CD Maintainence questions.
 

All,
I apologize if this is covered elsewhere in the forum but here goes anyway:

I have upwards of 1100 discs now and use "CD projects" 208 capacity notebooks to house them. They seem to wear a bit even when I'm not using them which may just be natural, but I wondered if anyone had a suggestion on how to lengthen their lives as I really hate making multiple copies of the same disc, unless I use it ALOT.

Are there cd's that are more durable than others?
Which method of storage is better (notebooks, sleeves, etc.)?
Is there any type of treatment that would enhance the durability?
Is there a good way to repair them after the fact that would be faster/cheaper than re-burning?

Thanks to you all for any suggestions you might have.

Louieoke.

cd storage
 

I use a roadcase made by Diskjocki. You can find these at Karaoke Club.com not sure of the spelling. These hold 200 cds in cradles with felt lining. Slots are numbered I currently use three of these with great results

Louieoke, ever thought of using Hoster instead of CD's :w

"Louieoke, ever thought of using Hoster instead of CD's"

I really need to! I just don't have the time or loot to go that path just yet. Hopefully in the next couple of years, the amount of technology that I need will be more feasible for me monetarily. Lord knows I hate making copies of CD's all the time.

Do you use Hoster currently, and if so, how do you really like it? I will investigate it more in the near future as I know it is the future of the industry and I want to keep as current as possible.

Thanks to all that have replied on this. I will also checkout the road cases for the interum. The felt lining would be the bomb. May be my next way to go.

Thanks again,
Louieoke

Louieoke, I don't currently use Hoster but I helped our largest 7-day a-week establishment using it successfully. I think Hoster is priced good and is the best chose. You can email me at swalker6@tampabay.rr.com if you like more details on what I'm currently doing.

Steve

SKB has a case about the size of a suitcase for 88-120.00 depending on where you find it, and they will hold 650+ in each case. but if you have 1100. you would need 2 cases and that is just about what the hoster program costs now. just think about not having to haul the cd's, looking them up, and refileing them after use. no to mention the wear & tear on them....... It really is a sweet way to go and a computer can be had, if you dont already own one fairly cheep.

No, Im not MTU, but I sure do love the program.

gduns, you make a valid point! but don't forget that you also have to have a PC too. :g Is that what "oops" was for?

Steve

NOPE, I DOUBLE POSTED........
A decent computer can be had for less than 700.00 . if you consider all the trouble you are going to right now to put on a show and Knew the difference........ I could never go back. I know, it is easy to say right now. But I built a rackmount and I have a whole system in a roll in, and plug in unit. I can be set up to play in less than 30 monutes, and tear down in less. Plus I dont have to stay glued to the player, and cd's worrying about theft, and prepairing for the next song. I usually have my rotation set up 3 or 4 people in advance and can set a timer to give them time to get to the mike ..... put it in auto, and play at the bar and work up future business.

I was doing this with djing before this, using windows media player, and setting up playlists, for my different venues. It automates a majority of the work, so my job is easy, and I can work on the customers, keeping them.

Using Windows Media Player what plug-in did you use to:

1. Display the lyrics?

2. Play a CD+G from the drive?

Steve

"DJ-ing"-- playing regular music, not karaoke. No plug ins. I use the audiology II soundblaster card. I am running a 4000 watt pro system, and it sounds as good as if I were playing the CD.

gduns, guess I'm still waking up!

Whew!
 

Man, thanks for all the god advice. As far as the Dj'ing part, you should try Winamp3 sometime it's awesome. I do all my dj'ing through it, because I have them in mp3 format and can hold a ton on my PC.

I will have to try Hoster for Karaoke. I have a very nice laptop P4 40gig HD. I think hoster changes the files into an mp3+G format, isn't that correct?

Would an external HD work for hosting because with the amt of songs I have, I would need at least a 120gb'er and only load 1 0r 2 versions of each song (which I have been meaning to do anyway to cut down on my tree killing when I print books.

I may also have to look at the SKB cases, as I was looking at the earlier ones mentioned and they are like $329 each. That would be like 1800 bucks. Ouch. They were pretty darn sweet however. Do the SKB's have linings, just curious.

Thanks all,
Louieoke

first hoster uses kma format, not mp3+g. That is also Why I use windows media player. it uses wma format. Mp3 compression looses highs and lows, and makes a flat sound. (without equalization). The Wma format retains all the original dynamics of the sounds of the cd. And the compression is about half the size of of the same mp3 file. You can download a mp3->wma converter from microsoft. But I loaded all my albums myself, and You would be amazed at the difference in sound.

I have 1,050 karaoke cdg's loadon my harddrive and it isnt but 49 gigs of space. As far as music, I have 800 albums in media player (wma) 10.5 gigs........ compare.

The skb cases aren't lined, but it isnt needed. the place I got mine, was off the internet out of Pensacola. they were $88.00 each. he was the cheepest. Do a search for dj cases, and you will find it, If not I will try to find the website.

ps. external hard drive will work just fine.

Re: Whew!
 

You will be using WinAmp5 at this point which is the best yet. The Media Libr is like WMP - nice!

You can use an external HDD on firewire or usb. I would check if usb 1 is fast enough but it should be. Hoster uses KMA similar to WMA format but may not be fully compatible. It is not compatible with MP3+G format.

I would have two external hard drives all songs on each drive for backup purposes. I would also consider backing up all the KMA files to DVD's (you can store over 2300 songs per DVD) for permanent backup.

Steve

Hey Steve???
 

Stupid question time. If I back them up on Dvd, they (1) will stil be in the .kma format, correct? Also, I assume I would need a Dvd burner to do this as well? Just curious, thanks again.

Louieoke!

Yeah, the files will be in the compressed kma format on DVD and is why you can fit so many files on one DVD. You will need a DVD burner.

Steve

Louieoke

If you have an extra $200 I would recommend purchasing Hoster for your laptop and purchase an external Hard Drive. You will invest some time in importing 1000 discs but it will be well worth it. Prior to purchasing hoster I had my discs in the same storage binders as you are currently using. I used them 4 nights per week over the last few years and even though I handled them with great care they began to wear and crack. Most of the discs that were cracking and degrading were soundchoice. It started to get expensive with replacing them. I too was skeptical about changing over to Hoster partly due to the "unknown" and partly due to the financial investment.

If you already have a P4 Laptop you are way ahead of the game. I was looking at between $1500 and $2500 investment with a new Laptop and Software.

I made the investment and have never regretted it. I have done about 5 shows, and 3 private parties with Hoster and I'm thrilled with the performance, I have yet to touch a disc....yes they are tucked away in my van if I need them. I encourage you to take the plunge with Hoster...you will never go back!!

By the way I use OTS/DJ software for my DJ music and I'm extremely pleased with the results. I looked at and tried other programs but the overall performance of OTS was excellent
you can download a 30 day trial version at www.otsdj.com
they use dynamics signal processing which really enhances the quality of the sound. It gives it a real punch! Anyway it's free to try for a month.

Flipper

I agree that Hoster is the program for Louieoke.

External Drive size
 

Louie,
If you are watching your finances, you could easily put your 1100 disc in a much smaller drive. I have a 120 gig. drive and 1100+ discs and it's not even half full using Hoster. For the $200 bucks Hoster cost, you couldn't even think of buying a decent storage solution to address the problems you mentioned. Someone mentioned the Road cases that Karaoke.com sells, well they quit carying them, because the company that made the case quit making them. I have two that I will sell for cheap if some one wants them. Now I don't even use them, thanks to Hoster. Louie trust me Hoster is the sweetest thing to come to Karaoke in a long time. Your disc will love you for it, and so will your clientel.