Blaze Audio Karaoke Sing-n-Burn

Transcription

1 Blaze Audio Karaoke Sing-n-Burn Manual Copyright 2005 by Singing Electrons, Inc.

2 Contents 1.0 Getting Started Welcome to Karaoke Sing-n-Burn! Features Learning to Use Karaoke Sing-n-Burn Quick Help Requirements Installation Exploring Karaoke Sing-n-Burn Configuring Karaoke Sing-n-Burn Opening Files Playback Monitoring Lyrics Monitoring Playback Adjusting Tempo, Key, and Volume Track Control Performance Controls Introduction to Performance Saving Files Performance Playback Clearing a Performance Opening Performance Files Recording a Performance Saving a Performance Monitoring Your Vocals Burning a CD Technical Support

3 1.0 Getting Started 1.1 Welcome to Karaoke Sing-n-Burn! Karaoke Sing-n-Burn is a one-of-a-kind MIDI and Karaoke orchestration program that lets you play karaoke files, record and save your own karaoke performances, then burn those performances directly to CD. You can change the instrumentation, the mix, the key, and the tempo of your songs, and if lyrics are present in the file, Karaoke Sing-n-Burn displays them on the screen, cuing you when to sing. You can adjust the size of the lyrics window and even change the font and colors used. With Karaoke Sing-n-Burn you can download your favorite songs from the internet, invite your friends over for Karaoke parties, then send them home with souvenir CDs. 1.2 Features Ability to play both MIDI (.mid) and Karaoke (.kar) files, both of which are widely available on the internet Ability to record a performance, play it back, and burn it directly to CD Ability to record your voice with a user-adjustable echo Adjustable tempo and key Ability to change the instruments used for each track (i.e. Emphasize keyboards, remove strings, etc.) Separate volume slider for each track Ability to set an instrument for solo mode Individual track mute Visual display showing both time elapsed (in minutes and seconds) and bar/beat/tick information LED-like display showing the current output level for each track Lyric display window showing you which words to sing Adjustable lyrics window size, font size and color, and background color Ability to save your changes (to the instrumentation, key, etc.) to disk 1.3 Learning to Use Karaoke Sing-n-Burn 3

4 The best way to learn how to use Karaoke Sing-n-Burn is to go through the topics in sequential order. If you would like quick help with a particular button or display, try our Quick Help feature. 1.4 Quick Help For quick help, click on the appropriate area of the screen (such as the button whose function you are trying to determine). 1.5 Requirements Karaoke Sing-n-Burn requires a PC running Windows 95, 98, Millennium, 2000, or NT; a sound card with a MIDI synthesizer; and speakers. To use the performance feature, you will need some type of microphone. You can order high quality microphones, cables, connectors, and convenient desktop microphone stands from An external USB audio device such as the AudiMax will give studio quality sound which can be affected by the interior noise any computer generates. 1.6 Installation To install Karaoke Sing-n-Burn, run the installation file that you downloaded or received on disk and then follow the on-screen instructions. If you need help with this please consult your computer manual or send an to support@blazeaudio.com. 2.0 Exploring Karaoke Sing-n-Burn 2.1 Configuring Karaoke Sing-n-Burn Before using Karaoke Sing-n-Burn the first time, you need to take a few minutes to do two things to make sure that when you begin singing you ll sound as good as you are! A. Select the proper processing mode. The Processing Mode Window allows you to choose between two modes of Monitoring: Software Processing and Hardware Pass-Through. This step was included because certain computers have what are called latency problems. By following these easy directions, you ll be able to make sure that your computer is operating at its optimum audio capacity. 4

5 Go to File -> Preferences. A dialog box opens which will allow you to adjust 4 settings: Lyrics: Check this if you wish to enable non-english character support. Voice Processing Mode: In order to be sure that your vocals are in perfect sync with the music, you may need to change the processing mode. Karaoke Sing-n-Burn has made that easy: Click Change Processing Mode. The Choose Processing Mode dialog box appears. You will choose Software Processing or Hardware Pass-Through depending on your needs. (Each choice has an explanation of its functions.) For most users, you will choose Software Processing by clicking the button that says Configure and Test. Another dialog box appears with instructions on using the slider to achieve the least amount of delay. When you have adjusted it to your preference, click OK. MIDI Device: Click MIDI Device Synthesizer to see the MIDI Synthesizer in use. Synchronization: Click Synchronize Vocals to see 2 sliders. You adjust the first slider if your vocals and music are not in sync when you start playback. You adjust the second if the forward or rewind music position slider causes vocals to lose sync. B. Use the Auto Configuration Wizard. This guides you through the process of setting up your computer for optimal audio performances with Karaoke Sing-n-Burn. Go to Help and click Auto Configuration Wizard. Make sure your speakers are on at normal listening volume and click Next. Following the onscreen directions, use the Master Volume Slider to make sure that your speakers are functioning properly. After testing, click Next. 5

6 Step 2 lets you test your computer s MIDI output. Follow the onscreen directions to make sure that your computer s MIDI output is properly configured. Then click Next. Step 3 allows you to configure the recording level for your microphone. Follow the onscreen directions to properly set the level at which your voice will be recorded. Click Next. Step 4 configures your computer s Wave output volume. Testing and setting this properly according to the onscreen directions will ensure that your vocals will be heard at the proper level when they are played back as saved performances. When you are satisfied, click Next. In order to save the changes you have made, click Yes, Configure Processing Mode Now, and Finish. The Processing Mode Window In Karaoke Sing-n-Burn, Monitoring allows you to hear the microphone input in headphones during recording. This is a tiny speaker icon right to the recording volume slider in the recording panel on Main UI. The Processing Mode Window allows you to choose between two modes of Monitoring: Software Processing and Hardware Pass-Through. Due to problems with latency on certain computers, we have provided an option to bypass software processing of microphone input entirely and do a simple hardware pass-through. Karaoke Sing-n-Burn opens with Software Processing as the default processing mode After the initial session, it will open with the processing mode which you last used. If hardware processing is not available because it is not supported by the user's mixer, then the Hardware Pass-Through radio button will be disabled. Software Processing Mode In Software Processing Mode, Microphone input is processed by the program and an echo effect added if the echo slider is on. This is the best mode for users with PCs that don't have problems with latency. Those users who continue to use software processing have the option to Configure and Test to adjust the effect of delay (in Wave and MIDI Playback) so that they can fine-tune Karaoke Sing-n-Burn to run best on their machine. When the user presses Configure and Test, a separate Configure Software Processing window appears. Pressing Test Now begins processing microphone input and playback into the speakers, as if actually recording a performance. Change the slider position so that your vocals and their playback are well synchronized. When Hardware Pass-Through is selected, the Configure and Test button is disabled. Hardware Processing Mode In hardware processing mode, microphone input is passed straight through the mixer to the speakers so that there is no latency (delay). The echo slider is set to the Zero position during recording in the Hardware Processing Mode. This feature will be available only on mixers that have a source of type microphone on the output side of the mixer destinations. 2.2 Starting Karaoke Sing-n-Burn To start Karaoke Sing-n-Burn, click its icon in the Start Menu (the icon will usually be located under Start - > Programs -> Blaze Audio -> Karaoke Sing-n-Burn, assuming that you selected the default icon location 6

7 when you installed the program) or run the file mm.exe in the directory where you installed Karaoke Sing-n- Burn. 2.3 Opening Files You can open three kinds of files with Karaoke Sing-n-Burn -- standard MIDI files (.MID files), standard karaoke files (.KAR files), and performance files (.PFC files) created in Karaoke Sing-n-Burn. To open a file for playback or modification, choose Open from the File menu or hit Control-O. In the window that appears, select the type of file you wish to view (optional), navigate to the file you wish to open, and click Open. As a shortcut, you can also bring up the Open File window by clicking the folder button in the playback panel. The button looks like this: Please Note: Karaoke Sing-n-Burn will not play MP3 files, CD+G Karaoke disks, or Wave files; only.mid,.kar, and.pfc files are supported. 2.4 Playback Once you have opened a file, you use the standard playback buttons to listen to your song: These buttons: Rewind, Fast-Forward, Play, Pause, and Stop (in the order that they appear in Karaoke Sing-n-Burn, from top to bottom and left to right) function in exactly the same way that they do on a standard CD or tape player. Use the Play button to commence playback and the Stop button to stop playback and return to the beginning of the song. Pause may be used to halt playback temporarily during the song; to resume playback press the Pause button a second time, or the Play button. Use the Rewind and Fast- Forward buttons to move rapidly through the song. Each press of one of these buttons will move you approximately 22 seconds forward or backward in the song. Please Note: The song must be playing for these buttons to function. Also note that these buttons will not function if you 'hold them down', as you might with a CD player. These buttons behave somewhat differently when playing a performance -- please see the Performance Playback topic. 2.5 Monitoring Lyrics If your song contains lyrics (all.kar files should contain lyrics, and many.mid files contain them as well) then Karaoke Sing-n-Burn has the ability to read these lyrics and display them in the Lyrics Window located at the top of the Karaoke Sing-n-Burn screen: 7

8 While your song is playing back, Karaoke Sing-n-Burn will scroll the lyrics and highlight whichever words match the music at that particular time. All you have to do is follow along and belt out those high notes! Font and Color Options Karaoke Sing-n-Burn gives you the ability to change the font face, font color, font size, and background color used in the Lyrics Window. To do so, select Font from the Lyrics menu, or click the A at the top of the Lyrics Window. (You can also click either + or - at the top of the Lyrics Window as a quick shortcut for making the font larger or smaller). Similarly, you can change the background color by selecting Background Color from the Lyrics Box menu or by clicking the Paint Bucket button at the top of the Lyrics Window. Experiment with different fonts and background colors to see which best suits your preference. Lyrics Window Size If you want to be able to read the lyrics from farther away, it s easy to do. You can expand the Lyrics Window to medium or large size. From the Lyrics menu, choose Maximize for a medium size screen, or Full Screen to have the Lyrics Window entirely fill your screen. These options also have corresponding shortcut buttons at the top right of the Lyrics Window. We recommend size 72 lyrics on a full screen Lyrics Window for the best visibility during karaoke parties. Full Screen Mode Medium Size: 2.6 Monitoring Playback Playback may be monitored with the amber displays located above the Playback Buttons. The top display shows the elapsed time in terms of bars, beats, and ticks: The bottom display shows the elapsed time from the beginning of the song, in minutes and seconds: 8

9 The File Loaded display tells you what type of file is currently in memory: MIDI Karaoke (a regular.mid or.kar file) or Performance (a.mid or.kar with your recorded sound): 2.7 Adjusting Tempo, Key, and Volume Karaoke Sing-n-Burn makes it easy for you to adjust the tempo, key, and/or volume of a song during playback. To do so, you'll use the panel located in the middle of the screen on the left hand side: Tempo The top slider in the box controls the tempo (speed) of playback. Hold the clicker down while moving the thumb (slider button) to the left to decrease speed and to the right to increase the tempo of playback. (Please Note: Unlike Key and Volume, Tempo cannot be adjusted while music is being played or recorded.) Key The middle slider controls the key of playback. Moving the slider from the left to the right affects whether you hear playback in a higher or lower key. Volume The bottom slider controls the overall volume of Karaoke Sing-n-Burn. Use this to determine and set the loudness of the entire song. (If you wish to control the volume for individual tracks, you should use the individual controls described in the section Track Control). Note that you may also wish to control the volume using your computer's mixer panel, which can usually be accessed by double-clicking the speaker icon located in the lower right hand corner of your screen (in the System Tray). 2.8 Track Control Each track (instrument) in a song can be individually controlled with Karaoke Sing-n-Burn. Karaoke Sing-n- Burn gives you the power to adjust the volume of individual tracks, completely change the instrument used in different tracks, mute certain tracks, and have a track play back as a solo. All of these controls are found in the Track Control portion of the Karaoke Sing-n-Burn window: 9

10 Tracks are arranged in Karaoke Sing-n-Burn as a series of vertical bars, set next to one another, running from the left side of the screen to the right: Mute The blue button (at the top) gives you the power to mute tracks. Press again to remove mute from the track (which will enable you to hear the track once more). Solo Pressing the amber button places the track in solo mode, which mutes all other tracks. This is a great way to monitor what the different tracks sound like all by themselves. Only a single solo button may be pressed at one time. Instrument The Instrument button (which looks like a musical note) gives you the ability to change the way this particular track sounds. For example, you could change the piano track in a song to a xylophone or to a telephone ring. Output Level Display The series of vertical LEDs below the Instrument button light up during playback to indicate the output level for each particular track. More lit LEDs indicate a higher output level. Please Note: This display shows the output levels as saved in the MIDI file -- the levels will not adjust to reflect changes in the individual track volumes (see below). Volume Control 10

11 Each track's vertical slider allows you to adjust the volume individually for that particular track. Think the piano is too loud? Turn it down. Want to add more drums? Then turn them up. Voice Track The far left track is a bit different - it represents your voice, and is used with the performance function. Once you have recorded a performance, this track works just like the other tracks: you can mute or solo it, and control the volume using the volume slider. The output level display will show you how loud you are both as you are recording and during playback. Please Note: You will only be able to use the Instrument button to change the volume of your voice. 3.0 Performance Controls 3.1 Introduction to Performance With Karaoke Sing-n-Burn you can record yourself singing along with your favorite songs and then play back the performance to hear yourself sing. You can save your performance files to disc so you can listen to them later, or them to friends. Best of all, you can burn CDs of your own greatest hits! All of the performance controls are located in the light gray section of the Control Panel that displays the microphone image: The red button in the top left begins recording. The echo slider allows you to adjust the echo applied to your voice during playback, and during recording if you're in Software Mode. The Save button allows you to save your performance to disk. The Clear button clears a bad performance from memory. The Monitor button controls whether or not you can hear your voice through the speakers as you record a performance. 3.2 Saving Files If you have made changes to a MIDI or Karaoke file, such as changing the tempo, key, or instrumentation, you may save your changes to disc. To do so, select Save or Save As from the File menu. 3.3 Performance Playback Once you have recorded a performance, you can listen to it using the standard playback buttons. You can adjust the output volume of your recorded voice using the far left track in the Track Control portion of the Karaoke Sing-n-Burn window. You can also mute or solo the voice track during playback. 3.4 Clearing a Performance After you have saved your performance, or if you decide to delete the performance and try again, press Clear to remove what was recorded, leaving the plain.mid or.kar file open. You can now record again. 3.4 Opening Performance Files 11

12 To open a performance file, choose Open from the File menu or hit Control-O. In the window that appears, select Performance files as the type of file to view, navigate to the file you wish to listen to, and click Open. 3.5 Recording a Performance To record a performance, open a standard MIDI (.MID) or Karaoke (.KAR) file and press the red Record button. The song will begin to play and Karaoke Sing-n-Burn will record your voice through your computer's microphone. Now begin singing. You can monitor the volume of your voice during recording by watching the output level shown on the far left track in the Track Control Panel. Adjust the recording volume by moving this track's volume slider up or down; you don't want to record your voice so quietly that you can't hear it, but you don't want to introduce distortion by recording at too high a level, either. In general, try to keep the levels mostly out of the red zone. When you are finished, press the Record button again (or the Stop button) to stop recording. Echo Delay The echo delay slider controls how much echo is added to your voice as you are singing and when you are playing back your performances. Move it up for a more pronounced echo with a longer delay (the time between your voice and the echo) or down for less echo. When the slider is all the way down, no echo at all will be added. Move this slider around as you play back your performances to get a sense of what level of echo sounds best. Adjusting the Tempo, Key, and Volume You can adjust the tempo, key, and volume of a song for the performance, though the tempo can only be adjusted before you begin to record. Microphones & Other Hardware Your computer must have some way of picking up sound in order to use the performance function. It helps to have a good quality microphone to sing into, though the free microphone that comes with most computers will work also. You can purchase high quality microphones, cables, connectors and convenient desktop microphone stands from An external USB audio device such as the AudiMax will give studio quality sound which can be affected by the interior noise any computer generates. 3.6 Saving a Performance To save your performance, either click the Save button in the light gray performance control panel, or select Save or Save As from the file menu. Performances are saved as.pfc files which will only play in Karaoke Sing-n-Burn Karaoke. 3.7 Monitoring Your Vocals The Monitor button allows you to choose whether or not you want to hear your voice through the speakers as you sing. If the Monitor button is on (the green light will be lit), you will be able to hear your vocals as you sing. If the Monitor button is off (the green light will be off), you will not be able to hear your vocals. Please Note: If you're experiencing problems with feedback, turning off the Monitor button should solve the problem. 4.0 Burning a CD 12

13 Click Save As to choose whether to save your performance as Wave or MP3. (Please Note: For a higher quality recording, you will want to use Wave. However, Wave files take up more space on your hard drive and will take longer to convert.) To burn a CD of your Karaoke performance, click Burn CD button. Dialog box appears asking if you wish to save your performance in the format you ve chosen (Wave or MP3). Click Yes. Save As dialog box appears. Select location where file will be saved. (If you do not select where it will be saved, it will be saved in Kar file by default.) Name file by typing name into File name window. Click Save. Dialog box appears telling you the MIDI file is being converted to PCM format. This will take a few moments, depending on the size of the file. When conversion is complete, dialog box appears. Click OK. Burn Performance dialog box appears. The buttons that appear in this box and their functions are explained below: Add Track: To add a track (Wave or MP3) to the burn track list, press Add Track in the lower-left corner of the Burn Performance window. This will display a dialog box in which you can locate any song on your hard drive for inclusion on the list. You can add Wave files (*.WAV), or MP3 files (*.MP3). Remove Track: To remove a song from the burn list, simply select it and then click Remove Track. This will not remove the file from your hard drive; it will only remove it from the Burn Queue. If you would like to remove all the tracks on your list, simply click Clear List. Clear List: Clear List removes all the entries from the burn list. 13

14 Preview: To play back a song in your burn list, you must first select it by clicking on it, then pressing Preview in the lower-middle part of the Burn Performance window. To stop the Preview, press Stop. Stop: When the Preview playback of a selected track is on, just press Stop to end playback. Save Burn List: To save the current burn list, press Save Burn List, and the program will open a Save as dialog box, point it to the save location, and save the burn list. A file with extension.bl is saved. The name and path for all the songs that are in the burn list are saved in this file. You can reopen this file again, by pressing Open Burn List and pointing it to the saved burn list location. This is the proprietary format of Blaze Audio Karaoke Sing-n-Burn. Open Burn List: To open an already created burn list just press Open Burn List and point it to the saved burn list location. All the tracks in the burn list will be displayed in the burn user interface. Preview On Selection: Check this option to start the Preview automatically as you select tracks from the burn list. Burn CD: When you have finished adding tracks in the burn list and are ready to begin burning the CD, put a blank CD in your computer s CD tray. Press Burn CD. You will be asked to choose the writing speed. Select the speed you prefer. Unless your computer s specifications indicate otherwise, select Default as your burning speed. Click OK. The Audio CD dialog box appears. It tells you that Windows can perform the same action each time you insert a disk or connect a device with this kind of file: What do you want Windows to do? Select the desired action. If you are not certain, select Copy Music from CD using Windows Media Player. Click OK. When the process is complete, it also presents a dialog box which says: Burn Cd is successful. Copy Options box appears. Select appropriate choice. Click Next. Exit: Click this to terminate the Burn user Interface of program and is the preferred method to end the program. 5.0 Technical Support Stuck? Have a question that the help files don't answer? Here are some additional resources that are available: The readme.txt file that came with this installation (look in the directory where Karaoke Sing-n-Burn Karaoke is installed) Online support at our website: 14

15 If these don't do the trick, Blaze Audio offers free based technical support for all of our customers. Send an to fully describing the nature of your problem, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Contacting Us General Inquiries: Technical Support: Website: 15