Brand New, and looking for Hardware/Software advice feedback

Tatton · Post by **Tatton** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 2:50 am

Hi everyone.

So a local bar has asked me to run some karaoke for them. I'll be brand new to KJ'ing. I've been trying to do some homework, and have come up with the following purchase list for the bar (comes up to $$2930 priced out). Venue already has speakers, a projector and screen, and music is not factored in yet (I have a small collection, about 100 cdg's we'll expand).

Can you look over what I have put together below? What am I missing, any suggestions for changes?

I have CompuHost listed below, but am now leaning towards PCDJ's Karaoki as host software

External Hard Drive (Fantom 2TB )
UPS (CyberPower 425VA UPS - 8 Outlets, 225 Watts, 6' Cord)
Furman Power Conditioner
SKB Case DJ Station 10U Slant top Rack, 6U front Rack
VocoPro DVX-890K Multi Format Digital Key Control DVD / DivX w/ HDMI - CD+G Player
Power CD+G Burner 2
Lenovo ThinkCentre M82 3306G3U i5 3.4Ghz, 4GB DDR, 1TB, DVDRW, Win 7/8,
Asus Radeon HD 6450-SL-2GD3-L video card, 2GB DDR3, HDMI, Dual-link DVI, VGA low prof, heatsink
CompuHostV2
4 Port HDMI Splitter
Mackie ProFX12 USB 12-Channel
VocoPro UHF-3205 Dual Channel Rechargeable Wireless Mics
Shure SM58 corded Mic
GLS Audio ES-58 (Orange County Speaker)
Mic Cable
Monitor Stand
Mic Stand
HDMI Cables 25' Ultra high Speed HDMI
HDMI Cable 3'
HDMI Cable 6'
Monitors HDMI Asus 22"
opt. TV TCL 32" LED
opt 2 TV Sceptre 24"
Monster Cable Standard 100 Speaker Cable 25'

Thanks in advance!

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Post by **wiseguy** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 6:29 am

You did not mention an amplifier. Are you working with powered speakers?

Tatton · Post by **Tatton** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 10:02 am

wiseguy wrote:You did not mention an amplifier. Are you working with powered speakers?

exactly. they have powered speakers already in place.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 1:48 pm

Can I ask the reason for the change from COmpuhost to Karaoki? I have zero issues with Compuhost that weren't created by me, installing the demo of V2 alongside V1 caused the graphics to lag behind the audio. Since upgrading to v2 completely and buying a new XP laptop in case the ram wasn't sufficient on the old laptop, I have had zero problems. If switching had to do with the Cloud, Compuhost supports the cloud in two ways. One is the subscription service and the other is KJMedia Pro where in the end you own the tracks that get played. You can litterally go through one show with the KJ Media Pro and not have a single song unlocked on your hard drive before the show. No wasted songs. The subscription service means that if for example you forget to pay the subscription one month, you lose every song that the cloud has given you. Not so with KJmedia Pro.

Tatton · Post by **Tatton** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 2:02 pm

To be honest, I downloaded trial version from CompuHost, and Karaoki, and liked their interface better. Not as complicated, and had everything I deemed necessary at a better price.

Another big sale point, is it is a license for up to 3 PC's, with ripper included (I can burn and rip cdg's from my home pc to external drive, and I can install on the club's desktop or laptop, and onto a backup laptop spare).

Plus, their site had a host chat interface with a sales guy, and they were very helpful. I've had follow up e-mails come over from a sales rep after I downloaded the trial. It was personalized and they answered some more questions for me, and addressed concerns of 3rd party review sites.

I'm all but sold on the PCDJ karaoki.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 2:10 pm

Compuhost comes with their ripper which is tons better than the ripper that comes with karaoki. CDGRip is designed to work with Compuhost and Fast Tracks for seamless integration. The ripper that comes with Karaoki only has cddb capability and works with far less drives than CDGRip, which works with almost as many drives as Powerkaraoke's cdg burner. The ripper that comes with Karaoki is Audiograbber which is far better at audio ripping than karaoke.

Cdgrip will send the file location info to Compuhost without having to tell Compuhost you are adding new songs. It just does it for you.
And if your show computer drive supports cd+G playback you can play an outside disc without having to have an external player with Compuhost.
Karaoki you need an external player plus a switchbox for the video that will switch between your laptop and your outside player.

Tatton · Post by **Tatton** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 2:24 pm

hmmm...

so that brings up a couple of things for me. Are there many computer DVD drives that already support CD+G?

I work for TigerDirect.com on my day job, and can just about source anything IT related and get some good breaks (yeah, feel free to PM me if you are needing IT stuff).

But none of the optical drives like to comem out and say "supports CD+G". I know some say Plextor, but I had a vague notion they had been acquired by someone this past year, and may be re-branded stuff now?

I'm considering building a PC for the set-up, maybe even go with a rackmount chassis to mount it right in the DJ rack. So could specialize it.

I'm leary on what to use for an external drive, I've seen somewhere, it was recommended to go with a powered external drive, but it would be nice to just work with a usb powered one? Thoughts from anyone here?

http://biz.tigerdirect.com/applications ... ntom+drive

is the model I was leaning towards.

OH, the bar owners may be willing to spend a lot more than what I'm putting on the table. I'm just a bang for the buck kind of person.

-Kevan

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 2:36 pm

I use a USB powered drive and it works fine. As to external cd/dvd drives I have an LG drive that will play the CD+G songs off of disc. That one has an external power source. If you get the SuperCD+G's, Compuhost will play them as well.

Post by **wiseguy** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 6:24 pm

I use USB powered external hard drives exclusively. They are compact, easily portable, and I've never had a problem with one. You will find that most modern CD/DVD drives will work with modern CD+G software even though few list CD+G in their specs. The drive needs to be MMC compatible with support for DAO/96.