Siglos


Recording settings

Before you start please make sure that you have microphone connected to your computer. The microphone input is usually pink on your soundcard panel at the back of your computer. If you have more than one soundcard in your computer please choose the one you wish to use in Windows' Control Panel/Sound and audio devices/Audio as a default recording input.

To adjust recording settings choose Settings () button and then choose Recording.


 You will see the name of the active recording device (soundcard) and the active input. You may need to change the input to the microphone. Now test the recording level -- say something to the microphone and Recording preview should display the green bar. You may use Input level slider to adjust the level of the recording -- if it is too low you will not hear it and if it is too high it will distort. You may also control the recording level using Recording level slider () of the main Siglos Karaoke Player window.

 If you cannot hear what you are saying to the microphone you may need to enable microphone output on your soundcard. To do this click Open mixer button and standard Windows' mixer will appear. Now make sure that Microphone input is not muted (if you cannot see it choose Options/Properties and check the enable to microphone input).

 File settings section allows you to select the format that Siglos Karaoke Player will use to save your voice. MP3 is selected as default. You may also define where the file with your voice will be stored -- but default Siglos Karaoke Player creates My Karaoke subfolder under My Documents.

Background images

Siglos Karaoke Player has five background modes:

·    Solid color background (choose a color for MIDI karaoke, for CD+G the background color from the file will be used)

·    Gradient background (smooth transition from the color at the top to the color at the bottom)

·    Image slideshow (you may define images to be used in the slideshow, select the display time of the single image, and choose to display the images in the random order)

Keep aspect ratio option will ensure that images will not be stretched out of proportions (ie. portrait images will have black strips added to their sides so they look proportionally)

·    Video (moving video will be played in loop)

·    Camera (if you have camera installed in your system its input will be used as a background)

·    Music visualizations are animated backgrounds that react to the beat. Siglos Karaoke Player supports Sonique and Windows Media Player plugins. Sonique plugins need to be placed in   %APPDATA%/Doblon/Siglos Karaoke Player /Visualizations folder. Windows Media Player plugins are detected automatically.
You may adjust the intensity of the animation using the slider.

 

You may also choose an image or video to be displayed instead of default black background on the playback screen. This may be your logo or some other information. To do this select image to display using [...] button in Inactive background section.

Display - MIDI section

You may change the font used for MIDI karaoke lyrics, change the number of lines on the screen, and define the lyrics location (top, bottom, or middle of the screen).

Display - CD+G section

Siglos Karaoke Player features state-of-the-art technology that makes CD+G look much better. You can control its behaviour in Display section of Settings. In general there are three steps of CD+G enhancement:

 Smart resolution increase

 This technology allows to reduce jagged edges of CD+G images and makes it look much smoother and precise. It works great scaling CD+G to HD resolution

 Gradient overlay

 With gradient overlay each line of karaoke lyrics has three-dimensional look.

 Shadow

 Adding shadow effect to the lyrics makes them 'stand out' from the background.

 Smooth sweeps

 Siglos Karaoke Player detects word highlighting and replaces blocks of CD+G pixels with smooth single pixel sweeps that improve the experience and fluidity of the video.

 Maximum Internal CD+G Resolution

 Original CD+G is 288 x 192 pixels. Siglos Karaoke Player uses smart resolution increase, but it is very computation-intensive. This setting allows you to choose the internal resolution used by CD+G engine. The higher resolution the longer the processing time.

 Sharpen

 Adds additional sharpening effect

 No margins

 Disables CD+G margins, stretching text area on entire display

 NOTE: You may need to disable some of the effects on slow computers if you are experiencing performance problems.

Getting karaoke songs

Internet is full of MIDI karaoke files and Siglos Karaoke Player provides a simple tool to help you find them.

To start MIDI karaoke web search select Search for karaoke on the Internet command from Tools menu.


 Search engine combo allows you to change the place that you will use to search for files. You may try changing search engine if you are not getting the results you need.

 Clicking on OK button will open the search in your web browser. Once you find the file save it to your hard disc and open it later using Load file button.

Disclaimer: Doblon does not provide MIDI karaoke files. They are provided by various websites that are not affiliated with us.

Unlocking and evaluation

How do I unlock Siglos Karaoke Player

To unlock Siglos Karaoke Player you need to purchase the unlock code from Power Karaoke website. The unlock code will be delivered via email. Once you have it select Unlock from Help menu.

 You will have to provide your name, email address used to purchase the unlock code, and the unlock code itself. If the unlock code is accepted all limitations will be removed and you will see your name in the About dialog box.

 

What are the limitation of the trial version

Trial version of Siglos Karaoke Player has the following limitations:

·    Only two minutes of the song will be played

·    Banner will be displayed over the lyrics

·    Only one minute of your singing will be recorded

·    You will see the purchase prompt from time to time

Full screen mode

Full screen () button (or F key on the keyboard) allows you to display the karaoke window on full extent of your monitor. To leave the full screen mode press F key again (or press ESC).

 If you click left mouse button in the Full Screen mode the Siglos Karaoke Player window will appear on top of the display. You may hide it by clicking Full Screen again.

 If you have two monitors attached to your computer you may display the karaoke lyrics in the other monitor while continuing to use the Siglos Karaoke Player window on the main monitor (this is particularly useful if you have TV or large display connected to your computer). Siglos Karaoke Player will automatically detect second monitor, but if it does not go to Settings and select Use secondary monitor under Display settings. If this still does not work please see Troubleshooting.

Multiplex

Siglos Karaoke Player allows you to play multiplex CD+G discs. Multiplex is a special type of CD+G karaoke disc -- there are two tracks for each song on the disc, one track in karaoke format and the other track with the lead vocals so you can learn the song.

 Siglos Karaoke Player allows to turn on and off the lead vocals during playback using Multiplex slider. 

This gives you the opportunity to turn off the lead vocals as needed.

Changing key and tempo

Siglos Karaoke Player allows you to adjust the song you are playing to better suit your voice by changing the key of the song. To do this use key changer slider.

Key changer section allows to change the pitch tone of the song up to twelve semitones either up or down. The current key change is displayed next to the key changer slider.

You may also change the tempo of the song (from two times slower to two times faster). It is done with tempo changer slider.


 

NOTE: Please note that pitch shifting may slightly reduce the quality of the music. It gives better results for instrumental parts and worse for human voice.

NOTE: Key changer does not work for MIDI karaoke.

Supported file types

File extension

Description

.cdg

Also known as MP3+G. CDG files are usually paired with MP3 files. CDG file contains lyrics, while MP3 file contains audio of the song. To open a pair of MP3/CDG files you need to open CDG file only

.bin

BIN files contain both lyrics and audio of CD+G song

.zip

Karaoke ZIP files contain pairs of CDG/MP3 files

.cda

CD+G disc tracks

.kar, .mid

MIDI Karaoke

.avi

AVI video files

.mpg

MPG video files

.kma

MTU's Hoster files

.wmv

Windows Media Video files

.mp4, .mpeg, .mov, .webm, .mkv

Video tracks

Audio processor

Siglos Audio Processor allows you to mix your voice with the music and create an MP3 file you may share with your friends.


 Siglos Audio Processor may be run automatically after recording is finished, or you may choose to start it anytime using Siglos Audio Processor command from Record menu. It requires two input files: music (usually your backing track), and vocal (your recorded singing). Music may be BIN, WAV, or MP3 file, and vocal may be MP3 or WAV.

 Note: Siglos Audio Processor will not work with MIDI karaoke (MID and KAR), and with tracks from CD+G disc. If you would like to process songs from CD+G discs you need to save them to your hard disc first.

 

 For both music and vocal you may adjust mix level -- the higher it is the louder will it sound in the result file. Please note that choosing to high mixing levels may result in audio distortion.

 Key change is used if key changer was enabled when you recorded your singing.

 Time offset allows to compensate for sound card recording latency -- if your singing is out of sync with the music you may use this slider to fix it.

 Reverb adds a reverb to your voice. You may switch it off or modify its intensity.

  Siglos Audio Processor may save the result to MP3 file (you may adjust compression parameters using Settings button) or to WAV file. The name and location of the output file may be changed in Output section.

 Preview section allows to listen to the processing results before processing the entire file.

 To hear what the processed song would sound like click Play result button. The playback will start -- Current position slider represents the playback position. You may move it by dragging the slider's thumb. To hear the original song click Play original button -- you may switch between result and original song.

 You may modify the settings during playback -- you will hear the change nearly immediately.

 If Play in loop is selected, the playback will start over after it has reached the end. You may use Loop start and Loop end sliders to define the part of the song you would like to listen to.

 

Listen to yourself

If you play a karaoke song that you have singed along to and recorded your voice, you will hear yourself singing, providing Recorded vocal on/off button () is enabled. 

You may control the level of the recorded singing using Recorded vocal level slider.

Please note that setting the recorded level to high may cause distortion.

Sing away

Now you are ready to sing. Click Record () button and sing the song. Recording stops when the song finishes or when you click Stop button.

Note: Pause button does not work while recording.

Importing songs - professional

To start the import process select Manage database button on the playlist window, and then choose Import songs. You may also choose Import songs command from File menu.

 

 

First you need to select the root of your song collection (use Change button to do this). Then select file types you would like to import (see Supported file types for the list of supported formats). Include subfolders allows to scan all folders starting from the root folder. Switch it off if you want to scan a single folder only.

 

Siglos Karaoke Professional scans MP3 files it finds for ID3 tags containing song title and artist name (it also reads ID3 tags of MP3 files inside ZIP files, but it may significantly slow down the performance and is not recommended). If ID3 tag is not found, a parsing rule is applied to the file name. You may select a predefined rule or create a custom one. It is possible to use one of the four data fields (Artist, Title, DiscID, and Track). Choosing Ignore will cause the parser to ignore this part of the file name.

  

Import rule example

If your song collection is named as this example:

                SC7541_02 - Gary Lewis & The Playboys - This Diamond Ring.cdg

you need to select the following rule:

                DiscID_Track - Artist - Title

The first separator should be '_' (underline), and following separators should be set to ' - ' (minus with spaces before and after).

Once you are done setting the import rule, select OK. Siglos Karaoke Professional will scan your disc (it may take a while for large collection of songs) and will report its findings in Song Import Results dialog box.


 

 Song Import Result dialog box contains all files Siglos Karaoke Professional has found, divided into three groups. First list contains files that either contained ID3 tags, or matched the parsing rule, and were successfully imported into the database. The second list contains the files that matched the file extension, but did not have ID3 tags, nor their names matched the parsing rule. The third list contains files already in the database.

 You may manually edit songs that were not matched -- to do this select the song you would like to edit, and then click Edit button. To add edited songs do the database click Add Selected button. Once you are done editing select OK. You will return to Song Database dialog box, which allows you to view and edit all songs currently in the database. Once you are done click OK.

Playback management - professional

Song playback is controlled from the rotation/playlist window.

image.png

The rotation/playlist window can operate in two modes: rotation and playlist. Rotation allows to manage the singer rotation, and playlist shows the list of songs and singer in order how they will be played. We recommend using rotation mode for hosting karaoke shows.

 

What is the rotation?

To run the show in fair way you need to make sure that one person does not sing more often than the other. To do this Siglos Karaoke Professional places the singer in the queue, and first play one song for each singer before allowing the second round. The order of the singers is displayed in the list on the left of the rotation window.

 In rotation mode the window displays two lists -- singers on the left, and songs on the right. When you click on the singer, the list on the right contains all songs added for the selected singer. The number in brackets displays the number of songs for the singer.

 Next column contains estimated time the singer will be on stage. Last displays the last time the singer was on stage. In column contains the time singer or song was added. 

TIP: You may choose which time-related columns should be displayed in Settings dialog box.

 

By default Siglos Karaoke Professional waits for the operator to start the song (songs and singers are added by clicking Add Singer button). When the song is ready to be played, the button at the lower left will say Start and will display and exclamation mark.

 

List controls

 Both singer list and song list have control buttons next to them. First five buttons () allow to change the position of the selected item (they are for respectively moving the item to the top, moving it upwards, removing from the list, moving down, and moving to the bottom of the list).

 

Move to next button  allows to advance the singer or the song in the rotation -- it will position the singer or the song for the next performance.

 

Disable button  temporary disables the singer or song. It will not be removed from the rotation, but will be skipped until the singer or song is enabled again. Disabled items are marked as gray on the list.

 

Add Song button  opens Add singer dialog box with the current singer selected -- it allows to quickly add songs for the selected singer.

 

Remove empty singers button  removes from the list all the singers that have no songs assigned (they have [0] next to their names).

 

Usually you would want to display announcement for your audition -- this is controlled with Show announcements option. When it is enabled, Siglos Karaoke Professional will display an information screen with singer's name and the song details.


 The look of the announcement screen (background and text styles) can be changed in KJ section of Settings dialog box.

When you are ready to play the song, click Start. The song will start, and the button text will change to Go to next. Also Restart button will become available. Once the song finishes or you click Go to next button, the next song will be loaded and Start button will appear again (you may also press F5 key for this).

  

 Proceed automatically option will cause the program to enter the automatic mode. It will not wait for you to click Start, but will display the singer announcement for the period of time defined in KJ section of Settings dialog box, and then will automatically play the song.

 Show scrolling message is a global control for the message displayed at the bottom of the screen announcing the next singer.

 If you click Go To Next button, Siglos Karaoke Professional will finish the song and will move to the next singer/song, waiting for the operator to click Start button. If 'Go to Next' starts the song option is selected, the song will start immediately, without waiting for Start.

 Wait for songs is a control that allows to manage singers that have run out of songs. If the singer that is about to sing has no songs in the queue, Siglos Karaoke Professional will pause and will allow you to choose what to do.

                               image.png

You may choose to skip the singer but keep him/her in the queue, you may remove the singer from the queue, or you may add the song for the singer and allow the singer to sing straight away. 
Choosing Don't show this window again option will always skip the singer. You may change it back to displaying the options to choose from in Settings / KJ Adv. / Always skip empty singers if 'Wait for songs' is selected.

  

Manage song database gives access to song database management, and Settings button opens KJ Settings dialog box.

 Show windows section allows to show and hide additional program windows.

                 Fill in playlist is an additional playlist with music tracks that are played in between karaoke songs

                 Item details displays and allows to edit currently selected playlist item (you need to select Apply button to accept the changes)

                 Preview window displays a copy of the singer's screen (it is useful if you cannot see the screen)

                 Audio Panel contains all audio-related controls (volume, tempo, key and lyrics adjustment)

                                

                Instant Sounds window allows to program keys to play frequently used sound effects or other music files

  

Rotation presets allow to save active rotation for later use and load predefined selection, while User Presets button allows to save and load a set of songs for the current singer (you can use this for regular customers).

 

Quick Songs and Quick Singers allow fast access to songs and singers without the need to open Add Singer window

 Remote Queue () is the command center of the remote access to your show, allowing to browse song list and add requests from remote devices as phones or tablets. This also allows to set up a kiosk mode. See more info in Remote Access section.

Overlays

Overlays are images that are displayed over the singer screen. You may create as many overlays as you want, and you may place them anywhere on the screen.

To access overlays, choose the Edit Overlays button in the Display or KJ settings.

To add an overlay:

  1. Click the [+] button or drag and drop an image onto the Edit Overlays window.
    You may use JPG, BMP, or PNG images. PNG images may have alpha transparency.
  2. Choose the opacity of the image. The lower this value is, the more translucent the image will be.
  3. Choose whether you want to keep the aspect ratio of the image. The image will be centered inside its field.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Position the image.

Use the same procedure to add additional images. When finished, click OK.

Overlays are applied after you Apply registry changes or exit Settings with OK.

Overlay settings are stored in the registry in the Siglos Karaoke Professional key. Exporting and importing settings works for them as long as the image path on disk is not changed.