Playing

Siglos Karaoke Player/Recorder allows to play CD+G karaoke discs and files from the hard disc.

Playing

To start the playback of the song:

·    click Load File button () (this allows to play files from the hard disc)

·    click Load CD button () (this will play CD+G disc)

·    double-click the song on the playlist

·    drag-and-drop the file on Siglos Karaoke Player/Recorder window

 

Siglos Karaoke Player/Recorder supports the following file formats:

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

.mp4, .avi, .mpeg, .wmv, .mov, .webm, .mkv

Video tracks

 Once the file is loaded its name and playing time will display in the status bar.

 You may now use transport buttons to control the playback.

Button

Command

Shortcut

Description


Play

P

Start the playback

 

Pause

S

Pauses the playback (and recording, if active)


Stop

A

Stops the playback


Previous song

< 

Plays the previous song from the playlist or CD+G disc


Rewind

 

Moves 10 second backwards (NOTE: does not work with CD+G discs)


Fast forward

 

Moves 10 second forward (NOTE: does not work with CD+G discs)


Next song

> 

Plays the next song from the playlist or CD+G disc

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.

Using Multiplex CD+Gs

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.

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.

Background images

Siglos Karaoke Player/Recorder displays images behind the karaoke lyrics. To change the images or use solid background click Settings button () and select Display.

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.

 

MIDI Karaoke

You may change the way that MIDI karaoke songs are played. To do this click Settings button () and select Display.

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).

CD+G enhancement

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.