Karaoke software blog

Power CD+G Burner in version 1.7.1 received whole new functionality — karaoke file converter. It allows to convert between various karaoke file formats.

Allowed input formats are:

• BIN
• MP3+G
• ZIP
• KMA

Power CD+G Burner automatically detects input format based on file extension.

Output formats are:

• BIN
• MP3+G
• ZIP

It is possible to convert single files, entire folders, or folder trees. Power CD+G Burner can retain original folder structure, which is especially helpful when processing large song collections.

Finally! Siglos Karaoke Professional is ready.

Get the control of your karaoke show! Siglos Karaoke Professional is a KJ assistant that will make your shows better and easier to run.

Here is how Siglos Karaoke Professional can help you with running your karaoke show:

• Use you computer to run your karaoke show. Stop carrying hundreds of discs, risking their damage and loss.
  Two-screen display with preview window will make running your shows a pleasure, and advanced display features will make lyrics look better
• Powerful song database allows to find any song in a matter of seconds
• Automatic singer rotation management keeps singers queue in order; you may add new song requests while singers are on stage
• Singer announcement will save you from ‘Who is next’ questions, and time guide will allow to answer ‘When will I sing?’ questions without thinking about it
• Singer history will save you from typing songs for regulars, and venue filter helps when running shows in various places
• Song silence detector automatically removes silence from the beginning and the end of the CD+G song, allowing you to squeeze more songs in the show
• Use Key changer to change the key of the song when adding request or when singer is already singing
• Have your show run in Automatic mode if you are unable to operate the computer
• Play CD+G discs — if a singer brings his own CD+G disc, just place it in the queue and insert when prompted — the show will go on.
• You do not have to start other players when nobody is singing. Fill-in playlist kicks in automatically when the song is stopped and fades away when its time for next performance
• If you cannot see the singer’s display, use Preview window to see what singer sees
• Use Playlist view to check the actual songs in the queue, instead of seeing the rotation order
• Export songs from the database and use it in songbook software, or use a spreadsheet program and create the books yourself

More info on the Siglos Karaoke Professional product page.

Siglos Karaoke Professional build 1.2.13 has been released today. I hope it to be the final Beta, and if we do not find any showstoppers, we plan an official release next week.

You may download current version from:

http://www.powerkaraoke.com/download/sigloskaraokeprobetasetup.exe

Most important things added or modified are:

* Rotation is now autosaved in case of system crash
* Decreased song loading time
* Added ‘Always On Top’ to View menu
* Added ‘History Options’ to Add Singer
* List font and selected/disabled colors are changeable in Settings/KJ
* Scrolling text settings are added to Settings/KJ
* Fixed ‘Move To Next’ not working in some cases
* Added Preview refresh time to Settings
* Preview is resizeable
* Added sorting to lists in Add Singer dialog box

I am looking forward to your comments. We cannot implement all your suggestions at once, but we try, and we will keep to improve the software as it is released.

Version 1.2.11 has been released today. As usual you may download it from http://www.powerkaraoke.com/download/sigloskaraokeprobetasetup.exe.

We have completely redesigned rotation management. Now you will have full control over rotation, with two operating modes: rotation and playlist. Help file has also been added.

Other more important changes include:

• Added silence skipping at the beginning and at the end of CD+G songs (Settings/KJ)
• Fixed file matching rule bug
• Added KAR and MID formats to database import dialog box
• Added keyboard shortcuts
• Fixed tons of other bugs and problems

As always we await your comments.

Today we have released a new build of Siglos Karaoke Professional. Please download it from here:

 http://www.powerkaraoke.com/download/sigloskaraokeprobetasetup.exe

Here is the list of changes in version 1.2.10:

• Modified import dialog box — now it is possible to import using custom templates
• Added disc track # and filename to the song list in database view
• Database view is resizeable
• Added partial match to global search (ie. ‘hot ea’ will find ‘Hotel California’ by ‘The Eagles’ and ‘On The Air’ by ‘Hot Dogs’)
• Modified singer name display — text inside parentheses is hidden, so you may add extra text to differentiate singers (eg. ‘John (tall)’ versus ‘John (blonde)’)
• Added singer rotation management
• Settings does not stop the playback
• It is now possible to add CD+G discs and files (not imported into the database) to the queue
• Added ‘Rename singer’ to ‘Add Singer’ dialog
• Added ‘Restart’ button
• It is possible to display the remaining song time instead of current position (change in Settings)
• Various minor tweaks and bugfixes

We are finishing the help file. One think I would like to ask you about is song list export — at the moment it is possible to export entire database to CSV or XML file (CSV file can be used in Excel). What else would you like to see there?

I have been quiet for a while and here is the reason: we have released a beta version of Siglos Karaoke Professional. It is Siglos with KJ-oriented extensions. It includes singers queue, song database, and various features that KJ will find usefull. As we would like to hear your opinion before making the program final, we have released beta version.

The beta can be downloaded from here.

The most important thing missing is the help file — we will add it early next week. Also couple of features did not make it to the beta, we will add them soon. Features that will be added in next iterations of beta are:

• rotation management
• improved database song import
• hidden singer attribute
• search improvements

We hope to release a new beta build Tuesday 18th.

If you would like to test Siglos Karaoke Professional please download it and request your beta unlock code from info@powerkaraoke.com .

Please email all bug reports, suggestion, and criticism to info@powerkaraoke.com . If you have information or questions that might help other testers please post here.

Active beta testers can count on free license or heavy discount when the program is released.

As playing karaoke from a computer becomes more and more popular, we have a lot of questions about CD+G ripping. Some people are getting perfect results, some are getting artifacts on screen, and some are getting black screen. What gives?

1. Drive

If you are ripping with software like Power CD+G Burner and all you are getting is black screen, then propably your drive does not support CD+G subcodes. Most modern drives have no problems with it, but for some completely unknown reasons some laptop drives suffer this illness. When we see MATSHITA as drive name (it is short for Matsushita, the company behind Panasonic brand) we suspect trouble. And these MATSHITAs are put in Sony Vaios, so go figure.

Conclusion: If you are getting black space when ripping, then your drive is no good for CD+G ripping and no software will make it work.

2. Software

Once you know your drive delivers CD+G subcodes you need a software that will do it properly. And proper way of ripping CD+G karaoke discs is by performing error correction. Karaoke players have chips that perform error correction to display scratched discs. Computer CD and DVD drives do not have this chip, so it needs to be done by software. This explains why some software products provides “cleaner” rips (ie. without random dots and missing letters) than the others. Power CD+G Burner has this error correction built in. Of course some drives are better that other, also if disc is scratched very badly, then it is impossible to fix all errors. Read speed also is a factor here –usually the lower the speed, the better quality of the rip.

Conclusion: If you are getting display artifacts try ripping with Power CD+G Burner. If still getting dots and missing letters, try lowering read speed on Rip tab. And if all else fail, replace your drive (from all the drives we have tested Plextor drives gave the best quality).

3. Multisession discs

Several karaoke publishers recorded their CD+G discs in multisession mode, adding extra data session to the disc. I do not know the reason for this, but the result is that ripping the last track does not work properly using standard methods. Power CD+G Burner allows to rip the last track from multisession discs properly — all you have to do is to enable multisession disc support in settings. Why is it not enabled by default? Power CD+G Burner uses FreeDB database to look up song titles. With multisession support enabled the disc structure looks differently and does not matches against FreeDB signature.

Conclusion: If you are unable to rip the last track of the disc, go to Settings and enable multisession disc support.

4. Track names

Power CD+G Burner uses FreeDB database to look up track names (internet connection is required for this). Also the disc you are ripping has to be in the database. If it is not, you have to enter the track names manually — and I would like to encourage you to do this, as Power CD+G Burner submits this into FreeDB database, so the disc will stay there if you or anybody else uses it again in the future. In the last year users of Power CD+G Burner submitted 1347 discs into the database.

5. Format

I often am asked a following question: What format should I rip to? Usually I recommend MP3+G format (this is MP3 file with the audio, and CDG file with the graphics). You may also use ZIP, which is the same as MP3+G, but both files are put inside a single ZIP archive. If you intend to burn songs you rip, use BIN format, as it does not use audio compression and retains the original audio intact (not that many people are able to hear the difference between uncompressed audio and 192 kbps MP3 though).

6. File Names

Power CD+G Burner automatically names files based on disc ID, artist name, and song title. You may define how the files will be named in Output filename mask field:

• {Song} will be replaced with track name, so if you define ‘CD1 - {Song}’ as a filename mask, files ‘CD1 - Track 01.bin’, ‘CD1 - Track 02.bin’, etc. will be created. If track name is retrieved from FreeDB server, this will be usually artist name and song title.
• {Album} will be replaced with the album name retrieved from FreeDB server.
• {TrackNumber} will be replaced with the track number (with a leading 0 for tracks 01 - 09).
• {Artist} will be replaced with artist name (artist name has to be separated by ‘/’ [slash] from track title)
• {Title} will be replaced with title (title has to be separated by ‘/’ [slash] from artist name)

Note: to use {Artist} and {Title} markers each track name needs to be of the following format:
Artist name / Song title (most FreeDB entries follow this rule)

So if you want names like this: SC9801 - 03 - Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing then define the following mask: {Album} - {TrackNumber} - {Artist} - {Title}.

Track names are also stored in ID3 tags of MP3 file, so any tag-aware software should be able to retrieve them regardles of the file name.

I hope this shines some light on the mysteries of CD+G karaoke ripping. Happy singing!

Some like it, some hate it, but all have it. Windows Media Player comes with Windows and grew from a small tool to a powerful multimedia player. If only it could play karaoke… But wait, it can.

All you need is Power CD+G Filter, a small utility that allows to play CD+G files from the hard disc in Windows Media Player. It does not play CD+G discs, you need to save them to the hard disc first. Power CD+G Filter supports MP3+G and BIN formats.

Power CD+G Filter costs $19 (trial version with watermark is available) . But wait… didn’t the title promise something free? And indeed you may get Power CD+G Filter for free using TrialPay. Here’s how it works: You choose from a selection of offers from qualifying partner companies. When you complete an offer, you receive a free license for the software. You may learn more about it on TrialPay website.

When I was younger I liked StarTrek TNG a lot. So my first thought when I got my new iPod Touch was ‘This would fit Mr Data‘. It is a cool toy — the design is slick, and the user interface is amazing. It actually looks like made user interface displayed in movies, with windows zooming and sliding at the touch of a finger. And it has a position sensor — if you flip it sideways the display also flips. Impressive.

iPod Touch with its big display can be a great tool for practicing your karaoke. The lyrics are clearly visible, and the playback is smooth. And with video output cable you may connect your iPod to the TV and play your karaoke there. The bad thing is that you need to purchase a cable from Apple, as the trick for using cheap A/V cable that used to work for iPod video does not work with Touch.

iPod Touch uses MP4 format for videos. To load your karaoke there you can use Power CD+G to iPod Karaoke Converter (trial version available, lifetime license is $39). It reads CD+G discs directly, or you may use MP3+G files from your hard disc.

Power CD+G to iPod Karaoke Converter screenshot

I finally decided to join the blogging community — welcome to karaoke software blog.

I will try to make this blog a source of useful information about karaoke and karaoke software, will show you some tricks and advanced features, and will add some personal views from time to time. As I am pretty new to blogging I will need some time to learn how to move around, but new posts should be appearing soon.

See you back soon!

Piotr