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

(almost none of this stuff is necessary) photo by…

Running a karaoke night is cheap and easy. Here’s all you need:

1. Laptop
2. Songs
3. Karaoke Software
4. Songbooks
5. Microphones and a PA
6. Old computer monitor

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.

1. What you need for a karaoke laptop
2. How to download Karaoke songs
3. The best free karaoke software for Mac, Windows, and Linux
4. How to make karaoke songbooks

Next up… tips on running a karaoke night!

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.

Sometimes you’ll get a big karaoke collection with a pre-made songbook. This is definitely the easiest way to get started.

But once you start downloading more songs, you’ll need a way to make your own books. Here are two quick guides to making songbooks.

On Windows, your book will be somewhat ugly and wasteful of paper without further fiddling. But this is definitely the best way to start.

The quick and dirty way to make a karaoke song book on Windows or Linux

The easiest way to make a karaoke song book on a Mac

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…

If you use both Mac and Windows, t’s a tough call between kJams and Winamp. If you’re going to be actively updating your library and your song books, kJams is it.

If you want to set things up once, never think about it again, and spend your karaoke night hitting on people, use Winamp.

Now, without further ado, the verdicts:

The best karaoke software for Mac OS X: kJams

The best karaoke software for Windows: Winamp

The best karaoke software for Linux: PyKaraoke

Seriously, first purchase.

Here’s why:

1. More crap to carry around.
2. Sometimes you won’t have it on you.
3. You need a power supply or two USB ports and a special cable.
4. Which you’ll leave at home, or lose (or live in constant fear of this).
5. One more thing to set up / break down.
6. One more thing to accidentally unplug during your set.

$120 gets you a 500GB internal drive. You won’t have to lug an external to your set, and if you have an older laptop, your computer will just run faster.

On all Macbooks and the new (silver & black) Macbook Pro’s the hard drive is user-serviceable and it’s super easy to switch it out. If you’re nervous any mildly computer savvy friend could help.

On the old Macbook Pro you have to buy a special screwdriver and take apart your computer, but it’s not too hard. I followed this guide and it worked great: Upgrade Your MacBook Pro’s Hard Drive.

On Macs just use your external HDD and Time Machine to backup your stuff and move it over, just like you’d do with a new computer (you’ll need the DVD that came with your Mac too). It’s super easy.

After years of constantly having like 1GB free on my laptop, I finally did it, and it totally changed how I use my computer.

1. I never think twice about downloading something.
2. I’m not always needing to delete stuff.
3. I have all my music and karaoke stuff on me all the time.
4. Set up and break down is that much simpler.
5. Got a free USB port (I only have two).
6. I use my old external drive for Time Machine so I’ll never lose more than a few days of data ever again! When I think of all the awesome stuff I’ve lost from hard drive crashes, lost DVD backups, and stolen laptops it’s boggling.

So yeah, if you have $120, just get a big ass hard drive.