KARAOKE ON A "WINDOWS.." PC-PART 1 There are two ways to play karaoke music for free on a PC: Method 1: Local application-based karaoke--using a karaoke software application to play karaoke song files, with the karaoke software application and the karaoke song files both residing on a local drive of your computer Method 2: Web-based karaoke--using a Web browser to run karaoke videos located at Web sites that provide streaming videos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOCAL APPLICATION-BASED KARAOKE SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS FOR LOCAL APPLICATION- BASED KARAOKE There are three recommended software applications for playing karaoke song files on a Windows computer: GoSing vanbasco's Karaoke Player, and Karafun.
"GOSING" FREEWARE APPLICATION Of the three freeware karaoke applications, "GoSing" is the simplest to use. "GoSing.exe" runs from any local drive and does not need to be installed into your computer. It is great for testing the capability of a computer to play karaoke. However, it fails to display the lyrics of some karaoke files. "GoSing" is a free software application that runs in any version of Windows from Windows 95 and later. "GoSing" has a Web site at http://www.gosing.com GoSing has many strange and wonderful characteristics. GoSing was created by a Brazilian company called i.tech tecnologia da Informacao Ltda. All information about this company appears to be in Portuguese. When you download this software, you get a file called "gosing.exe". You do not need to install this file into your computer. You do not even need to store this file on the hard drive of your computer. It can be stored on removable media such as a CD-R, a DVD-R, or a floppy disk. If you store it on removable media, you can insert the media into any computer and run GoSing in any computer that has Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows Vista. When you double-click on GoSing.exe, it will take up the entire screen of your computer monitor. In this way, it does not behave like a normal Windows application. To run GoSing, locate the gosing.exe file and perform a double-click on it.
Ignore any error messages that show up in the "Title bar" at the top of the "Windows Explorer" or "My Computer" or "Computer" window. * Note that GoSing has covered up your entire desktop with an image. This image can be changed by downloading other image files from the GoSing Web site.
Read the information in the middle horizontal third of the help screen, to learn the optional keyboard shortcuts for controlling GoSing. You cannot play any songs while this help screen is displayed, so click on it's "Close" button. Now you are left with the image screen of GoSing.
Use your RIGHT mouse button to perform a single click anywhere on the image. * Click on "Play" if you want to play the last or default song that you played earlier. Click on "Open Song File" if you want to fish around on the various drives of your computer to select a karaoke song file. You can store both gosing.exe and song files on removable media such as a floppy disk. * Double-click on the desired song file.
In this example, I double-clicked on "songsungblue.kar". When it is time for you start singing the words that are changing from yellow to magenta, the stoplight in the upper left hand corner changes from red to green. * To stop the play of the song, either hit the "ESC" key of our keyboard, or perform a right click anywhere on the image screen to bring up the
menu. After you try GoSing, you will discovered that it is a most amazing software application!!
"VANBASCO'S KARAOKE PLAYER" FREEWARE APPLICATION "vanbasco's Karaoke Player" is the best freeware application for most Windows computers. It will run in Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. "VanBasco's Karaoke Player" has a Web site at http://www.vanbasco.com The current version of this software is 2.53 We are amazed at how good the version is, compared to prior versions. It provides you with all of the functions of a karaoke machine that costs thousands of dollars. When you start "vanbasco's Karaoke Player", seven windows opens up and it looks like this. * Start off by closing the "Welcome to vanbasco's Karaoke Player" window. You are then left with six windows:
The window in the upper left corner is the "Main Window". The blue Window that is just below the "Main Window" is the "Karaoke Window". The window in the upper right corner is the "Playlist Window". The window that looks like the keyboard of a piano is the "Piano Window". The window in the lower left hand corner is the "MIDI Output Window". The window in the lower right hand corner is the "Control Window". To add a karaoke song file into the "Playlist", drag and drop it from the right side of the "Playlist" window to the left side of the "Playlist Window". Or, drag and drop it from any "Windows Explorer" window to the left side of the "Playlist Window". To start the play of any karaoke song file that is shown in the left side of the "Playlist Window", perform a double-click on the desired file. To adjust tempo, key, or volume, pull the corresponding slider in the "Control Window". To make the "Karaoke Window" expand to the full screen of your monitor, double-click inside it:
To restore the original size of the "Karaoke Window", perform a double-click anywhere on the full screen. To get online help, press the F1 key of your computer keyboard.
"KARAFUN" FREEWARE APPLICATION "Karafun" has a few non-critical features that the other two software applications do not have. "Karafun" runs well in Windows Vista. However, "Karafun" runs marginally with timing errors and tone/pitch distortion in Windows XP. (Their Website erroneously claims that "Karafun" will run in Windows 2000 also.) Since it is totally free, you might wish to try it anyway, even if you have a Windows 2000 or Windows XP computer. "Karafun" has a Web site at http://www.karafun.com/download_en.html When you start Karafun, it looks like this:
The Karafun player window is actually three windows that open and move together. Each is stacked on top of the other. The top window has the main controls. The middle window is a sound mixer and the bottom window is a file manager and browser so that you can locate the karaoke files on your computer's hard drive(s). According to the Karafun Web site at http://www.karafun.com the free Karafun software application is described as follows: <Start of quote> Free MIDI and MP3 karaoke player Turn your PC into an interactive karaoke machine with KaraFun free karaoke software for Windows. More than a karaoke player, KaraFun offers a complete solution for playing and creating your karaoke at home. Fun and exciting, it plays nearly every karaoke file: KFN, KAR, CDG, KOK, LRC, AVI, MPEG... User-friendly, the KaraFun editor enables you to create, quickly and easily, your own karaoke songs from Audio and MIDI music files : MP3, OGG, KAR, MID... Based on a powerful and evolutive 3D animation engine for animated lyrics and background, your karaoke party in full screen has every chance of being a success! <End of quote>
"KARAFUN" PROBLEM WORKAROUND "Karafun" has one slight annoyance: It sometimes forgets to play the melody of karaoke files. This is no problem if you sing for an international opera company or with the Torrance Civic Chorale. However, some of less-talented folks need to hear the melody before we can sing along with a karaoke file. Here is what you can do to bring back the melody, if "Karafun" forgets to play it: Start "Karafun". Then, start playing a karaoke file: Click on the "Control Window" button. It is the second button to the left of the lower right hand corner of the "Player Window". This button looks like three vertical sliders. A "Control" will pop up.
* Click on the "No Guide" button. It will turn into a "Guide Melody" button. You should now hear the melody being played by your speakers. Close the "Control" window. Start singing and quit complaining! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEB-BASED KARAOKE The simplicity of Web applications makes Web-based karaoke a compelling option if you have a broadband Internet connection and a computer that has a Pentium processor that operates at at least 3 Gigahertz. The following 6 Web sites have karaoke videos: Disney Karaoke--Web Site Divtune's Albums--Karaoke Videos at the Vimeo Web site Karaoke Party--Web site Karaoke Videos at the YouTube Web site Red Karaoke--Web site and The Online Karaoke Machine--Web site
"DISNEY KARAOKE" WEB SITE The "Disney Karaoke" Web site is located at http://disney.go.com/disneyrecords/karaoke-player/disney_karaoke.html Anything from the Disney company is going to be great! They are located at http://disney.go.com/disneyrecords/karaoke-player/disney_karaoke.html When you first arrive there, it looks like this: To find out what song a button plays, hover your mouse cursor over it.
For example, if you hover your mouse cursor over the "Song 2" button, the field above the song buttons changes from "Choose a Song" to "Beauty and the Beast" To play a song, click on one of the Song # buttons. For example, if you click on the "Song 2" button, the song "Beauty and the Beast" starts playing with lyrics scrolling in the bluish field that looks like the screen of a television set:
"DIVTUNE'S ALBUMS" AT THE VIMEO WEB SITE Another karaoke Web site that we love is located at http://www.vimeo.com/user336607/albums/sort:name They are located at http://disney.go.com/disneyrecords/karaoke-player/disney_karaoke.html When you first arrive there, it looks like this:
Start off by clicking on one of the albums icons. For example, click on "American Folk/Patriotic". You will now see links to various karaoke video:. * To start one, just double-click on it. For example, double-click on "Auld Lang Syne" and the video for "Auld Lang Syne" will be displayed as follows:
Finally click on the triangular "Start" button: The music will start playing and at the right point in time, the red-and -white ball will start bouncing through the words of the lyrics.
These videos were created by Bill Basham of the "Diversified Software Research" company. His "Diversi-Tune" Web site is located at http://www.divtune.com/
"KARAOKE PARTY" WEB SITE Another karaoke Web site that we love is located at http://www.karaokeparty.com They only have pop, rock, and soul tunes. When you first arrive there, it looks like this: To try it out, click on the "Songs" button in the center of the top of their homepage. This button looks like a blue and grey microphone. You will then arrive at the "Songs" page:
If you type "Yesterday" into the search box, suggested "hits" pop up below the search box:
If you then click on the "Search" button, then "Yesterday" by the Beatles shows up in the hits area to the left of the Search box:
Next, click on "Sing it!". A configuration settings screen is then displayed:
* In the "1." box, leave it in the default of "Vocal" if you want to hear the words being sung while you are singing the song. Select "Instrumental" if you only want to hear the instrumentals while you are singing the song. In the "2." box, click on the "Deny" button of the "Adobe Flash Player Settings" dialog box. This box will disappear. "I have no microphone" should have a check box.
Finally, in the "3." box, click on the "Start" button. At this point, you will hear the start of the instrumentals and the words of the song "Yesterday". The lyrics will scroll through the bottom half of the Web page. The word that you should be singing will turn red at the exact moment that you should be singing it.
When the song is finished, click on "Return" to go back to the "Songs" page of "KaraokeParty.com".
KARAOKE FROM "YOUTUBE" Yes, you can do karaoke from "YouTube"! Start "YouTube" at http://www.youtube.com As an example, type "Santa Claus" karaoke with the quotation marks and at least one space between the quotation mark to the right of Claus and the word karaoke: Then click on the "Search" button:
You will get about 77 "hits". Only a few will have the song "Santa Claus is coming to town" with scrolling lyrics. The best one with words being sung is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk2cggcnwwi
There are three reasons why YouTube is not the best form of Web-based karaoke: Reason 1: It is hard to search for YouTube videos that are karaokes. You will probably have to wade through a lot of videos that are not karaokes. Reason 2: If you expect the pinpoint rhythm and timing of the scrolling lyrics of a karaoke system, you will find the scrolling lyrics in YouTube karaokes to be very inaccurate. Reason 3: Capturing and saving YouTube videos, which are in Adobe flash format, is difficult.
"RED KARAOKE" WEB SITE The best Web site for totally-free karaoke is located at http://www.redkaraoke.com Their home page looks like this: Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see their extensive list of musical genres:
* For example, if you click on "Christmas", the following page displays:
If you now click on "12 days of Christmas" and you have never played a song at this Web site before, you will get the following dialog box:
Click on "Run". This box will then go away and it will not show up again when you attempt to play any additional songs at this Web site. Next, the actual song page will be displayed as follows:
Next, click on the "Play" button.
Finally, the music will start playing and the specific word that you need to be singing at a given instance in time will turn red at the moment that you should be singing it. Enjoy!
"ONLINE KARAOKE MACHINE" WEB SITE "The Online Karaoke Machine" is located at http://www.theonlinekaraokemachine.i12.com To start a song, click on a song title after dropping down one the "drop down list arrow" boxes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPARISON OF WEB-BASED AND LOCAL APPLICATION-BASED KARAOKE After trying some or all of these Web-based karaoke sites, you will discover that the audio quality of their streamed video is poor compared to karaoke that runs from local applicationbased karaoke. The tradeoff between the two methods of doing karaoke is the greater convenience and minimal end-user effort of Web-based karaoke versus the greater quality and larger number of songs available with local application-based karaoke. There are millions of computer users world-wide using both of these "methods" of free karaoke. Enjoy!