Make my computer a karaoke champ.

January 1, 2009 8:55 PM

How do I turn my laptop into a mobile karaoke machine?

I've got an XP system, lots of storage space for songs, and a bar that wants me to host karaoke once a week for a few bucks. They're supplying the PA system.

Other than doing lots of karaoke in the past, I don't actually know how to turn my machine into a karaoke machine. I need a quick education. I don't want to use actual discs. I'd like to store all the files on my computer, like I've seen other KJs do.

posted by comeonsurferrosa to computers & internet (7 comments total)

I don't know about karaoke specifically. If the discs you speak of are actually some sort of proprietary thing, this isn't very good advice.

But, assuming the discs have video files of the lyrics with the music in the audio channels (i.e. they're video CDs or DVDs), this should be really easy.

Just rip all of the video discs to local storage--this is easy, but could take forever for a huge stack of discs. You'd then select the video file corresponding to the song the singer selects, and play it with whatever video player you like: anything from Windows Media Player to mplayer should work. You might consider getting a second monitor so that you can work on one, and display the video on the other--no huhu here, just drag the video player window onto that monitor.
posted by Netzapper at 9:47 PM on January 1

I went from karaoke addict to impromptu host. I used to bring my laptop, mixer, mics, and extra montior to parties and host karaoke.

Where are you getting your music? If you have karaoke (CD+G) discs now, there are several freeware programs out there that will do the job, but you'll need a compatible CD drive as most won't read the lyrics track on the discs. I believe all Plextor drives are capable.

I used to use WinAmp with the CDG plugin to actually play the music. Now I run a Mac and use KJams Pro. Hook a second monitor up to your computer, and set the computer up to run a large desktop that spans both monitors instead of mirroring the same thing on both screens. Set it up so that the lyrics window is displayed on the monitor, and face this toward your singers.

There are many more questions you may have as you go along. Have you considered the microphones, mixers, PA, effects, and lighting? How much of this is done by the venue vs. how much will you have to provide and set up yourself? Do you have experience running a sound board? One of the best KJs I frequented went to school for audio engineering, and it really made a huge difference.
posted by tkolstee at 9:57 PM on January 1

The venue will actually provide the mics, mixer, PA, stage, and everything that goes with it. They want me to host, run sound (which I have experience with due to playing in bands), and they will provide everything else.

What I'm interested in specifically is how I can run this from my laptop. I've seen lots of KJs run a show with no discs, and I want to figure out how to do this. What are the best programs to use?
posted by comeonsurferrosa at 9:30 AM on January 2

Oh, and a friend of mine is going to loan me some cdg discs to get me started. He suggested that I just download some online, but I don't really want to risk getting bad quality rips.
posted by comeonsurferrosa at 9:59 AM on January 2

Again, I would check into the legalities of this. I've hung around quite a few karaoke hosts, and have heard horror stories about KJs using illegally acquired songs and getting busted. Then again, this could all be an urban legend among the KJs out there.

The options I'm giving here are freeware. You may want to invest in hosting software that helps you keep track of your singers, rotation, etc.

First, use software to rip the CD's audio and lyrics track onto your computer. There are online lists of drives that will handle CD+Gs correctly, but IMHO you can't go wrong with a Plextor drive. One piece of freeware I found for ripping CDGs is AudioGrabber. After ripping, you end up with two files per track, named the same except that one will have a "MP3" extension and the other will have a "CDG" extension. You can play these files with a Plugin for WinAmp.
posted by tkolstee at 1:20 PM on January 2

Thanks. This is exactly the kind of stuff I need. I'm not so worried about the legality of it considering that I'm only going to be doing this at one place, once a week, and for very little money. If anything, I can claim to be an employee of the guy loaning me the discs, which would give me the right to use them (I'm not to sure about this, but I think it would appease anyone curious enough to pry around here).

My next obstacle is hooking my laptop into the PA, but that seems like it'll be pretty easy.
posted by comeonsurferrosa at 8:33 PM on January 2

You might want to consider running it through a mixer. I've had good luck hooking my computer up to one of the mixer inputs, then running the mics through the other inputs, with the effects bus running on the mics only. Since you've had experience with this side of it, you probably know more than I.

Feel free to MeMail me on this if you want more help with the audio files.
posted by tkolstee at 12:08 AM on January 3