Karaoke Tutorial

You can easily host a great Karaoke show by following the instructions below. Virtual DJ Studio gives you many options other programs simply cannot offer. Your Karaoke show should be glitch-free, and enjoyable by all.

Before you can host a Karaoke show, you will need Karaoke files. Note that VDJ does not create Karaoke or MP3 files from CDs. See below for a free program that does this.

File Formats
Your files must be in MP3+CDG format. This means that the audio portion is stored as a standard MP3 file, and the Karaoke data (lyric graphics) are stored as a .CDG file with the same name. AudioGrabber (referenced below) is able to create such files from your CD+G discs. AudioGrabber is easy to use and is available free of charge.

Note that Next Generation Software is not affiliated with AudioGrabber in any way - we simply recommend their product for the purpose of extracting your Karaoke CDs.

You can also place both files within a .ZIP file, and VDJ will automatically recognize it as a Karaoke file. See below for additional tips and information on using ZIP files with VDJ.

Creating CDG Files

So you have some CDG discs. How do you convert them to a format that VDJ can recognize? Simply follow these steps:

• Obtain Audiograbber -- a FREE CD-extraction utility
• Rip your CD+G discs using Audiograbber, by clicking the CD menu, and selecting Grab CDG Tracks (Karaoke), then choosing Grab to .CDG + Compressed File

Important Note: If you simply click the Grab button, AudioGrabber will ONLY extract the audio, and will NOT extract the Karaoke lyrics. Make sure to follow the instructions above, using the menus, to extract your CD+G discs.

Make sure you have first configured AudioGrabber's MP3 settings to your liking within the Options window.

AudioGrabber can be obtained at the following link:

AudioGrabber

Once you have done this, you will have a .cdg and .mp3 file of the same name for each Karaoke track. You can then use a program such as WinZip or WinRAR to convert them into a single .ZIP file. VDJ will read ZIP files directly, decoding the information on-the-fly as needed. See below for additional tips and information on using ZIP files with VDJ.

Purchasing CDG Files Online

There are many places online where you can purchase CDG files directly, without ever having to extract from CDs - the work is already done for you. Most times you can purchase individual songs, rather than entire CDs which often contain songs you don't want, or already have.

One place is CAVS Online, but there are many other online Karaoke retailers as well.

Using VDJ for Karaoke

Once you have some files VDJ can recognize, simply load them up like any other file. When you click Play, you will see the Karaoke Options window.

If you have connected a television or secondary monitor, you can drag the CDG Window to that screen, and simply double-click it. Now you have full-screen Karaoke on your Television or second monitor for your singers,, and you can still utilize your computer's primary monitor (eg, your built-in laptop screen) uninterrupted!

Exclusive Karaoke Options

Note: In newer versions of Virtual DJ Studio, click the More Options button on the Karaoke window to expose the more advanced features.

There are many options available to you when playing a Karaoke song in VDJ. You can adjust the Key of the music (for example, if a singer is unable to hit the high notes). You can adjust the Syncronization (if your Karaoke file was extracted from a scratched/dirty CD, or is otherwise corrupted; or if for whatever reason the lyrics don't quite sync up with the music).

You can override the background, with either a custom color or image/picture file. You can even specify text to be displayed on the top & bottom of the Karaoke screen...

In other words, you can do many things that you simply cannot do with other Karaoke software. VDJ has many exclusive features that help ensure you host a professional, flawless show every time! Compared to hosting a Karaoke show with CDs, VDJ will undoubtedly appear much more streamlined and professional. You can honor song requests much more quickly, and your Karaoke graphics will look more customized.

No other PC-based karaoke setup allows this much customization.

Recommended Configuration

This section used to recommend a couple of specific video cards, as well as recommend specific details to look for when purchasing a computer, but these days any modern PC tower or laptop should be perfectly capable of hosting a Karaoke show as long as it has a video output for a television (S-Video, composite, or HDMI). Nearly all laptops and desktop PCs sold today will have this feature built-in, and Windows Vista automatically recognizes when a television is connected, thus making this part much easier for you to set up.

Once you connect your TV or video monitor, Vista will ask you what you want to do. Simply choose extend my Windows desktop to the other monitor and you are all set.

File Naming Tips

  We recommend using the .KZ file extension with Karaoke Zip files. VDJ will view a .KZ file exactly the same as it sees a .ZIP file.

Note that VDJ can only read files zipped using the Deflate compression method. Most ZIP utilities use this method as the default, but if VDJ fails to read your ZIP files make sure your ZIP utility is using the Deflate method only.

We also recommend naming the files as Artist Name - Song Name.kz. This will ensure that your songs are easy to find. You can then easily use our exclusive and free ngSearch tool (now included with the Virtual DJ Studio download) to locate songs quickly by keyword.

In addition to placing your MP3 and CDG files into a single ZIP file for each song, you can also rename the ZIP file to have a .KZ extension. VDJ will recognize this as a ZIP file, and doing this prevents Windows from trying to analyze each file when you load a directory of Karaoke files. The disadvantage to renaming your ZIP files is that it will be more difficult to open them in, for example, WinZip, if you need to modify the contents.

If you have a folder that already contains .ZIP files, and you want to rename them all to .KZ, you can do this easily by following these instructions:

• Click Start, then choose Run
• Type CMD.EXE and click OK
• Change to your Karaoke directory

For example, if your Karaoke .ZIP files are in C:\Karaoke, type:

C: [ENTER]
cd Karaoke [ENTER]

(Do not type [ENTER] - this means to press the Enter key). Substitute C: with the drive letter your Karaoke files are on.

Then type the following to rename your .ZIP files to .KZ:

ren *.zip *.kz [ENTER]

If you have a lot of ZIP files in that directory, this process may take a few minutes. Do not interrupt it, simply allow the command to finish working before you close the window.

Why use .KZ Files?

Windows XP treats ZIP files specially. It attempts to treat them as Folders, and while this feature can be useful, it can become problematic if you have thousands of ZIP files in a single directory.

First, Windows might take a long time to load the directory displaying those files. Second, you might accidentally Drag 'N' Drop one file onto another, and Windows will then ZIP that file inside the other one. This is extremely easy to do by accident while dragging a file out of Explorer into VDJ (or another program).

By using the .KZ file extension, Windows will not know these files are actually ZIP files, and will not treat them specially in any way.

More Information

You can find more information by visiting the links above, or by doing a Google Search for CDG MP3 Karaoke or similar.

And don't forget to try our exclusive, free ngSearch utility (now included with Virtual DJ Studio), to quickly pull up Karaoke and MP3 files by keyword search.