Making Karaoke CDs

Ok, so you got tired of playing karaoke songs on your computer. You're ready to be seen in public with your karaoke songs. Any CDG file can be burned into a CD so that it can play in CD+G karaoke players. Crazy right? Yes, you can bring 15 of your favorite karaoke compilation to a karaoke bar. Again there are tons of software out there that can do that. In keeping with the simplest and the CHEAP theme, I like Power CD+G Burner.



There is a free download, but I think it only allows you to burn 5 songs on a CD. The full version allows you to burn 15 songs on a disk. It even has the functionality to create labels for the disk. So imagine going to a karaoke bar with your own disk and telling the DJ to play track 3. Pimp! Hopefully, you can sing. Yes, it also plays at every Asian household.

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Play Karaoke on Your Computer

Now that you have downloaded your favorite MP3+G songs, you want the ability to play it on your computer. There are so many choices out there when it comes to karaoke software, spanning from basic to advanced. I've tried several, but nothing was simpler than Karafun. Aside from its simplicity, the best part is that it's FREE! It has no adware, spyware or viruses. You can use it immediately after you install. When you download Mp3+G files, typically the Mp3 and Cdg files are zipped together. The cool thing about karafun is that you don't have the unzip the files. Karafun will play it right off the zip file.



My suggestion is to create play lists, so you don't have to look for your favorite songs every time you load it. I have it installed on my laptop. Anywhere I take it, I can have an instant karaoke party. I use the s-video out of my laptop to connect to a TV. I can use the TV as my second monitor that shows only the lyrics, while my computer monitor serves as my karafun interface and play list.

Then I use the ear phone jack to connect to the house speaker system with a eighth-inch to av cord. It looks like this:

Oh yeah, don't forget the microphone!

Next up is Making Your Own Karaoke CDs.

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Where To Find Karaoke Songs

At this point, I think my karaoke song collection is as vast as my mp3 collection. With regular music downloads, there is a plethora of peer-to-peer sources, like Kazaa or Shareaza. In order to create your collection this way, you would need to download files individually. I think the most efficient way to create your karaoke collection is to use torrents. This way, you can acquire huge collections in one download.

After a span of 2 months, i managed to grow my collection to about 10,000 songs. This was enough to rival most karaoke bars! (Let me know if you need some). My favorite torrent search page is on torrentz.com. This crawls other torrent sites and compiles the results in one page.

All Karaoke Songs Are not Equal
After acclimating yourself with karaoke songs, you will realize that not all songs are equal. Some karaoke makers and distributors are better than others. Because of copyright infringements, most karaoke songs are actually recreations of the real songs. The music may sound identical, but typically the background vocals are sung by other artists. Some background vocals just sound grotesque while others are passable.

I think in karaoke circles, the consensus is that the Sound Choice karaoke songs are the best. They seem to be the most popular and closest in accuracy to real songs. I tend to agree. Sunfly and Legends are also good. What is the difference? Well, if you are familiar with Magic Mic, you will realize that their karaoke songs are done in midi format, which basically sounds like it was composed on an electric organ. Sound Choice karaoke songs, on the other hand, sound like real instruments and vocals. Since songs are equally attainable in both formats, I suggest that you don't even bother with those midi songs. It will just kill your favorite songs.

After downloading the files, you need the ability to play these songs on your computer. In my next article, Play Karaoke on your Computer, I will tell you what to do with the files you just downloaded.

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My Karaoke Discovery

These days are amazing. We have the ability to download any mp3 of any song ever created. Frankly, after a while it got boring. i had so much static music that i started mixing. I did that for about 3 years, and created mixes for myself and my friends. Then, guess what? I got bored again, so I started doing research on the web for a variety of music file types. I ran across a file type, CD+G (.cdg). Upon doing more research, I realized that this was one of the standard file types for karaoke. OMG, is it possible that one can download karaoke songs? The answer is YES!

This opened up a brand new world for me. I first had to figure out what file types were needed to be downloaded. Just like regular music and its compressed alternative the mp3, could karaoke songs also have a downloadable compressed file type? Once again the answer is a resounding YES!

MP3+G
Just as the Mp3 became the standard file type for downloadable music, the Mp3+G has become the standard for downloadable karaoke music. The similarities don't end there. After downloading Mp3s you can create a CD that plays on a CD player. MP3+Gs are the same way. With the right software, you can create CD+G disks that play on standard CD+G karaoke players, as well as regular CD players.

The main difference is that the MP3+G file is actually consisted of 2 files. In order to successfully have a karaoke file, you need both a CDG (.cdg) and its corresponding MP3 (.mp3) files. The mp3 is nothing but the instrumental background of the song, while the cdg is the syncing lyrics to the song.

In my next article, Where To Find Karaoke Songs, I will highlight where to find these files for free.

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