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 just found what looks like a karaoke mp3 blog: freekaraokemusic.blogspot.com. Right now they’ve only posted torrents, but it seems promising.
Since it’s really the only good karaoke source I’ve been able to find so far, I just added it as a sidebar widget (to your right).
One of my visions is to see somebody DJ a karaoke night off turntables, mixing and scratching with synced video. It’s possible, I looked it up! The simplest way is with Serato Scratch and a $1500 Rane mixer. Ouch. But some clubs have these, so if I ever get a karaoke night at a clubby club… hmm…
Then there’s a $100 solution that doesn’t require any special hardware… Ms. Pinky / Max MSP.
Then there’s the free software / linux route: xwax. Which you can also use with Puredata using this thing. I fully expect to be in the company of tons of linux VJ nerds when I get to brazil. Maybe they can help me set it up. Woo!
xwax
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
