Home Karaoke Setup: Microphone, TV and Recording

A good karaoke night at home needs three things: the songs on a big screen, a microphone the singer can hear, and a bit of ceremony when it is someone's turn. Digital Center takes care of the screen and the ceremony - the words light up as they are sung, the screen calls up each singer by name, and with karaoke recording every singer can take their performance home on their phone. This guide covers the equipment, how to connect it, the settings that make the evening run by itself, and how recording works. For the full overview, see the karaoke page.

The equipment

• A Windows PC with Digital Center. Any reasonably recent PC or mini PC will do.
• A TV or projector, connected to the PC with an HDMI cable. The bigger the better - the lyrics should be easy to read from a few meters away.
• Speakers - the TV's own speakers work, but a sound bar or a pair of active speakers makes a big difference.
• One or two microphones, and something that plays them out loud: a small karaoke mixer, an amplifier or speaker with microphone inputs, or a wireless microphone set with its own receiver.

Step 1: Connect everything

A simple, reliable setup looks like this:

• PC to TV with HDMI. Picture and music both travel over the cable.
• Microphones into your mixer or karaoke speaker.
• If you have a mixer, connect the PC's sound to the mixer too, so music and voices come out of the same speakers and you can balance them with the mixer's knobs.

Keep the PC close to the TV and the microphone receiver away from the speakers, to avoid feedback.

Step 2: Add your karaoke songs

In Digital Center, go to Administration, Karaoke and add your folders under Folders with karaoke tracks. The Karaoke center reads the common karaoke formats:

• Songs with timed lyrics - an audio file with a matching lyrics file, so the words light up as they are sung.
• CD+G karaoke songs, including the zipped kind - played straight from the zip, your files are never changed.
• Karaoke videos, where the lyrics are part of the picture - turn on Include karaoke videos.

No karaoke files? Make your own from the songs you already have with ZenPoint Media Manager: it finds the lyrics, removes the vocals and times every word. See how to make a karaoke version of any song and how to remove vocals from any song.

Step 3: Set up a karaoke playlist

Go to Administration, Playlists and create a karaoke playlist for the evening. In its Karaoke block, three settings make the night run by itself:

• Ask for the singer's name - whoever adds a song types the singer's name, so the screen can call them up.
• Show Start button - before each song the screen says "Ready?" with the singer's name and waits for a tap, so nobody misses their turn. Choose how long it waits before it starts on its own.
• Allow the same song for a different singer - lets two people sing the same song in one evening.

Guests can also add songs from their own phones by scanning a code - see how to let guests request songs from their phone.

Step 4: Settings in the Karaoke center

In Administration, Karaoke, a few settings are worth a look before the guests arrive:

• Open full screen when playback starts - on by default for karaoke, so the lyrics fill the screen as soon as a song starts.
• Applause after each song - a short celebration with the singer's name when a song has been sung all the way to the end. No points and no stars, just a round of applause.
• Allow changing key and tempo - lets the singer move a song up or down a few notes, or slow it down, to suit their voice. Whether locked-in guests may also do it is a separate switch.
• Show backing vocals in their own colour and Clear the screen during instrumental breaks - small touches that make the lyrics easier to follow.

While a song plays, the singer can switch between the original and the backing track, which helps when learning a new song.

Step 5: Turn on karaoke recording

Karaoke recording records each song while it is sung, so the singer can take it home on their phone. It is off until you set it up, because Digital Center needs to know how your room is connected.

1. 1

   Switch it on

   In Administration, Karaoke, under Recording, turn on Record the songs.
2. 2

   Choose your setup

   Under How is the room set up?, choose Mixer connected to this machine if a mixer's recording output goes into the PC - it already carries both voice and music. Choose Microphone plugged into this machine if a microphone goes straight into the PC; the music the PC plays is then recorded along with it.
3. 3

   Pick the input

   Under Record from, pick the sound input on the PC the recording should be made from.
4. 4

   Test it

   Press Test recording. Digital Center records ten seconds and plays them back, so you can hear the result. Adjust Input level in the recording (and Music level in the recording with a microphone) until the voice and the music sit well together.

With a microphone plugged straight into the PC, the voice is recorded but not played in the room - singers still need your mixer, amplifier or karaoke speaker to hear themselves.

Step 6: "Take your song home?"

When a singer has sung a song all the way to the end, the screen asks: "Take your song home?" If they say yes, a code appears; they scan it with their phone and the recording opens, ready to listen to and download. If nobody answers within a short while, the recording is deleted - silence is a no. A song that is stopped halfway, or is very short, is never kept.

Guests who added songs from their own phone also find their recordings under My songs on the phone page.

If you would rather keep every finished song without asking, turn off Ask the singer first: every finished song is kept, and its code is shown straight away.

Step 7: Encores and cleaning up

• Play tonight's songs again when it goes quiet - when nobody has queued a song for a while, tonight's recordings are played again with the singer's name. Only songs whose singer said yes twice: to taking the song home, and to it being played again tonight. The first song a guest adds takes over at once.
• Delete recordings at the end of the night - recordings from earlier days are deleted automatically, so the next party starts fresh.
• Save recordings in - choose a folder of your own; the recordings are kept one folder per day.

Read more on the karaoke page, or see the Media Manager page.