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:

Download any karaoke song for free using IRC / MIRC

Here’s what to do:

1. Install a Bittorrent client (if you don’t have one): Mac / Windows
2. Try to download the biggest files first here and here.
3. Then try here and here for the fastest/most reliable downloads.
4. Then search here and here every few weeks for new stuff.
5. Closed torrent sites like this one will have special sections for karaoke, but you need to keep track of ratios.

If anyone knows of other good sources for karaoke torrents, feel free to post in the comments.

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.

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.

Overview

The KJ community uses a system for filesharing that, while complicated and low-tech, works well for sharing large libraries within a small community.

The basis for it all is IRC, which is the classic internet solution to the chat room problem. This all goes down on the #karaoke+mp3’s channel on the Undernet server. They even made a website for their channel here: kmp3s.com.

On top of IRC sits Omenserve, a robot that tells everybody what songs you’re sharing, and sends people songs on request.

Autoget slaps a Napster-style interface onto the whole thing. You can search everyone’s song lists, and download songs.

Step 1: Install mIRC

1. Download it here: mIRC 6.21 (I’m hosting it myself since you need a specific old version)
2. Run the mIRC installer.
3. Change the installation folder to C:\mIRC
4. Don’t start mIRC, or quit if it starts.

Step 2: Setup Port Forwarding

I you only have one computer at home, and you never connect to the internet through a router, you can skip this step. If you’re not sure, do it.

1. Download this UPnP tool: BaUPnP.exe
2. Right click on it and select “Create Shortcut”
3. Rename the shortcut to “Port Forwarding” or “Run before MIRC”.
4. Right click on the shortcut and click in the “Target” field.
5. Paste the following numbers afer “BaUPnP.exe” 10051 10052 10053 10054 10055 10056 10057 10058 10059 10060 113 5645 5646
6. Click “OK”
7. Double click on the shortcut.

A window should open that looks like this:

If it says “No UPnP router found” then you need to turn UPnP for your router, or forward all those ports manually. Google the name of your router and upnp or port forwarding for more info.

You’ll need to run this tool each time you use mIRC. You can try to put it in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup but that didn’t work for me… it always runs before I connect to the internet. You can also forward ports by hand, but if you have a laptop this is a huge pain in the ass… each time you connect to a new network you need to do it again. Often, you won’t have access to the router.

Step 3: Install Autoget

1. Download it here: Autoget 7.40b4
2. Extract the zip file
3. Run AGsetup740b4.exe
4. Change the install folder to C:\mIRC\

Step 4: Setup Omenserve / MiRC

1. Download it here: Omenserve 2.60
2. Extract the zip file.
3. Run OmenServe_Setup.exe
4. Change the install folder to C:\mIRC\
5. Click “select folder” button, find & select mIRC folder, press OK
6. Click install button
7. Check “auto load script into mIRC” and “view omenserve installation instructions”, click ‘finish’
8. mIRC will start, and give a script initializing warning message. Click “yes”
9. Click OK on mIRC option screen
10. Go to File -> Select Server
11. Find “Undernet” in the list, double click on it, and double click on “Random US server” or “Random EU server”.
12. Enter your info, pick a nickname, and click OK.
13. Go to Favorites -> Add to Favorites
14. For “channel” enter #karaoke+mp3s, check “Join on connect”, and click OK.
15. Click on “Favorites” and #karaoke+mp3s should now be in the list. Click on it.

Now you should see a Window that looks like a chatroom, with lots of ads for different users’ collections. At this point, if you get stuck, you can ask other people in the channel for help.

Step 5: Start Omenserve

1. Bring up omenserve config screen by pressing F2 or commands -> omenserve -> omenserve v2.60
2. Click “main”, ensure that ‘main nick for trigger’ is your IRC nickname
3. Cick ‘lists’, highlight ‘default’, click add folder.
4. Add all your karaoke folders (subfolders added automatically)
5. After all file directories have been added, click “generate list”
6. on QuickList screen, select “type file info”, click generate list.
7. Wait for status screen to give “list completed” message
8. Open omenserve config screen (F2), click “channel” button.
9. Select “add channels”, highlight channel #karaoke+mp3s (you must be IN the channel, or it will not appear in this screen), select channel mode, select “default list”, click “add channel”.
10. click “main”, check “Server On” box, click “close”.
11. Go to Commands -> Omenserve -> Send Channel Ads.

You should now be sharing your music in the #karaoke+mp3s. Soon, the channel ops will see your ad and will try to download your list. Once they verify that you are sharing, you will be “voiced”, and your name in the right sidebar will get a “+” next to it. Without this, most people won’t let you search their lists.

Again, you can ask for help in the channel if you have a problem.

Step 6: Load Autoget

1. Run mIRC
2. Click on the #karaoke+mp3s window.
3. Type /load -rs autoget.mrc
4. mIRC will give a warning message. Click “yes”.
5. If you get an error message, you may need to type /load -rs autoget/autoget.mrc or give the exact location to the autoget.mrc file.
6. Go to “Commands”. “Autoget v7.40b4″ should now show as an option, right above Omenserve.
7. Go to Commands -> Autoget -> Open

You should now see a familiar Napster-style search and download interface. Click on the “search” tab and try a search and download.

Autoget will grab peoples’ lists, and you can search those locally using “Local Search”. Then right click and select “Add to waiting” for songs you want.

Step 7: Miscellaneous Configuration

These are a bunch of options that should make everything work smoothly. If there are others missing, please let me know.

1. Commands -> Autoget -> Configuration -> Main tab -> Set “Download Method” to “Active”
2. Commands ->  Autoget -> Configuration -> Options tab -> check “Automatically Join Servers”, “Automatically close windows”
3. Commands ->  Autoget -> Configuration -> Channels tab -> click “Add” enter #karaoke+mp3s / undernet and select “Active”
4. Click Done
5. File -> Select Server -> Connect -> Options -> check “Connect on startup” and “Reconnect on disconnection”
6. In this Window, click “Advanced” check “DCC” and enter “10051″ and “10060″ under first and last. Click OK.
7. File -> Select Server -> Connect -> Identd -> make sure “Enable Identd is checked”
8. File -> Select Server -> DCC -> check “Augo-get file” and “minimize” and select “Resume” if file exists.
9. File -> Select Server -> DCC -> Options -> check “Close Window: Send & Get” and “Passive DCCs”
10. File -> Select Server -> DCC -> Ignore -> Select “Disabled” and uncheck “Turn ignore back on in:”

Options 6-10 are particularly important. If any of 1-5 are redundant, let me know.

At this point you should be able to close mIRC and restart, with all your downloads starting up again automatically.   

For Mac: running mIRC in Parallels

Its easy to run Windows applications on Intel Macs (non-G4/G5) using Parallels.

1. Download Parallels
2. Find a serial number.
3. Find a Windows XP CD
4. Insert the CD
5. Run Parallels, select “New Virtual Machine” and follow the instructions.

You can also use Bootcamp. Hit CMD-Space, type “boot” and launch “Boot Setup Assistant”. Parallels is better because you won’t be stuck in Windows whenever you want to use mIRC.

it can be done…