Sing Along Karaoke

I think that even better solution for you is to replace ‘Overprint Picture’ with ‘Set Text Area’ event — it allows you to define the margins you would like to keep your text in. So before we will release a fixed version you can easily modify your songs — I have included the one you have sent me with Set Text Area event instead of overprint (you will only need to set the proper soundtrack).

I think that even beter solution for you is to replace ‘Overprint Picture’ with ‘Set Text Area’ event — it allows you to define the margins you would like to keep your text in. So before we will release a fixed version you can easily modify your songs — I have included the one you have sent me with Set Text Area event instead of overpring (you will only need to set the proper soundtrack).

The scrolling mode usually works fine for slow-paced songs. It is true that words cannot be highlighted while they are being scrolled and this is the limitation of the scrolling mode. But please note that PowerKaraoke Plus is the only software available that offers scrolling type of CD+G Karaoke.

If you want to make sure that all the words highlight in time, then try using Overwrite mode. It will erase the screen line-by-line, making sure that the timing of the song is kept intact. You may add Clear screen CDG Events if you would like to force a page break at the certain point of the song.

Power CD+G Player always looks for a soundtrack (MP3 or WAV) file in the same directory as CDG file. So first thing is to make sure that the MP3 file is there and has exactly the same name. It may also not work if you try to play a song from inside a ZIP archive.

If you are sure that the soundtrack exists, you may try stopping the playback and opening the file again using the Open button.

CD+G format enforces 288×192 and 16 colors images. PowerKaraoke uses image scaling and color reduction algorithms that reduce the quality degradation. But sometimes, if image is too complex, it is simply impossible to do is automatically. You may try preparing the images in 16 color and not larger that 288×192 using image editing software like Paintshop and then save it as BMP file. If the image matches the CD+G specification it is not modified by PowerKaraoke.

We have deliberately decided against smoothing the letters. First, it does not look good on a TV screen (it may look better on a computer using software player), while the display time for the text increases a lot (nearly twice for one extra color and even more for additional colors).

Unfortunately PowerKaraoke does not allow editing .CDG files. CDG file contains graphic information only, it is impossible to retrieve lyrics from it. However it should not be difficult to re-type and re-synchronize the lyrics to the music — usually the hardest part in creating CD+G song is to find a music that does not have vocal, and this step is already done.

To add the Instrumental you have two choices. The easiest way is to use Display Picture CD+G event. To do this you need to prepare the image that will say ‘Instrumental’ (and some music notes to make it look nicer for example), position the cursor in the place you would like the image to appear and click ‘Insert CD+G Event’ toolbar button or select ‘Insert CD+G event’ command from Edit menu. Here you need to select ‘Display Picture’ event and then load the image you have prepared. You may also change the way the image will be displayed and erased using Display and Exit modes.

Another way to add ‘Instrumental’ is to add it to a song lyrics in a separate line and synchronize it using the same way you synchronize words (i.e. press space as it begins). Then you need to insert ‘Clear Screen’ events before and after the ‘Instrumental’ word and use ‘Text Settings’ CD+G event to change the sweep color if you do not want the word to be highlighted.

The easiest way to display a title of a song is to to create an image using image editing software (even Windows Paintbrush will do) and then select it as a Title in the Pictures section of Create CD+G File dialog. To do this check ‘Title’ checkbox, click the Settings button located next to it and use Browse to select your image — it needs to be saved in BMP, JPG or PNG format. The image will automatically be rescaled and down-colored to match CD+G specifications if necessary.

We have released maintenance update 1.1.3.

Along with some bug changes we have added a couple of new features that has been requested by some of the users.

- PowerKaraoke finally provides full support to Windows XP themes — it simply looks better under XP.

- From now on you are able to save all the settings you define for your song as a preset and reuse it later for a different    song. Version 1.1.3 also has many new bitmap display modes that can also be used in Clear Screen CD+G event.

- Toolbox menu have grown two new items — you may convert your CDG files into BIN and vice-verse.

You will find heaps of information about CD+G burning at http://www.karaokeplayground.co.uk. I have been using Yamaha drives for a long time, but from what I have heard the latest F1 drive has some problems with CD+G. Also Plextor drives are known to do well with CD+G. What you need to make sure is if CDRWin supports the drive you are about to buy.