I am sorry I have been away. I have been in trial and trial prep over the purchase of our bar. We have settled and came to a nice compromise, bigger space with them paying us to move across the street to a better location.
I will say again my reasoning and try to outline WHY Hoster would not be applicable:
1. Often times, CDs do not have the correct information on their case, label or even manufacturers sight. As is evidenced by the the many complaints on this sight and my personal experience with programs like KJ Pro, you cannot depend on what information is listed in these programs about what songs are on CDs. When composing my new music lists in Excel WEEKLY, I often times am required to check a song for accuracy of title.
2. As I guarantee that, "If we don't have it, we'll get it," I am again in a position of finding better versions of a song that meet certian criteria of the customers, either specific lyrics that are omitted on other versions or longer more correct sound. In order to do this, I need to cue up the song and listen to it and sometimes not look at the screen until well into the song. A couple of examples of songs and why I am looking for better versions:
a. "Good Ol' Boys" by Waylon Jennings often referred to as "The Dukes of Hazzard Theme Song" Customers request the original version, not the T.V. version. Have to plug it in an play it to see if it is what the want
b. "Music of The Night" by Andrew Lloyd Webber, many versions exist with different tempos, and DIFFERENT LYRICS... I have ONE version that I sing, but had been requested to find one that sounds more like the London Cast. The Sound Choice Version wasn't it, the Music Maestro Version wasn't it, The Top Tunes version was.... The version I use is one of TWO versions that were released by Pocket Songs.
c. "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, Halloween is coming up, it is the Gay holiday, and 1/2 of my customers are Gay and want to have a great Halloween Party. One of my entertainers wants to perform this song with either a VERY GOOD sounding Vincent Price impersonation on the disk, or me doing that part. I need to be able to listen to it almost til the end then look at the screen for either the lyrics or the voice.
3. Hoster is not viable on account of I create my Database from my Home PC and Hoster is on my Bar PC. It often takes several days before the new 15-20 CDs will be added to Hoster. Also, what if I don't have my USB Ethernet Card here to activate Hoster?
4. Coding. I have thrown out, and maybe someone could respond in the affirmitive or correct me if I am wrong, that I believe that the coding to MUTE Microstudio was more involved than letting it play through. Am I wrong, or isn't Hoster being scripted to work more with the Windows Media Playing environment? Is Microstudio in that same situation?
As for the 8-bit mode, what are we talking about? Are you saying that when the New Microstudio (Which I haven't upgraded to yet) is operating in Full Screen Mode, that it is almost running in a DOS-Like window?
Okay, here is that last reason why audio should play through, the Boss Key.... If any of you remember what that is,
Maybe you have a big competition coming up and you want to practice prior but you don't want to be dependant on the Lyrics. Microstudio is for EVEN the NON-Professionals who Sing Karaoke. It is supposed to be for Karaoke Singers as well... it isn't "MICROSTUDIO PROFESSIONAL" that you are selling here. You are selling a product, or should try to be selling a product, that will play karaoke on PCs....
Here is a thought (LISTEN UP MARKETING) why not sell a USB 2.0 Plextor (or lessor quality, but capable) CD-ROM that will read maybe burn Karaoke with a version of Microstudio Lite that is ONLY a player call it "KaraokePC" sell it for $45-60 and maybe give them a karaoke CD or make a deal with a Karaoke Disc Manufacturer or Website to give the customer some Karaoke Disks to start off... I know that FRY's Would jump at it! Also, nothing exists in the market like that. You could go down to your local software house or PC sales center and buy a product from MTU...
I would consider the last paragraph
