Problem Encountered

[Richard Veal]

Hi All,
As previously mentioned I am starting out in Karaoke and have been building my library for a little while.

I decided to have a go at adding Karaoke to my regular disco at a friends wedding this Friday.

It was a very low key casual affair (no fee) and he encouraged me to use this as an oppertunity to try out the system. It was explained to everyone that this was in development and also asked if they could think of anything I should add or hadn't thought of, then to let me know - Ditto if their usual song wasn't yet in my library.

I have been ripping to mp3+G and in every test at home have not encountered a problem, but on the night several songs played for about 45-60 seconds then stopped.

When re tested at home again the tracks failed to play so i guess they slipped through the net on testing and i was just un-lucky on Friday.

When playing just the mp3 portion there is a slight skip or stutter in the track at the point where it normally stops. The Graphic portion is complete when manually dragging the cue bar through the track but again wont play past the skip/jump - how do i remedy this?

Basically to save costs the CDG discs are nearly all second hand from the bay and most are scratched to some degree & some really quite badly this is partly why i chose to convert to MP3+G so as not to have to rely on a scratched disc or in fact buy a cdg player.

BUT it seems where the disc hits a scratch it makes this pause (less than a tenth of a second) in the mp3 file and as a result the player software must assume the track is over.

I dont know if i have written this well enough to be understood but i must be going wrong somewhere can you tell me where and why would a jump show up in a mp3+g file is it different to a plain mp3 rip where it either works or it doesn't?

Many thanks in advance

[dmckaraoke]

What converting software are you using

And what kind of playback software are you using..

This may help us understand your problem better..cheers

[Richard Veal]

Conversion is using CDRWin to extract Bin file then convert Bin file to mp3+g using mp3+g toolz.

Playback is using the deejaysystem with mp3+g option.

The majority of the files i've converted work ok so i guess the problem lies in the ripping or perhaps just that the discs may be too damaged. Thanks for a good start however, I will read any further replies on friday when i get home from work. Thanks in advance

[DazzyD]

There's a very good program (and free!) called CD+G Ripper (catchy title, isn't it!) to rip your discs to MP3+G. I've never had any problems with this. Also, if there are problems with the disc then you should rip at the slowest speed possible as this helps to iron out any glitches. However, with scratched discs I've known the end result be jumpy but never cut off so I'm not 100% sure what is causing your problem but I'd be leaning towards your playout software as the culprit.

As for playout software, the program you mentioned I trialled a while ago and (if it's the same one) I wasn't impressed at all. I found it very jumpy on the system I was using. I now use the latest version of Virtual DJ and I wouldn't use anything else.

I'll look in to this a bit further for you when I get a chance.

[501damian501]

oh yes for karaoke, virtual dj is the standard, i dont know on the video side of things thou, always rip slow and use the best quality you can have, maybe your not letting it buff for long enough, on virtual dj you can see how much of the song is ready for playback, or you have some dodgy disks, damian

[Richard Veal]

Well guys, Thanks for the input, Whilst i have been away in Manchester all week i have had my other half checking each mp3+g file individually and compliling a list of thoes which have a problem and after 17 discs so far the total of files with the problem is 33, Which seemed suspiciously high.

So here is the offical answer to thoes asking the which software question!

Whilst I have been loyal to deejaysystem for many years and has never let me down the advice given in this thread leaned toward the playout system being the problem. I again downloaded the trial version of Virtual DJ and was surprised to learn that all of the tracks I have had problems with play absolutly fine on Virtual DJ

So you were all correct in saying the Playout software is at fault and i thank you for your help in identifying the problem.

Now i need help in explaining to my Mrs that her week at sitting through Karaoke tracks in the evening has been a waste of time :(

Wish me luck


PS Daz - I have also got myself CDG Ripper although i had to pay $34 couldn't find it for free..

[DazzyD]

Glad to hear that the software problem is sorted out. I would recommend VDJ everytime. I don't have the latest version, though, I still use version 4.2 (2006 edition). I have a number of plug-ins that I've downloaded and have tweaked the settings to make it perfect for me. The best facility, to me, is that I can see what graphics are being displayed without having to look at the external screens.

As for the CDG Ripper software, I got it bundled with some other karaoke development software I bought and I just assumed it was free. I don't have it on this laptop as my CD drive is not CD+G compatible. But I think it was a company called Tricerasoft (or something like that). I did get it about 3 years ago (and it had been superceded then) so maybe you've paid for the latest version.

The only other advice in relation to ripping CD+Gs is to make sure the disc is as clean as you can get it. Even the smallest fingerprint or grease mark will mess up the visuals and you'll get poor quality. And always rip at the slowest speed - it pays off in the end!

[Richard Veal]

Final Update,

CDG Ripper working really well - thanks for the lead Dazzy.

Coughed up for Virtual DJ - but wasn't brave enough to use it last night - Took some soul searching to part with $351 though I'm sure it will be worth it

[DazzyD]

Make sure you register your copy of VDJ because then you can click on the Config button, go to Info and click on the Download Plug-Ins button. For karaoke, the best plug-ins to go for are the Key Changer ones. There's some really good ones that you can use to adjust the key of your audio to help your singers hit the right note (so to speak!).

Although I use BPM for discos, VDJ can do that job as well although you don't get the finer controls (not with my version, anyway!) and it's good at doing video and visual work too. So, VDJ is a good all-round solution. Happy VDJ-ing!

[nigelwright7557]

Hi All,
As previously mentioned I am starting out in Karaoke and have been building my library for a little while.

I decided to have a go at adding Karaoke to my regular disco at a friends wedding this Friday.

It was a very low key casual affair (no fee) and he encouraged me to use this as an oppertunity to try out the system. It was explained to everyone that this was in development and also asked if they could think of anything I should add or hadn't thought of, then to let me know - Ditto if their usual song wasn't yet in my library.

I have been ripping to mp3+G and in every test at home have not encountered a problem, but on the night several songs played for about 45-60 seconds then stopped.

When re tested at home again the tracks failed to play so i guess they slipped through the net on testing and i was just un-lucky on Friday.

When playing just the mp3 portion there is a slight skip or stutter in the track at the point where it normally stops. The Graphic portion is complete when manually dragging the cue bar through the track but again wont play past the skip/jump - how do i remedy this?

Basically to save costs the CDG discs are nearly all second hand from the bay and most are scratched to some degree & some really quite badly this is partly why i chose to convert to MP3+G so as not to have to rely on a scratched disc or in fact buy a cdg player.

BUT it seems where the disc hits a scratch it makes this pause (less than a tenth of a second) in the mp3 file and as a result the player software must assume the track is over.

I dont know if i have written this well enough to be understood but i must be going wrong somewhere can you tell me where and why would a jump show up in a mp3+g file is it different to a plain mp3 rip where it either works or it doesn't?

Many thanks in advance

I would have copied the CD's to my PC then burned them onto fresh CD's.
The PC should have a few go's at reading them before failing so hopefully they will load onto a PC. I use Windows Media player.

[DazzyD]

I would have copied the CD's to my PC then burned them onto fresh CD's.
The PC should have a few go's at reading them before failing so hopefully they will load onto a PC. I use Windows Media player.

I didn't know WMP had a facility for playing digital karaoke. What plug-ins do you use?

[nigelwright7557]

I didn't know WMP had a facility for playing digital karaoke. What plug-ins do you use?

I meant for copying the tracks.
If it cant do the video then I am sure you could just copy it to a directory then burn it to CD again.

[DazzyD]

I meant for copying the tracks.
If it cant do the video then I am sure you could just copy it to a directory then burn it to CD again.

I think I see what you're saying, Nigel, but you can't simply copy CD+G discs to the computer. These discs have to be decoded with a CD+G decoder. The majority of computer disc drives cannot read CD+G let alone write them. Even with drives that have this capability, it takes a fair bit of technical knowledge to use the correct settings to do this. That's why a program such as CDG Ripper is invaluable as it does all of the complicated stuff for you.

Karaoke DVDs can be copied in the way you suggested by copying the data folders to the computer but, in all fairness, karaoke DVDs are not really widely used. CD+G is still the industry standard as all the new discs are released in this format. Maybe the likes of Sunfly, Mr Entertainer, Legends, EZ Karaoke, etc could start selling them in MP3+G format for download in the same way that iTunes, 7Digital, Lastfm, etc do. This would save us loads of hassle in converting tracks and also would reduce the need the ProDub license. I think we'll have to see what happens on that one!