Siglos Pro not playing fill-in music

[Guest]

I've been using Siglos Pro since December 2010 with no issues. I'm currently using version 1.2.98 since it does everything I want and it is a stable version and I don't have to worry about a crash in the middle of my shows.

My problem is that I want to start using the fill-in music between singers. Up to now I've used iTunes running in a separate window. I've opened the Playlist, added a number of MP3 files, but when I go to my show the fill-in music never starts. And I have checked the box in Settings to have fill-in music start when Program starts.

This is its behavior: the fill-in song title shows up in the Player window, like it's going to play. But I get no sound whatsoever. And Siglos seems to slow down, ie. it "thinks" for a second before it will go on and start the next karaoke song for my next singer. Sometimes it will play a brief, one-second note from the fill-in song, before the next karaoke song will start. But it never actually plays anything between karaoke songs.

The "slow down" and "one second note" behaviors do not happen if I clear out my fill-in playlist, as if I do not wish to have fill-in music between singers.

What am I doing wrong, or what is wrong with Siglos? I have checked with a fellow KJ who is using Siglos 1.2.101, and he said he has never had a problem with fill-in music not playing.

I'm using a Toshiba Core i5 laptop running Win 7 64 bit. Thank you.

[Piotr]

I am not sure what might be wrong -- it is impossible for us to support old version of the software, as we add functionality and bug fixes, so you might try to upgrade to the latest version (back up your database before doing this though) and if it does not work we will try to find the problem.

Current version (2.0.7) is very stable -- we had many people testing it before release and did not get any problems after it went live.

[KJ Bob]

OK, thanks for your reply Piotr. I've just paid for another year's of updates so I can download and use 2.0.7 and see if that will fix the fill-in music issue.

Can you tell me more about this backing up of the DB process before I do the upgrade? How do I go about backing up the DB? And which DB are you talking about? The song DB? Or the list of singers at my shows? Sorry for such basic questions but I'm not a "power user" of Siglos, just a fairly satisfied basic user.

[adam]

The database is the file siglos.db located in My Documents/My Karaoke. This is the file you may want to backup.

[KJ Bob]

OK, I've purchased the annual renewal, upgraded to Siglos Pro 2.0.7, and I'm still getting the same behavior that I described in my original post: I can see the MP3 file from my fill-in playlist displayed in the Siglos Player window, but it won't play!

I've double checked that the MP3 will play in Windows Media Player, double checked that the check boxes for "Initiate play back upon program start" and "upon session start" are checked. I've also tried a number of different MP3 files but it makes no difference.

What else am I missing? What else can I check? My fill-in playlist MP3 files are stored in My Music folder (in sub-folders under My Music). Could the location of the MP3 files be a problem?

[Paradigm Karaoke]

just a thought, do you have a comp with a 32bit os on it?
i had more than one guy with win7 64 bit having issues that i knew and when they tried on a 32bit os it was fine. they loaded win7 32 bit on the offending comps and all issues went away.

[Piotr]

Are you able to play these MP3 in Siglos if you drag and drop them onto the main window? Also please try installing K-Lite codec pack and see if it helps:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_l ... c_pack.htm

[Dana48457]

what about the volume control when mp3 is suppose to be playing is it set to zero the same control is used for karaoke and mp3 but you have to adjust it while each is playing. If is is set to zero you won't get anything.

[KJ Bob]

@Dana - I've double checked that the fill-in music volume is set at max.

@Piotr - yes, when I drag one of these MP3 fill-in songs into the Siglos main window, then it treats it like a regular karaoke song and it plays fine. After the song ends, however, I can see the other fill-in songs "cued up" in the player, but it does not play automatically, and when I push the Play button it doesn't start.

I have a show tonight and tomorrow night so I'm reluctant to add new codes (like the K-lite codecs or Win 7 32 bit) to my show computer. I might try this after my Fri night show, if there is no other thing that you guys suggest.

[guitarra vieja]

I just upgraded to Pro version (2.0.13) and have done one show with it last night, so I'm still playing around with the features (which I am liking, so far).

However, I have a similar issue to the one posted here, which is that, between songs, there is a "long" (to me) delay and then a second or so of fill-in music is played while the announcement screen shows (and it shows the old song and changes to the new one - may be a feature??? - seems to me that the new announcement is all that is needed...)

This only shows up when I select the 'Show announcements' box.

When it is unchecked, I get the background screen splashed up for just a short time and the new song plays. Until I figured out I can make the scrolling text have the 'instructions' in the 'Additional text at the end', it was desirable, but now that I know to use that text, I want to show the announcements for the person to sing.

However, with the undesirable 'splash' of fill-in music and the long delay, I'll have to stick with the background page....

Any help in settings is appreciated.

[guitarra vieja]

Hopefully some data on times, etc. will help resolve this issue.

With 'Show announcements' checked, I get 3 seconds of the 'old singer' announcement screen with silence, then 5 seconds of 'next singer' with silence, then 2-3 seconds of 'fill-in' music splash and 3 seconds of silence before the next song starts.

With 'Show announcements' NOT checked, there is a total of 7 seconds of 'Inactive background' screen shown, with silence.

Hope this all helps (and makes sense!)

[Piotr]

Hopefully some data on times, etc. will help resolve this issue.

With 'Show announcements' checked, I get 3 seconds of the 'old singer' announcement screen with silence, then 5 seconds of 'next singer' with silence, then 2-3 seconds of 'fill-in' music splash and 3 seconds of silence before the next song starts.

With 'Show announcements' NOT checked, there is a total of 7 seconds of 'Inactive background' screen shown, with silence.

Hope this all helps (and makes sense!)

Can you please email me your log so I could reproduce your settings? To do this:

1. Run the program
2. Click in the program main window
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+L
4. Message "Log enabled" should appear
5. Restart the program
6. Follow the actions leading to the problem
7. Exit the program
8. Go to My Documents (or Documents on Vista) -- you will find "sigloslog.txt" file there. Please email it to me.

[guitarra vieja]

Hopefully some data on times, etc. will help resolve this issue.

With 'Show announcements' checked, I get 3 seconds of the 'old singer' announcement screen with silence, then 5 seconds of 'next singer' with silence, then 2-3 seconds of 'fill-in' music splash and 3 seconds of silence before the next song starts.

With 'Show announcements' NOT checked, there is a total of 7 seconds of 'Inactive background' screen shown, with silence.

Hope this all helps (and makes sense!)

Can you please email me your log so I could reproduce your settings? To do this:

1. Run the program
2. Click in the program main window
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+L
4. Message "Log enabled" should appear
5. Restart the program
6. Follow the actions leading to the problem
7. Exit the program
8. Go to My Documents (or Documents on Vista) -- you will find "sigloslog.txt" file there. Please email it to me.

log file sent

[guitarra vieja]

Having a bit of time to play around with this, I found something else that hopefully will add to the quick fixing of it.....

As noted by KJ Bob, the fill-in song does show up in the 'playing' screen.

I noticed that the fill-in shows when changing from 'last singer' to 'next singer' screens and then starts playing from there.

Because the song has a bit of silence at the front, we don't hear but just a 'splash' (actually the opening of the song) because there is only about 3 seconds of play time.

HOWEVER, by TURNING OFF the "Advance to next song on fill-in...." under KJ cont., I get several seconds of "splash" - i.e., what is happening is that the fill-in music is playing during the switch-over from 'last' to 'next' singer.

(edited because of more testing done)
And this happens with 'Show announcements' turned on or off, as long as the 'Advance to next son on fill-in' is turned OFF, we hear the 'splash' (though not as long when 'Show announcements' is off).

To SUMMARIZE the problem (as I see it), it is simply that the fill-in playlist is playing between songs when the next one is queued to play.

The fill-in playlist should ONLY play when there is no active next song.

BTW, someone asked about OS - I'm running Win 7 64 bit

[Piotr]

I have no idea what might be going on. Can you please try to enable 'Use compatible MP3 decoding' in Settings / General?