DIGITAL KARAOKE MUSIC

How to buy, download and play karaoke songs on your home computer

Suitable for CAVS - DVD-203G USB, JB199, software based players

For many years Karaoke enthusiasts have been searching for an easier way to play their karaoke songs. The same revolution as music is happening with karaoke. Music is moving away from the traditional CD disc to digital music stored on hard drives such as iPods, mp3 players and software based players such as Windows Media Player. You can now buy and download virtually any song legally for a few dollars. Players store thousands of songs and you never have to change a disc again. Eventually all music will be in this format and CD's will be like records are now (antiques). The Karaoke Manufacturers are slowly realising that karaoke will follow the same path.

Nearly all the Karaoke disc manufacturers have now made their product available in DIGITAL format. We have nearly 20,000 tracks available from our Digital Download site. Some content is supplied directly by us including Sundown Karaoke, Solid Gold Performances and Forever Hits while the rest of the content is supplied by Tricerasoft.

How to buy legal karaoke tracks

The easiest way to find and purchase digital karaoke tracks is to use our ABCD Song Finder. It's located in the top left column of our websites. Use the help facility to learn how to find your song. Once you find what you want, play the sample to check the quality. If you then want to buy, simply click the Buy Now button and you'll be taken to the website to add it to your cart. Use the back key on your browser to go back to Song Finder to search for more tracks. When you're finished adding songs to your cart go back to the download website and checkout. You can pay by credit card or Paypal. After payment has been completed and confirmed your download links will be enabled. You click on the link button and save the song zip file to your hard drive. When the download is finished unzip the file into the mp3 and CDG files. Many Software based karaoke players use the CDG file directly. If you want to play it on a CAVS player such as the DVD-203G USB then you'll have to convert the CDG file to mcg format. The conversion is done by an mcg encoder program available from the CAVS website. Thousands of songs can be stored and played using a PC or CAVS player.

HARD DISC KARAOKE FOR HOME USERS

The DVD-203G USB player is perfect for the home user. You can transfer all your CDG karaoke songs to the hard drive. Never touch your precious CDG discs again. All your songs can be played from the USB drive.

Here is how you do it:

You need a PC with a CD ROM capable of reading CDG discs (e.g. most Plextor brand - see CAVS website for compatible models).
Purchase, download and install on your PC a programme from CAVS called "Encoder mcg". It costs about US$30.00 (approximately AUD$40.00) to download. For a limited time it also comes FREE with any USB model CAVS player.
Use Encode mcg to extract the karaoke songs from your CDG discs and create mcg & mp3 files from them on your external USB drive.
Use ADCD Karaoke new utility called "RenameMCG" or
Rename each pair of files with a consecutive 5 digit filename e.g. 00001.mcg & 00001.mp3, 00002.mcg & 00002.mp3 etc.
Create a List.txt file as per the CAVS instructions. This file contains each karaoke songs filename, title and artist.
Download CAVS Assistant programme (free - see their website) and convert the List.txt file data to a file called ENGLISH.INX. This file is used by the player to display the titles on the screen. You can list by title, artist and even seach using the menu system on the player. The INX file must be put in the folder with the karaoke songs.
Without INX supporrt you can have up to 1000 songs in one folder and up to 250 folders. With INX support you can have up to 9999 songs in one folder.

After you connect the USB drive to the player, turn the player on. After the player initialises, select U for USB drive.

All the folders on the USB are displayed. Select the desired folder.

For folders without INX files - all the files are displayed. Enter the number of the desired track and press play.

For folders with INX files - the track selection menu appears. Enter the desired track and press play. Search facilities can also be used with folders having a INX file.

Karaoke songs can be programmed up to 10 in advance. Each song plays then stops before playing the next one. Press play to continue.

RenameMCG Utility Programme for use with CAVS DVD-203G USB

The process of renaming all the mcg and mp3 files and creating the LIST.txt file can be very time consuming if you have alot of CDG's. ABCD Karaoke has developed a utility programme called "RenameMCG" to help the home user automatically rename all the mcg and mp3 files plus automatically create the LIST.txt file. It's a real time saver. Here is what it does:

Rip the mcg & mp3 files using the CAVS Encoder programme to one folder per CDG. You must allow the Encoder programme to name the ripped files Track01.mcg etc.
When all your CDG's are completed create a LIST.txt file in each folder with the title and artist as per the CAVS instructions. Sort the data in the track order. NOTE: No numbers are necessary at the front if you are using our "RenameMCG".
Create a destination folder on the USB drive where you want all your CDG's to be placed (up to 1000 songs per folder).
Run our utility programme "RenameMCG".
Select the first CDG folder as the source and the USB hard drive destination folder.
Enter the starting number e.g.1 for the forst track on the first CDG to go into the folder, 17 for the first track on the second CDG to transfer etc.
Click "RENAME" to start the process. The utility copies across each file across to the USB destination folder and renames them in sequence. It also created the LIST.txt file with the correct filename number at the start of each track title.
Repeat the process for each CDG folder. The LIST.txt file is added to each time you add more tracks to the USB folder.
When you are finished you have all your CDG tracks in one folder, numbered sequentially, with one LIST.txt file with all the titles.
Run the CAVS Assistant programme to create the ENGLISH.INX file in the USB folder.

The "RenameMCG" utility is FREE when you purchase a CAVS DVD-203G USB karaoke player from us. As an extra bonus to our customers we may be able to also give you a LIST.txt file for each CDG you purchase from us. This saves you having to type in all the titles and artists. The FREE RenameMCG utility also has a facility to create a song book file from all the songs on your USB drive.

How to buy download and play karaoke songs with TriKaraoke or WinAmp on your home computer

TriKaraoke and WinAmp can be used to play karaoke at home. Here's how:

Download a free karaoke player called TriKaraoke (see links on our website) or WinAmp from here www.winamp.com/player/free.php Install the player on your PC.
Download the free mp3+g CDG plugin for WinAmp here www.physysteme.com/mp3g_plugin.exe . You will need this plugin to see the words on your screen. Install the plugin on your PC.
Search our ABCD Song Finder for karaoke songs, purchase and download your tracks. The download files will be one with an mp3 extension (the music) and the other with a .cdg extension (the words). Copy the karaoke files to a folder for your karaoke music.
Start WinAmp and play one of your karaoke .mp3 files. If there is the same track name with the .cdg extension then WinAmp will show the song words on the screen.
TriKaraoke comes with a program to purchase song directly using your credit card.

This above procedure has been prepared by ABCD Karaoke for its customers use only. It may not be copied or reproduced in any form without the express permission of ABCD Karaoke.