KARAOKE EQUIPMENT
RESOURCES
KARAOKE MUSIC:
Tell me more about the other Karaoke formats that I’ve seen?
The new possibilities with the advances in the world of the internet mean that more and more people are connecting with a new form of song compilation – storing, manipulating and recording files on home PCs. This has led to the creation of many formats, often especially produced by manufacturers specifically for “their models only”, which is, we feel, rather consumer unfriendly. Our advice would be to stick with the main 4 formats which are supported by many different players by many different manufacturers. In the meantime, we can all watch and wait to see if any of the other formats become widely accepted or technologically useful.
MP3G is one of the newest formats for karaoke music. There are 2 files stored on the disc, an MP3 file and a Graphics file. An MP3 is a compressed audio file. The graphics file is what you see on the screen. This format has the advantage of having a lot more songs on one disc compared to a CDG since MP3 files are a lot smaller than CDG files. This format will only play on a few select machines, the CAVS HDV-201 being one.
A Super CDG is basically a MP3G disc. However this disc has been formatted to only work on CAVS players supporting Super CDG format such as the DVD-202 and DVD-101G II.
NEO+G is another “revolutionary format” of a karaoke disc. NEO+G has the same sound quality and the graphics as a CD+G, but has more advanced functions in much the same way a DVD does, such as onscreen tracklist menus etc etc. NEO+G has the added benefits of being able to store hundreds of tracks per disc. The main disadvantage that we can see, is that the format has been exclusively developed by RSQ to work only with RSQ players. At Images, we feel that this is not ideal. You never know when you may need to use your discs on another player for some reason. We feel that customers are always better off when their options are constantly open.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a special format used in many fields, but not often Karaoke. However, Karaoke Midi has been around on the periphals of the market for several years. Machines that we know about that will accept Midi Karaoke files include the CAVS CDO-98E, Premier 99N, and HDV-201. This format is a sound file that calls on a built in sound chip on these machines to produce music. The files are extremely small so you will get many songs on each disc. The music is synthesized so you will not get CD quality sound or vocals.
