U-BEST DA-268 HARD-DRIVE KARAOKE PLAYER HOSTING
Hey song slingers!
djBe from Wilmington, NC here. I have a 500gb U-Best DA-268 hard drive karaoke player coming today and plan to blog here about the experience from arrival to implementation. I hope to interract with KJs who are using or considering hard drive players as an alternative to disc- or laptop-hosting.
To familiarize yourself with the concept of no-PC hard-drive hosting, watch the five-minute video on youtube (search Karaoke Jukebox) in which a KJ demonstrates the unit's tray-loading disc capturing capabilities. The model she is demo-ing is the DA-168, which is the previous model. See the current model at Sumakaya.com, where you can also download the manual, though the manual is for a 168 as well.
Versus karaoke disc players, hard drive karaoke players are clearly the better choice. Versus PCs, it's a little more complicated. Advanced search functions, like typing a few letters to find and cue a song, are not onboard - it stores track numbers, that's it. (You can type in titles off the remote but who would ever?)
On the other hand, while both systems get you to disc-free, hard drive players offer the option of getting you station-free - that is, able to advance and run your show from anywhere in the club that has a sightline to the player. Grab the remote and wireless mic and Monty Hall your way through the room. Or just Dean Martinize from the bar. Nice.
Hard drive players require little-or-no reconfiguring of your rig, since they are the same width and roughly the same height as whatever disc player it's replacing. U-best says disc capture involves no compression of the source data, which can occur with CDG transfers to PC. Capture rate is about 30 seconds per track, on par with typical CDG-to-PC rates.
The DA-268 costs around $700 to $1000 depending on the hard drive size - roughly the price of a show-worthy laptop before you add in the hosting program and the external hard-drive. Base model is 320gb (8,000 songs) on up to 1000gb (25,000 songs). I upgraded to 500gb (12,500 songs), which should be plenty as I plan to purge crap and inferior duplicates from the ranks during the loading process.
The DA-268 can play DVDs and picture-CDs, but only loads VCDs, CDGs and CDs to the hard drive. Not a big deal to me, as 99% of my discs are one of the supported formats. I plan to keep one DVD/CDG and one DVD/SCDG player in my rig for backup and traditional mixing anyway.
If you're a zip-file laptop guy looking to get into this format, you're out of luck as there is no way to connect the DA-268 to a PC. So this machine keeps you semi-honest - there's a disc-based track behind every song that gets on it, though whether it's a boot-legged disc to begin with is another story.
Well, the dog's are barking so the UPS guy must be here...
U-Best DA-268 Forum
The remote feature could work all the way in the parking lot, but you need to be behind the mixer to properly mix the volume of the vocals and the music. Not much value in that feature, that I can see.
I'm writing a song book right now and my ratio of dupes is a little less than half.
21,000 songs===12,000 one-of-a-kinds. My dupes are only deleted from my song book, not the hard drive. I wouldn't delete the actual song files.
How is the rotation managed? Is it their own hosting program?
I'm writing a song book right now and my ratio of dupes is a little less than half.
21,000 songs===12,000 one-of-a-kinds. My dupes are only deleted from my song book, not the hard drive. I wouldn't delete the actual song files.
How is the rotation managed? Is it their own hosting program?
Rotations are managed on-screen by hitting the LIST button - real basic just track numbers, in order of when they are inputted. Buttons on the remote let you change the order easily.
I don't see reotely myself running my show remotely all night, I too like to be right on my board, especially during singers. wish I had an assistant sometimes to handle to handle the questions! But in certain instances - like singing happy birthday at a table or giving out prizes or calling out the wedding party to dance (since I DJ parties, too), it could come in real handy and look pretty darn slick, MC-wise.
KJs and singers, check out my first impressions of the UBest DA-268 at www.thedjbeline.com , top of the blah...blog...BLOG page.
I don't see reotely myself running my show remotely all night, I too like to be right on my board, especially during singers. wish I had an assistant sometimes to handle to handle the questions! But in certain instances - like singing happy birthday at a table or giving out prizes or calling out the wedding party to dance (since I DJ parties, too), it could come in real handy and look pretty darn slick, MC-wise.
KJs and singers, check out my first impressions of the UBest DA-268 at www.thedjbeline.com , top of the blah...blog...BLOG page.
Visit my page on FB....Karaoke Karolina. Check out my store/studio/art gallery AXXTACY GUITARS & GEAR M-F 2PM-7PM, 5285 Main, Shallotte, NC. 910-795-9083
I would not talk about loading personal discs on your blog as it is highly illegal.
How is loading YOUR OWN discs any more illegal on that machine than you loading your discs on your hard drive???
First of all, he owns the actual disc as proof of purchase. ......Forget the other supposed "legality" issues for the moment..
Or are you just talking about being able to use the "admitted" written info aginst him...
I totally agree with this idea, not to put yourself in written jeapardy. But even "our" (meaning anyone using a computer) identities can be traced to each of us, IF.... they want you bad enough. Without too much effort.
So nobody should actually be talking about ANYTHING...
How is loading YOUR OWN discs any more illegal on that machine than you loading your discs on your hard drive???
First of all, he owns the actual disc as proof of purchase. ......Forget the other supposed "legality" issues for the moment..
Or are you just talking about being able to use the "admitted" written info aginst him...
I totally agree with this idea, not to put yourself in written jeapardy. But even "our" (meaning anyone using a computer) identities can be traced to each of us, IF.... they want you bad enough. Without too much effort.
So nobody should actually be talking about ANYTHING...
The remote would be pretty neat for DJing.
On the subject but a little different...I know of a DJ that lost his job because he loaded a bunch of songs to play automatically and then went to the pool table while they played. The bar owner saw him on tape and didn't like the idea of him being played to play pool.
I had a real slow karaoke night, (starting a new job) and I finally just loaded all of the 4 singers requests in the queue and used the automatic start feature to run down the song list of about 15 songs. They were all sitting beside each other and there was nobody else in the bar. I sat on the other side and just told them who was next. I just kept going right down the line. Mixing wasn't that big of an issue at that point. They were just having fun.
On the subject but a little different...I know of a DJ that lost his job because he loaded a bunch of songs to play automatically and then went to the pool table while they played. The bar owner saw him on tape and didn't like the idea of him being played to play pool.
I had a real slow karaoke night, (starting a new job) and I finally just loaded all of the 4 singers requests in the queue and used the automatic start feature to run down the song list of about 15 songs. They were all sitting beside each other and there was nobody else in the bar. I sat on the other side and just told them who was next. I just kept going right down the line. Mixing wasn't that big of an issue at that point. They were just having fun.
I mispoke. I meant other singer's discs not the show host's discs.Bigdog wrote:I would not talk about loading personal discs on your blog as it is highly illegal.
How is loading YOUR OWN discs any more illegal on that machine than you loading your discs on your hard drive???
First of all, he owns the actual disc as proof of purchase. ......Forget the other supposed "legality" issues for the moment..
Or are you just talking about being able to use the "admitted" written info aginst him...
I totally agree with this idea, not to put yourself in written jeapardy. But even "our" (meaning anyone using a computer) identities can be traced to each of us, IF.... they want you bad enough. Without too much effort.
So nobody should actually be talking about ANYTHING...
Two of the three singers' discs I refer to someday capturing in my website blog, have lyrics that don't even come on the screen. It's just background music on CD. The other singer has a custom CDG but it doesn't say a brand.
Anyway, if every disc is allowed to be backed up one time, how is it illegal if the disc owner selects me to capture his one backup? Because none of these guys use computers, probably not even calculators.
I think if it ever came down to it, the karaoke kops would go after the KJs who are running totally copped hard drives, not the guys who have commercial CDGs and CDs behind 99% of their music.
Anyway, back to the UBest DA-268, it does capture any CDG, VCD or CD you feed it, without safeguards like some laptop hosting programs that prevent you from ripping by storing singer CDG track data in a temporary file only.
If there is such a thing as karaoke kops, keep your pre-laptop songbooks with all those disc-related letter prefixes for quick proof. If your pre-laptop book is about as thick as your current one, you're good to go. Now If your new books are suddenly five times as thick, you might have some explaining to do.
Have any KJs anywhere actually been A) arrested B) fined or C) confiscated or threatened with those actions? If so, please start a forum topic on it!
Anyway, if every disc is allowed to be backed up one time, how is it illegal if the disc owner selects me to capture his one backup? Because none of these guys use computers, probably not even calculators.
I think if it ever came down to it, the karaoke kops would go after the KJs who are running totally copped hard drives, not the guys who have commercial CDGs and CDs behind 99% of their music.
Anyway, back to the UBest DA-268, it does capture any CDG, VCD or CD you feed it, without safeguards like some laptop hosting programs that prevent you from ripping by storing singer CDG track data in a temporary file only.
If there is such a thing as karaoke kops, keep your pre-laptop songbooks with all those disc-related letter prefixes for quick proof. If your pre-laptop book is about as thick as your current one, you're good to go. Now If your new books are suddenly five times as thick, you might have some explaining to do.
Have any KJs anywhere actually been A) arrested B) fined or C) confiscated or threatened with those actions? If so, please start a forum topic on it!
Visit my page on FB....Karaoke Karolina. Check out my store/studio/art gallery AXXTACY GUITARS & GEAR M-F 2PM-7PM, 5285 Main, Shallotte, NC. 910-795-9083
It is illegal if you don't own the disc it is off of. Your friend has to give you permantly the original disc or your claim to be 100% is nothing but hot air.
If you read my previous post I said nothing about you not allowing outside music in your system but that it might be better not to advertize it on your website. Unless you want your words to come back and bite you.
If you read my previous post I said nothing about you not allowing outside music in your system but that it might be better not to advertize it on your website. Unless you want your words to come back and bite you.
Thanks for the insights, Dan. It's useful to discuss the legal implications of music copying in a DA-268 blog hardware because this is the easiest device EVER for ripping discs to a hard drive. Just pop it and cop it, basically.
No computer skills needed.
As far as taking advantage of this tempting technology to free my regulars from bringing their discs to my shows, I think I'd take my chances to occasioanally extend that courtesy. Less disc swapping for me, which is why I bought the DA-268 in the first place; and less chance of the disc crapping out - as we all know singer discs frequently do.
Tech-wise, you're limited in capturing OPK (other peoples' karaoke) with the DA-268 at shows because the player can't walk and chew gum at the same time. You'd need a second player or you'd have dead air. And you'd have to run two or three DJ songs to cover the downtime of a typical 15-song disc capture, too long of a break in most karaoke situations. So really, if I do any showtime capture at all, it'll be during the transtition period while I'm still running discs.
So, is anyone else on this big, awesome KJ site hosting with a DA-268, DA-168 or acesonic KOD (which looks identical to the 168)? And does the remote really work from the parking lot?
No computer skills needed.
As far as taking advantage of this tempting technology to free my regulars from bringing their discs to my shows, I think I'd take my chances to occasioanally extend that courtesy. Less disc swapping for me, which is why I bought the DA-268 in the first place; and less chance of the disc crapping out - as we all know singer discs frequently do.
Tech-wise, you're limited in capturing OPK (other peoples' karaoke) with the DA-268 at shows because the player can't walk and chew gum at the same time. You'd need a second player or you'd have dead air. And you'd have to run two or three DJ songs to cover the downtime of a typical 15-song disc capture, too long of a break in most karaoke situations. So really, if I do any showtime capture at all, it'll be during the transtition period while I'm still running discs.
So, is anyone else on this big, awesome KJ site hosting with a DA-268, DA-168 or acesonic KOD (which looks identical to the 168)? And does the remote really work from the parking lot?
Visit my page on FB....Karaoke Karolina. Check out my store/studio/art gallery AXXTACY GUITARS & GEAR M-F 2PM-7PM, 5285 Main, Shallotte, NC. 910-795-9083
One thing I don't like about this machine is it's inability to import the song tracks in a compressed format. I know that this prevents any loss of audio quality but a 320 bit rate would provide indiscernible sound quality while increasing song capacity by at least four times. As is the maximum song capacity of this machine is 25,000 with no option to connect an external hard drive.
Also, an important feature this machine is missing is singer history. This is something that I for one would not want to give up.
Also, an important feature this machine is missing is singer history. This is something that I for one would not want to give up.
With no ability for outside connection it sounds like they want you to only use their stuff. Pionner did the same thing with their laser players when they first came out. It had no capability to play CD+G. But they quicky found out the CD+G makers were passing them by. So their next machine could play CD+G and they had their own CD+Gs.
With they way technology changes so fast I think the ability to connect outside stuff is very important. Computers never have enough USB ports.
With they way technology changes so fast I think the ability to connect outside stuff is very important. Computers never have enough USB ports.
Singer history is a big one for me as well. I also like being able to keep track and control over my rotation in my present software program. This player is a step up from discs but a step down from computer. The price is high compared with the cost of running karaoke off of a computer as well. You can get a decent computer for less than $400 that will do the job and then software wise you have choices that range from $0 to $200 depending on what features you wish to have. I only have $569 invested in each of my laptops which gives me more money to spend on the rest of my setup and music.
Well six months after acquiring my U-Best DA-268 I must admit I still haven't f### with it. Loading songs is a pain in the ass because you have to move whole CDGs you capture from a temporary file to the permanent one - or load songs to the permanent file directly but one by one.
In other words you CAN'T just pop in a disc and walk away, do something else, come back in ten minutes, pop in another one. You either have to sit there the whole time or do double work. Their tech support recommends sitiing there the whole time, loading songs to the permanent file one at a time. Which blows.
so I wound up buying a hard drive for my CAVS SCDG player instead, loaded with all my SCDGs which I paid a guy to do, about 12,000 songs updated through 2008 thanks to Pop Hits putting out SCDGS now. Mostly everything I have on CDG or VCD I also have SCDG anyway.
My rig now consists of a CAVS 203-G USB player, a Hitachi CD player for breaks, and an Acesonic DVD-CDG-VCD player for singer discs and music videos.
I cherry pick a couple dozen CDGs to supplement what's on the hard drive until the time comes to reprint the books, so I'm still swapping discs a little bit. I figure I'll update the hard drive and the books once a year every January.
Meanwhile, most of the show, over 90 percent, is right off the hard drive and it's so easy I hardly know what to do with my hands. More bongo and tamb time is one big advantage. More time to deal with patrons without getting stressed that the time I take to talk to them might make me late for a disc change.
All you jocks on laptops already know about the joy of not swapping, scratching and stressing about discs. The CAVs hard-drive system differs in that it's accessed by a remote control, no computer is required. CAVS has a crappy remote so I mostly use the faceplate numbers....you punch in the number and hit enter.
Obviously the endless array of features a laptop system affords cannot be matched by the CAVS/external hard drive setup. Singer history, for example, is one mentioned in an earlier post.
I'm more for letting the singers recall or forget their own damn histories or better yet create new ones, especially when one considers every conversation is time spent not fully monitoring your singer and your mix. ;)
In fact, many of the best features in laptop systems - particularly the ability to find and cue a song from just typing in a few letters - often leads to complications. Singers wind up coralling the KJs into playing the "do you have..." game all night. And without the work - pleasurable work to real karaoke enthusiasts - of books,pens and slips to filter out the unreliables; less serious people and people punking their friends put in songs only to disappear or have a laugh while delaying your show with dead air.
The CAVs system does have a progammable queue, you can program as many songs as you want by punching in the song's number and hitting PROG - not ENTER. If you hit ENTER by accident the song stops and you've got a pissed off singer on your hands.
The queue shows up on the screen while programming - displaying only the number, no title no name - then goes off automatically, coming back on whenever you command or punch in more songs. Arranging or changing the queue, then, could create real issues for the singer trying to read the screen.
Since I still require slips I can and do queue with paper, and since punching in new songs is instant, there's no real time to be gained by advance programming. And when singers say "such and such DJ doesn't make me fill out slips" - thanks rest of the industry - I explain the slips are neccessary for prize drawings, which they are.
I backed up my system to a second hard drive and carry a second USB-enabled CAVS player just in case, but there is now NO way I am carrying three huge cases of discs and two milk crates of the books that went with them. I'll probably pick up one MPG right there
As for the $600 investment of a U-Best DA-268, the plan is to load it with cherry pickins' - key CDG and VCD tracks I didn't have on SCDG like U-Best's own "Papa Was A Rolliong A Stone" with the hot chick roaming around the city and "Down On The Corner" with the bopping baby.
But even there the player is a disappointment...it plays DVDs but it doesn't load them so I can't use it as a the repository for my music video collection.
It will store audio CD tracks though, and I hope to get around to putting my top 500 on there some rainy 40 days.
Another problem with the U-Best is its size...It is alot bigger and heavier than a Cavs player, CD player or Acesonic player, taking up two rack spaces.
The U-Best Da-268 seems a good choice for a home system where a singer with much time on his/her hands loads up favorite CDG, VCD and CD tracks for ease of retrieval later. This person, much like a scrapbooker, would have no qualms about also creating and maintaining a songbook off-system, and using same to choose content.
The CAVS DVD-203G-USB/Hard drive setup is a good choice for technophobes like me who want the convenience of not carrying discs with the least amount of change. It also appeals to my absolute reluctance to pecking away at a computer onstage. I have to sit to type for one thing, and I never sit at my shows.
I will start a new post shortly on the CAVS set up as that is the one actually going to work in the clubs with me right now - the good, the bad and the ugly of this beast! Meanwhile, this thread will focus on the U-Best as I gradually get around to getting my $600 out of it somehow!
Happy and profitable New Year to all you hard working operators bringing music into the lives of the people!
Chris "djBe"
thedjbeline.com
In other words you CAN'T just pop in a disc and walk away, do something else, come back in ten minutes, pop in another one. You either have to sit there the whole time or do double work. Their tech support recommends sitiing there the whole time, loading songs to the permanent file one at a time. Which blows.
so I wound up buying a hard drive for my CAVS SCDG player instead, loaded with all my SCDGs which I paid a guy to do, about 12,000 songs updated through 2008 thanks to Pop Hits putting out SCDGS now. Mostly everything I have on CDG or VCD I also have SCDG anyway.
My rig now consists of a CAVS 203-G USB player, a Hitachi CD player for breaks, and an Acesonic DVD-CDG-VCD player for singer discs and music videos.
I cherry pick a couple dozen CDGs to supplement what's on the hard drive until the time comes to reprint the books, so I'm still swapping discs a little bit. I figure I'll update the hard drive and the books once a year every January.
Meanwhile, most of the show, over 90 percent, is right off the hard drive and it's so easy I hardly know what to do with my hands. More bongo and tamb time is one big advantage. More time to deal with patrons without getting stressed that the time I take to talk to them might make me late for a disc change.
All you jocks on laptops already know about the joy of not swapping, scratching and stressing about discs. The CAVs hard-drive system differs in that it's accessed by a remote control, no computer is required. CAVS has a crappy remote so I mostly use the faceplate numbers....you punch in the number and hit enter.
Obviously the endless array of features a laptop system affords cannot be matched by the CAVS/external hard drive setup. Singer history, for example, is one mentioned in an earlier post.
I'm more for letting the singers recall or forget their own damn histories or better yet create new ones, especially when one considers every conversation is time spent not fully monitoring your singer and your mix. ;)
In fact, many of the best features in laptop systems - particularly the ability to find and cue a song from just typing in a few letters - often leads to complications. Singers wind up coralling the KJs into playing the "do you have..." game all night. And without the work - pleasurable work to real karaoke enthusiasts - of books,pens and slips to filter out the unreliables; less serious people and people punking their friends put in songs only to disappear or have a laugh while delaying your show with dead air.
The CAVs system does have a progammable queue, you can program as many songs as you want by punching in the song's number and hitting PROG - not ENTER. If you hit ENTER by accident the song stops and you've got a pissed off singer on your hands.
The queue shows up on the screen while programming - displaying only the number, no title no name - then goes off automatically, coming back on whenever you command or punch in more songs. Arranging or changing the queue, then, could create real issues for the singer trying to read the screen.
Since I still require slips I can and do queue with paper, and since punching in new songs is instant, there's no real time to be gained by advance programming. And when singers say "such and such DJ doesn't make me fill out slips" - thanks rest of the industry - I explain the slips are neccessary for prize drawings, which they are.
I backed up my system to a second hard drive and carry a second USB-enabled CAVS player just in case, but there is now NO way I am carrying three huge cases of discs and two milk crates of the books that went with them. I'll probably pick up one MPG right there
As for the $600 investment of a U-Best DA-268, the plan is to load it with cherry pickins' - key CDG and VCD tracks I didn't have on SCDG like U-Best's own "Papa Was A Rolliong A Stone" with the hot chick roaming around the city and "Down On The Corner" with the bopping baby.
But even there the player is a disappointment...it plays DVDs but it doesn't load them so I can't use it as a the repository for my music video collection.
It will store audio CD tracks though, and I hope to get around to putting my top 500 on there some rainy 40 days.
Another problem with the U-Best is its size...It is alot bigger and heavier than a Cavs player, CD player or Acesonic player, taking up two rack spaces.
The U-Best Da-268 seems a good choice for a home system where a singer with much time on his/her hands loads up favorite CDG, VCD and CD tracks for ease of retrieval later. This person, much like a scrapbooker, would have no qualms about also creating and maintaining a songbook off-system, and using same to choose content.
The CAVS DVD-203G-USB/Hard drive setup is a good choice for technophobes like me who want the convenience of not carrying discs with the least amount of change. It also appeals to my absolute reluctance to pecking away at a computer onstage. I have to sit to type for one thing, and I never sit at my shows.
I will start a new post shortly on the CAVS set up as that is the one actually going to work in the clubs with me right now - the good, the bad and the ugly of this beast! Meanwhile, this thread will focus on the U-Best as I gradually get around to getting my $600 out of it somehow!
Happy and profitable New Year to all you hard working operators bringing music into the lives of the people!
Chris "djBe"
thedjbeline.com
Visit my page on FB....Karaoke Karolina. Check out my store/studio/art gallery AXXTACY GUITARS & GEAR M-F 2PM-7PM, 5285 Main, Shallotte, NC. 910-795-9083
Sounds like the moral of the story is, there is no short cut to putting on a professional show.
You need professional equipment. Disc based or computer based.
This is the problem I have been talking about with items that are advertised as a "karaoke" item. Don't fall for that line...Professionals need professional stuff and they aren't labeled "karaoke" anything.
If it says it's a "karaoke" item it's home user junk. They are trying to land a fish. Don't be a sucker. There are no cheap ways to be a professional KJ.
You won't last long and everyone will notice. The only one being "fooled" is you.
If it says it's a "karaoke" piece of equipment run the other way as fast as you can.
You need professional equipment. Disc based or computer based.
This is the problem I have been talking about with items that are advertised as a "karaoke" item. Don't fall for that line...Professionals need professional stuff and they aren't labeled "karaoke" anything.
If it says it's a "karaoke" item it's home user junk. They are trying to land a fish. Don't be a sucker. There are no cheap ways to be a professional KJ.
You won't last long and everyone will notice. The only one being "fooled" is you.
If it says it's a "karaoke" piece of equipment run the other way as fast as you can.
