I have a question about MicroStudio

[DON43015]

I have tried the demo and it seems to do what I think it's supposed to do. I just need to be clear on one thing. If I buy the full version of this program, will I be able to copy my CDG's on to
my hard drive. Then be able to play my CDG files directly from my hard drive without the need of my CD-ROM drive running. Which would make it a self-contained unit that I could use without carrying all my CD's around with me.

Thanks,
Don

[Brian Corr]

Yes, as long as you have a CD drive capable of playing and reading CDG to begin with.

[admin]

Don, Brian is absolutely correct. If you want to run off the computer monitor you can play the songs from the hard drive. However, if you are thinking of the video signal driving a TV Monitor, then you will have problems. The resolution change we now do (drops to 320x200) will not drive a TV Monitor. It will drive a second computer monitor.

The Play Tab allows creating a project of songs from the hard drive. You can adjust the order of the songs in the project. Then, you can select one or more songs in this Project to play and they will play from the top-most to the bottom-most (not the selected order). You can also play the entire project, starting at the first and playing to the last.

While playing, you can press the Spacebar to terminate the current one playing and advance to the next. Pressing the Esc key terminates play, restores the normal dispaly resolution and returns the Microstudio Tabbed screen to the display.

Microstudio Pro Development

This is the first time I have published the starting spec for this new product.

Next week we begin development of Microstudio Pro. This will be designed for hosting a Karaoke show. It will drive two displays; and external signal for the singer (a TV Monitor) and the computer monitor for controlling what is playing. It will allow loading CDG discs (or CDG songs on the hard drive) through the Import Tracks Tab and converting them into a new format. It will do the following conversion:

1. Read the song into the computer RAM, converting it to an audio part and a graphic/lyric part (both RAM based is our intent). If you already have songs on the hard drive from using Microstudio 2.311, they can all load automatically one at a time for unattended conversion.

2. Execute a compressor/limitor adjustable for all songs to bring the peak levels down, not inteneded for individual adjustment, but could be if you import/convert one song at a time

3. Execute a normalize to bring the highest peak up to your specified (factory defaulted if you don't change it) digital dB level

4. WMA compress the audio, which provides double the compression available at the same audio quality of MP3 (store twice as many songs on the hard drive as MP3 would)

5. Combine the compressed music and the graphic/lyric data back into a single file so they play in the same synchronization as they were before.

6. Store the new compressed Karaoke file to the hard drive.

7. Somewhere you will be able to enter infomration about the song that will store in a database for retrieval to play it.

We also have to develop the player code for this new format. This will have the dual display mode, and allow selecting which songs will play next. We are expecting to allow terminating a song early in the event the singer doesn't come up on stage to pause (or possibly play a music interlude - not in the first release) playing the next song until the next singer is on-stage. A karaoke host would have a microphone and mix console (even a small one) to talk to their audiance during this time, or even during the songs if they "had to".

Microstudio Pro will probably start in the $400 or $500 range (depending on how many functions we get in the first release). When the full database is implemented, it will probably require Microsoft Access and be in the $600 range. New feature upgrades must be purchased, with the exception that interim bug repairs to a version will be free.

When will this be available? We don't know right now, but I expect we are looking at 3-6 months for first release. We are definitely targeting before year end. We must make the code modular so parts of it can add into our other products (Karaoke Home Producer, Vogone 2, and Keyrite to add playing a Karaoke song, maybe also do file compression???).

So, hopefully you now have the info to make a decision of whether the current Microstudio 2.311 is sufficient to start now, or you want to wait for the Pro version.

Post here if you have any more questions. I hopt to see your order soon.