Digital Karaoke On A Laptop Computer

    Digital karaoke is the future of the karaoke business and for several good reasons. CDG karaoke discs have always been a nuisance to transport, store, handle, and maintain. A KJ will seldom get through an entire performance without at least one instance of broken graphics or skipping because of a scratched, dirty, or defective disc.

    Digital karaoke is the solution. All your karaoke songs are stored on the hard drive of a computer in the MP3+G™ or some other compressed format. The songs are played with karaoke "hosting" software. The hosting software will have many needed features such as digital key control, singer rotation, song/artist search, singer history, and others depending on the software.

    The three types of computers used for hosting karaoke are laptops, portable PCs, and rackmount PCs. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. Laptops are presently the most commonly used.

Computer Requirements
    You should purchase a computer of sturdy design that has "shock mounted" components and a "spill proof" keyboard. A computer used for performing karaoke shows receives a lot more punishment than one that you use at home, school, or in the office.

• Processor and amount of RAM that meets the minimum requirements of the hosting software you select.
  
• A good stereo sound card.
  
• Extended desktop feature (necessary in order to display your workstation on the laptop while displaying the karaoke screen on another monitor or TV).
  
• Windows operating system that your hosting software requires.
  
• Large capacity internal and/or external hard drive for storing the song tracks.
  
• External or internal CD or DVD drive that supports the CD+G format. Necessary for extracting the contents of karaoke CD+G discs to the hard drive.
  
• CD+G ripping software that will import the song tracks from CD+G to the hard drive in a compressed format (typically MP3+G™). I recommend Power CD+G Burner
  
• Hosting software that supports dual display and that will play your song files with features like digital key control, singer rotation, singer history, song search, etc.

    You will connect the computer to your amplifier and monitor in much the same way as you would connect a standard karaoke disc player. The audio will connect from the line out or headphone jack of the laptop to your mixer with an 1/8" stereo to dual RCA adapter cable. The video will typically connect from the s-video port of the laptop to an RF modulator. From the modulator you will use standard coaxial cable. There are also VGA adapters available.

    You can shop around, build your laptop with various components, and hope that it all comes together to create a flawlessly working karaoke laptop. Or, you can simply purchase a pre-configured Karaoke Ready Laptop that is ready to use right out of the box.