Make a Karaoke Song Book

To many ads? Support ODJT and see no ads!

Ron

DJ Extraordinaire
Jun 14, 2011
1,783
1,402
51
Charleston, South Carolina
www.rcbaudio.com
I just found this document I put together a few years ago. It is rudimentary and brief but does show a way to make a nice looking Karaoke Song Book using only Microsoft Office (once you have your list of artists and songs). Maybe it ill help someone.
 

Attachments

  • How to Make Karaoke Book.pdf
    343.7 KB · Views: 33
Once you start getting up in the tens of thousands of karaoke titles, having good management tools become necessary. While Word can probably handle a few thousand files, I like the Latshaw KJ File Manager to fix file names (I have had 100x more issues ripping CDG and SCDG discs than CDs) and Song List Generator to print them out, as it allows multiple versions to be depicted with a 2 character index. http://www.latshawsystems.com/Products.aspx
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scott Hanna
Pre-computer era I used some very good catalog tools both for karaoke and for my DJ library. I could find a request among hundreds of CDs or albums just as fast as you could type a query and get answer on a PC.

Today, I just let the KJ software spit out a CSV file, make a few tweaks and format it in MS Excel to make a nice book. I also only update them once a year. It just doesn't make sense anymore to waste time on detailed books.

All people really need is something to get them thinking and I just let the audience know that if they are looking for something not listed to come up and see me because there is always more music in the system than in the book.

Rotations are easy to manage now with the computer as the karaoke player. It's also much more personal now interacting with everyone and their requests instead of using books and slips.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ron
I don't disagree .. I print once a year .. twice if I bring in a large lot of discs. I have been looking for an electronic version. My current software (JustKaraoke 2) has a companion app that allows an electronic searching/request submission station. I've been playing with the idea of setting up a touchscreen PC to search nearby. I thought about having customers use smartphones, but my clients are generally older and smartphone use is less, so the station would be cleaner.

I do need the KJ file cleaning, as unfortunately, there is no Gold standard repository of CDG data, so when I rip, sometimes I get info in the wrong order or the software picks the wrong file list or the list on the freedb server was entered wrong or with errors. This way I can actually find the songs when requested.
 
I know this thread is old, but thought I would add to it anyway. If you need a good, simple karaoke database. Check out: http://www.dbsbyhutch.org/kdab/kdab.htm
After I started this thread I found this and have been using it since. The creator was very helpful. he even imported my .xls into the database and has answered every question I have had. Makes it easy to print updates, and track when songs were added. Hope this helps others.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DjDennis
I really like the Latshaw Song List Generator. When you bring in lots of discs, it's inevitable that you have multiple versions of the same song (some gold standards like Sinatra or Elvis might have a dozen versions on different labels. Some singers like certain versions (Chartbuster, AllStar, Sound Choice) .. so the Song List Generator will pull those all together, assign a 2 letter code (alterable) to each brand and print out the song on one line, with the versions shown .. instead of a dozen lines showing the same title.

To each their own.
 
I really like the Latshaw Song List Generator. When you bring in lots of discs, it's inevitable that you have multiple versions of the same song (some gold standards like Sinatra or Elvis might have a dozen versions on different labels. Some singers like certain versions (Chartbuster, AllStar, Sound Choice) .. so the Song List Generator will pull those all together, assign a 2 letter code (alterable) to each brand and print out the song on one line, with the versions shown .. instead of a dozen lines showing the same title.

To each their own.

I agree. this saves a lot of printing cost. More than pays for the software. I've had it for several years now.

I now also use their songbookslive site. for $19 a year, i can update unlimited times per year. people access it from phone or tablet. they don't need to download an app
 
  • Like
Reactions: steve149