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.
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.