Cueing songs

[Smallan]

Can Hoster cue to a predetermined point in a song? For example, if a crowd is dancing and I want to sing 'Walk of Life' and start about 20 seconds into the song, cutting out the nebulous keyboard intro as I do with my second cdg player, how do I do it?

[S. Parks]

The way the program exist now, you can't. I've seen CDG players that will do this, but not without screwing the graphics up for a screen or two until the page refreshes.

[Smallan]

Too bad. Makes for some long gaps sometimes. No problem of course when there's a wait for a singer to arrive from seat to stage but in a circumstance like I've described above........ What about two versions of the the software open simultaneously, like two players?

BTW, on a cdg player you don't have graphics page scroll problems if you play the song through to the desired cue point and pause.

[George]

Originally Posted by Smallan

What about two versions of the the software open simultaneously, like two players?

BTW, on a cdg player you don't have graphics page scroll problems if you play the song through to the desired cue point and pause.

You can open two Hosters if you so desire.

Why not employ the PAUSE button at the desired cue point in Hoster?

George

[Smallan]

Why not employ the PAUSE button at the desired cue point in Hoster?

Sure, provided the next song can be cued and paused while the current song is still playing.

[heydjbren]

Here's an idea.... assuming that you already know all of the words to "Walk Of Life", why not just rip the track as an audio file (using Audiograbber or another sound software program), edit it to the start point that you want, convert it to an mp3 file and then play it back in Hoster? You won't get the words on the screen, but if you know the song well enough, you won't need them.

[George]

...or after the track is edited, create a new cdg with Karaoke Home Producer and then import it to Hoster.

George

[Smallan]

Maybe not such a bad idea in that specific case, tho I don't really like doing backings only in a karaoke situation, as the audience like to see the lyrics. With respect to all the '10 seconds of silence intro' songs (Sunfly for example) that others like to sing I'd be looking for another way.

With reference to the idea of having two Hosters open, can I open Hoster number two and cue a song while Hoster number one is outputting to my audio mixer? When Hoster number one's song finishes, how do I transfer Hoster number two to output.

BTW I have purchased Hoster but haven't used it yet as I haven't installed my Plextor and imported any songs yet, so please excuse the ignorance.

Later: Just saw your post George, so could I edit audio and graphics in Karaoke Home Producer?

[George]

Originally Posted by Smallan

Later: Just saw your post George, so could I edit audio and graphics in Karaoke Home Producer?

No, and didn't mean to give that impression. After the audio track was edited
as heydjbren suggested, you could then create a new cdg with KHP. Just another option.

I don't see that opening two Hosters would be any advantage in this instance. I gathered there was a question as to whether two Hosters could be opened and simply said they could.

George

[Smallan]

OK thanks. Now that I've gone full circle I think I'll go and lie down!

[selmer98]

I have also tried a few options to get around this problem , without success.

I tried having two applications of hoster open, Application 1 with the current song playing, and Application 2 cued up and paused (using the seconds counter to take out the intro length).

Unfortunately it does not work

1. You have to stop Application 1 and switch over to Application 2, this can be a problem if there is a long fade out, as the music will suddenly stop.

2. When you press PLAY on Application 2, many times the song you have just stopped in Application 1 will start up again.

I have put a request into the required funtionality forum for the ability to cue the start (and stop) point of the songs, I am really impressed with Hoster, but this is the only draw back.

Cheers

Tom

[George]

I'm curious.

There really aren't that many songs that have excessively long lead in instrumentals; for sure they are not the rule, and the probability of having them fall back to back in the line up is pretty slim, so what is really such a problem?

Are we really trying to get rid of the CDG Manufacturer's logo that takes a few seconds before the track starts(with the exception of those who were smart enough to have the audio start while their credits are on screen), and just putzin' around saying so?

Not trying to be argumentative, just can't help wondering.

George

[selmer98]

Sorry George

I should have clarified, it was the silence for the duration of the maunfacturers logo that I was trying to delete, not the instrumental intro.

As Smallan noted, if you have a crowd on the dance floor the silence between songs is a pain, and has to be covered by talking over it.

It is not an issue when using Hoster for singers, but at the end of the night we do dance sets when I sing. This is where the problem arises.

Tom

[George]

Thanks Tom,

That's what I was thinking, which brings up another question.

Would cueing past the Mfgr's logo constitute unauthorized altering of copywritten material at a public performance? No doubt the Mfgr's would answer resounding YES to that one, but I wonder what the ruling really would be under the copywrite laws.

I would tend to think it would be illegal, but that's just an opinion based on how limited one's usage of copywritten material really is. You can make a backup and you can play it, seems to be about it.

MTU has already built in legal cueing, although some don't realize it. That's what the playlist does, cue up the next song in AUTO PLAY, and allow you to set the time between tracks, but I wonder about altering any portion of the track, beyond key change, which is not a material alteration.

Perhaps ADMIN can enlighten us on that one.

Take care,

George

[selmer98]

George

Interesting point, it's a matter of legal debate and some of the discussion threads in the past appear to have gone through the pros and cons without a definite decision.

However, cueing is a facility that is available on many Karaoke Players, and DJ's do it all the time with Audio tracks.

Would Ford Motors go around sueing folks if they decided to take the logo off the front of their cars?

Tom

[George]

Originally Posted by selmer98

Would Ford Motors go around sueing folks if they decided to take the logo off the front of their cars?

I doubt it, but I'd bet they wouldn't hesitate to sue someone who manufactured a tool remove the logo other than to install a replacement??

In that context I was thinking more of MTU's position in providing a tool to circumvent the cdg logos. That's for them to work out.

Anyway, been thinking about your situation during those dance sessions.

Currently you are looking at the time the track opens until music starts PLUS the time you have set up between tracks in AUTO PLAY. I checked five tracks and came up with an average of seven seconds logo time.

Before starting a dance session you can go into TOOLS, AUTO PLAY, and reduce the time between tracks to ZERO. That takes hardly any time at all to do. This would leave you with only the actual logo time to deal with.

If nothing else this sounds like it may be doable until something better comes along

Take care,

George

[Smallan]

Tom,
Tried the two Hosters open too, you're right, doesn't work.

George.
I was wondering when someone would ask 'whats the big deal?' Fair question. Many of my shows I run alone. I try to make them very professional and nearly all my announcements are made from stage, i.e., I leave the equipment, set up beside stage and after announcing next singer, return to the control area. At present I use three players so the next song is paused to three seconds or less from where I want it to start, regardless of the manufacturers intro length. Now in many cases the singer takes much more than three seconds to make it to stage of course, but if the singer is close by, I just don't like an awkward gap while the singer looks at their shoes (or at me wth that 'hurry up' look!) I guess in a nutshell, I like to have control over when the song begins. That's what 15 years of running karaoke shows and about the same as a DJ does to you!
With reference to manufacturers logo, that was a point I hadn't thought of, but with three players I have a video switcher and the logo is not necessarily being seen by the audience anyway, particularly since I have a DVD of messages and info that I display between songs.
I'm just at the stage of importing songs at the moment, so I haven't done a show with Hoster yet, but at least with Hoster when you click 'play' the song (or logo or whatever) starts immediately, whereas a player has a 'mechanical' gap as well, if the song wasn't paused!
Thanks,
Al.
It sure would be a neat feature to include in a future upgrade!