how can I make a cdg from MTU laptop?

[kenpattx]

I recently purchased the MTU laptop. Is there a way that I can burn myself a custom cdg from the songs I have loaded in my hard drive???? I also have the microstudio on the same laptop, as well as the plextor burner. I am not a computer whiz, and need detailed instructions. Thanks Pat

[danny_g]

you can only do custom from sdg's you already have through microstudio. If the songs on your laptop are not available on disc that is in your collection you can't use it at a show no matter where you go unless you are just doing it for fun and not for money.

[jaddams]

Pat,

If the files you want to burn were extracted using Hoster. You cannot.
You can only burn a CD with tracks extracted using MicroStudio. Hoster’s and MicroStudio’s file formats are different.

If you extract the songs you want, for your custom disk using MicroStudio, here is the sequence for burning your CD, also using MicroStudio

1 Open MicroStudio
2. Select Custom Assembly
3. Select “Add Tracks From HD”
4. Navigate to the directory where the songs you want to burn are located. (You can select one song at a time, or you can select several by holding the “Shift Key” while making your selections)
5. When you are finished with you selection(s), insert a writable CD in your burner,
6. Click “Write CD” and you are on.

Good luck,

Jon

[mlepine]

I believe you can,

Anything you have on your hard drive should be able to be burned on a cd. Once in it's the Hard Drive it becomes a file so all you need to do is copy this file on a cd. After, you will need to read the cd you just burned like if it was a hard drive!

Any cdg file could be copied on a cd as a file & then just pretend your cd-rom is hard drive.

Of course you won't be able to read this cd anywhere but your computer.

Good Luck

[George]

Mlepine,

Hoster saves it's files as KMA, not CDG or WAV.

Jon is absolutely correct. If the files were imported to the laptop through Hoster they cannot be burned to a cd and used, nor can they be used by any other program.

Regarding CDG files, generally CDROM drives are incapable of reading them. Very few CDR/RW drives will read CDG.

I'm a bit fuzzy in one area. Why would a person want to burn something off the hard drive to a cd if they could only use that cd on the computer that already has the files on the hard drive? I can't see that even serving as backup if a hard drive had to be reformatted. I don't get it.

George

[mlepine]

George,

You are correct, but it is possible & I'll tell you how:

Any cdg song you would have in your hard drive becomes a file, so when you read this file with Microstudio you read it by selecting hard drive right? Now, burn a cd (back up) of your cdg file with any burner on the market just like you would burn a document.
After you can read your cdg files by selecting hard drive in microstudio but you will nead to change the path from C or D to what ever your cd-rom is.

Can you Imagine how many custom compressed file (KMA) you can burn on a cd-rw? yes, you can burn it on a cd-rw because your doing a back up!

Microstudio needs to read a cdg file, where ever it comes doesn't matter. From a cd-rom, you need a compatible burner but once it's in your hard drive you can also read it from another computer using your network.

I have all my music saved on my desktop computer in one room and I go in my basement with my Laptop with NO CDG burner and I can play my songs.

Hope it's clear the way I explain it?

Thanks

[George]

Yeah but you seem to keep missing the point that Microstudio will not read anything but CDG or .WAV..no KMA, so what's the point in all of it?

George

[mlepine]

George,

The files on the cd are cdg or KMA for Hoster.

Microstudio will read the files from the cd-rw just like if it was the hard drive. It won't work if you try to read your cd by selecting CDROM, use the Hard Drive and change the folder from C\Songlist to your cd-rom or DVD-Rom.

When you copy a file from one destination to another it's the same, your moving it from your hard drive to a cd-rw.

If you have Windows XP try this: send any cdg file in your hard to your burner, burn the a cd-rw and after read this cd-rw with microstudio. Remember to select Hard Drive not CDROM

It's like trying to cut & past from hard drive to cd

Thanks

[George]

Kanpattx,

Do yourself a favor and accept Jon's answer. Since you have Microstudio, Jon's instructions on how to import the tracks you want to the hard drive, and burn them to a cd are right on the button. You cannot make a usable cd from the files imported through Hoster.

I'm outa here.

George

[kenpattx]

George, I'm with you and Jon. .... I have been making cdgs for quite some time the conventional way. But it would be SOOOOOO convenient to just burn one from the laptop via hoster instead of going into our stacks and stacks of cdgs and then locate the one song on that one disc and import them one at a time. We have way too many cdgs to sort thru. (1000 or more cdgs and 15000+ songs). It is so very time consuming doing it this way, when a simple click on a computer that already has them in it could be so very easy and convenient. When we go to a karaoke show as a customer, we like to take our own music, because we find really poor selections or poor quality discs at almost all karaoke shows we have attended. I think this could be a suggestion for MTU to add as a feature in their hoster programs. How about it MTU????
pat

[danny_g]

Originally posted by kenpattx
George, I'm with you and Jon. .... I have been making cdgs for quite some time the conventional way. But it would be SOOOOOO convenient to just burn one from the laptop via hoster instead of going into our stacks and stacks of cdgs and then locate the one song on that one disc and import them one at a time. We have way too many cdgs to sort thru. (1000 or more cdgs and 15000+ songs). It is so very time consuming doing it this way, when a simple click on a computer that already has them in it could be so very easy and convenient. When we go to a karaoke show as a customer, we like to take our own music, because we find really poor selections or poor quality discs at almost all karaoke shows we have attended. I think this could be a suggestion for MTU to add as a feature in their hoster programs. How about it MTU????
pat

I am glad it doesn't allow exporting to cdg because it is what separates them from their competition. It is my Belief that it might even encourage Karaoke CDG manufaturers to custom create files for Hoster itself like are made forCavs without the worries coul so and so copy this to CDG for someone else.

[admin]

Originally posted by kenpattx
George, I'm with you and Jon. .... I have been making cdgs for quite some time the conventional way. But it would be SOOOOOO convenient to just burn one from the laptop via hoster instead of going into our stacks and stacks of cdgs and then locate the one song on that one disc and import them one at a time. We have way too many cdgs to sort thru. (1000 or more cdgs and 15000+ songs). It is so very time consuming doing it this way, when a simple click on a computer that already has them in it could be so very easy and convenient. When we go to a karaoke show as a customer, we like to take our own music, because we find really poor selections or poor quality discs at almost all karaoke shows we have attended. I think this could be a suggestion for MTU to add as a feature in their hoster programs. How about it MTU????
pat

We could write a translator that converts a KMA file to a CDG, but we have no plans to. We are walking a very fine line at MTU. We are focused on LEGALLY enhancing the CDG Karaoke industry. For example, CAVS did write a translator from their compressed format back to CDG. Then, the Karaoke Producers got very mad and ceased to support CAVS because of the illegal distribution it allowed/encouraged.

So why won't MTU write a translator?

1. We are protecting our Professional Host clients from LEGAL actions against them. If a professional, who makes an income from hosting Karaoke shows, has songs in their show that they did not PURCHASE, then ALL their equipment can be confiscated by a US Marshal, or in a law suit in a Court of Law. By not providing a means to convert from our KMA small, compressed file, we discourage illegal distribution. It is not an easy choice MTU makes on this. It damages our income now, but in the long run, I (as President/Founder/Owner of MTU) believe it is a matter of time before the music industry will crack down on illegal distribution in a VERY NEGATIVE way. I want every MTU customer to be exempt from this feared future action. I want every MTU customer to sleep soundly at night, knowing they are doing what is legal, not illegally copying and distributing Hoster KMA files.
2. Becaue people today are inclined to "share" their songs with friends. The compressed format makes it very easy to distribute CAVS songs (or MTU's KMA files also) over the Internet. This illegal copying damages the Producers, just as bad as it does legal, professional hosts who must compete with unscrupulous persons who do NOT buy all their songs. MTU is doing all we can to encourage legal use of copyrighted materials.

I do not understand why the music industry refuses to prepare course material for educators that covers what is legal and what is not. Most people today believe it is OK to make copies of CDs/CDGs they buy and swap with friends who make copies of their discs. This is the root problem in the world today... and I won't get up on that soap-box here or now.

Yes, we realize that it would be so much faster to make a custom CDG disc from your imported KMA files in Hoster. But, the legal implications do not justify this convinence.

My thanks to Danny_G for his well stated position. He has been a long-standing MTU customer who has read the mirid of posts about what is legal, and knows the hard stand that MTU takes. I appreciate his post here.

For the Record: Microstudio will only write uncompressed CDG or WAV files to a CDR/CDRW media as a CDG Karaoke or CDDA Audio format disc. It will not write a CDROM data disc. Yes, mlepine is correct in that some other program could be used to write KMA files to a CDR/CDRW disc.

Further, Microstudio will NOT import or play KMA files, so you can't click the Add Track from Hard Drive button and use KMA songs. Also, Hoster does not allow adding tracks in the Import Tracks screen from a CDROM. They must be imported from a CDG Karaoke disc.

[dpreeves]

As a Karaoke show host, MTU customer, and new user of Hoster, I appreciate the integrity of MTU, and is one of the main reasons I have purchased Hoster over other programs. It has gotten too easy in my area to just "burn me a copy" and has reduced the karaoke business to cut throat, bargain priced cheesy operations. I applaud MTU for thier stance, and intend to continue to trust thier products and judgement.

[SteveWalker]

Originally posted by kenpattx
I recently purchased the MTU laptop. Is there a way that I can burn myself a custom cdg from the songs I have loaded in my hard drive???? I also have the microstudio on the same laptop, as well as the plextor burner. I am not a computer whiz, and need detailed instructions. Thanks Pat

I'm sure that all of us who use the PC to host karaoke shows have ALL the original CDG's from which the files were encoded and stored on our hard drives. This means we operate our business LEGALLY.

Why not just use the original CDG's to make your custom CDG? The sound quality is best this way because encoding then decoding loses quality.

Steve

[kenpattx]

I didn't expect such a firestorm when I originally posted. We are among the strongest supporters of the laws governing the ownership of CDG's and do own ALL of the original cdg's in our collection. We have been asked numerous times to "burn" a copy by people, and have steadfastly refused, quoting the illegality of and the reprocussions of doing so, even to the point of "turning off" that person. They have all returned to our shows because of our quality system and song selection. We have quite a few regulars who come as far as 75 -100 miles for our shows. If you ever started giving out illegal copies it would never end, and would be like cutting your own throat

I believe they ultimately respected us more for our integrity.

[admin]

kenpattx, I personally applaud your integrity.

As President of MTU I all to well know how hard it is to do what is right.

For this industry to continue to thrive and grow, the laws must be followed. Otherwise it will collapse where no professional producers or hosts would be in it any more. That would be a very sad day for the public!