Karaoke Forums

All but Karaoke Songfinder have demo versions.

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"None of it are originals. All are copies."

Micky, what is it that you don't like about Winamp?

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My first choice IS Sound Choice.

I still run my shows on sax-n-dotty. As most know it is mearly a front end on winamp. I use it mainly because....I assume anyone I hire is a (computer) idiot and sax is as simply to use as anything. It has been very stable for me and on the rare occasion it does crash it allows whatever is playing to play to completion. At that point restart the app (not the pc), click yes to restore queue, and it is back up and most times the audience will not realize it crashed. I tried others when I converted years ago and found this to be the easiest. I am a strong believer in Keep It Simple Stupid and sax fits that bill.

Right. We know it works, and it's been working for the last six years....

Not a single complaint.

Also, your pricing info is skewed Danny (why am i not surprised?). In order to get the CompuHost kisok add-on at $99 you have to first purchase Compuhost.... so the effective pricing is well over $99 or even $169 isn't it?

Nice.

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"Kinda hate to admit it but Chip has a point.... " -- kjathena
"It really is quite brilliant to see how you argue." -- HarringtonLaw
"Because Chip never uses harsh comments or "comes on a little too strong"." - Bazza

I like and use Siglos Karaoke Pro ($99) for the following reasons

1 - Background for your words. You can cycle numerous pictures which you can select how long each picture will be displayed or you could utilize a video. You can also utilize a solid color background which you select what color or you can also use a gradient background where you select two different colors and it will fade one color to the other. You can also utilize a video camera video feed as a background. For the inactive background (background when no song is in que) you can utilize a picture, a video camera feed or a solid color background.
2 - You can record a singer into a mp3 format.
3 - You can reset the key changer on all new songs automatically or keep it from resetting (good for the home user that sings one song after another)
4 - You can setup and save playlist of fill-in music (songs played between singers) and set it to play or not to play a new song whenever the fill-in music kicks in between singers. The fill-in playlist can be looped so after it plays the last song it will loop back to the first song. You can also set it to random, this is when the fill-in playlist kicks in it will randomly play songs on your playlist. So now you can go to one folder and select all of your favorite artist, add it to the playlist, go to your next favorite artist and select all the songs and continue to your next favorite artist and so on and son. If random order is selected it will play songs randomly where you won't have to move one artist's songs throughout the playlist to listen to different artist's songs. Because if you left it all in a row, the one artist's songs would play one after the other instead of listening to a variety of artists. (hope that made sense)
5 - There is a singer announcement screen that can be displayed to announce the next singer. The background of this screen can be a picture, a solid color or a gradient color. This screen is also KJ customizable to add whatever the KJ wants to display such as the KJ's name and so forth.
6 - The next singer scrolling announcement at the bottom of the screen can display numerous singers that's in the rotation, so your patron's can be informed that they are up next or after the second or third singer etc. The only current drawback is that this scrolling announcement will only be displayed while someone is singing. Although having it be displayed (KJ selected) continuously is in the works
7 - Siglos Karaoke Pro will play mp3+G (zipped or not), AVI, Kar, Midi or bin files. It will also play directly from a CDG disc and the song does not need to be ripped and/or imported. I have a Plextor external disc drive that I use because my disc drive on my laptop does not read CDG's. There is no lag or delay whenever using the external disc drive to play any CDG disc. (I personally love this feature). The one thing I wish Karaoke Pro would do is play mpeg and/or DVD's.
8 - Karaoke Pro can also be set to play in the auto mode. In this mode, depending on the delay that the KJ selects, the program will play the karaoke songs according to the rotation lineup. This mode is useful if the KJ needs to leave the laptop for a few minutes. An example of this feature is if the KJ has the delay set to 10 secs he/she can leave the laptop and when the song ends, the singer announcement screen will be displayed for 10 secs, then play the next song. This should be enough time for the next singer to come up to the stage before his/her song starts. If more time is needed, the KJ can adjust the delay setting accordingly.
9 - The program also remembers singers, their songs and key change (if any). You can set this feature up with different venues. If you perform at venue A on monday, wednesday, friday and venue B on saturday, sunday and thursday, the program will remember your different venues and singers. Because the singer lineup at venue A might be totally or somewhat different from venue B. Karaoke Pro can remember the singers by venues (if the KJ so desires)
10 - Although Karaoke Pro keeps track of singer rotation, I've seen other programs handle the rotation better. Not a big deal or show stopper for me.

I know several other karaoke programs have some of the same features but I wanted to say why I like Siglos Karaoke Pro. I am not here to bash any other program so I don't want to say this program can't do this, while Karaoke Pro can etc etc etc. Each program has it's strong points and weak points.

I have tried just about all of the programs available and I'm very happy and comfortable with Siglos. I'm sure Paradigm Karaoke feels the same way as I do. Another feature I like about the program is the customer support. If you post anything in their forum about a problem that you've encountered or even just a suggestion, their support staff will answer you within a day. Sometimes within a few hours. Their support is the best I've seen in a long time! So if you're considering Siglos Karaoke Pro, go ahead and download the demo and give it a test drive. I highly recommend it!!

time to get off of my soap box

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Long Live Karaoke

Fragility and action-at-a-distance. The hosting programs frequently get out of sync with it, particularly the key changer. You have to start up in a particular sequence, and if you have it set to be the launch application for other file types that can be torpedoed quite easily. Also, the preferences in the program frequently have to be set in a particular way, and it is far from clear that you could kill your connection by changing a Winamp preference.

As a programmer, I deal with this type of thing all the time. If you could make a "private" copy of Winamp that would be untouchable by the OS, then it wouldn't be so bad. But if it stays in the system menus, it is vulnerable to problems caused by action at a distance.

You can mitigate this a bit by using Windows Media Player or some other program as your default handler for media files. I would also remove the icon from the desktop and any docking areas.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Chip, that isn't my pricing by the way, it was Bazza's.

Yeah but who wants to spend $179 for a program they don't know whether it works or not. I don't know about you but I won't buy a program I can't test drive, even if it has some limitations set on it.

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"None of it are originals. All are copies."

Although no one has ever used it, there is a money-back guarantee.... mail back the dongle within 30 days and you get your money back.

So the "try before you buy" is really a moot point.

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"Kinda hate to admit it but Chip has a point.... " -- kjathena
"It really is quite brilliant to see how you argue." -- HarringtonLaw
"Because Chip never uses harsh comments or "comes on a little too strong"." - Bazza

If there were a hosting program that:

A) Completely controlled all aspects of Winamp including automatically disabling all non-essential plugins, temporarily set each and every Winamp setting to hosting program preferred settings, and completely control and automate the starting and stopping of Winamp

B) Supplied and automatically inserted custom plugins to control all aspects of media queuing and playing

C) Supplied and automatically inserted custom key control plugin that is completely controlled by the hosting program

D) Completely and thoroughly control Winamp so comprehensively that the user never has to touch Winamp or any of its settings Then that hosting program would eliminate Winamp “Fragility” since most of Winamp’s perceived “Fragility” is due to non-essential Winamp plugins such as the media library plugin. If the hosting program also tightly integrated the playing of non-karaoke media material such as videos, music, and sound effects seamlessly from said hosting program, then there would be no need to use other players and thus eliminate “action-at-a-distance” problems. A hosting program written this comprehensively as far as winamp configuration, control, starting, and stopping would eliminate “sequence of events” problems as well as completely eliminating Winamp preferences and settings issues.

There is only one program that hides Winamp so perfectly and comprehensively and it is called The Digital KJ

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KNOW THYSELF

Even then, you're vulnerable to upgrades depending on how you do that.

Now if it placed the program in a private registry space and program location, to the point where you could run two versions, that would work. I have done this with some of my very complex programs that require an entire programming language with myriad libraries. You put it all in a private place, and make sure that system upgrades can't touch it.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

mckyj57: Isn't your real problem with winamp that the key control message sometimes gets lost in the loop? I used a Winamp based system for many years without a hiccup. But then, I didn't change keys. Just explain to the singers that key changers suck (and they really do suck) and that solves the problem.

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Okay, who took my pants?

That's not my attitude. I don't use a Winamp-based system for man reasons, and not being able to reliably change keys is just one of them.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Not the i particularily care either way but I wanted to clairify something. If karaoke song finder requires a dongle, does that mean u have to buy a copy for each kiosk you want to set up? That could add up pretty quickly.


Mind you i'm pretty sure compuhost also charges for each copy as well..

I really don't care how busy a KJ "thinks they might be" in 6 years, I've never needed more than 1 (one, uno) at any show. Plus, this software is not dependent on other software.... You can use it with a database made from a disc collection or even as a request system for a Disc Jockey.

The receiver program that runs in the background is a mere 28k in size... it won't interfere with any other software you run and the kiosk doesn't need to be rebooted if your host system goes down.

Would you prefer if I had a sale... like "buy 1 and get the 2nd one for $75?" This way you'd be saving around $100 and still have two.

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"Kinda hate to admit it but Chip has a point.... " -- kjathena
"It really is quite brilliant to see how you argue." -- HarringtonLaw
"Because Chip never uses harsh comments or "comes on a little too strong"." - Bazza

Neither Super Remote Tool or Compuhost's kiosk requires a dongle and you can have as many kiosks as you please without buying any other copies.

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"None of it are originals. All are copies."

I still got my copy of compuhost. I downloaded tri-karaoke, just as a backup since you have to entrust your show to a cheap little dongle if you're running compuhost. Annoying but necessary for them to protect their work I guess.. Over two years since I bought it and still haven't got around to getting to know compuhost!

I haven't been doing much karaoke tho, maybe I'll give it a go or just give it to my mate. I gave him all my karaoke gigs already..

You must have an older Compuhost, they got rid of the dongle a couple years ago at least.

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

Oh really? That's good news!
I think I bought it around the end of 2008. Man how time flies!!

If you have a dongle, it still works.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I bought my dongle version around January of Last year. Can't wait to get the new version on my show laptop because it only has three USB ports, that will free up one for imports and charging of my phone.
Dongle will go to my other laptop that will soon be my second rig laptop.

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If you're going to eat my mic, do you at least want some condiments?