Questions on Graphics

[Benjamin Kuo]

I don't seem to find too many threads on Graphics in the Post. I seem to be able to place graphics on the title page. My questions is:

Can a different graphic be placed on each lyric page (on top of the lyrics) ? If so, how can it be done. I was able to place a graphic on the first lyric page, but the same repeats on each of the subsequent pages.

[pcgumshoe]

Don't think so....

I don't use the graphics myself, however, I just turned it on and experimented with it to see what worked. You can have three different graphics if I am correct. The title page, the lyrics page and the credits page... that's it...

In the lyrics, make sure you have them set to 50% of the page.

[Benjamin Kuo]

Thanks for your reply. That's what I found out. What I was trying to do was to make a Chinese Karaoke song. I was able to do the title page in Chinese. I was hoping to place the Chinese lyrics on the top half of a page, and then followed by two lines of correcponding English phonic letters. However, the same Chinese lyrics (done in graphics) repeated on every lyrics page. Nice try.

[pcgumshoe]

I read somewhere something about Uni-code in KPro 5. I don't know much about this (just what I read) but apparently in the next version of KPro you will be able to have a DUET feature and use Asian Rim characters. I would say that with that option, what you want to do will be fully capable in the next version.

All you will have to do is assign one singer in the Duet to Chinese and the other to english and scroll them independently. I would be very interested in knowing more about this. A friend of mine and my parter has a beautiful voice and they speak better Chinese to one another than she and I speak English. I have made the suggestion of the two of us doing an English/Chinese duet of Phantom Of The Opera....

Here's looking forward to KPro 5!

[Benjamin Kuo]

This is interesting; the Uni-code. Actually, between these Posts, I have been experimenting with KPro4. I have Photoshop, and Chinese wordprocessor. I think this should be of interest to Chinese singers. In our community (Champaign, IL), most Chinese get togther on weekends and sing Karaoke. There are only two of us who make Karaoke songs. The other person is using another product and he can't make Chinese songs. He sings mostly Chinese songs (ready-made). What I did was to use a Chinese wordprocessor to make up the entire lyrics; scan it into Photoshop. (I can't copy and paste the entire lyrics into Photoshop). Then, I input the graphics of the Chinese lyrics into Kpro, using the top half of the screen. The bottom half consists of two line of pinging lyrics in English. As the music plays and the lines in English gets scrolled, the Chinese lyrics repeat on each screen. If I am familiar with the song, I should be able to follow the Chinese lyrics without it being swept. This way, you can already sing duets in Chinese and English or whatever languages. Incidentally, the Music of the Night happens to be one of my favorite songs.

[pcgumshoe]

I sing that song every night I do a show as my closer. It is a beautiful song and I do it so well. The best version, for me at least, is the Just Tracks/Pocket Songs version. More upbeat and sounds like Michael Crawford does it.

As to the Uni-Code... I saw something that someone was saying that you SHOULD be able to use it now.... I don't know though... As I understand, UNI-CODE has to do with these characters from China. My Partner is Chinese and he speaks fluent Cantonese. So I have a source for the language here.

Keep an eye out for KPro 5 sometime soon... they say Mid-August now...

[Benjamin Kuo]

I have never heard of Uni-cole. When Kpro5 comes out, I have see it. I used to sing Music of the Night at lot, especially, people at a party requested that. I am proud to say that no one in our Chinese group can sing that. They tried. I don't really like Michael Crawford's voice. Domingo is my man. Recently, I made the English version of Vienna, City of My Dream. That is "my song" now. I had to listen to this old recording done by Richard Tauber to get the lyrics. I guess he was pretty old when he recorded the song; a lot words I couldn't make out, and had to fudge. I can do the German version though, but I can't pronounce German like the natives do. *****king doesn't really help. I have to tell you also that Cantonese is a "hard" language. I have never heard of a nice sounding song sung in Cantonese. People here sing in Cantonese, Taiwanese, and even Japanese songs. I can't do any of these. No interest either. I sing mostly in English and French although I don't really know French. Emmanuel is a beautiful song. So is La Mer in French sung in a low voice. Don't like the Bobby Darin version which is called Beyond the Sea.

[admin]

Benjamin, KPro 4.008 does allow using Unicode 2-byte fonts. These are the Asian fonts that require more detail than other fonts.

However, as pcgumshoe pointed out, and he is remarkably accurate, KPro 4 only allows one font to be used throughout the lyric area. Thus, you could not use a Chinese font and an English font in the same song.

KPro 5 allows changing fonts on every line (actually on every character ). And, as pcgumshoe again accurately pointed out (he must read all our posts ), KPro 5 will allow duets with 3 singers - Singer #1, #2 or Both together. This would allow you to use Chinese for Singer #1 and English for #2. You can synchronize them to sweep to the music separately so each is in perfect sync to the music.

With the CD+Graphics data format, if you notice carefully, a graphic image can take up to 11 seconds to full draw on the screen. There is no way to make it appear faster for a CD+G disc. It is not reasonable to have a graphic on most lyric pages, as most of them will draw, highlight and be replaced by the next page in less than 11 seconds.

We made the decision for KPro 5 to not support the graphic image on 50% of the lyric pages. However, I am sure what you want to do will be very easy (photoshop will not be required) to do with a Duet song.

Now... it is past mid-August and we still don't have the final release candidate yet. We are close, and I should get a new release today with a major bug repaired, and full graphics support. The last remaining part is the final Export CDG File command that takes all your colors, fonts, point sizes, sweep timing, etc. and writes the CDG format file on the hard drive. We are close, and it may be there tomorrow.... I hope so!!!

Unless something really bad happens, we should have all the code by the end of August, and I expect it will have no major bugs so we can release.

One other thing, in KPro 5, there are no "Title-Lyric-Credit" page structures. You have full ablity to create any type of appearing page on any page in the song, including a full graphic image on each page with text overwriting it (highlighting to the music or not) if it would work for your song. You can have lines highlight or not (title page lines don't sweep to the music), use any font-size-color-attributes (bold, italic, underline) on each character. There is total flexibility to do whatever you want to do. Every CDG song format we have ever seen could be created by KPro 5.

[pcgumshoe]

As to reading all the posts, I like to be well informed and I hate asking, "How do you do this?" Also, I like to help people and I use the information here in connection with my years of computer experience to look deeper into a problem.

As for Benjamin, I still would wait for KPro 5. I understand what you want, you want to see the Chinese Lyrics on one line and the phonetic pronunciation on the other. I am guessing that the phonetic pronunciation may take more to sweep than the Chinese character. The beauty here is that you can put one character in chinese and sweep it on the page while the bottom has however many characters to sweep for the pronunciation.

Now most non-Chinese speakers will see why when a kung-fu movie is dubbed into English the Chinese lips are still moving

Again, thanks for the accolades.

My daily routine, wake up, check the business bank account, check the fax, check the email, check MTU. Sorry you are so late in my day

[pcgumshoe]

Sorry, That's what I want to do... Phonetic and Chinese... But same principle... English singer on one line and Chinese on another....

[Benjamin Kuo]

Dear Admin: Thanks for your insight on the new KPro 5. I can't wait to get it. Being a Chinese, I sing mostly Western songs. The reason is that (perhaps you are not aware of it) I only like classical Chinese songs. since most of the modern songs are difficult to sing because they have no musical logic. It appears to me that these contemporary Chinese composer would write the lyrics first, and then make the music to fit them. However, recently, I found some theme songs in these Chinese movies and soap operas that are quite good. I want to make Karaoke songs from these. Thus, the KPro5 may be invaluable. I would not want to sing duet in Chinese and English. In other words, I simply want to put Chinese lyrics on the screen and sweep it with the music.

I am getting good graphics on the title page with my KPro 4. It comes on very quickly. I don't see it a big deal to have graphics on the lyrics pages. In fact, I found the graphics rather distracting, especially those Chinese made LPs that have bikini-clad girls in the background.

Ben

[pcgumshoe]

You would be surprised to know that these days most songs start out with lyrics before music

And yes, those LD's can be a big distraction!

[Benjamin Kuo]

To PCGumshoe:

No, I don't want to have Chinese on one line and phonic on the next. As I explained in my prior messages, I had to place all the Chinese lyrics as graphics on the top part of the screen and place the phonics line by line (2 lines per page) since only the phonics in English letters can be swept. This is the best I could do with KPro 4. If I use only the phonics, unless I know the song by heart, I can't make out the Chinese words by looking at the phonics alone. since the lyrics are swept by quickly. By having the Chinese characters on each page, I can glance at the top part of the screen and follow the sweep and the music on the phonics. This is why once KPro 5 becomes available, I would no longer need the phonics part. Remember John Denver made a Karaoke Chinese song, "In a Far Away Land". The lyrics are in phonics and Chinese appearing simultaneously on the screen. Denver needed the phonics since he couldn't read Chinese, but he did an excellent job singing it in Chinese. Sounded just like a native. I am not a folk song fan, but he is one of the most talented folks songs writers I know. Too bad he is gone.


Ben