawyer which renders the value of my opinion commensurate to that for which you are paying. So rather than offer a legal opinion for which I am not qualified, what I can offer is some practical advice. It’s important to make the distinction between what is legal and what is practical. Whether or not one agrees on legal grounds with a particular position that a rights holder might take, unless that position is clearly unfounded it serves no purpose to challenge that position(s) strictly from a practical standpoint.

Within the last week and subsequent to the announcement of the release of Roll Your Own Karaoke, we have been contacted by a major publisher who has asserted that under copyright law they retain exclusive rights in the song lyrics separate from that of the audio to which is being authorized under a mechanical license. I’m paraphrasing of course, but this particular publisher requires that RYOK issue a disclaimer along those lines as part of its terms of service. Personally and for reasons that reach far beyond the scope of this post, I am not totally convinced that there is a solid legal basis for which a rights holder can make such claims or assertions, but nevertheless and from a practical standpoint, challenging those assertions would most likely end in litigation which is a no win situation for a record label or end user. I’d be remiss if I didn’t make mention of the fact that the publisher’s request was cordial and not made with any malice that I could detect, but rather they were simply asserting their rights based on their interpretation of the copyright code.

So in closing, the most practical advice that I can offer is that if you intend to create your own lyrics screen, that you play it safe and inquire from the individual rights holders of the musical composition as to if and what type of license would be required for their particular work for the use(s) which it is intended.

Regarding embedded data in the Mp3 files, I repeat there is NO hidden data, there is NO meta-data other than the standard stuff like song title, artist, etc. These files are strictly audio-only files. Beethoven can work with ANY song. However, in this first release we have restricted its use to work with RYOK tracks only until we feel comfortable enough with the fact that the universal use of the Beethoven application does not in any way infringe either directly or in a contributory manner on other producers’ works.

To BruceFan4Life– rather than attempting to stir up a ration of doo doo why don’t you try a more civil approach? Whether or not our new products are flying off the shelves is really no concern of yours nor is it your concern as to the fate of our long time subscribers. I believe these folks can speak for themselves and I don’t believe that you were appointed by any of them to be their spokesperson.

If you want to engage in constructive conversation with me then I suggest you try a more civil approach. Otherwise I will just add you to the ignore list. Fear not however, as there are already others awaiting your companionship. Posts by you such as the one that I’ve cited are antagonistic, ill-disposed, and I can’t for the life of me understand why any rational human being would want to bring such unsolicited maliciousness to a discussion. It adds absolutely nothing to the discussion, provides no answers, but only serves to invite discourse. You just might want to reconsider your bedside manner before you continue to post. Just sayin’

It has been suggested by a few of you that we post a video or tutorial of Beethoven. I think that is an excellent idea and I'll see to it that we get one in the works. Thanks to all of you that have made that suggestion. That is the kind of dialogue that is helpful and constructive from which everyone can benefit and bears credit to the usefulness of these forums.

The question was asked if we were going to discontinue releasing products altogether in a CD+G format. The answer is no we have not ruled that out entirely. We may continue to release CD+G products of what we deem to be important songs if they are not being covered by everyone else. More often than not those songs are represented by major publishers and while we won't shun them entirely we really would prefer to work with the thousands of independent publishers many of whom are some of the nicest people to work with.

The problem is that the patrons who frequent karaoke shows in general are not tuned into alternative and emerging artists, and we can't for the life of us think of a way to promote these artists through the KJ medium. I'm convinced that there's a way that hasn't been thought of yet, but someday someone will figure it out and open up a whole new market. By the way, there are a number of artists who are not only willing to be featured on our monthly CD+G releases, but are also willing to provide us with their actual original recordings. Some of them actually wanted to pay us to put them on our disc. Go figure!

Restating previous post from 12/31/13:

I am a bit confused (as I consider myself to be somewhat PC Illiterate (and that's funny because I work on a Mainframe)).

If I never heard the song before, would I still be able to convert that RYOK track into a BIN FILE so that I could burn it to a CD with OSL (CDG)?


How would I go about getting the OSL attached (not sure if that's the right terminology) to the RYOK track? Would this be through some kind of COPY AND PASTE function? Are the Lyrics for each RYOK track being provided by this Beethoven software, or would I have to go to some Lyrics Search site and do a COPY to the entire lyrics of the song in question, and then do a PASTE for the lyrics to be transposed into OSL for the track, thus making it a CDG file? If the latter, does the Beethoven software give me prompts for this? Does it take a PASTE of an entire song, or would I have to do this one word or line at a time?


What do you mean by lyric files with 5 star and 1 star song ratings?

I have never created my own CDG (from scratch) before. You mention the need for a 3rd party software application for the Beethoven Version 1 to work. And, as mightywiz just pointed out, is this 3rd party software something extra that I need to pay for? For someone who is a bit slow to the draw when it comes to keeping up with today's technology, can you break this down a little more for me, as to what I need to do, and in what order (SHOOT!!! I didn't get my 1st Cell Phone until 6 years ago... a Razor Phone from T-Mobile... and it is still working great... BTW, this is the only Cell Phone that I have owned)? And also, contrary to what some people have said about CDGs being a dead media, I still use them (as I am a Disc Based (DB) KJ).

Maybe some of my questions might get answered with the release of this tutorial or video.

I recently bought a Dec cdg from Pop Hits Monthly..only to find out I really liked some of the songs from the artists Ive never heard of...maybe I did jump the gun a little...maybe I need to start checking out the full release by listening to it rather judging it by the artist list
Loved ...RUBBERBAND and OUTTA STATE OUTTA MIND
I guess all I can do is step up and I was wrong.......sorry PHM

BTW Im currently working on learning RUBBERBAND

To cueball- Converting a RYOK track into a .bin file is not a direct process. In version 1.0 of Beethoven, you will have to first render the track into a Mp3+G format (i.e. .mp3 file plus matching .cdg file). You can then covert the two Mp3+G files into a single .bin file using the enclosed "MP3GToolz4Setup" application. Since no two users are alike, it is difficult to comment as to whether or not you will be able to convert a song that you’ve never heard before. However, every song has a multiplex version to which you can listen to in order to make any adjustments if necessary, so in theory the answer to your question would be yes. Of course the greater the familiarity with the song the easier it will be to author.

As far as “getting the OSL attached”, well I’m not quite sure how to answer that question as “attaching” OSL files is not part of the process. In a nutshell, the way Beethoven works is that once you fire up the application and have identified the song you want to author, you would then supply Beethoven with the lyrics by either typing them into the “Lyrics Editor” pane in Beethoven or pasting them in from another source such as what you suggested by going to a “Lyrics Search site” in which you can paste an entire song all at once and not one word or one line at a time. To be clear, Beethoven does not supply or embed any lyrics at all either in whole or in part in either the RYOK audio files or anywhere within the Beethoven application and its accompanying files.

With regards to lyrics files with 5 star ratings . . . this basically refers to the quality of a lyrics file found on "Lyrics Search site". A lyrics file with a 5 star rating would need little or no editing whatsoever and can therefore be copied from the “Lyrics Search site” and pasted directly into Beethoven’s “Lyrics Editor” pane. A lyrics file with a 1 star rating would require so much editing/preparation that it would be better to locate an alternate source for the lyrics, hence the reason for stating that they are practically unuseable.

All of the applications that you need to complete the process are included on the Beethoven CD. You do not need to purchase any additional software. As far as the order in which you need to execute the program, you only need to fire up Beethoven, it will automatically open “Karaoke Lyrics Editor” when it comes time to render the .cdg file. However once completed, you will need to convert the .cdg file along with the .mp3 to a .bin file by using “MP3GToolz4Setup” which as previously mentioned is also included on the Beethoven CD in order to burn a CD+G disc.

To GeminiMALE40– I appreciate your honesty, and truth be told is that there are some very cool songs from the PHM lineup that few KJs and patrons have given a listen. I’ve often times envisioned the possibility of karaoke venues being the next “radio airplay”. If that were ever to become a reality, then how cool would it be if the next “super star” were “pulled” through the market via the popularity of a track in karaoke venues as opposed to being “pushed” onto us via media hype and market control which is the way we are now being fed? Not that I’m so naïve as to think that “payola” and the overall corrupt practices in the music biz will ever cease entirely, but it would be nice to see if an artist or two can achieve great success stemming from the karaoke scene.

I'm still not following you on this. When I have searched for song lyrics, I never noticed any ratings on the results. I have seen some lyrics as being different or inaccurate...

Example: "Picture" (Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow)
Lyric search 1:
Female: I was head of the church
Male: I was off to drink you away

Lyric Search 2:
Female: I was headed to church
Male: I was off to drink you away

Example: "White Rabbit" (Jefferson Airplane/Grace Slick)
Lyric Search 1:
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice, I think she'll know
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"

Lyric Search 2:
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice, I think she'll know
When logic and proportion
Have fallen slowly dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"

Lyric Search 1:
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice, I think she'll know
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"

Where would one find these STAR RATINGS (which you speak of) for a lyric search?

there is no fee for the third party program, it comes with beethoven or you can download it free off the internet. While I don't have beethoven yet, I already have made three songs using the third party software.

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

sorry double post.

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

The star ratings are how we rate them. You wouldn't find them anywhere other than with the documentation accompanying a RY0K purchase. We may post the ratings on our website but never the actual lyrics.