Unable to continue playlist while adding track from singers disc
 

Searching the posts here, I found the following...

"Across top you have CDG, MP3, Video etc. buttons. Use the CDG button. Fill in which track #, Singers Name and Title of the song. Then click OK button and the track will be imported, added to the playlist, and only saved until they sing it, then it is erased.
This can be done while another singer is singing without interfering with the current singer."

I have done this many times before at my shows. However, the last show went a bit differently.

When I've added disc tracks before, they always finished prior to the end of the current singers song. Until last night.

Although, true to the statement above, it did not interfere with the "current singer", it did interfere with the show being able to continue.

The playlist (which was almost at a 2 hour rotation!) stopped after the current singer and would not continue until the file had finished writing.

That was way unacceptable for such a large show with a lot of people waiting to sing.

The next time I added a track from CDG, I watched the countdown timer of the current song and noticed it stopped counting down when the process started. Although the song played and lyrics showed fine, everything else halted in Hoster.

Seeing that the process wouldn't finish in time I pressed 'cancel'. But, the process didn't stop. It continued until it finished, even though I pressed cancel. Another BIG pause in the program.

Please tell me Hoster should not be acting this way.

What must I do to correct this behavior?

By the way, I really love using Hoster and tell all the other local KJ's about it. Even demo'd it for a couple of them. They're considering it for their shows.

Keep up the great work!

I have noticed something similar. I figured it is because I am using Vista and only have 1 gb of RAM. I usually only get about one of these per night and it is no real issue for me. I just import between songs. I will test this tonight using my XP machine and see if it does it there as well.

Have a separate cdg player for such cases as customer discs. :w

that happened to me a while back, i think the reason was from singers custom disc, that why i quit importing custom disc..

Thanks for your responses so far.

hwheeler: So I'm not the only one to experience this. Thanks for chiming in.
My gig machine is a real monster (core 2 duo w/ 4 gig of RAM, XP Pro SP2) so resources shouldn't be an issue. Reading from the disc was fairly fast...it was during the creation of the kma file that took a long time causing me to believe it is something within Hoster [see MTU below].

Lonman: I don't think having seperate hardware should be the answer.
Isn't that why we're using Hoster..to not have to deal with that.
Why would MTU have added that feature otherwise?

billyo: The two times it happened at the last show, one disc was a custom disc the singer had burned, the other was an original.

MTU: Somehow the focus (within Hoster) should stay with the playlist while adding a track, allowing it to continue while the track is added in the background.

Can someone from MTU say if this is possible?

Actually no being able to import customer cdg's is not the reason I am using Hoster, I am using Hoster to have all of my company cdg's I own on hard drive for ease of use. I have a separate player for my customer discs. Matter of fact, I don't even have a cd rom in my work tower at all anymore, took it out & brought it home, if I need one for software updates or what not, I bring in an external & connect it USB.
I ran into several discs that wouldn't play via the temp import - most were mediacloq'd, however, this will still mess up an import, so I don't use that feature personally, my player sits right next to the mixer.

i havent had any problem importing original singers disc for a while now , not unless they are badly scratched,

Your problem is not Hoster, but with your singer's discs. Hoster has the best error correction processes around, so if it gets a disc that is scratched or dirty then it will read the disc and then try to correct any errors it got that cause the screen glitches or any audio errors that cause distortion or noise. This can take up to several minutes for it to finish and is processor intensive.
The biggest problem is most people don't know how to take care of CDs, and that includes some KJs I know. I have seen them pull out a CD and use their shirt front to wipe them off thinking this will help when all it does is scratch them and make things worse.
Like Lonman, I have in my rack tied as a secondary input to my mixer a CDG player for those who insist on using their own discs. This way if it is a Sound Choice mediacloq disc there is no problem with playing it. If it has bad audio or graphics they have no one to blame but themselves.
I'm not saying that MTU doesn't need to look at the focus to keep it from stopping playlist continuation, but it really isn't Hoster that is causing the problem.

I have also had this problem.
i have also found that if you have another program open for playing music
like MM jukebox or media player, it slows down the import.
when i need to import from singers disc i close them.

I understand what you're all saying and it looks like I will have to add a cd+g player to my system. However, I still have to say, regardless of the condition of the disc or how long it takes to add the track, the real issue is keeping the show going. So I would like to know if this will be addressed by MTU.

With regard to using a separate player, what method do you all use to keep track of your rotation? Do you add some kind of placeholder in Hoster with the singers name? If so, how?

I was at one time using two SCDG discs which won't currently import so had to carry a player for those. I created two dummy BookIDs (way out of range of current IDs) by copying and renaming 2 small song files. For the title I put a name to identify each disc like SCDG 1 and SCDG 2. If some one was singing a song from one of them I incerted this in the rotation in their spot to remind me to go to the player for it.

I agree that this is a problem, but I don't think they can do anything about correcting it especially if it is a bad disc or track. You can have a cleaner setup and clean their discs before trying to load. Inspect them to see if they are dirty (clean them), scratched or cracked (return them and tell them it won't work).
Normal import usually doesn't take but 2-3 minutes for a clean good quality disc, but I always try to pick out a longer song to import during, so if it does run over it won't interfere.

I was thinking of something along those lines. I'm thinking I should be able to create something using an mp3 that is actually silence (just in case it does start playing).

The other concern I had is why clicking the "cancel" button had no effect in stopping the process.

That is certainly a bug.

As a matter of fact, not only did it continue to create the kma file, I was able to play it when it was the singers turn...even though I had pressed "cancel" at least three times during the process.

If I try adding a track from a singers disc and realize it won't finish before the end of the currently playing song, I should be able to stop the process and try it again later in order to keep the show going.

When I get to the customer disc I stop Hoster, switch the video to the player & push play on the player. When the customer disc is over, I stop the player, switch the video & push play on Hoster for the next singer.

or

I allow the song ending in Hoster to be my fill (transition) music while the next singer is coming up, switch the video, singers ready, push play on player, fade out Hoster. When customer disc is over will allow it to be the fill (transition) music while the next singer is coming up, singers ready, start Hoster, fade out player.
I don't use the singer name display (it won't work for my shows as I still use laserdiscs as well) so do not need to use a placecard of any sort.

I use a Laptop for BACKGROUND "Fill" music between Karaoke Songs.

To answer your question as to what others do as an alternative to using Hoster's CDG Button to "IMPORT TO THE PLAYLIST" a Song from a Singer's Disc:

I use the Laptop and non-MTU software to RIP the requested song to the Mp3+G format on the Laptop HD, copy the Mp3+G from the Laptop to a USB Jump Drive, insert the Jump Drive into the KJ Computer, copy the Mp3+G to the HD on the KJ Computer, and LOAD the Mp3+G song via Hoster's MP3G Button.

This process takes about the same amount of time as using Hoster to ADD a TRK via the CDG button when the Singer's Disc is, somewhat, scratched/dirty, but readable.

In this case, because I'm not using MTU software to RIP the Singer's Trk to the KJ Computer, I don't have to worry about "violating" any MTU EULA, if I happen to forget to erase the Singer's Trk after the Singer has finished singing the song...hint hint...Singer's song just might be there the next time they request it...and, this part is for the "trigger happy people in here," THE RIPPED SONG IS NOT AVAILABLE IN THE SONGS.MDB

The above solves a multitude of problems:
1. No waiting for the CDG "add trk" to finish
2. Playlist is always "IN FOCUS"
3. Immediately add a PLACE IN THE PLAYLIST, which IS NOT available when using a SEPARATE CDG Player. ( In which case, you won't need a Video Switcher)
4. No Extra CDG Player to CARRY/UNPACK/SETUP/TEARDOWN/PACKUP
5. No more SND taking Focus over a Playing Song's Graphics, for those experiencing this problem.

gd123: What "non-MTU software" are you using "to RIP the requested song to the Mp3+G format"?

GD123, does that mean you carry 2 computers to every Show?

Yes

And, why not? The Laptop can be used to run the show if my main computer goes down.

I use a full size computer to run shows.

Unfortunately, I'm a "weakling girl" (LOL) (actually pushing 60 now)
I'm unable to lift more than 25 lbs. and frequently have no help carrying stuff in, especially my speakers, ever since my husband had open-heart surgery & a hernia operation and the doctor told him he couldn't lift more than 25lbs. any more!

I went computerized not only to back-up my old CDGs but to have less to carry!

This is the Topic of discussion.


A question was asked as to what others do to solve this problem.


I explained what I do. And that is, to use my Laptop, a second computer, to solve the problem.

Great idea!
 

gd123: That's a great idea. I also have a laptop with me as a backup to the main (full sized tower) system.

Thanks for the great tip. I do believe I will try that next show.