Thinking big about karaoke. Democratizing tools, breaking rules.
FreeKaraokeMusic posted a big archive of MIDI karaoke tracks and I got it today. Thousands of songs, and since it’s all MIDI, the files are tiny and you can download it in just a few minutes.
People have been posting MIDI to the internet since the dawn of geocities, I don’t think there are even any copyright issues here.
Click here to download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EXW9F5OD
There’s even some Latin and Brazilian stuff here too!
MIDI is a way of connecting musical instruments to computers, and to each other, such that the instruments send things like notes, velocity, and pitch to each other, not just sound. For more detailed info, check out the wikipedia entry on MIDI.
It’s been around for ages. MIDI files don’t contain sounds, they just contain notes (like sheet music) and instructions about what instruments go with what notes.
.KAR is a MIDI format for Karaoke that includes lyrics as well. kJams, PyKaraoke, and Winamp all play .kar files, though Winamp’s support is a bit strange.
Since the instruments are all generic ones synthesized by your computer, they will all sound particularly cheezy. But sometimes this works out really, really well.
The first official karaokecrime.com show happened in Providence last Thursday at Matthewson Street. The Dance Troupe raised a ton of money for their tour, and the danceparty / performance was awesome.
I’m posting the karaoke megamix exactly as I ran it last night. Ableton crapped out on me yesterday before the show, so I didn’t even have time to mix it. But whatever, I’m posting as is while I’m excited. My favorite part is the “Go DJ” verse over “Love is Gone”.
Makes me teary. Still lookin for a good way to post 10 minute plus videos that are fair-use heavy. In the meantime:
Karaoke players (like Winamp or VLC) can’t read inside .zip files, so you need to unzip all your karaoke to use them. Turns out, if you have a big library there are just too many files to use the unix wildcard *.
And you get an error like: -bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long
Here’s how to move your huge library of karaoke songs to one folder, and unzip them. It’s well worth the trouble to be able to use Winamp (which is super-simple and solid for karaoke nights).
Continue reading ‘How to unzip a ton of karaoke tracks (Mac / Linux)’
8-bit dove, 8-bit olive branch?!
First post in the new Karaoke Art department. It’s from a version of Prince’s “When Doves Cry”. This blog will be beautiful as well as useful.
I bought a cheap USB sound card (the Behringer U Control) so that I could queue songs in Ableton while another song was playing (a basic move when you’re DJing). The trick is to use it at the same time as your internal output, using ASIO4ALL for Windows or Aggregate Device Editor for Mac.
Audio interfaces with more than one output are way more expensive, so this is the cheap way. .
ASIO4ALL in Windows worked awesome. But on Mac in it kept crapping out after a few minutes. I’d get a hideous crackling sound out of the audio interface.
The solution: set your internal soundcard as the “Clock” (whatever that means) and go into the Sound Preference Pane and set the Aggregate Device as your audio output. The second part is important.
Also, I noticed that setting your internal line-in as an input in Ableton helped, or at least it reset the problem when it occured. And once I fixed it, I still noticed temporary distortionwhen other applications (like Firefox, iTunes, Mail) were active.
General observation: It shocks me, when Mac is the platform of choice for so many audio professionals, that this shit is so janky. Seriously.
The first official karaokecrime.com show happened in Providence last Thursday at Matthewson Street. The Dance Troupe raised a ton of money for their tour, and the danceparty jam session was Awesome.
I’m posting the karaoke megamix exactly as I ran it last night. Ableton crapped out on me yesterday before the show, so I didn’t even have time to mix it. But whatever, I’m posting as is while I’m excited. My favorite part is the “Go DJ” verse over “Love is Gone”.
Makes me teary.
Still lookin for a good way to post 10 minute plus videos that are fair-use heavy. In the meantime: Karaoke Megamix 1
(almost none of this stuff is necessary) photo by…
Running a karaoke night is cheap and easy. Here’s all you need:
5 & 6 barely count. You can get clunky 17″ monitors for free on craigslist or freecycle. Most venues have a PA w/ mics. Got friends who play in a band? They can help scrounge something together.
So that leaves us with a laptop, songs, karaoke software, and songbooks. I made simple guides to cover each step. Spend a little time now, and next week you’ll have a working karaoke setup.
If anything seems confusing, just find a computery friend to help. They’ll know how to do all of this stuff.
Next up… tips on running a karaoke night!
Why do I need a laptop?
To do a karaoke night you need a two-screen setup (one for your playlist, one for the lyrics). This is really easy to do on laptops, just plug in an old 17″ monitor or a projector. Many laptops will even let you plug into a TV. On desktops it’s more complicated.
Can it be a really old laptop?
Yes. A really old (say, 6 year-old) Windows laptop will work fine. An old Mac laptop will be more annoying, but probably workable.
Do I need anything else?
You’ll want between 20 and 50 gigs free for karaoke (10 minimum) so if you don’t have that space, you have two options:
1) Get an external USB hard drive. A portable one that works off USB power is best (like $70). If you have an old laptop without USB 2.0, get a USB 2.0 PC card. ($20).
2) Upgrade your laptop’s hard drive. If you have $100 and a computer-savvy friend, this is a much better option (more reasons here). On Macbooks (and new Macbook Pro’s) it’s really easy… other computers, a toss up.
Once you have your laptop, it’s time to download some karaoke music and install a karaoke player.
Song books are important, but making them can be a pain in the neck. Here’s the simplest way to make a karaoke songbook on Windows, using either PyKaraoke or Winamp.
If you’re starting from scratch, PyKaraoke will be the simplest: just add your music, and go to File -> Print Song List.
If you’re using Winamp, just import your music (unzip all .zip files first), sort by Artist or Title, drag into a playlist, select all, and hit Ctrl-Alt-G. This will open up a browser window with your playlist rendered as HTML. Print it.
If that was hard to follow, keep reading for step by step instructions…
If you’re using a Mac, see this post: The easiest way to make a karaoke song book on a Mac
Continue reading ‘The quick and dirty way to make a karaoke song book on Windows or Linux’
Free Karaoke Music