Where are my songs?
 

I have installed hoster on one computer that has an external hard drive and my songs are there and play. When I attach the external hard drive to my notebook, I see the songs but I cannot get them to come up anywhere? What am i doing wrong? Do all the songs have to be put into a saved playlist before you can play them? Help!

You must attach the drive to your Laptop.

1. Open Hoster
   
2. Click the Configure Menu
   
3. Click on Build Song Database
   
4. Click Select Folder at the top to select the drive that your .kma files are on. Click the Select button to select the drive or folder that the files are stored in/on. NOTE: If you have mulitple folders, you must do this for each folder.
   
5. Then click the Select Folder button at the bottom. This select the folder C:\Program Files\Micro Technology Unlimited\Hoster\Databases. Once you have guided it to this directory, click Select.
   
6. The last thing to do is click the Build Song Database button at the bottom. It will give you a dialog box, follow the instructions.
   
7. Once this is done, all your songs should now show under the Play tab. To make sure go to the Play Tab Click New. Then click Add HD Track, and see if they all show up.
   

folders
 

When I imported my songs to my external hard drive I did not send to a specific folder, so they are all there individually. Do I have to put them in a single folder? Do this with every cd or all together in one folder?

Thanks

No,
For the select folder then just select your external drive such as d:\ or e:\.

Then it will read each of the songs. You don't have to put them in a folder at all if you don't want to. You can just put them exactly how you have it on the drive itself. In the manual it should explain more about this under Rebuild Song Database.

deleting
 

How do you delete a disk from the program so you may enter another with the same book id #?


Thanks,

Roadhouse,
The only way to do this is to delete the .kma files that you imported for that Disc/BookID and then do the step above with removing the Songs.mdb and doing the Rebuild Song Database. This is currently the only way to free up those used BookId's.

Just a note I wanted to make here. Windows 95 and 98 had a problem with too many files in the root directory of the hard drive. I never checked to see if Windows 2000 or Windows XP did as well. Probably not, since it is based on NT technology, but I think it is good practice to not put everthing in the root directory of your hard drive anyway. Organize it a little at least, with a directory with a meaningful name. Makes things easier down the road.

later,
Emwalter

For the record!
 

It is NOT a good idea to place any data in your C:/ root directory of C drive. Windows with its TEMP files will fracture the disc volume. Thus, if you create a D: drive Windows will not fracture that volume. If you use C: drive, then you must run Defrag often, like every time before you import any songs. If not your performance will suffer with Hoster playback, and you may get underruns (studdering and audio dropouts) while playing. This is a computer controlled problem that Hoster cannot overcome.

In closing, it is a very BAD idea to use C drive for your imported files. Create and use a D, E, etc. drive... anything but C where Windows is installed. :e

There is another way. Using Access 97 and above. You can use link tables to link to an existing database, without having to convert the database to a later version. I used that method to correct some problems when I first started importing. I had some disks that were bad about 8 tracks in from scratches, and they did not import fully, so I had to delete them from the database. Just create a new project, (give it a name) then select design icon, select link tables, then point to the database. Accept the defaults (hit enter until you are done). Works great!

Ok, I have a problem (what else?), I have a toshiba laptop with the g-force 4 video, USB 2, 40g and a 60g internal drive. I installed all the files on the 60g drive, and the databases in the databases directory of Hoster. Works great on the laptop, no problem. I purchased an external Plextor for the laptop. (By the way, under USB 2.0, the drive performed spectacularly. Normal burns averaged 44X and peaked at 49X. I must say I was surprised! Anyway, my problem is, I have about 100 disks, in various stages of damage (I had my CDG's in a 300CD jukebox, and had "HELP" bringing the equipment in -against my wishes- ...long story... anyway, the jukebox was dropped, causing massive damage to the jukebox, and scratches on many of the CDG's). I don't have too much difficulty reading these CDG's on my regular player, I guess it is because it is slow, so it does not have problems skipping. Drawback to the screaming fast Plextor (IDE) drives: pretty bad skipping. I also have a 40X IDE Plextor on my desktop, and I see I have the same problem as the 48x Plextor, some skipping on these damaged CD's. The damage is hardly noticeable while doing the gigs, as both the replacement jukebox and the regular CDG Pioneer player have very minor sparkles on the screen (I see them, but the singers don't notice them much). I have not gotten to the problem I am encountering yet, just wanted to set the stage so-to-speak. My solution is, I also have a SCSI Plextor reader (I have had it a very long time, and it has worked very well). Problem is of course, it is on my Desktop machine. I don't plan on using my desktop machine for gigs, (to big and bulky), but I need good clean imports. It takes some of these disks FOREVER to import, and some, not at all. Once I figured out the problem, I did some imports on my desktop, and on the difficult ones, I was able to import cleanly (a little slower than the clean disks, but reasonably quick).

After this long setup to explain what I am trying to do, here it is. I finally got my desktop running with Hoster, but I see no real way to tell it where to find the databases. I have tried several ways to get it to work, all I want to do, is use the desktop to import the files, and have the option of using either the laptop or the desktop to import. I would like the two systems to point to the same location (the laptop) via my network connection, according to the documentation, this is supposed to be configurable, I saw no way to direct Hoster where to find the files, am am wondering if there are any command line switches that can be used to configure where Hoster finds its files (or possibly a script to edit). I am not asking to have both computers to do importing simultanaeously (although it would be nice, I have spent 2 weeks importing, but have not gotten real far). A bit more explanation on what hoster is looking for might be helpful. Thanks for your help!

Emwalter

I don't remember the default folder where Hoster stores the files, having designated my own folder, but they are stored as .kma files. You should be able to search all files and folders for .kma and pull them up. I just tried it and it found mine. This will also give you the full default address for future reference.

Hope this helps,

George

Yep, I know that. The problem is, I don't want to scan, this will rebuild the database of songs. I already have the database of songs just the way I like it. I want to be able to add songs from either the laptop or the desktop, without having to rebuild. If I can get the two systems using the same files, I will be able to import the files in the same folder, and in the same database. I realize that it most likely will not allow importing simultanaeously from the two systems, since the database is based on, I believe version one of the Access database, so no sharing of the database will most likely be allowed (I don't think the earlier versions of Access allowed individual record locking, the whole database would be locked --at least for writing). But, if I use one system at a time to import the CDG's, I can take advantage of my SCSI drive, which does a better job (almost no visible errors, or skipping) of reading my damaged disks. Once I get through these damaged disks, I can go back to the laptop and the external USB 2 Plextor to import the rest.

I know, I want my cake and to eat it too!

Thanks,

Ok, never mind, I got it to work. The laptop is used to import the easier CD's and the desktop is busy importing the difficult ones. I sure will be glad when it is all done importing. I have spent a lot of time importing it. Soon as I get them imported, I believe I will burn the files to DVD as backup, just in case (don't wanna go thru this again, whew!). All I need to do as long as I pay attention to the bookID, is periodically rebuild the songs database on the laptop. The clue was in the manual, how the database works. The data is saved in the same location, but the headers on the imported files need to be updated, thus the reason for rebuild, not only does it rebuild the database, it also writes a header to the .kma files. I checked without rebuilding, and it would save the files, but when you try to play them back, you get an error. Rebuilding the songs database allows you to play the files afterward.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Emwalter

Crash?
 

I have used Hoster for about three gigs and everything has worked great. However tonight I had only got into 2 hours of a four hour gig and had to shut down and go home. I pulled up a certain song and it wouldn't play. I rebooted the laptop and again same thing. Didn't think of trying a different song. thought for sure it was the program. Got home and tried another song and it worked. I had changed versions this week of the "problem" song. I recopied the song back into Hoster and now everything works great. Don't know if that's what was actually wrong but if it happens to anyone you might want to try recoping the problem song.

Also, does anyone suggest upgrading to Direct x 9.0 with Hoster?


Kelly

Similar Problem
 

I had one song that when It tried to play CUE lit up Yellow instead of the usual Blue Playing. The Hour Glass was on & wouldn't go away no matter what I did & the song never did start. I shut the PC off & turned it back on (opened the same Songlist) then skipped this song and had no more problems. I think it is a problem with the recording. I hav't re-recorded it yet, I just told everybody not to play it until I tell them it's OK. I've also had a couple of bad recordings where half way through the song the screen gets dark & the words are the same dark color, just darker & you can hardly see them change. I also need to re-copy these 2. One of my KJs assumed it was a problem with the PC, but, had the disks with him so he didn't have to quit.

He felt a little silly when I asked if he tried another song when only 1 had messed up...Wayne

Crash
 

Thanks Wayne, glad to know I'm not a "virgin". Also one other night had problem with Micro. I'm using it for right now to play brought in discs. It played the persons disc but Micro Studio locked up as soon as the song was finished. It did this with another persons discs and each time I had to reboot. The only thing I have running on my MTU laptop when I do a show is Hoster, Micro and Excel. I still use it for my song books. And it makes it easy for me to look up what I need. This shouldn't be to much for the system ? Also do you advise upgrading to Direct X 9.0?

Thanks,

Kelly

Haven't got 9.0 Yet
 

Kelly

I haven't upgraded Direct X since installing Hoster. I assume the next release will give us 9.0 if MTU thinks we need it.

I don't use Microstudio during shows. I currently open Hoster, Windows Media Player (to switch over to play a couple of dance tunes late at night between rounds to please those who don't sing, but, hang out all night) and an Access DB I created. I link to the Hoster DB Songlist and can do queries against the Song Titles or Artist. I have used front & Back wildcards in the search so it returns any Song (or Artist - depending on the search selected) that contain the string/word entered. It gives me all of the info for each song (BookID as well as original Disk & Song #).

I also am still taking my original racks that have players in them, as well as, amp, mixer & wireless mics. Although, they stay in the box, we are still lugging the disks too. We are prepared to go back to disks if we need to on any given night (this also is how we play other peoples disks). I re-arranged my original disk and wrote the Hoster Disk# on them with a Sharpie making them it easier to find them from the BookID.

Wayne



Wayne

Micro with Hoster
 

First , Thanks wayne.

Now, is there anyone out there who is using or trying to use Micro Studio along with Hoster. Until the upgrade comes out I have been trying to use Micro Studio to play other peoples discs. Micro studio either locks up or when trying to play the disc it jumps, stutters and sometimes just won't play. Any ideas?

Kelly