I’ve found that Karaoke CDG Discs are the best place to start when building a song library for a portable karaoke system. You may be asking yourself “How can I build a portable karaoke system and then have to lug around several hundred CDG discs for my library? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having a portable karaoke system?” The key to using karaoke cdg discs as the first building block to your portable karaoke system lies in ripping the discs to your laptop’s hard drive.
The reason I consider karaoke cdg discs a good source to start your library is that in my experience I’ve found that you can get the biggest bang for your buck in terms of getting a large number of good karaoke songs for the cheapest price by using this method. I would start with a good cdg discs library of karaoke music by Sweet Georgia Brown or Chart Buster Karaoke. Here’s a good example of a 66 disc set that will yield 1,000 great beginner karaoke songs for your system: Karaoke Music CDG: Sweet Georgia Brown 66 CD+G Library Collection
Two of my favorite cdg disc manufacturers are Sound Choice
Once you’ve purchased a collection of karaoke cdg discs (or just a single disc for that matter). You must rip the discs to your hard drive to start creating your digital karaoke song library. My favorite karaoke cdg disc ripper is TriceraSoft CDG Ripper 2. It will take several hours to rip your karaoke cd+g discs to your laptop’s hard drive, but once you do you’ll be very happy! You’ll be able to look up songs in an instant! No more stumbling through discs to find that one song – just simply start typing the name and “bam!” it’s there to start rollin’!
Now that I’ve transferred all of my karaoke cdg discs to my digital library I’ve completely stopped using written karaoke song request slips. There’s no need for them because I can simply start typing once the person requests the song and I have it within seconds! Good luck with transferring your karaoke cdg discs to your digital karaoke library. In my next post we will discuss other methods for obtaining digital karaoke files for your portable karaoke system! You might also check out cdgdiscs.com for some other good suggestions for building your song library with karaoke cdg discs.
Apr 10
28
Why Portable Karaoke?
Portable karaoke systems are becoming more and more powerful and flexible as technology progresses. The iphone, ipod and laptop are revolutionizing the way that computer karaoke is delivered. These technologies are also enabling much higher quality professional systems that are also extremely portable and compact. This website is devoted to the world of portable karaoke. I will detail how I’m currently using my equipment for portable karaoke shows and also look at new equipment, software and technology that is coming available to further enhance my existing setup. I hope this information will also help others who are interested in compact computer karaoke to do the same.
First a bit about me. I’m a musician, singer and songwriter. I’ve played with rock n’ roll bands, played live acoustic shows, produced Youtube videos and sing karaoke both for fun and professionally. In addition to my musical interests, I’m an architect and a huge computer geek! I enjoy building my own computers, networks, and the general tweeking of such systems. My interest in karaoke initially grew through my love of singing. It gave me the opportunity to practice for live shows and also let me easily try new songs. My daughter is now following in my musical footsteps and I’ve become her sound engineer, karaoke jocky, roadie, website designer, backing guitarist, videographer, etc…. I love working with her and my portable karaoke system has not only become her favorite method of practicing her vocals, but in addition to my weekly karaoke gig, we also use it for her live performances.
My first karaoke system used mp3+g files that were stored in a rack mounted pc. This pc traveled in my amp and effects rack that I used with my pa system. I used a Soundscape Mixtreme 16 channel PCI card with a Tascam TM-D1000 (digital mixing board). For speakers I was using Electrovoice SX80′s with a Hafler P3000 amplifier and Electrovoice SB121a Subs. This system was more than adequate for karaoke and small to mid size venues, but it was a bit too heavy and cumbersome for my needs. For my karaoke software I used Tricerasoft’s WinCDG which performed adequately, but did not handle file the song queue or multiple monitors as smoothly as I would have liked. I was a bit ahead of the curve for computer based karaoke at the time, considering I assembled this system roughly six years ago. Needless to say as technology has progressed, so has computer karaoke. My current system is far more compact and portable, yet still provides excellent sound quality and is also flexible enough for live performance and even digital audio recording!
My current setup consists of one or two Bose L1 Compacts, microphones, a laptop (or an iphone) and an optional mini mixing board. I can easily fit this system in the trunk of my car (with room to spare for compact lighting and even a couple of suitcases)! This system will handle any small to mid sized venue with speed and style. I can setup in a matter of minutes instead of hours. Over the years I’ve used JBL, Mackie, Yamaha, Peavey, Electro-Voice, Yorkville Sound, EAW, you name it – but I would not trade any of my previous systems for my current portable karaoke system!