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Singers & Hosts Wisdom Post how to be a great karaoke singer or host.

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  #1  
Old March 9th, 2004, 06:31 PM
John Baumgartne John Baumgartne is offline
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Duplicate Songs

This may sound silly but what do you folks do to minimize the chance of getting Duplicate songs from the same manufacturer. I have started looking for Discs that contain songs from one artist because purchasing the compliation discs I usually end up with maybe 3 new songs out of 10 (for example) and the rest I already have. Schlepping all these Dups around is going to kill me some day.

Do you folks just extract the new songs off onto another disc that you burn yourself? Are there Manufacturers that will produce custom discs so that you can purchase a disc that contains songs that you don't have in your library already?

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks
John
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  #2  
Old March 10th, 2004, 08:26 AM
kedmison kedmison is offline
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Duplicates

John,

I know the feeling. I'm into my 4th year of KJing. Starting my second year using Hoster. I guess I was a little ahead of the game for a new comer getting into karaoke. I started off with a Sony 400 and I used Microstudio to make compiled discs from the get go. Mainly to save as much space in my Sony that I could. Averaged 21 songs to a disc.
And even though I now use Hoster I still compile my discs. And yes I'll get in 2 or 3 discs this week off of Ebay and I might have 7 songs out of them that I don't already have. However I do not have any duplicates in my Hoster. Almost 7,000 songs.
I've been at the same place doing 3 shows a week, going into my second year. Sundays, Monday & Tuesday. I used to have a lot of my singers start off bringing in their own discs, but for what ever reason, I see very few discs come my way.
By making my own compiled discs; if a different version comes up that I like better of a song I already have, it helps making the change in Hoster much easier. True, there's more work up front by not using the built in data base but for me it works for me.

Kelly
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  #3  
Old March 10th, 2004, 10:18 AM
Garry A. Leslie Garry A. Leslie is offline
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Hello John,
Plenty of suppliers do Sound Choice and Chartbuster as custom made CDG's usually with a minimum of 5 or 10 songs on a disc.
www.karaoke.com does the following:-
Priddis 3000 songs,
Stellar 800 songs,
Sound Choice 7500 songs,
Chartbuster 6000 songs,
Sunfly 6300 songs,
Top Tunes 3100 songs
You can only make compilations from one of the maufacturers on any one disc, you can't mix manufacturers.
Some only allow you 3 songs by the same artist, on any disc.,
Most firms charge $5.00 a tune
Priddis do single NEW releases before they release a compilation disc
www.karaokefreedom.com only do Sound Choice and only charge $1.00 with a maximum of 15 songs on a disc. I have dealt with this firm and can only report excellent service, fast delivery, even to the UK, reasonable postage and friendly support.
Some UK firms do "Customburn" CDG's usually from Sound Choice, Chartbuster and Sunfly from £2.35 a song
Incidentally Sunfly does a lot of British artists, a lot I'm sure you never heard of, but you do get some rare and weird choices to enliven your show.
Regards from across the pond.
Garry
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  #4  
Old March 10th, 2004, 07:35 PM
John Baumgartne John Baumgartne is offline
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Thanks for the advise,

What exactly is this Hoster, Is this a computer program that converts your CD+G to an MP3 type format or what?

So Kelly, I guess you just take your computer to the shows and run it all from the Computer? Great Idea! I guess I will have to check this program out. My computer is in need of serious upgrade anyway because I want to start making Compilations.

Garry are you saying that you can't compile songs from several different companies onto one disc. I really don't understand that one. It would seem to me (mind you, I have no experience in this) that data is data and it really wouldn't matter. Or are you saying that the companies that offer the custom discs will only compile from the same company. (That I would Understand)

Thanks Again!
John
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  #5  
Old March 11th, 2004, 05:06 AM
Garry A. Leslie Garry A. Leslie is offline
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Duplicate discs

Hello John,
No.......what I am saying is that firms that sell custom made CDG's won't let you order a disc with more than one companies output on them.......so for instance if you wanted 5 Sound Choice, 5 Chartbuster and 5 Sunfly songs you would have to order 3 separate discs. One for each company represented.
Nothing to stop you burning them all onto your own single disc once you have them.
These restrictions apply to buying discs rather than what you do with them once they are yours.
As to Hoster....its an MTU programme for transferring all your discs, complete discs, custom made or your own compilations onto a computer.
This converts the files to kma. a format for compressing songs to a smaller size than even MP3. You can get literally thousands of songs on to a hard drive ranging from 40Gb, although MTU usually specify an 80Gb or 120Gb
It really depends on how much stuff you want to take to a show.
It is the way karaoke and DJing is going, using either a laptop or shuttle type computer. Small size less to carry.
No more discs to lug about with the dangers of damage and theft to worry about.
Check out Hoster on MTU's home page, there's often a bargain offer
Regards from across the pond
Garry
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  #6  
Old March 11th, 2004, 05:14 AM
Garry A. Leslie Garry A. Leslie is offline
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Duplicate discs

Forgot to say, Hoster needs to be run on Windows 2000 or XP
so if you are thinking of upgrading and haven't got either of these
you will need to invest in one of them.
Regards from across the pond
Garry
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  #7  
Old March 16th, 2004, 09:12 AM
gduns - with the Lord's Avatar
gduns - with the Lord gduns - with the Lord is offline
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19,685 Karaoke tracks on less than 50 gigs so far.......
32,912 cd tracks on 75 gigs....
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  #8  
Old March 16th, 2004, 02:53 PM
Louieoke Louieoke is offline
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Hey Garry!

Garry,
Can you tell me the format of the karaokefreedom cd's that you order? Are they cd+g??

Thanks much,

Louieoke
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  #9  
Old March 16th, 2004, 02:57 PM
gduns - with the Lord's Avatar
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the karaoke freedom cdg's are standard cdg but they are not legit. they are for home use only (pirate).
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  #10  
Old March 16th, 2004, 07:12 PM
Garry A. Leslie Garry A. Leslie is offline
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Hello,
louieoke
The format is CD+G and the company that the songs come from is Sound Choice.
All the ones I have bought are excellent reproductions.
I am surprised by what gduns says as I wouldn't knowingly subscribe to a pirate company but how do you know who is legit and who is not?
Especially if you are on the otherside of the world
Do we need a thread to mark out sellers who are legit and those who are not.
The fact that some deals are cheaper than others is not a reliable guide to what is legit.
I can only say I have bought in good faith and the people have been very nice to me.
If I am wrong all I can say is age doesn't teach you anything.
Regards from across the pond
Garry
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  #11  
Old March 16th, 2004, 08:11 PM
John Baumgartne John Baumgartne is offline
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Garry,

I have e-mailed Karaokefreedom because I couldn't pull up the song list and they promptly e-mailed back saying that they will e-mail it to me as an Excel spreadsheet.

I noticed that there was a question as to if they are legit or not and have pointed them to this thread. I was wondering, when you get the disc from them did it have any sort of lable on them or just look like a recorded CDR.

If they have a lable then really if it came down to it the burden of proof is on them should it come down to a court battle. If they don't tell you that they are not legit then you really have no way of being sure do you.

I doubt seriously that they would comeout and say that they are not legit and if they make it appear legit you really can't be at fault or?
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  #12  
Old March 17th, 2004, 06:24 AM
Garry A. Leslie Garry A. Leslie is offline
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Hello John,
Seems like I set a hornet's nest loose.
The discs come on what looks to be professionally produced CD's, with the karaoke freedom logo on the lable and the tracks set out with artist and title on them.
All the tracks, as I said previously, are Sound Choice and excellent quality.
When you are constantly surfing the net to find the cheapest solutions for carrying out recording and transferring music, I don't know how you can find out what is legit or not.
I have bought software, in the past, that was obviously pirated because it came on an ordinary CD-R, I have reported these firms and made a point of not using them again
I have bought discs for as little as a penny on Ebay, wonder if they were all legit?
Illegal copying is becoming more sophisticated
You have to take everbody on trust.
When you consider how much we all pay out to set up our operations, with the hardware, software programs and both the original discs and the backup discs is it any wonder we are looking for bargains.
I used CAVS once in the past, only to see on one of these threads, that MP3+G is apparently illegal. They turned out to be too complicated so I didn't bother with then again.
Have faith
Regards from across the pond.
Garry
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  #13  
Old March 17th, 2004, 06:38 AM
Garry A. Leslie Garry A. Leslie is offline
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Hello gduns,
Were those figures you quoted your actually database or were they what could be put onto a hard drive?
I tried to set up a thread once asking what percentage of anyone's database actually gets used on a regular basis.
I thought it would be interesting to see how much we paid out and what was never used.
No one responded
Regards from across the pond
Garry
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  #14  
Old March 17th, 2004, 07:35 AM
gduns - with the Lord's Avatar
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Those are actually on my hard drive. if you have a question about karaoke freedom.com you might want to check out the sound choice forum and inquire. As "pirate Concious" as sound choice, and they do not sell through cavs. I very much doubt as to the legitamacy of them. Ie: do they have permission from soundchoice to resell their tracks. We have talked this subject to death on other Forums, and no one on any board I Have been on thinks they are legit.

I have checked their website, and see nothing about Them having the license or rights to resell sound choice.

I just wanted to give you a heads up. sorry If I over stepped.
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  #15  
Old March 17th, 2004, 07:55 AM
Garry A. Leslie Garry A. Leslie is offline
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Hello gduns,
Thanks for your reply.
I will check out your advice as I wouldn't want to be thought of as a pirate myself, but I'd bet we all have some bogus stuff, thats been foisted on us unwittingly.
Nearly everything I have bought has cost me big bucks including the genuine CDG's
I buy in the US because, even with your exorbitant postal charges, discs are 50% cheaper. A $20 disc becomes £20 here, so you can see the advantages.
I only memtioned CAVS as one avenue I explored a couple of years ago I don't think they actually listed a manufacturer for the songs they sell.
Regards from across the pond
Garry
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  #16  
Old March 17th, 2004, 06:32 PM
simonlang simonlang is offline
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Where to get Custom CDG Discs.

Dear John, (that sounds awful!!!)

You can buy custom cdg discs from Sing to the World, but only one disc at a time with up to 12 tracks. If you become a "Streaming Member", they offer a decent discount. The quality of their tracks is very good. I especially like the custom disk cover with a title of your own choice. To date, I have purchased some 1900 tracks, with the great majority from Sing to the World. They do a 2 day turn around. Take a look at their site at singtotheworld.com

Hope you find what you want
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  #17  
Old March 17th, 2004, 07:19 PM
John Baumgartne John Baumgartne is offline
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You know in the discusion on if companies are legit or not, here is an interesting thought. It is my understanding that there have been very few if any licenses pulled by Karaoke Companies from the publishing companies that actually own the materiel that is produced on the Karaoke Discs. With that thought in mind, if this is true then most all Karaoke Songs are Illegal. I also Write Music and have the hopes of someday producing an album of my own. While the Karaoke Industrie is getting Huge and the royalties lost could really sum up quickly if you had a smash hit. I would think that the actual Artist (read Singer) really doesn't mind at all. I think that many would say that they like the thought of someone singing their music in a bar. The writers however who make their livings from royalties alone I'm sure would sing a different tune.

So, how would you ever know if Sound Choice, Priddis or Chartbuster ect ect... actually has licenses for all of the songs that they have on the discs. Remember the artist that wrote the music and Lyrics are supposed to get paid for every copy produced. This is not to even mention the performance royalties that are lost with Karaoke.

Things that Make ya Go Hmmmmmm!
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  #18  
Old March 17th, 2004, 07:23 PM
John Baumgartne John Baumgartne is offline
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simonlang Thanks for the info I will check them out! Yes I have seen my share of Dear John Letters...... Hee Hee!
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  #19  
Old March 18th, 2004, 11:14 AM
jimbo jimbo is offline
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Now here's a can of worms.
The only way to know if a song is really licensed would be to contact the company and ask them (not sure if they would actually tell you the license number). They have to have several different licenses to produce karaoke including re-print licenses. When karaoke companies apply for the licenses and receive a response they will get a license number that their rendition refers to. Those companies that are legit have to go through a lot of work to get them licensed. Sometimes the publishers won't respond in a timely manner to have companies release their music as fast as they would like to.
Also, sometimes, publishers will grant a license and then at a later date pull a license, or it could be the other way around, they don't grant a license and then two months later they are granted a license. I know Priddis didn't release their "Evanesence" cd until licensing was obtained (thats why it took them so long to get it out). Until about a year ago, FIPP (the publisher for Gloria Estefan) didn't allow licensing for karaoke. It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to get these licenses. If licenses aren't applied for or received then basically the music is "illegal", but the manufacturer would be the one in trouble, not you who bought it from the manufacturer (because as far as you know they are licensed). My question is, why do some companies have songs that other companies can't get licensing for? i.e. Jewel songs without graphics/lyrics on Priddis because licensing was denied, but yet everybody else has it?
It seems to me the writers/publishers (and their lawyers) could pursue this further and get what they are allowed.
Does anybody know how much the royalties are per song, including syncing and lyrics licenses? John is right, the money does add up fast.
I'll get off my soapbox now.

Jimbo
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  #20  
Old March 18th, 2004, 04:19 PM
Garry A. Leslie Garry A. Leslie is offline
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Duplicate Songs

I didn't mean to start a fuss.
It seems to me that as jimbo says its the manufacturer's responsibility as we can only buy in good faith.
No one is going to tell you they are issuing illegal and unlicensed
stuff.
Lets face it midi files might just be as illegal, the songs are written by the same people as the songs on the CDG's we buy.
Do different rules apply?
I remember buying a CDG which told me that the lyrics to one of the songs, "Chicago", couldn't be shown because Fox had withdrawn the license, yet later I bought a couple of Sinatra's from different firms that contained "Chicago" with the lyrics still there.
I can only echo George's sign off TAKE CARE
Regards from across the pond
Garry
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