Question for Admin.

[kedmison]

Wayne and George,

What compression ratio are you finding the best? 128 0r 96 or something else?


Kelly

[George]

Kelly,
If you'll notice, on the display tab, the options are greyed out. They will be forthcoming in the final version as far as I know.

George

[George]

I got in the habit of using 128. Really no reason, I just chose middle ground. Not much discernable difference at any ratio in audio quality with this pair of ears. Can't really give you a definitave answer on that one.

George

[kedmison]

George,

I believe I'm going with the 128 myself. Just got through trying the same song at each. My wife can't sing her way out of a bucket. But she still seems to have an ear. I asked her opinion and she agreed with me that the 128 sounded better. Can't get as many songs on a drive at 128 as with 96 but I want the sound to be right. And after all I have a 60 gig drive. Not sure how many songs that will relate to at 128. 15,000 maybe?

Kelly

[George]

Kelly,
You got me curious.
Just for kicks I just went into my kma files and selected 10 random tracks. They averaged 2.6 mg. per track at 128 compression. Just decide how much space you're going to reserve for tracks and divide by 2.6 and you'll be reasonably close. Using an average of 15 songs per cd it would look like 60 gb would hold around 1400 cdg's, or 21000 songs.

Have fun,

George

[Wayne White]

I used 128 and they sound great. I got 5,500 songs on just less than 27 Gig at this compression. I never really tried any other ratios. I tried this & hooked it up to my PA & it sounded good to me, so I went with it.

Wayne

[kedmison]

I recieved my Hoster and MTU laptop during the Thanksgiving Holidays. Working two jobs has slowed up my process of loading my discs into my laptop. I have finally decided on 128 compression and have learned how to manuever using the laptop (Not having had one before) My biggest problem at present is trying to import the songs in an easy retrieveable manner.

My first question is how do you delete a book id or disc id from the list? I have even gone into the data base istelf to delte and it still comes up.

My other concern is that with all the reason I am finding Hoster so great to use, I am thoroughly disgusted with the importing sytem. I'm sure it's great for many but here is my concern or complaint. I have over 200 discs that have been compiled using Microstudio over the last year. I want to use these since they are already compiled and will not have to change my books as far as import order. Why couldn't there be a simple one # for each song? As I understand the system for I.e. if I get a new disc in tomorrow and it only has one song on it that I need; I have to assign a brand new disc ID # to import it. Unlike a lot of KJ's I carry only one song version by each artist. I only put in my system the song manf. that I think sounds as close to the original. Do I get many complaints? NO. I don't need a track # in a computer list of songs. I had hoped to look at Hoster as a giant jukebox. 1 number; one song. Don't get me worng. I think MTU is the best out there; best product, best service. I'm just sounding off on one part of it that has had me pulling my hair out at this moment. If anyone understands this frustion, let me know what you have done. Thanks.

Kelly

[admin]

I understand your delima. The Main Database holds standard Manuf. Brands and DiscIDs to make naming the songs much faster as it is automated. With a custom disc as you have, there is nothing we can do to help with the naming. Only you know what is there.

The BookID and Track# will give you a single number for your Song Book for your singers. You are desiring a modification to that and it is possible... at the expense of a bit more of your time.

I thought about this and the only thing you can do is accept the BookID-Track# we are set up to work with. We would have to rewrite the BookID code, and THAT... was THE most expensive part of the Hoster code. In other words, don't hold your breath for a rewrite of this. We're talking a very high expense.

I think your main problem is changing the way you number your songs. Your singers won't have a problem. Everyone else has accepted it and I encourage you to do the same. It is a mental thing that won't change your show at all.

I truly wish I could offer you a custom solution, but its not feasible... at least right now to help you getting into the system.

[kedmison]

Okay, I'll by all that and learn to make it fit.. Could you please tell me how to delete a song or book ID that is already in the system?

Kelly

[kedmison]

Okay, maybe I have missuderstood this all along. If I now understand this right,..the only number I have to be concerned with is the BookID#. Right???? This will replace my current Disc# Track #.? Each song will have a different BookID#. Also again, please tell me how to delete anything I currently have imported. Thanks so much.

Kelly

[Wayne White]

Kelly

I don't know whether you have considered this & it may take some time, but avoid typing so much.

Go back & import you original discs (instead of your compiled).

If you know which songs you want, you don't have to import all of the tracks, but, using the manufacturers disc avoids you having to key all of the data. Of course, you can import all of them and then go through the songlist and delete the ones you don't want.

You asked how to delete. I'm sure you can locate the directory the KMA files are going into & delete each track that you don't wan't.

To delete from the 'songlist', you need to open it. I don't know whether you have MS Access, but, you may be able to edit it without it. It should be at this path c:\program files\micro technology unlimited\hoster\databases\songs.mdb

Double click on this and it should open and allow you to delete rows (songs you don't want). Do not delete the entire DB. If you want to delete all of the songs in it, click the little square just to the left of MfgName, this will select the entire file, pressing the delete key will delete all lines/rows/songs.

To delete individual selections, just click the square to the left of the track you want to delete. Holding down shift will allow you to select multiple records in sequence. Holding down cntl will allow you to select multiple records that are not adjoining.

Hope this is helpful.

Wayne

[kedmison]

I didn't have Access loaded but I did and that helped delete the file I needed. Now another question,...I realize now that the only important # is the Book ID. I guess if it had been called song ID I would have caught on earlier; should I start off with book ID#01, 1 or what? I noticed that when I imported the first disc it was labeled BookID 1, but when you go to the play list to bring it up it shows 101. What gives? Again thanks,

Kelly

[admin]

BookID 1 with track 01 will be 101, track 02 will be 102, and track 15 will be 115. BookID 10 with track 01 will be 1001, track 02 will be 1002, and track 15 will be 1015. We had to add the leading zero to get everything to sort out properly in the Song Book and the list boxes for Add HD Track.

We suggest you just let Hoster auto assign them with the NEXT button. Then you never have to worry about it. However, you CAN enter a number if you want. If Hoster finds one already in use, it doesn't reuse it, but assigns the next lowest number if finds each time it searches the Songs.mdb database (where the BookIDs are stored).

We went through so much jirations to get the BookID (some of our valued clients really kept hounding us for this), that we never considered naming it SongID. That's a pretty good name actually. We may change it... and irk the ire of everyone...

[kedmison]

Oh well,

Whatever you want to call it is fine. I'm just glad that now I understand it. Guess it was one of those things that was obvious to everyone but me. But when it comes down to it, IT IS the song ID. That's the one number that stays in order. In the beginning I had loaded the same disc about 5 times at different compressions to find which one sounded best. (Ended up with 128) In trying to play with it and bring up a certain song I found myself going to the DiscID# to find it. This seemed stupid since there were'nt any discs> I kept trying to figure out why there wasn't a # for just the song. Wayne's post finally jogged my mind clear and realized the Book ID# was the SongID#"

I'll leave you all alone for awhile (I Hope) Have lots of copying to do!

Kelly

[Bleweyes]

Kedmison,
I have had those type problems before. One way I have fixed them is to reverse the polarity by pluging the power cable to the tv in backwards. Sounds crazy but it does work at times.

[S. Parks]

I experienced the same problem with my laptop, a Gateway 400 series. The problem had nothing to do with the TV moniter, but rather the sound card. What I did was add a MAYA 5.1 USB audio interface. They can be found at BPM.com and they sell for about $130. They export the sond via a USB slot, and the results is crystal clear. they also enable you to use a laptop to import into a home system, and achieve 5.1 digital surround sound. There are cheaper, but similar devices that do the same thing, but you'll have to do a little research. Hope this helps.