I am looking for a Karaoke player to play my backing tracks for an OldTyme Singalong presentation in seniors residences.

[ramblingron]

I have tried quite a few players and they all display chords and lyrics in my laptop and the identical display on the TV screen. I am trying to find a player that shows lyrics and chords on my laptop in front of me but only lyrics on the big screen facing the audience - without chords. My object is to keep my fellow wrinklies from trying to sing the chord letters

Any suggestions would be appreciated and I would be glad to share whatever I can with anyone who would bring entertainment to the institutionalized old folks

[wiseguy]

Chords? What type of karaoke song files are you playing?

[ramblingron]

MIDI files - which I seem to be able to rename as KAR files and to which I have added lyrics and chords on Serenade. But apparently they can be converted to MP3 files and perhaps other formats?

I am afraid I have no experience with Karaoke - ron

[wiseguy]

Wow, it's been so long since I've played a midi karaoke file that I had forgotten that some of them contain the chords along with the lyrics. To answer your question, the chords are all part of the embedded graphics (lyrics) and there is no software player that can remove them. Converting the midi files to another format will make no difference.

Most people who take singing karaoke the least bit seriously would have nothing to do with midi karaoke. This synthetic music is better suited for toys. Besides the fact that midi isn't created with actual real instruments (guitars, drums, etc.) these audio tracks cannot even contain harmonizing background vocals.

MP3+G is the karaoke file format you should be using. The song tracks are created with real instruments by studio musicians and will contain harmonizing background vocals when required. There are software MP3+G players that will display only the lyrics (without chords) on a TV or monitor while displaying the software player controls on the laptop.

Below are links to the song For The Good Times by Ray Price. One is the midi version the other is the what you would hear with an MP3+G song track. You will hear the obvious difference.

For The Good Times (midi version)

For The Good Times (mp3 from MP3+G version) shortened

[ramblingron]

Thank you wiseguy for your advice. I was beginning to think my search was hopeless.

Yes, I agree the midi sound is very basic, but I am not a musician - merely a four-chord thumper and my wife follows on the autoharp. We need some sort of backing track just to fill out our very amateur sound. I am age 92 and able to invest more time than money in this charitable operation

I have accumulated over a hundred midi tracks of all the old songs I can still remember. Many I downloaded free and edited to suit my own preferences. Others, I wrote the melody on a piano-roll editor and added instruments with Band-in-the-box. Serenade synchronizes words and chords.

The result is not spectacular but my nursing home audience does not include many with a discriminating taste in fine music, so I get by.

Thank you again for your time and effort

[wiseguy]

I applaud you for continuing to stay active at the age of 92 and for your efforts at bringing joy to others in the nursing home. Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with such as finding certain songs for example.