bumper music

[MaddMatt]

All:

I have been researching Hoster and think it is a great product. I am still in the research phase of this business but look forward to a exploring Karaoke more.

What does Hoster do about the bump music between songs? And if Hoster doesn't do anything is there another way to have musical interludes between the performances?

Thanks

[George]

Matt
Isn't the concept of using musical interludes a direct contrast to your position on another thread that you wish to speed up the process and run the singers through faster, and cut out all the in between singer time wasters

To answer the question though, you can import .wav files into Hoster to add to your playlist as you wish.

George

[admin]

Sorry George, I sure wish we had that feature, but it is not quite there yet.

When we do it (which is high on our list for Hoster 2.1), we will allow importing from an Audio CD as a .wma compressed file. Then we will allow adding a .wma or .kma (or .cdg) into the playlist. This will allow sequencing karaoke and audio songs to play, either auto or manual triggered depending on your selection.

[Beavis]

lets get the thumbnails working first !! it would be nice when a song is finished, if a selected image could be displayed automatically ! like advertizements !!

[George]

Sorry ADMIN, I've done it.

All you have to do is import the .WAV file as Karaoke if all you want to do is play a song without anything on the screen. It gets saved as a KMA file and will load into the playlist and play just fine. I used 128 compression, just like a cdg file.

It already works if all that's wanted is some background music.Since that's what Matt inquired about, my answer fills his bill.

I saw no reason since he's in the "tire kicking" stage to go into the how you do it, simply that he can do it.

For that matter, for the present, those wanting a commercial plug on the screen during this intermission, all they have to do is:

1-go into KPRO (or notepad, wordpad, etc) and set up their message as a single lyrics page.

2- go into settings, do not use title and credits pages, only the lyrics page. select the SAME COLOR FOR TEXT AND SWEEPING, and set up the number of lines, and font as they would normally.

3-import their message as lyrics

4-import the .WAV file they wish to use as background music

5-start the sweep process, only take the full length of the song to sweep the one page. SWEEP REAL SLOW

6- Save, then export to CDG

7-burn in Microstudio to a cdrw(saves coasters)

8-import to Hoster

9- When played, the message will appear to just sit on the screen during the entire song.

George

[Beavis]

A. i dont want to buy microstudio
B. i dont want to buy KJpro

its a simple task that can be incorperated in the program!

[George]

C. it's a work around for those already owning those products, and:
D. was presented as a temporary measure


George

[Beavis]

E. thanks george

[CochrellGary]

All

Create your message as a JPG and display it as a wallpaper selection under the "Display Properties" of the operating system.

Gary

[George]

F. you're welcome

G. you might want to re-think Microstudio and Kpro from an advertising value perspective. If someone approached you and wanted to pay you to put, say two or three three minute plugs an evening into your program, during intermission breaks,
how much per spot would you charge him?

O.K. now since Microstudio and Kpro can be expensed as a business deduction, take your actual cost for them after taxes and divide the figure you would have charged that guy per spot into it. That's how many times you would have to run your own advertising spots to pay for both programs, and you will still have the use of them.

On that basis, I'd bet the expenditure would pay for itself long before the feature becomes available as part of Hoster, 'cause it wouldn't take but a very few shows to do so.

I guess it would all boil down to what value do you really place on having those spots in your program. Only you can answer that.

George

[jaddams]

Sorry Admin,

I agree with George. Here is how I did it.

1. Using MicroStudio I imported some regular CD tracks as WAV files.

2. Burned them into a CD using CD Creator.

3. I used Hoster to create a play list which included regular karaoke songs AND songs from the disk I just created and made a little rotation with 3 regular Karaoke songs and two from the regular CD.

4. Played the rotation just fine, including the “bumper music,” as MaddMatt called it.

There may be other ways to this but it works!

I guess Hoster 2.011 has that function after all.

Regards,

Jon

[George]

Right Jon, and both methods are viable. Yours will get it done if the .wav files are on the hard drive, and mine to go into Hoster direct from an audio cd.

One would think, since the program will already import, compress, save as KMA, and play a .WAV file, that it shouldn't take all that much tweaking to turn on that ADUIO button on the SELECT FILE FORMAT section of the IMPORT SCREEN.

George

[Flipeoke]

You can actually take it further if you wish and have multiple pages for each song, use the title page with a nicely done photo/artwork, display for say 15 seconds, move on to lyrics, which say "we offer the best in.....products" time it right and you could have a whole commercial the length of a song, then for the end credits page the logo/photo/artwork again with the phone # at the bottom.

IF you really wanted to get fancy, record your own wave file with spoken word/background music to match, your "commercial". Or if you are selling adspace, see if they have a copy of their radio spot, add their custom graphics/artwork, and you get a nice low buget "tv" commercial.

You can then put together advertising packages (for example):
3 month subscription includes:
(2) half page ads in songbook
(2) 30 second "mini" commercials each Friday night
(1) small logo/phone# on request slips
Cost: $50

Sell these "ad-packages" to cab companies, karaoke/audio supply stores, anything that might apply to the crowd you play... and use the money to print songbooks and request slips.
I'll admit I got this idea from another board, but with the tools we have here, we can add the "commercials"

What I usually do on slower nights during dance breaks, or before the show starts, is have a CDG made in KPro with a bunch of small 15-30 second "silent songs" No music, just graphics, saying "Tip your bartenders and waitresses" , "Don't be shy, come up and request a song", "Welcome to {club name here}" I use my backup CDG player, while I run dance music on my laptop. Nothing too fancy yet, but I am considering trying the "ad-packages."

You can get real creative with the tools we are offered here.
Just have to remember to keep it real limited, and not tacky. I can hear it now: "And now a word from our sponsers" and it proceeds to go into 3 minutes of commercials...no good.

Flip

[George]

Right on Flip,

The possibilities are limited only by one's imagination, and Microstudio with Kpro makes it all possible..

George

[MaddMatt]

man you guys took this beyond what I was thinking of!

In my defense, George, I would want to keep things moving right along but 15-30 secs of music while I announced who is up and who is on deck would be nice

The commercial idea is great though and definitely something that would be an added bonus for the bar. You could display drink specials, food specials or other ads for the location where you are setup. This might be a way to go from $150 a night to $200 a night.

This is also another reason to keep things moving... the more songs you get the more ads you can sell And if it helps supplement the cost of the book and slips then all the better!

Thanks for all the ideas!

[Flipeoke]

And the more ads you sell the less people get to sing.

[admin]

Well, just because my programmers haven't added in what I spec'd doesn't mean you guys can't figure out a way to do it anyway!

Thanks George and Jon, I would have never guessed. I better document that in the manual so others can use it.

[Wayne White]

Most songs have an outro & the singer has handed in the mic, got his/her kudos & the next singer is called before the song ends. In busy clubs, we call an 'on deck' singer, who is generally ready (if paying attention). With 0 seconds between songs, we rarely ever have to stop Hoster. We cut songs short because of lengthy outros more often that we have to restart because the singer wasn't ready.

We do play dance music a couple of times through the night, but, the whole song not a few seconds of a song to have to talk over while trying to get a singer's attention. Their song starting up generally gets their attention even if they didn't here their name called.

Wayne

[tnrsound]

Man there is some good idea's on here. I have been selling ads for my books for a long time. It works really well. I have paid for my books and then some. It gives you the upper hand in the fact that you can afford nicer books and you don't feel so bad. It's really cheap advertising for the customer and all your out is a little time. I haven't had any problem at all because of the price of advertising outside the karaoke field. My hat's off to ya. I think that I am going to utilize your ideas! Thanks says Tim!!!

[MaddMatt]

What type of companies advertise with you? How big and how many ads do they get?


It would be interesting to know a little more from people who have made it work already. it gives the rest of us a little head start and some extra confidence going in.

Thanks