Tutorials

• Create CD+G song with PowerWizard
• Import an existing CD+G file
• Import MIDI Karaoke
• Create song with duets

Create CD+G song with PowerWizard

PowerWizard will help you to create your first karaoke song with Karaoke Creator.

Starting PowerWizard

To start PowerWizard click New Song Wizard toolbar button ()  and choose Synchronize lyrics manually.

Soundtrack

The next step will be choosing the soundtrack to use for the song.

 To load the soundtrack click Browse button and navigate to the audio file you want to use.

After the file is loaded, its name and playback time will displayed in the wizard window. Karaoke Creator can use WAV and MP3 files as soundtracks. 

Remove Vocals

PowerWizard allows to remove vocals from the song. More information on removing vocals can be found in Removing vocals section.

To proceed to the next step click Next button.

Lyrics

Now it is time to provide lyrics for the song.

 There are several ways to add lyrics to the song. You may:

·    type lyrics in (you may listen to the song as you type -- use Play button to control the playback)

·    use web search for lyrics; Karaoke Creator automatically opens browser window and runs search using provided details (song title and artist name); more on lyrics search can be found in section Search for lyrics on the web

·    paste lyrics from the clipboard (you may select the lyrics in web browser or text editor, copy it, and then paste it into Karaoke Creator)

·    import lyrics from the text file

To proceed to the next step click Next button.

Synchronizing lyrics

This step is the most difficult in the whole process of karaoke song creation. You have to synchronize the lyrics to the music.

 During synchronization process Karaoke Creator highlights words one by one, and your task is to tap the space bar at the moment the word is sung. It is not simple and takes some experience to achieve. To start synchronizing press Start synchronizing button. The first word in the song will become highlighted and the song will start to play.

When the song reaches the highlighted word, press Space key on your keyboard. The highlighting will move to the next word and so on. To mark the end of the word (usually before the long instrumental break) press Ctrl key. When you are done (ie. all words have been synchronized press Enter key or click Done button).

Now you need to check how good job have you done. To do this click Test button and see if the words highlight correctly during playback. Please note that if you have not done perfect job you may adjust synchronization later (see Adjusting synchronization section).

 As you have probably noticed synchronizing lyrics is not an easy task. Here are hints that can make your life easier:

·    use speed control to decrease the playback speed; if you select 0.5 the playback will be two times slower

·    use Go Back button if you miss the beat; Rewind buttons rewinds the playback, but does not move highlighting

·    if you are working on a new song, synchronize it from start till end, and then do it once more; second pass will be much better

·    see Advanced synchronization for synchronization tips

 

To proceed to the next step click Next button.

 Wizard is done

The wizard is complete -- most of the work is done.

 You are left with three choices now. You may:

·    Apply a visual style to the song -- this button will open Styles dialog that will allow you to use one of song templates

·    Adjust synchronization or edit the song -- choosing this option will let you to fine tune the song, edit lyrics, or fix synchronization errors

·    Create file will take you directly to file creation

If Save the song before continuing is checked, you will be prompted to save the song. Karaoke Creator saves song in PK3 files. Note that saving files is disabled in demo mode.

 

Karaoke CD+G Creator main window

Now it is a good time to learn about the main window of Karaoke CD+G Creator.

 

On the top you see common Windows interface items -- menu bar and toolbar.

 Left side of the window is occupied by the soundtrack panel. It displays a waveform of the current soundtrack, and on top of it labels that correspond to the synchronized words.

 Right side of the window contains the shortcut bar. It contains shortcuts to most frequently used commands. Shortcut bar changes with context -- if you do not need it any more you may close (to display it again use Shortcut bar command from View menu). To leave the shortcut bar visible, but to disable animations, select Preferences from File menu and uncheck Animate shortcut bar option.

The main area of the screen is taken by the lyrics editor. It consists of two parts -- preview window on the top (you may close is with Preview toolbar button ) and lyrics area below.

 Preview window displays the CD+G preview of the current part of the lyrics -- this is how your song will look on the TV screen. If your computer is slow, rendering preview make take a long time and your work will be uncomfortable. To avoid this either hide the preview window or disable automatic updates (clicking Update button will render the preview at the current cursor position).

 Lyrics area allows to edit the lyrics text, insert CD+G events, and adjust synchronization of the words.

Styles

Now it would be a good time to make our song look better. We will do this using style templates.

To apply a predefined visual style to your song click Styles button on the toolbar () or select Styles command from Create menu.

 Song details section of the dialog box allows you to enter title of the song, artist name, and text that will be displayed as your company information (probably something like Presented to you by DOBLON). Credits are displayed after the song is finished.

                Tip: To force a new line in Title, Artist, or Company name fields, use ^ character.

 

What is style?

Karaoke Creator allows to set styles for:

·    Title: image displayed before the song

·    Credits: image displayed after the song is finished

·    Song: colors, text formatting, page layout, and image (in Pro version only) of the lyrics

 

Each of this styles can be applied individually, or it is possible to use presets.

 Style preset combo box allows to select one of predefined templates. It will change all styles in Applied styles. You may store your combination of Title, Song, and Credit styles using Add button. To save changed combination use Save button. Delete button removes your preset from the list.

 Applied styles lists styles used for each of the sections of the song. To change the style select it in Applied styles list and then choose the new style from Available styles combo. Selecting (Unused) will disable the style.

 Style editor button starts Style Editor dialog box which allows you to create your own styles.

 Preview window displays the preview of the style selected in Applied styles list.

 Selected styles will be applied to the song when you select OK button.

 To continue with the tutorial select Rock style preset and click OK button.

 

Adjust CD+G Parameters

Usually you will want to adjust CD+G parameters to your liking. To open CD+G Settings dialog box click CD+G Settings button on the toolbar () or select CD+G Settings command from Create menu.

 

Try changing the font and click Apply button. In the preview window of lyrics editor you will see the result of the changes you have made (you may have to move CD+G Settings dialog to show preview window beneath it).

 To learn more about CD+G Settings dialog box see Modifying CD+G settings section.

 When you are satisfied with the way text looks click OK.

 

Create CD+G File

Click Create CD+G File button on the toolbar () or select Create CD+G File command from Create menu. You may also press F2 key on the keyboard.

 If you want to write this track to a CD, you need to select BIN as the output type. Selecting CDG output type will allow you to preview the result in Power CD+G Player. By default the output file is created in the same directory as the soundtrack file. Make sure that you have all necessary user privileges, or change the output file location.

 Please note that most of the settings is the same as those in CD+G Settings dialog box.

 If you would like to preview the output file, make sure that Open in Power CD+G Player when done option is checked. You may select a different software CD+G player if you have one -- use Choose player button to do this.

 Tip: If Siglos Karaoke Player/Recorder is installed on your computer, you will be prompted to use it as a default CD+G player in AI Karaoke CD+G Creator. 
Click here to visit Siglos Karaoke Player/Recorder website.

 Now click OK to create CD+G file.

 

Play CD+G song with Power CD+G Player

Power CD+G Player can be used to play the tracks you create with Karaoke CD+G Creator.

 It is a good idea to view the song in full before burning it to the CD.

 

Burn CD+G disc

Karaoke CD+G Creator does not burn CD+G discs. To do this you need Power CD+G Burner. To learn move visit Power CD+G Burner website.

Import an existing CD+G file

One of the most exciting features of Karaoke Creator is the ability to import existing CD+G songs. This allows you to re-edit commercial editions of karaoke songs with endless possibilities — change fonts and images, fix broken characters, modify lyrics, or create parodies. Karaoke Creator imports both lyrics and synchronization, so the most cumbersome part of song creation is already done, leaving you to focus on the fun.

To import a CD+G song, select the Import CD+G File command from the File menu or click the Import CD+G File button on the toolbar.

First, you need to select a file containing CD+G songs. Two file formats are supported: CDG and BIN. If you use a CDG file, Karaoke Creator will automatically look for an MP3 file of the same name and use it as a soundtrack.

If the Insert 'Clear Screen' events automatically option is checked, Karaoke Creator will detect when the entire screen is erased in the CD+G song and will insert 'Clear Screen' events at the same places in the imported song. This helps maintain text flow for page-by-page songs.

The import process may take a while (up to half a minute on a slower computer). Once completed, you will see the imported lyrics in the lyrics editor. Please check for spelling mistakes, as some characters may be recognized incorrectly.

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NOTE:

1. Not every song can be imported. Duets are not supported, and songs using scrolling will not import.
2. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is not perfect and may occasionally make errors. Please check the lyrics for spelling mistakes.

Import MIDI Karaoke

MIDI files are ideal for karaoke because they do not contain vocals and are widely available online. Many MIDI files also include synchronized lyrics. The most common file extension for MIDI karaoke files is KAR, but many MID files also contain lyrics.

Karaoke Creator includes an Import MIDI Karaoke Wizard to assist in converting MIDI karaoke files to CD+G format.

To start the wizard, select the Import MIDI Karaoke Wizard command from the Import MIDI section in the File menu.

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Select Files

You must provide the input KAR file. Use the [...] button next to the input file field to locate the file you want to convert.

The wizard will create a WAV file from the MIDI song. By default, this WAV file is saved in the same directory as the source KAR or MID file. Use the [...] button next to the output file field to change the directory if needed.

There are two ways to convert MIDI

• Use the soundcard
• Use software synthesizer

We recommend using the latter, as it gives very good results and does not provide issues with hardware management

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Lyrics Import

After importing the audio, Karaoke Creator automatically imports the lyrics. If issues occur during this process, an error message will be displayed.

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Done

You have successfully imported a MIDI karaoke file. You now have a synchronized soundtrack and lyrics, ready to edit further.

Create song with duets

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 Note: This tutorial refers to Pro version only.

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Karaoke Creator gives you the tools to create professional duets. Most important duet features are: 

·    Duet Wizard that helps to assign lyrics to singers

·    Full Duet synchronization mode

·    Divided CD+G screen for duets (Singer 1 at top and Singer 2 at the bottom of the screen)

 

In this tutorial we will show you how to create a song that can be sing by two singers, each of them singing different words at the same time.

 To understand this tutorial you need to be familiar with creating songs with Karaoke Creator, so if you are just starting please see Create karaoke song with PowerWizard tutorial first.

 

Starting up

In this tutorial we will use a traditional song Brother John. Soundtrack and lyrics can be found in Examples subfolder of My Karaoke folder in Documents. Please create a new song by clicking on New button on the toolbar or selecting New command from File menu. If you are using PowerWizard, select Create a new song from scratch (without PowerWizard) on the first wizard screen.

 Now load the soundtrack using Load soundtrack button on the toolbar. The soundtrack file is brother john.mp3. Then load the lyrics from the text file -- use Import lyrics toolbar button or Import lyrics from a text file command from File menu. Lyrics file is brother john.txt. You may save the first version of the song at this point.

Defining duets

The next step it to assign portions of the lyrics to each of the singers. As you have probably noticed the song lyrics consists of 5 repeated verses, while the music contains the same verse 4 times only. We will start with both singers singing the first verse together, then Singer 1 will sing two verses with Singer 2 joining in, but half of the verse later. And the last verse will be sung together by both.

 To assign lyrics to singers we will use Duet Wizard.

To start it click Duet Wizard button on the toolbar () or select Duet Wizard from Edit menu.

 

 Lyrics assigned to Singer 1 are red, lyrics assigned to Singer 2 are blue, and those that should be sung together are grey.

 To assign a part of the lyrics to particular singer (or to both singers) select this part in the lyrics window (drag mouse to select the text) and then click Selection button next to the singer mode you want to use. Duet Wizard always uses full lines, so if you position the cursor in the middle of the line and then click Selection, entire line will be assigned.

 From cursor to end buttons allow to assign all song lyrics from the current cursor position to the end of the song to one of the duet modes.

 Set all will assign entire song to one of the modes.

 After you close Duet Wizard with OK you will see that Duet events have been inserted in the text of the song.

 Please note that you can enter Duet Wizard many times and the current duet assignments will be the starting point for further editing.

 

 

Synchronization

Now it is time to synchronize the lyrics.

To do this we need to enter full duet mode. To do this click Full duet mode button on the toolbar () or select Enable full duet mode from Synchronize menu. Duet tab control will appear above the lyrics editor.

Duet tabs allow switching between duet modes. No duets is for editing lyrics -- it displays the entire text of the song. The other three are for each of the duet roles.

Selecting Singer 1 tab will activate Singer 1 duet mode. It will dim the lyrics that are not assigned for Singer 1 and preview will show Singer 1 lyrics only.

Duet tabs are used to synchronize the duet song. Unfortunately synchronizing duet songs takes three times as long as regular songs -- you have to synchronize part for both singers, and then individual parts for each of the two singers.

To continue with the tutorial try synchronizing the lyrics with the music. Select Both duet tab, click Synchronize entire song button on the toolbar, and synchronize the first and the last verse of the song. Then select Singer 1 tab, click Synchronize entire song button again and synchronize the second and the third verse. And finally synchronize Singer 2 -- this time start in the middle of the second verse.

 Please note that synchronization labels in the soundtrack panel are not visible in No duets mode -- you need to activate one of the duet tabs to display and edit them.

 

Settings

To adjust the settings for duets double-click any of the duet events (Duet dialog box will appear) and select Duet settings button to open Duet settings dialog box.

Here you can define the text settings for Singer 1 and Singer 2 -- just select the mode on the top and adjust the settings. Please note that the number of lines apply to half of the screen only (Singer 1 uses the upper part and Singer 2 uses the lower part of screen). Settings for Both singers mode are copied from general settings.

 

Create file

We are nearly done. All that is left is to create a CD+G file and to see if everything plays correctly. This is important, as sometimes, because of synchronization errors, some text may overlap.

To create a CDG file click Create CD+G File toolbar button (). You may leave all settings at default values -- simply click OK and see the result.

 If you have missed any of the steps you may load the final file -- it is brother john4.pk2.

 

Duets without screen split

If you do not wish to split the screen between two singers and rather have words for both singers displayed one after another, disable Full duet mode before creating karaoke file. Also the lyrics for both singers should interleave -- they need to be in the same order as they should be displayed (so in general this will be like duets in PowerKaraoke, but with concurrent highlighting.

 

 We have prepared an example that shows this -- it is brother john no split.pk2 file.