Blending DJ music and karaoke

[computex13]

Can you use Otsdj and Hoster with the built in sound card?

Mark

[bjswaim]

Computex13,
Yes you can use OtsDJ and Hoster with the original sound card. That is how I'm using mine now and they both work seemlessly without any problems.

[computex13]

Thanks, I'll try it.

Mark

[mooman]

As well as hoster for cdg's I also have winamp running on my computer. Winamp will play mpeg videos in a detachable window pretty similar to the hoster window, this is what I use for my laserdisc collection that I have imported onto hard drive. You can open more than one instance of winamp so you can also have it running your mp3 collection all with seperate slide contolls for volume. You can use 1 sound card for all 3 on a laptop or install a second soundcard in a pc and assign winamp to use that. Not bad for a free programme

http://www.winamp.com/

[mindonstrike]

MOOMAN wrote:
"Winamp will play mpeg videos in a detachable window pretty similar to the hoster window"


I too am using winamp for mpeg (my vcd collection) but still need to carry around the VCD's if the singer needs a pitch change. I've tried several pitch change plugins but have yet to find one that works with mpeg. Did you find one or are you in the same boat I am?

Sam

[mooman]

No I am pretty much in the same boat now. Untill my partner plugged the wrong transformer into it I used an external keychanger called a ninja. This was a brilliant bit of kit - unfortunately I cant find another one as yet. The search continues

[RB Whewell]

I am using e-jay for standard music and Hoster for the karaoke. I use the default sound card for both. The e-jay has two MP3 player decks and indivdual slider volume controls as well as a fader to mix between players. I start a karaoke song and fade out the track that is playing on the dj software. This seems to work well excluding the inability to use headphones to que up sound effects and sound bites from the program. I will look into a dual output sound card, this seems like the ticket if you as me.

[Beavis]

what we need is a sound manager that lets us fade between programs. then we wouldnt need a slide button in hoster.

i personally like pcdjfx better than playing music in hoster.

[DJYale]

I use 2 sound cards, the onboard on my system can support up to 3 line outs and I also have an SB Digital 5.1.


I run Hoster out of one output to a mixer channel, a second out to another mixer channel for DJ music, a third line out from my DJ software for my headphones.

[Digital Party]

I use two laptops. One for DJ, one for KJ. Both go into my mixer. Echo Indigo on each. Hoster for Karaoke, OTSDJ for DJing. Yes I know it is expensive this way, but one can always back up the other if need be.

Works great for me!

Chris
AWare Entertainment

[pcgumshoe]

Here's my two cents worth!

The original poster claimed he's using the MTU Portable PC. If memory serves me, that is a "SHUTTLE" PC, correct? The Shuttle uses an NVIDIA Chipset. With the NVIDIA chipset you have a 5.1 sound system. The chipset drivers don't come with a small little program to re-assign your channels, but effectively, you can have 2 or 3 separate sound cards run off the front, center and rear output (the program takes away the In and Mic feature which I believe these other two stereo channels are originally assigned as).

Once you have the computer's NVIDIA sound card assigned as FRONT, REAR CENTER, then you can use the ASIO compliance feature (not supported yet in hoster I might add) to assign any of the non-default sound devices to other programs that use ASIO. One program that i use is called Virtual DJ. I found PC DJ limiting, as it only played MP3s. If you are like me and you use sound bites and other little funny things, you will note that you have some WAV, some WMA, some OGG, some whatever audio files INCLUDING MP3s. Of all the programs out there, I liked virtual DJ the Best. (If you plan on getting it, PM me, there are some quirks in the recent revisions to be resolved in the next revision, but there are work arounds)

Virtual DJ, similar to the program mentioned before (e-Jay) has dual trays, it will play sound FX (little jingles and what not) and it has dual faders for each channel or a crossfade feature that will fade the two. In addition, it has advanced mapping so you can assign Tray one to the left channel of your rear speaker out and tray 2 to your right channel of rear speaker out. Then you can assign your headphones to the center channel for cueing.

BE FORE WARNED, if you want hoster to work on its own channel, in your windows properties, whatever channel you have assigned as DEFAULT will be the channel that hoster will play with. If I may think out loud, hoster should have an internal ability to control its own audio but at a minimum select what sound device to play with. I know that that's a whole different codeing, but like I said, just thinking outloud ;)

So now you have these two programs running on your computer, but let's say that you don't have but two channels? Most mixers these days have a "CUE" feature on it and you can plug your headphones in to it. Once you do that, you can let the audience hear what is turned up, and you can cue up your jingles, bites, or whatever.

I run my show with the following running in the background: Virtual DJ, Hoster (current version), Microsoft Excel (for song searching), whichever recording software I'm using and anothe program that I am testing as a VJ software. BTW: Thanks for the CORE, I'm interested in checking it out as I converted a lot of my video bits from DVD, LD and whatnought to DIVX and like to play them on the big screen, maybe that will be what I can use that is better than Windows Media player and the last 10 programs I've tried.

One last thought, whether you are using a laptop or a pc, you can always go out and get a USB sound card. Creative labs has one that is based on the SOUND BLASTER live and it cost less than $40.... If you plan on recording from a laptop, this is a must as MOST laptop manufacturers do NOT include a line in feature, just a mic in and as we all know, that sound terrible when recorded.

I just bought myself, for my show, a Mackie Onyx Board, it comes with an optional FIREWIRE port to record every channel in and send back 2 channels. There is another piece of equipment out there that DJ / KJs should look into, it is the RANE MP4. This little device controls 6 line (or phone) ins and two of them are two separate USB AUDIO devices that will show up in your PC. It is a cross fader and takes up 1U (That's one rack space). It is a bit pricey at current prices (not seen one onthe street yet), it is $500.

Hope this info was helpful to you. If you have any other questions, you can send me an email from my website, www.barkaraoke.com or leave me a message here.

[arpaco]

i use hoster and OTS DJ, which work great with one sound card, and OTS has a built in compression limiter. and it mixes your music digitally. But download the demo to make sure it works with your sound card. I use BPM studio Private on another rig. but this one is 400 dollars, so i wouldn't recommend it if OTS works for you..

[fanerae]

HI JJ, I use Hoster for my Karaoke show and Atomix MP3 for "Filler" music. As with virtualdj, you can not run full screen as this will cause hoster to close if a song is still playing on it when you select atomix. Atomix has individual volumes for each virtual deck and can be utilized for crossfading out of hoster easily. Outperforms itunes, media player, etc. due to beatmatching, auto bpm, etc. Very reasonably priced and extremely stable and no extra souncard. I do a fair amount of club work as well as karaoke so the DJ features are important to me. Worth a look!

Fane
P.S. Scratch feature leaves a lot to be desired, if this is important to you.

[mgrowolski]

Hi
I use a gigaport AG to run my Hoster and PCDJFX a good quality usb soundcard with 8 mono outputs or 4 stereo outputs Hoster in on channel 1/2 and PCDJ on 3/4 and 7/8 and has worked perfectly for 4 years with no drop outs or anything at about $150 it is quite simply a great alternative

[bigjohn]

if i want fill music i use instabutton with some tracks added and start and stop when needed

[ddouglass]

I am closing this thread because it is over 5 years old not relavent with current versions of Hoster.