Thinking big about karaoke. Democratizing tools, breaking rules.
Mp3g is a funny combination of music file and anigif. If you want to play karaoke on your iPod / iPhone, or if you want to use DJ/VJ software to run your karaoke set (more on that later) the first step is to convert your collection to normal video files.
Here’s how–for Mac, Windows, and Linux;
Continue reading ‘How to covert karaoke files to video (Mac, Windows, Linux)’
Here’s how to start your karaoke library, how to download specific songs you want, and how to stay up-to-date with new music as it comes out.
1. Start with Bittorrent. With Bittorrent you can download a ton of karaoke tracks at once.
2. Use mIRC and Autoget to download individual tracks from #karaoke+mp3s
Using mIRC and Autoget, you can download almost any English karaoke song in existence. Lots of French ones, some Spanish (Sound Choice Latin / tzlp) and some Portuguese (Kantatu). This way you can hone in on particular songs or genres you want.
It also works pretty well for getting new releases, although there’s no good way to search for new additions to the network.
3. Go back to Bittorrent. New releases will show up on the torrent sites from time to time. Keep your eyes peeled.
Update: I just found a karaoke mp3 blog here: Free Karaoke Music and added its feed to the sidebar.
How do Karaoke DJ’s share songs? When I started this, I was baffled.
The karaoke scene is small enough that it almost seems like internet hasn’t hit it yet. You can’t find karaoke tracks on Gnutella (using Acquisition) or Soulseek. There aren’t any mp3 blogs for karaoke (yet–more on that later). You can find karaoke torrents on the Pirate Bay but it’s not at all comprehensive.
But the case for filesharing is so compelling it must be happening somewhere.
I was working off this even more baffling comment from a determined but non-tech-savvy friend of mine along the lines of “oh yeah, I paid $40 for this program that said I could download any karaoke song, and it was really hard to set up, but when I got it working it worked great.”
It sounded like one of those scams where they sell Limewire for $40, but I had no notion what it was they were bottling and selling.
Anyway, some Googling later and I found kmp3s.com, a site made by the karaoke community on the #karaoke+mp3s IRC channel. Turns out people are using a bunch of scripts for the old-standby Windows IRC client into a napstery arrangement where everybody can search everybody else’s library. Bootleg as all hell, but it works and it’s totally free (though if that company can get my friend Nancy up and running with this rickety setup they deserve every penny).
Folks in the IRC channel (#karaoke+mp3s on Undernet) even went to the trouble of putting together good tutorials. So one day I fired up my Windows laptop, left my low tolerance for figuring out bullshit at the threshold, and pushed through to the other side. Here goes:
Karafun is one of the most popular karaoke players for Windows. Here’s why it sucks:
The only fun thing about it is that it plays funny video effects behind the karaoke lyrics. But with winamp you can run your favorite visualizations from 1998 around the lyrics, so whatevs.
CD+G’s are karaoke CDs (see wikipedia entry). Moral of the story: don’t fuck with them.
You’ll just want everything on a laptop anyway, and many CD-ROM drives (like the ones found in most Mac laptops) won’t even read CD+G’s.
You still see lots of karaoke DJ’s using CDs out of habit. But requiring singers to write down disk and track numbers on pieces of paper is such a drag.
I’ll go out on a limb here and say that even if you inherit a large collection of discs, you’re better off selling them to some schmuck (or microwaving them one by one) and hitting the torrent sites and/or setting up mIRC. It might seem like a waste, but you’ll burn more time in the long run dealing with CD+G’s.
mIRC works great for finding individual tracks, but because most people will only let you download 50-75 songs per day, you’ll need to use Bittorrent to get all the classics.
Here’s what to do:
If anyone knows of other good sources for karaoke torrents, feel free to post in the comments.
Karaoke download stores are useful for finding individual tracks. All these stores use standard formats (zip/mp3g) and are DRM free. They are faster, and much easier to set up than downloading songs the free way.
They’re also reliable enough for use “live” during a karaoke night when you don’t have a song (just hit the singer up for a couple bucks). You could even use online stores to run a karaoke night with no library at all. Reviews after the jump.
Unless you know somebody who has one, getting a big karaoke library will take time. But in a pinch, you could run a perfectly good karaoke night with no library, downloading songs on the fly.
The easiest way would be using a Mac with kJams and its built in store (powered by Tricerasoft). Songs are $1-$2. Just hit up each singer per song (in some places, like Brazil, most karaoke is pay-for-play).
On Windows, the options aren’t as rosy. You could use the Tricarasoft player and its built-in store. Or you could use the Tricerasoft or Buykaraokedownloads web stores with Winamp or PyKaraoke.
There’s a free option too: download using mIRC. Set up is tricky, but I made a step by step guide: Free karaoke music (using mIRC). Downloads won’t be as fast, but they’ll be fast enough. The selection will be just as good if not better–there are a few people with huge libraries sharing consistently.
The only hitch is that the wifi router at the venue will need to have UPnP turned on, or you’ll need to use your own 3g card. Make sure to test first.
Sometimes people in Asia get stabbed or shot for singing badly or hogging the mic, reports the New York Times: Karaoke Killing.
According to the Guardian:
Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” has reportedly generated so many outbursts of hostility that some bars in the Philippines now do not offer it on the karaoke menu anymore. In Thailand this year, a gunman shot eight people dead after tiring of their endless renditions of a John Denver tune.
I wonder what country has the thugginest karaoke bars?
This guide will show you how to download virtually any karaoke song for free, using MiRC and Omenserve/Autoget. I owe a huge thank you to all the folks on the #karaoke+mp3s channel for making kmp3s.com–that tutorial is the foundation for this one.
These tools are pretty old-school, and setting them up is a pain. But it’s worth the trouble to download karaoke tracks on demand. For KJs, this is a must.
MiRC is Windows only, but Mac users can run it in Parallels (that’s what I do) and this guide will cover that.
Free Karaoke Music