Karaoke On Your Computer

If you don't have the money to invest in a karaoke machine but enjoy participating in this pastime, you have an alternative solution. You can use your personal computer as a karaoke machine. While you can use most karaoke CD+G discs on your computer using Windows Media Player or other jukebox type software, the lyrics will not display on your computer screen. This is because karaoke CDs are specially encoded and need a special program to read it. You can find this type of software for your computer on the Internet and many of them are freeware or shareware, meaning you can try it before purchasing a license. From there, you are ready to go singing along with your favourite songs.

The 'G' in the CD+G format for karaoke discs stands for 'graphics'. On a standard karaoke machine, you would see the lyrics scrolling across the screen with, possibly, a nice graphic behind it. A personal computer is not set up to read the graphical content that is programmed with the music. You basically have two choices if you want to use these discs with your computer. You can install a compact disc drive that can read this coding or you can download the karaoke software that will properly interpret the coding that is on the disc.

You can go out and purchase a drive the reads CD+Gs, but try playing the disc in your DVD drive first. Many DVD drives are able to read the coding on the discs and display the lyrics while the music is playing, making it an effective 'karaoke machine' without needing the special software or purchasing a new drive. DVD drives manufactured by Plextor, Sony, HP, and Yamaha among others can support the CD+G format.

Karaoke software can very easily be found all over the Internet, but be forewarned that many of them are shareware and will only work for a set period of time without needing a license code to unlock the trial version. Don't get us wrong, there are plenty of good quality software packages available for download. When considering the many that you may find keep in mind a few things. Make sure they will recognize and play CD+G format. Try out a few different types to find the one that displays properly. If you cannot find one that works well with your computer, consider different formats.

MP3+G format is a smaller file type and great if you plan to store a lot of songs on your hard drive. You basically convert the CD part of the file into an MP3 format that has the same file name as the original file. The MP3+G player will use the two different files in conjunction with each other to display the lyrics and play the music at the same time. There are plenty of these files also available for download to add to your collection.

You can also use the .mid or .kar format of karaoke files on your computer, but the downside of these is that the music is digitized and you do not get the same overall quality as your would with a CD+G format or MP3+G format.

For more information on MP3 software and formats you can visit The Singing Station at www.thesingingstation.com or click on the banner below.