Karaoke Hardware and Software Wanted

[wiseguy]

The limitations of the trial version of Power CD+G Burner are:
1. Only 5 tracks per CD are permitted.
2. Only first minute of the track will be written to CD.
3. In rip mode only first minute of the track will be read from CD.
4. 'Unregistered copy' text will be displayed at the top of the window.

You should be able to burn the first minute of the songs to a CD.

[Fred_Mertz]

Wiseguy, Re: "Have you tried to play the KaraFun created files with Power CD+G Player Pro? If they won't play with that program then they are not true MP3+G files. What did you mean by nnnnn.cdg files? Could you send me a song file pair created with KaraFun as attachments to your next message?"

I didn't create any files using KaraFun. All the file pairs were created with Audiograbber long ago. Anyway, as previously reported, my Power CD+G Play Pro will play the MP3+G file pairs (with the circle K in front of each file) properly. I meant nnnnn to mean any xyz file name of the .cdg file type.

I don't know how the circle K got in the file names of the tracks grabbed by Audiograbber. Perhaps KaraFun just renamed the files for some reason.

I tried to copy a file pair and paste them here, but it didn't work. I probably need some instruction as how to do what you requested.

I bought the full version of Power CD+G Burner 2. However, the full version still reports an invalid audio format when I try to burn any of the file pairs.

[wiseguy]

I have no idea why KaraFun would append a special character to file names if in fact it was KaraFun that did this. Can you remove this symbol from the file names? To attach files to a message you need to go to Full Editor & Preview (button below) then below the text box you will see two tabs, one marked Options and the other marked Attachments. Click on Attachments and you will see an Add files button. Click on that and then browse to the folder that contains the song file pairs. In the dropdown that says Custom Files you will need to change that to All Files. Now select the two files of a song and click on open.

[Fred_Mertz]

Wiseguy, there is a tab named Options but no tab named Attachments. What's up with that?

[wiseguy]

I had attachments turned off for new members. Try it now.

[Fred_Mertz]

Wiseguy, there is still no Attachments tab. I logged off and on, but there was no change.

[wiseguy]

As soon as I saw the file size of the mp3 I knew something was wrong. Why in the world did you rip those songs to 56 kbps. That creates a very low quality audio track. You should rip to no less than 128 kbps and preferably 192 or better. I got the same invalid audio file error that you did. I think that Power CD+G Burner just refuses to recognize audio files of that poor of quality. That's probably for the best as those audio tracks would have made for terrible sounding CD+G discs.

[Fred_Mertz]

Wiseguy, I have no idea why that data rate was selected years ago. In any case, those CD tracks sounded fine on various KJ's equipment for many years, and the ripped tracks on my computer still sound good played on KaraFun and Power CD+G Player Pro. I'll be ripping files from my remaining working CDs soon. If the original data rate is also low, I guess those files will never find their way to a new CD using Power CD+G Burner 2. However, those CDs were copied at least once by the guy who made them years ago. So, maybe the data rate of the original tracks is OK.

Now you've found the burning problem, is there any software that will burn my low-data-rate tracks onto CDs? I wrote the company that makes Power CD+G Burner 2 and described the burning problem. Maybe they can make a copy of Power CD+G Burner 2 that will allow low-data-rate files to be burned. I'll send them another e-mail and tell them the problem you found.

Of course, the bad-track problem can be fixed if I can find identical karaoke tracks to download. Fortunately, all the tracks don't need to be restored -- just the ones I like. Again, thanks for all your help and patience.

By the way, I discovered another something I didn't know or had forgotten. All desired tracks must be burned in one pass. That is, it's not possible to burn one track and then later burn one or more tracks on the same CD. Also, I've never made a label for a CD, which is something else I'll need to learn. Ironically, I just threw away a stomper, which I believe is used to apply equal pressure to a label when sticking it to a CD. We get too soon old and too late smart.

[DanG2006]

The is there because KaraFun sets the association with the cdg files to KaraFun's symbol. Kinda like Windows Media Player does to audio files.

[wiseguy]

Wiseguy, I have no idea why that data rate was selected years ago. In any case, those CD tracks sounded fine on various KJ's equipment for many years, and the ripped tracks on my computer still sound good played on KaraFun and Power CD+G Player Pro. I'll be ripping files from my remaining working CDs soon. If the original data rate is also low, I guess those files will never find their way to a new CD using Power CD+G Burner 2. However, those CDs were copied at least once by the guy who made them years ago. So, maybe the data rate of the original tracks is OK.

Now you've found the burning problem, is there any software that will burn my low-data-rate tracks onto CDs? I wrote the company that makes Power CD+G Burner 2 and described the burning problem. Maybe they can make a copy of Power CD+G Burner 2 that will allow low-data-rate files to be burned. I'll send them another e-mail and tell them the problem you found.

Of course, the bad-track problem can be fixed if I can find identical karaoke tracks to download. Fortunately, all the tracks don't need to be restored -- just the ones I like. Again, thanks for all your help and patience.

By the way, I discovered another something I didn't know or had forgotten. All desired tracks must be burned in one pass. That is, it's not possible to burn one track and then later burn one or more tracks on the same CD. Also, I've never made a label for a CD, which is something else I'll need to learn. Ironically, I just threw away a stomper, which I believe is used to apply equal pressure to a label when sticking it to a CD. We get too soon old and too late smart.

When I played that song with Power CD+G Player the audio sounded terrible. But then I'm a bit of an audiophile spending years trying to make my audio systems sound as good as possible. You should ask your invalid audio file question in the Power Karaoke Forum. The programmers there will analyze a log file that Power CD+G Burner creates and maybe they can find a solution.

Yes, you must burn all the songs with one pass when burning to a CD-R because the disc must be finalized before it will play. You would need to use CD-RW discs to be able to burn one song at a time but most karaoke machines won't play CD-RW discs so you have a catch-22 type of situation.

If you have a printer that will print round labels there are kits you can buy with stick on labels. I never cared for the stick on labels myself as they have a tendency to come loose and throw the disc out of balance. I prefer to give my discs a number that I write on them with a marking pen. Then I place them in a jewel case and create a jewel case cover. Power CD+G Burner has a jewel case cover creator/printer feature.

If you give me a list of the songs you lost, along with their name brand (the one you sent me was DKKaraoke for example), I will search some sources I have and try to locate some of them for you.

[wiseguy]

The is there because KaraFun sets the association with the cdg files to KaraFun's symbol. Kinda like Windows Media Player does to audio files.

I think you're right Dan. That special character does not show up on my computer because I don't have KaraFun installed.

[Fred_Mertz]

Wiseguy, I pleaded my case to PowerKaraoke and got the following reply:

"Probably a sampling frequency used in the files is not 44.1 kHz. In such case the files need to be resampled to 44.1 kHz. It can be done using, for example, Audacity."

Then, I searched the web for Audacity and found in part:

"Sound Quality
Supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit (floating point) samples (the latter preserves samples in excess of full scale).
Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.
Tracks with different sample rates or formats are converted automatically in real time."

I guess the above is what the PowerKaraoke guy is talking about in his e-mail to me.

A couple things strike me as a bit odd though. First, the 44.1 kHz sampling rate is way lower than the rates you stated to be desirable. So, I wonder what's up with that. I do understand sampling rates and agree higher rates yield better results. Secondly, if the problem file pairs were sampled too low, how is resampling at a higher rate going to help anything but the burning software that requires at least a 44.1 kHz rate? The result will still be garbage in garbage out. However, as I've noted, the garbage sounds OK on my computer.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll look into all of them, but right now I've got to pay some bills and do some end-of-month accounting or worse things than bad karaoke tracks will happen. Also, I'll compile a list of my most wanted songs for you. However, I'm not sure I can determine the original brand, but I think many were DKs. I have a copy of the song list from which many of my songs were taken, and that may have the brand names listed. Other songs were downloaded from karaoke song merchants, and I have no idea what those song brands are.

[wiseguy]

Kbps (Kilobits Per Second) is completely different than kHz (kilohertz ). One is the amount of information the file contains per second and the other is the frequency of the audio file. Right now your files have a frequency of 23050 and you need to change that to 44100. The good news is that it works. I used Audacity to change the frequency of the mp3 you sent me and it would then work with Power CD+G Burner. It may take a little while to edit all the mp3 files you have but at least they are no longer lost. You may need help with using audacity so let me know.

[Fred_Mertz]

Whoops, Wiseguy, I failed to notice you stated Kbps and the PowerKaraoke guy used kHz. My bad... I'll look into the sampling business some more when I get a chance. However, I'm very pleased to learn you were able to convert my low-frequency files to the acceptable 44100 frequency using Audacity. I'll definitely contact you when I begin trying to do the frequency conversion on my bad files.

The additional good news at the moment is I used Power CD+G Burner 2 to rip all ten files from one of my working CDs, added them one-by-one to the burning function, and then added their song names. I'll perhaps try the Copy function next time, which I guess allows one to rip and burn tracks with fewer steps. Anyway, the burning operation I did was successful, and all ten tracks played fine with the Power CD+G Player, and the graphics were sharp. I printed the jewel-case song list, and it fits nicely into a jewel case, but I need more cases. At karaoke, I carry my CDs in a CD case, and I found I can put the song list on the flip side of a CD glove. So, that technique should work as long as I keep the CDs in the correct glove.

[wiseguy]

if you are copying an entire CD then the copy feature is much faster. The rip feature is best for ripping individual songs from numerous CD+G discs to create a custom compilation CD+G disc. If you put only the songs you sing on your discs you will have fewer to carry with you.