Amateur system upgrade

pavarotti · Post by **pavarotti** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 8:31 am

hi, I just joined and I'm on the scrounge for some advice.

My wife and I are 60 and have been doing karaoke at home for the last 15-16 years, strictly amateur stuff around the kitchen table with family and friends of a Saturday evening.

Over the years we've got through a couple of disc-players, hooked up to the TV, but have now gone digital and got all our 30,000-odd songs on an external hard disc as cd+g files with the music as mp3.

We use Winamp on a lap-top connected by HDMI cable to our new Panasonic smart TV, and the sound goes to a KAM KKA-400 mixer amp, with mikes and speakers.

Sound quality and picture are more than adequate, but what I am after is a better set-up for selecting and playing songs.

Ideally I would like a wireless touch-screen tablet for song selection, which we can pass around the table so people can choose and add to the playlist. Is there such a thing available ? (I have used one as a customer in clubs in Japan, but they're only ever in Japanese…)

And could you recommend a more user-friendly player than Winamp ?

We find our present system fiddly and not very user-friendly: It takes time to set everything up when we want a session, which reduces spontaneity: can you suggest ways we could make it all a bit more stream-lined and easy to initiate ? Is the lap-top / TV / mixer-amp combo the best way to go, or should I be thinking of a single machine plugged into the TV, and if so, what ?

We're not ready to spend £1000s on a professional set-up, but would be happy to spend a few £100s to get a little more sophisticated than we are right now.

Appreciate any advice you can give, thanks.

mr.dj · Post by **mr.dj** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 2:31 pm

Have you tried tricerasoft free player: http://www.tricerasoft.com/wp/tricera/i ... ee-player/

If you have a windows 8 touch laptop it may well work with it, I have not tried it with touch screen but it's free so if it's not to your liking you can just uninstall.

Another free to use software is karafun Player: http://www.karafun.com/karaokeplayer/
They also do various tablet and mobile apps but I think they only work on subscription service. The player will run without subscription using your own MP3+G files.

pavarotti · Post by **pavarotti** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 3:56 pm

Thanks, I will have a look at those.

we don't have a windows 8 machine. What I am thinking of, is a separate touch-screen tablet / unit to hand around for song selection, but still have the lap-top at the heart of the system, cable-connected to the TV and amp. So the touch-screen would be an additional peripheral. Does that sound feasible ?

Post by **wiseguy** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:01 pm

It sounds like what you are looking for is a kiosk (remote request) system. These allow people to search for and request songs from any device that has a web browser like an iPhone, iPad etc.. The JustKaraoke player with the Super Remote Request Tool will do this. Go to http://www.tricerasoft.com/wp/tricera/i ... -tool-1-0/ and check out the video demonstration to see if this might be something you can use.

mr.dj · Post by **mr.dj** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:22 pm

Another alternative to Wiseguys suggestion is SongbookDB that allows you to request songs from a mobile or tablet.
This is a link to that: https://www.songbookdb.com/
Select the "How it all works" link.

pavarotti · Post by **pavarotti** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:08 am

Ah, thanks both. Very interesting: that sounds more like it. I'll take a look at those and see how we go.
thanks again.

pavarotti · Post by **pavarotti** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 6:29 am

Thanks a lot guys. Took a look at both SongbookDB and JustKaraoke, and decided to go for JK in the end. Much simpler Remote Request tool: with SBDB you have to set up a gig and so on, which is an extra complication. SBDB clearly more geared to the professional than the amateur.

It took a few attempts to get everything working ok with JK, and some communication with the Tricerasoft help desk, but they have been excellent and responded quickly.

The set-up of player and remote request tool is far from intuitive, but now I've got the hang of it, it works pretty well, and we have had some great sessions over the Christmas holidays. I have written my own instructions for the rest of the family. So often these clever guys who write the software have real difficulty explaining it clearly to the average punter !

Once again, thanks for your help.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 3:08 am

I just got back to using JustKaraoke with the Super remote request tool and let the kiosk handle entering songs and all they have to do after setting up the kiosk is to press play as long as you have advance to the next singer checked. I let the software handle all but pressing play because I want to make sure that my singers get enough time to get up to sing.

Post by **wiseguy** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 3:58 am

DanG2006 wrote:I just got back to using JustKaraoke with the Super remote request tool and let the kiosk handle entering songs and all they have to do after setting up the kiosk is to press play as long as you have advance to the next singer checked. I let the software handle all but pressing play because I want to make sure that my singers get enough time to get up to sing.

So you give the singers control of the singer rotation?

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 1:36 pm

No JustKaraoke decides that. First come first served. New singers to the bottom of the rotation. Depending on when you submitted your request will determine how long your wait is. The further down the rotation list the show is at the sooner you get to sing. Say Joe comes in and submits a request at the beginning of the rotation and there is ten singers before him. He has to wait those ten singers to sing. If he came in on the seventh singer then he has only three singers wait before his turn.

Post by **wiseguy** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 3:02 pm

DanG2006 wrote:No JustKaraoke decides that. First come first served. New singers to the bottom of the rotation. Depending on when you submitted your request will determine how long your wait is. The further down the rotation list the show is at the sooner you get to sing. Say Joe comes in and submits a request at the beginning of the rotation and there is ten singers before him. He has to wait those ten singers to sing. If he came in on the seventh singer then he has only three singers wait before his turn.

So what if Joe submits a song as Joe and then as Donald (maybe his middle name) and then one of his friends submits a song for him as JD his nickname? Joe is sure going to sing a lot. What if a group of four who always sing together have each person submit a song which would have that group up singing four times in every rotation.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 7:45 pm

I don't know as I have yet to see that happen. I don't penalize if someone puts in a song and asks so and so who has already sung to sing with them anymore since going kiosk.