"Pioneering Digital Audio Since 1968"

KHPro™ 5.00

Windows/PC Software To

Create Solo or Duet Karaoke CD+Graphics Songs

From Music and Lyric Text or LRC Files

 
 
What's new in KHPro 5.00?      Printer Friendly Version
From Micro Technology Unlimited
Last edited: August 7, 2010  
 

Table of Contents

Introduction

Quick Start Steps
Start With a Slow Easy Song

Edit Lyrics Screen
Add Music Button
Import Lyrics Button
Type in the Lyrics
Text Entry Guidelilnes
Guidelines to Prepare Lyrics For Karaoke
Add a Countdown Timer
Words and Lines
Indicate to Hold a Note
Font Selection
Size Selection
Special Characters
Prevent Text Appearing in Black

Place Lyrics Screen
Read Before You Place Lyrics
Steps to Place Lyrics
Edit After Placing the Lyrics

Adjust Lyrics Screen - Optional
Steps to Adjust Highlighting
Define Area to Play

Play Final Screen

Settings... Button
Lyrics Tab
Title Tab
Credits Tab

Export Your Karaoke Song File
Replace Music with Vocal Reduced File
Create A Multiplex Song

Using Graphic Images In Your Song

Write Karaoke Songs to CDG Discs

Create Your Next Song

Duets & Music Notation Songs
Preparing Duet Lyrics
Steps to Place Duet Lyrics
Steps to Adjust Duet Lyrics
Appendix

Menus and Commands
File
New
Open
Close
Save
Save As...
Export to...
Zip Files Together
Exit
Edit
Cut
Copy
Paste
Select All
Settings...
Vogone
Help
Check For Updates
Support
View RegCode
About KHPro
Manual
Printing The Manuals

Where to Get Music Files

File Names & Extensions

Installing Fonts in Windows

Requirements for CD+G Graphic Images
Capturing Graphic Images
Reduce Images to 16 Colors
Windows Paint Program
Paste and Edit an Image in Paint
Sample Images

Troubleshooting Guide
Sweep Highlighting is Delayed
Wrong Colors Appear

Version Changes

Installing KHPro
Upgrading Your Prior KHPro
Computer Requirements
Change Video Color or Display Resolution

Copyright Notice & Right to Change
License Agreement

Introduction

 

  Congratulations! You Are About To Become A CDG Karaoke Producer!  

CDG stands for Compact Disc Graphics, seen as CDG, CD+G, CD-G, or even CD+Graphics. This special format defined by the Phillips/Sony CDG specification is different from all other CD formats. It writes the CDG graphics images and the highlighting lyrics on the disc. If your CD/DVD drive cannot play or write CDG discs, MTU certifies our DVD Burner Drives to write CDG format discs. Playing a CDG disc on a Karaoke disc player, or with Karaoke CDG playing software like Video Hoster or Microstudio shows the graphics and lyrics in sync to the music on your Karaoke display.

With your MTU KHPro®, Microstudio®, and Vogone® software tools, you can turn almost any song into a Karaoke CDG song to perform. You now have the power to change your Karaoke parties into more fun, singing all the songs you and your friends want. You can even have parties to create Karaoke songs, and then have more fun singing them. Making your Karaoke experience the best it can be!

KHPro is very easy to use once you understand the basic steps. Now, unless you enjoy frustration, first choose a few easy songs tht will have lyrics that slowly advance. Just like professional producers, you will discover it takes more skill to place the words to a fast paced song.

Your goal is to create easy to sing Karaoke songs. To start with, use the defaults in the Settings for font, point size, # Lines and colors. After you do a few songs, you will be ready to change the settings, which you can do any time before exporting the song, or open a prior project file and re-export it with the changes.

Fast songs require using the Advanced Lyrics Features.

Quick Start Steps

WARNING! Choose a Slow Easy Song to Learn On

Follow this warning or you will frustrate yourself. Wait to do a fast-paced song until you have created several songs. Even a seasoned Karaoke Producer has problems getting the highlighting in sync with the music on a fast song.

Add Music in Edit Lyrics Screen
  1. Double click the icon on the Windows desktop to run KHPro. The Edit Lyrics screen appears as seen here.
  2. The screen has four views, changed by clicking the buttons at the bottom. Place Lyrics and Adjust Lyrics ungray when Lyrics are in the first screen.
  3. Add the music .wav, .mp3 or .wma file from your computer hard drive. Microstudio can import songs fromCD or CDG discs as .wav music only files. WARNING! Do not import songs using Windows Media Player (WMP) as it adds DRM (Digital Rights Management) that cannot be played except with WMP.
  4. Import a lyric file or type the words directly into the Edit Lyrics screen. Once they are in the screen, you can edit them.
  5. Read these notes before placing the lyrics.
  6. Click the Place Lyrics button. This allows playing the music and tapping the keyboard Spacebar key where each word is to start highlighting, and the Ctrl key to pause the highlighting. Be careful! If you stop placing before the song ends, you must place the lyrics again from the start. Placing the words makes the sweep highlight advance across each word, changing speed from word to word controlled by when you tap the Spacebar and Ctrl keys. You may do this several times before you think it is good enough. A 3 minute song takes 3 minutes to place all the lyrics. If you blow a placement session, you'll stop before the end; thus taking less than 9 minutes for 3 passes. Its not a bad thing to redo a song because each pass you will "remember" more of the music-lyrics timing and do a better job.
  7. Click the Play button to see your CDG Karaoke song exactly as it will appear on the Karaoke screen as a final approval viewing.
  8. Optionally... click the Adjust Lyrics button to adjust the highlighting on a few words that you think are not perfectly placed. You can play from the start or click any word to start playing. While playing, if you click the Stop button, the playing word is selected, ready to adjust. Read how to adjust the highlighting.
  9. Change the song appearance any time before exporting your finished song. NOTE: You can use the default settings to get to know how to use KHPro quickly, then design your appearance when you understand what to do.
  10. When your song is done, click the Export to ... command to create your Karaoke song file on the hard drive. The "..." is replaced with BIN (if the open music is .wav), or MP3+ G (if the open music is .MP3), or WMA+G (if the open music is .WMA) and change either to a .ZIP file. Various programs use these Karaoke file formats. Microstudio can take a mix of these formatted files, placed in the order you want, and write them to a CDG format disc that plays in Karaoke Players.
  11. After you finish one song, click the File menu New command to create a new .kpr file for your next song. You can Save and Open project files and even make edit changes, or place the lyrics again, or replace the music file. You can also click the File menu Save As command to save the open project as a template with your colors, fonts, point sizes, etc. Then when creating a new song, open this file and click Save As, adding a afilename for the new song (it will be open when "Save As" finishes) to start with your template Settings.
  12. You can assemble your new Karaoke CDG files in Microstudio to write them to a Karaoke CDG disc or play them on your computer. See the Microstudio manual for details.

Edit Lyrics Screen

Add Music in Edit Lyrics Screen

You can resize the screen by moving the mouse arrow to any border or corner where it becomes a two-headed arrow. Then, click and drag (with this arrow visible) that edge or corner. You can move the screen anywhere on the display by click and dragging on the title bar at the top. When you exit KHPro, the size and location save and appear when KHPro runs again.

You can either Import lyrics from Internet files, or enter the lyrics directly. Either way, the words appear in the Edit Lyrics screen, storing in the open .KPR project file. You can even edit after closing and opening a projrct file.

Add Music Button

In the Edit Lyrics screen that appears when KHPro runs, you can add the music before or after importing lyrics. You can even place lyrics with a "music+vocals" file to make placing words easier, then replace the music with a "music only" file before exporting your song.

The Add Music button displays the Open File dialog to select a music file.

Click the Look in: field to select a different drive. Double click a drive and its directories appear in the window below. Double click a directory to see its contents.

Click the music file to use, and click the Open button.

The selected filename appears in the Edit Lyrics screen to the right of the Add Music button.

If a Title Page is enabled, the music automatically delays 10-12 seconds, plus the Hold: field setting to allow the page to draw and be seen.

 

Import Lyrics Button

Import Lyrics in Edit Lyrics Screen

You can find the lyrics to many songs over the Internet. Use google.com and type in the song "first lyric line" enclosed in " ". Do not enter the song name, or you will find everyone selling that song on a CD.

If you find and download a file, it must be in ASCII format such as .txt and .lrc. If not, if you can open it in Wordpad or Notepad, you can convert the format with the Save As... command. Find the Files of Type: field at the bottom, and select *.txt format and save it.

Once you have an ASCII lyric file on the hard drive, click the Import Lyrics button at the top of the Edit Lyrics screen. In the dialog, find the "Files of Type:" field at the bottom, and select either (*.txt) or (*.lrc) format to see either file type. Select the file you want and click the Open button. The imported lyrics appear in the window as shown here.

Follow the guidelines below to change the "raw" lyrics into Karaoke lyrics.

Type in the Lyrics

If you don't find the lyrics on the Internet try; viewing a Karaoke CDG song with the lyrics, reading the lyrics from a printed sheet, listening to the radio, an MP3 file, and type them into the Edit Lyrics screen.

Text Entry Guidelilnes

  • On the keyboard, enter characters, spaces, numbers and symbols except these special reserved symbols.
  • Use the arrow keys to move the cursor up, down, left and right.
  • Use the Edit menu Cut, Copy, Paste and Select All operations.
  • Press the Enter key to insert a blank line.
  • Press the backspace key (above the Enter key) to delete characters to the left.
  • Type new characters to insert them and push others to the right.
  • Your edits save in the open .KPR project file.
Guidelines to Prepare Lyrics For Karaoke

The words you type on each line with the keyboard appear on those lines in the final song. If you just throw the lyrics together, your song can be confusing to perform.

Get the Lyrics

You must import or type in the lyrics before you can create a song. Lyrics can have any A-Z letters, 0-9 numbers, and most symbols in your lyric text lines. Read about "_", ^, *, and em-space characters to use their functions.

The Spacebar space character separates words. However, KHPro removes spaces at the start of lines and multiple spaces between words. (See em-space spaces).

Add a Countdown Timer

  • Place a timer on the first page above the Lyrics that counts down to show the singer when to start. See the top three examples at the right.
  • Turn the character string into one "word" so they highlight at the same rate. Join them with "_" underline characters (ex: 5_4_3_2_1). For more spaces (ex: 5__4__3__2__1) enter several underlines or em-spaces. These joining characters appear as spaces in the created Karaoke display.
  • If the lyrics start with the music, there is no time for a countdown timer. In this case we suggest you use an audio editor to add 5 to 10 seconds of silence before the music starts. Then put your timer at the start of the silence.

Words and Lines

  • Set the highest number of lyric lines you want on any page (2-6 without a graphic, 2-3 with a graphic).
    NOTE: You can change this after placing the lyrics and before exporting, however it is not recommended.
  • Decide whether to align all lyrics to the left, center, or right.
  • Try to end lines on words that take longer to highlight. This gives time for the next lines to be drawn above, and time for the Singer's eyes to move to the next lines or page.
  • Don't hyphenate; move the word to the start of the next line.
  • Enter blank lines by pressing the Enter key with the text cursor where you want them. Example: if the Number of lines is 5, a single text line will appear at the page top if it is followed by 4 blank lines, or at the bottom if there are 4 blank lines before it.
  • You can choose to force new pages, or continuously draw new lines over lines that have already highlighted.

Indicate to Hold a Word

  • Insert a visual indicator when the singer is to hold a word longer. Example: Garth Brook´s "long... neck bottle", or "long---- neck bottle" gives more horizontal space to sweep. You can use any characters except; *, ^, _, or &.
  • You can use brackets enclosing words: [pause]   [breath]   [stop singing]   [wait]   [instrumental]   INSTRUMENTAL   etc. Always make sure it is clear to the singer that an indicator is not lyrics to sing.
  • The time to highlight an indicator starts when you tap the Spacebar to place it, and ends when you tap the Spacebar to place the following lyric word, or you tap the Ctrl key to halt the singing while the music plays alone. The highlighting sweeps at a steady rate, versus tapping each indicator character separately.

Font Selection

  • The Settings dialog Lyrics Tab allows selecting any font (1-byte, or "Unicode" 2-byte fonts - Taiwan, Korean, Chinese, Near East, etc.) that are already installed or that you install in your computer´s Windows/Font directory.
  • Your selected Lyrics font appears in all the screens, and is used to export your CDG song file.
  • San-serif fonts like Arial or Helvetica are very readable. Fonts like Arial Narrow allow more words on each line, or allow using a larger size that is more readable on stage.
  • Serif fonts like Times New Roman are too complex for Karaoke displays and are hard to read on stage.
  • There are many fonts available over the Internet; free, shareware and to buy. We suggest you use Google.com and enter "truetype fonts" (include the " ") to search for font suppliers.

Size Selection

  • The Karaoke display is 288 dots wide by 192 high, which is much smaller than your computer display (usually 1024x768, 1200x1024 or larger). Thus, actual characters are approximately 4x larger in the KHPro screens and the final CDG created song.
  • The selected lyrics text Size: controls how big all characters appear (24 is larger than 22), and how many will fit on a line (20 will fit more than 24 on a line).
  • If the lasts words on a line run off the screen, either select a smaller font or move words from longer lines to the start of the line below, or create a new line.
  • Size 28 is bigger, but fewer letters can be on a line. Size 22 has more letters on a line, but they are harder to read on stage. Size 26 or 24 are good selections for most songs.

Special Characters

To produce a fast song (ex: Latino) you probably will need to use some of these features. These are available for those who want to do a better job than most commercial songs.

  • Asterisk "*" (Shift+8) splits words into syllables - Normally the highlight sweeps across entire words at the same speed. You can vary the speed within a word by inserting * character(s) inside the word to separate syllables. Example: "We all live in a yellow Sub*ma*rine" allows you to tap the Spacebar 3 times for "Sub", "ma" and "rine". When playing, it appears as "submarine" with the highlighting speed changing inside it to more accurately match the lyrics to the music.
  • Underscore "_" (Shift+-) joins words to place together as one - With very fast highlighting lyrics, for example in ABBA´s "take_a_chance on me", it is hard to tap the Spacebar fast enough on each word. Adding "_" between the words joins them. Then take_a_chance places with one Spacebar tap for the string. When played, the highlighting sweeps across the joined words at a constant speed. The "_" character displays as a space between the words.
  • Em-space (Alt+0160 on numeric keypad) enters a blank space to indent words at the start of lines, or add more than one space between words.
    Note: Em-spaces between words without a Spacebar "space" character joins (see "_" above) those wods and they will place as one.
    You can enter em-spaces in Wordpad, Notepad, or the KHPro Text Entry screen:

    1. Place the text cursor where you want the em-space.
    2. Press and hold the Alt key and USING THE NUMERIC KEYPAD ONLY, enter the numbers 0160 (enter both 0´s).
    3. Release Alt and a blank space appears as the cursor moves over one em-space; about the width of an M.
  • Caret "^" (Shift+6) forces a new page when entered on a blank line in the Lyrics text area. When a song plays that has a forced new page, the line below the "^" line will be the next line drawn at the top of the Karaoke screen.
    Note: Any characters on a line with the "^" character will not appear in the song.
  • Ampersand "&" (Shift+7) used in a Duet song to connect Singer1 & Singer2 lines. Connected lines highlight their words at the same time, which the words and the number of words can be diferent for each Singer. This also can be used to create Music Notation songs with the notation letters above the sweeping lyrics (or switch positions if you want).

Prevent Text Appearing in Black

When creating a song where the lyrics are highlighting very fast, it is possible to see the top line on some pages appear in black, not the normal text color. Below are two suggestions to reduce this problem.

After the number of lines have drawn in the Karaoke display equal to the Settings selection (3 in this example), the lines that follow start drawing from the top down, replacing lines that have highlighted. This starts when the last word on the next to the last line starts highlighting. In the example below, this is line #2.

1 WHEN YOU LOVE
2 A WOMAN [pause]
3 IT'S NO GOOD

1 TO LOVE ANOTHER
 
 

There are two ways to prevent black lines apearing.

  1. Go With the Meter of the Music - The music beat helps you know when to tap the Spacebar and when to wait. The longer you wait, the slower the highlight sweeps through that word.

    For example, the word "good" on the last line should sound like "goooooooddddd". Adding "..." indicates to keep singing the word, giving time for the new lines to draw over those at the page top.

    1 WHEN YOU LOVE
    2 A WOMAN [pause]
    3 IT'S NO GOOD...

    1 TO LOVE ANOTHER
     
  2. Rearrange Words on the Last Line - Often where the last line has one or more words that sweep slowly, there is time to replace the lines above, or draw on the next page.

    1 WHEN YOU LOVE
    2 A WOMAN [pause]
    3 IT'S NO GOOD TO LOVE

    1 ANOTHER
     

When your lyrics are ready, click the Place Lyrics button below to synchronize the words highlighting to the music.

 
    Jump to Table of Contents

Place Lyrics Screen

Read Before You Place Lyrics
  1. You will never create a perfect song. If you try, you will be frustrated and say you can´t use KHPro, which is not true. Anyone can use KHPro to create CD+G songs. Simply do your best and have fun.
  2. Be ready, be comfortable, and be careful. Your accuracy tapping the Spacebar determines how accurate the word highlighting follows the music. Be comfortable so your timing is consistent. The Offset Sweep is already set to remove a normal, consistent delay.
  3. You can add Title and Credit pages at any time before exporting if you want, but only the Lyrics are needed.
  4. A full screen color CDG graphic image takes up to 11 seconds to draw. KHPro automatically delays the music so it starts after a Title Page so you don't have to edit the music.
  5. Get music with and without vocals. Unless you know the song by heart, you need music with someone singing in it. You can replace the music with vocals, with a vocal removed version before exporting your final song. You can also create both so you have guide vocals to help you learn a song.
  6. You must place all lyrics in one pass. Do not stop unless you mess up and need to start over.
  7. You WILL CREATE A BETTER SONG if you place the lyrics SEVERAL TIMES! Each time you remember more of the music and get better sync. A 3 minute song takes 3 minutes to place the lyrics, or less if you stop early. Placing a 3 minute song 4 times should take under 8 minutes. That's fast to create a new CDG song.
  8. Add a countdown indicator to show the singer when to start and after any pauses where only the music plays.
  9. Tap either Ctrl key to stop the highlighting while the music plays on. If the delay is 10 seconds orlonger, add a countdown indicator to start them singing again. After placing the last word in the song, tap the Ctrl key to end the highlighting.
  10. If you mess up, click stop and start over. Understand... restarting is faster AND creates a better song than adjusting many lyric words after placement.
  11. Adjust out-of-sync words after placing all words. You will know when you are pleased with how you did. Then, you can edit misspelled lyrics you found and adjust the few out-of-sync words.
  12. Tap the End key after the last word is placed. If you stop early, you must start over and place them all again.
  13. Export a file when you have an acceptable song. If you think you have a good song, click the File menu Export to ... command. You can always try to do better, but you will have this in case you do not.

Steps to Place Lyrics

Click the Place Lyrics button where the screen shows the lyrics in the format you selected in the Settings... dialog.

Note: The fastest way to get a good song is to place the lyrics several times, not doing it in a single pass and then trying to edit the mistakes.

  1. The first word in the song is underlined. This moves to the next word each time you tap the Spacebar, which ends highlighting the prior word and starts highlighting the new word. Placed words change to the highlight color (yellow at right). Highlighting is a continuous flow from word to word at the speed you tap the Spacebar to the music.
    Note: You cannot stop and restart. You must finish the entire song or start over.
  2. Press the Home key (or click Start) to start the music playing. If you click the Stop button, Start renames to Redo Lyrics. Clicking it allows placing the lyrics over again from the start.
  3. Tap the Spacebar key (or click Place Word) to place the current underlined word to the playing music. You will tap the Spacebar for every word. Blank lines are automatically placed along with the word immediately before them.
  4. Tap the Ctrl key (or click Pause Sweep) to stop sweeping a word where the singer should pause while the music continues.
  5. Tap the End key (or click the Stop) when you are done, or know you messed up and need to restart.
  6. While placing the lyrics you may see misspelled words, or decide that a word should move to the next or prior line. If so, click the Edit Lyrics button and fix it now. Some edits don't require placing again.
  7. To sit back and watch your song as it will appear on a Karaoke Display, click the Play button.
  8. If you want to adjust some of your highlight placement, click the Adjust Lyrics button.

Edit After Placing the Lyrics

After placing the lyrics, you can make these edits in the Edit Lyrics screen and not require placing them again. Understand that, for example, if you need to add a lot of new words it is better to place the lyrics again versus adjust each of these.

  • Correct misspelled words.
  • Move word(s) on a line to the line above or below. Words the start a line can move to the end of the line above, while those that end a line can move to start the line below. The highlight usually doesn't need adjusting.
  • Insert new words at any point. Their highlight data is automatically created. The word before starts highlighting the same, but now stops sooner, and the new word will start highlighting, ending where the word that follows starts highlighting.
  • Insert ONE new blank line with the Enter key. Inserting multiple blank lines requires placing the lyrics again.
  • Insert a page break to force a new page.
  • Note: Changing the word order from "word1 word2 word3 word4" to (for example) "word1 word3 word2 word4" will jump the word highighting back and forth. if you need to jump words over others, make the changes, then return to the Place Lyrics screen and place all the lyrics again.

Adjust Lyrics Screen - Optional

Adjusting your lyrics highlighting is available for those who desire to make their songs perfect, or for those creating "duet songs" with music notation on the top line and lyrics on the line below that may need adjusting.

To adjust the highlighting of a few words takes a few minutes. To adjust many words you should place the lyrics again.

It is a fact that each time you place the lyrics you do a better job. If it takes 10 minutes to adjust the highlighting in a 3 minute song, in the same time you can place the lyrics 4 times... and your highlighting will be better.

Steps to Adjust Highlighting

  1. Click the Adjust Lyrics button to see the screen to the right.
  2. Tap the Spacebar or click Audition Play to start playing the song from the start, or click any word in the song to change where play begins.
  3. The Pg Up & Pg Dn buttons or Page Up & Page Dn keys move through the song a page at a time. The 1 of 18 field shows the page you are on.
  4. When you see highlighting to adjust, press Spacebar to stop Audition Play and select and underline the playing word.
  5. Tap the "n" key or click Adjust Play to start playing across the Adjust area... including the underlined word.
  6. While playing, to move the highlight start on the underlined word, tap < to start earlier, or > to start later. To move its end, hold the Ctrl key down and tap < and >. The Adjust amount field allows changing how far each tap moves the highlight edge either way.
  7. Continue playing by tapping the Spacebar. When you find more highlighting to adjust, tap the Spacebar to stop play. Repeat the above sequence to adjust this word.

Define Area to Play

Number of words defines the adjust area around the underlined word, adding 2, 3,or 4 words to play before and after to quickly see your highlight adjustments.

Adjust amount sets how much the Adjust start: & end: buttons move the highlight on the underlined word. The factory default is 0.20 (one-fifth) a second.

 

Play Final Screen

  1. Click the Play Final button to view your song just as it will appear on a Karaoke display.
  2. Press the Spacebar to start playing from the Title Page if one exists, or from the start of music with the lyrics.
  3. Click the Adjust Lyrics button for minor adjustments. Click the Edit Lyrics button to correct any lyric problems. If the sweep highlighting is out of sync, read Sweep Highlighting is Delayed and follow the directions.
  4. If all else fails, click the Place Lyrics button to place the lyrics again.

 
    Jump to Table of Contents

Settings... Button

This dialog (see below) is where you design how your song appears on the Singer's display.

  • The Title Tab creates a page that appears before the lyrics start.
  • The Lyrics Tab designs how the lyrics appears on the pages for Singers.
  • The Credits Tab creates a page that appears when the song finishes.

Title and Credit pages must be enabled for them to appear; i.e. they are not added unless you want them.

Once you select your color, font, point size, etc., it is best if you don't change them to always make your songs appear the same. However, you CAN change every parameter any time before exporting your song. You can change them and export different versions of the same song.

Lyrics Tab

Click to show a Title Page Click to show a Lyrics Page Click to show a Credts Page Click to show a Title Page Use graphic images or not Draw the graphic image as it appears Select the screen colors Select to create Solo or Duet songs or Music Notation songs Text appearence controls Text appearence controls

This controls how the lyrics appear to the Singer(s). These settings apply to the entire song lyric area. The default settings are used until you change them.

The Graphic group Browse... button allows selecting a graphic image to appear at the top of each lyrics page. The Lines: field changes to show 2 or 3 for lyric lines below the graphic image. The controls are identical to the Title and Credits page graphics.

The Preview button ungrays when a graphic image is selected. Clicking it draws the image in the Preview Display just like it will appear at the top on every page in the Lyrics area.

The Solo and Duet buttons are mutually exclusive; when one is clicked down, the other goes up.

  • Solo uses Singer1 color for all the lyric text, and uses Sweep color for all the highlighting.
  • Duet uses Singer1 color for the first Singer lyrics, Singer2 color for the second Singer lyrics, Both color for the lyrics where both Singer1 and Singer2 sing the same words, and Sweep color for highlighting all lyrics. KHPro can create two types of Duet songs:

    1. Two Singers singing separately, or both singing the same lyrics together.
    2. Singer1 lyrics as the first singer, and Singer2 lyrics as the second singer. Where they sing together with different lyrics for each, add a "&" character in front of the Singer2 lines so they will highlight together with Singer1 (see Preparing Duet Lyrics).
  • Music Notation is done by clicking the Duet button where music notes are entered as Singer1 and lyrics are entered on the next line below as Singer2 with an "&" character in front of the Singer2 lines, tying their highlighting to the notation Singer1 line above. (See Placing Duet Lyrics).

Lyrics Text

  • Font: allows selecting any installed font. KHPro supports 1-byte and 2-byte (Unicode for Asian and Near East Languages) fonts.
  • Size: list box allows selecting 14 to 72, but you can type in any whole number (ex: 23). The normal range for Karaoke is 22 to 28. The actual character in the Singers display will be 3 to 4 times larger than the point size you select, but the size is directly proportional to your selection.
  • Lines: allows 2 to 6 lines in each Lyrics page, or 2 or 3 when a graphic image is selected. (See lines discusson).
  • Style: icons select Bold, Italic, Bold Italic (both icons enabled), or Normal (both icons disabled).
  • enables or disables a text shadow. The color picker to the right selects the color.
  • Align: selects whether the lyrics lines position aligned to the left, center or right throughout the song.

Color Selections

Bkgnd is the lyrics area background color. The default is dark blue.

Border is the border color around lyrics area. The default is dark blue.

Singer1 is its text color, always used in Solo songs, and the first singer in Duet songs. The default is cyan blue.

Sweep is the color that highlights all lyrics. The default is yellow. (See Sweep Highllight).

Singer2 selects the text color for Singer2, which is only used in Duet songs as the second singer. The default is pink.

Both selects the text color for when Singer1 & Singer2 sing the same words together in Duet songs. The default is lime.

 
Sweep Highlight Choices

Text

Background
Advance Sweep moves to the left all your Spacebar and Ctrl taps so the lyric words play earlier. Then, Singers are ready for each word. The default is 0.20 (1/5th second).

Title Tab - Optional

Click any item in the images below to see more details.

If Enable this page is checked clicked checkbox, the Title page appears before the song lyrics start. It ads 10-seconds plus the Hold: time silence to delay the music and lyrics so the page can be viewed. It may overlap the starting music if the lyrics start after the music.

Title and Credits Page Text

The Title text group allows entering text to appear in the Title or Credits pages over a graphic image if one is selected. The remaining fields control the text appearance on the whole page (not on a character, word or line basis).

Text entered in the window appears on the appropriate Title or Credits page.

Vertical Align: select where the lines position on the page. You can use blank lines to "move" lines up or down on the page.

Horizontal Align: select where the text positions on the lines. You can add spaces (Spacebar key) to move the text left or right on a line.

Style: allows selecting Bold, Italic, Normal (neither selected), or Bold Italic (both selected).

Font: selects the type, either 1-byte or 2-byte Unicode fonts.

Size: selects the size of the font (14 to 72, 24 or 26 is typical).

Credits Tab - Optional

Click to show a Title Page Click to show a Lyrics Page Click to show a Credts Page Click to show a Title Page Preview window shows graphic image painting with the selected 'Draw' method Use graphic images or not Select the screen colors Text controls

If Enable this page is checked clicked checkbox , the Credit page appears after the song lyrics finish. It remains visible until the end of the music, or silence is added to allow the image to finish drawing plus the Hold: time.

Using Graphic Images in Your Song

KHPro allows adding graphic images (see examples) at the start of your song as a Title Page and at the end as a Credits Page, or at the top of the Lyrics Pages.

Follow these instructions when creating graphic images for Karaoke songs. You can capture any graphic image that appears on the Windows display and use the free Windows Paint program to create or edit graphic images.

The Browse... button displays an Open File dialog to locate and select a graphic image. Click the Remove button to remove a selected image.

Display: selects where to draw the graphic image: Top, Center, Bottom, Tiled (duplicate the image multiple times), or Stretched (resizes a small image to fill the screen).

Hold: adjusts how long the Title or Credits pages hold after either is fully drawn, before the Erase: effect removes them.

Draw: selects how the image appears: Scroll left, right, up, down; Fill left, right, up, down and Dissolve.
Note: Silence is added if the music ends and the Credits Page is still drawing.

Erase: selects for the graphic image to disappear by the same selections available for Draw. This is not available for the Credits Page as it continues to display to the end of the song plus the Hold: duration.

The Preview button button draws the image in the Preview Window as it will appear in the song.

Export Your Karaoke Song

When you like your song, you can click the File menu Export to ... Command to create a Karaoke BIN file on the hard drive.

You can change text settings before you export your song, even after you have placed the lyrics to the music. This allows you to adjust your size as large as possible yet keep lines from running off the right edge.

This warning message appears if the filename is found in the selected folder. Click Yes to overwrite the existing file, or No to terminate and enter another name.

Replace the Music with Vocal Reduced File

  1. When your lyric highlighting is acceptable, click the Edit Lyrics button and the Add Music button to find and add an audio file without vocals. This file should be the same length as the first to preserve your highlighting.
  2. Vogone reduces the vocals of most songs, and does not change the file length.
  3. You can keep using the music file with the vocals if you wish.

Create A Multiplex Song

A multiplex song has a music file with the music+vocals on one channel and the music only on the other. The advantage of this type of file is twofold: (1) you can practice with the vocals, then (2) you can perform with the music only.

Write Karaoke Songs to CDG Discs

KHPro allows you to create your CDG songs with music and lyrics. However, to write your songs to a Karaoke CDG disc, you must use MTU´s Microstudio software. Please refer to the Microstudio manual Write Disc section, which allows assembling BIN or KMA songs from any source and writing them to a new Karaoke CDG format disc.

 

Create Your Next Song

When you have exported the current song, click the File menu New Command to create another song.

If you have created a Template KPR project file, click the Open Command, locate the Template and open it. Click the Save As Command and enter the name of the new song you are creating. This does not change your Template so you can use it many times. The new KPR project file remains open to start your new song.

Duet & Music Notation Songs

With KHPro, you can create two types of duet songs with two singers (or music notation for one).

  1. Singer 1 OR Singer 2 singing, OR Both singing the same words together:

    • Singer 1 - This is the first singer who starts off the song. The default color cyan blue can be changed, which is also used when the song is Solo.
    • Singer 2 - This is the second singer who sings alone (not overlapping Singer 1). The default color pink can be changed.
    • Both - This is used when Singer 1 and Singer 2 both sing the same words at the same time. The default color lime green can be changed.
  2. Singer 1 AND Singer 2 connected to sing different words together, use the same colors as above.

Preparing Duet Lyrics

First prepare the lyrics just like a Solo song.

Steps to Place Duet Lyrics

  1. Click the Place Lyrics button where the screen shows the lyrics in the format you selected in the Settings... dialog.

    Note: The fastest way to get a good song is to place the lyrics several times, not doing it in a single pass and then adjusting the mistakes.
  2. A Singer2 line with an "&" in front is "connected" to the Singer1 line directly above. After placing all Singer1 or Both lines (Singer2 lines are not placed), the time to highight a Singer1 line is evenly distributed across the number of words in a connected Singer2 line, with both lines starting and ending the same. Use the Adjust Lyrics screen to adjust Singer2 words highlighting if they are off more than you will accept.

    If you have not added the "&" character (with or without a space) in front of each Singer2 line that is to highight with its Singer1 line above, then return to the Edit Lyrics screen and enter these now. Then place the lyrics again.
  3. Select the Singer2 line you want to adjust highlighting. Click the first word on this line so it is underlined.
  4. Press the Home key (or click Start) to start the music playing. If you click the Stop button, Start renames to Redo Lyrics. Clicking it allows placing the lyrics over again from the start.
  5. Tap the Spacebar key (or click Place Word) to place the current underlined word to the playing music. You will tap the Spacebar for every word. Blank lines are automatically placed along with the word immediately before them.
  6. Tap the Ctrl key (or click Pause Sweep) to stop sweeping a word where the singer should pause while the music continues.
  7. Tap the End key (or click the Stop) when you are done, or know you messed up and need to restart.
  8. While placing the lyrics you may see misspelled words, or decide that a word should move to the next or prior line. If so, click the Edit Lyrics button and fix it now. Some edits don't require placing again.
  9. To sit back and watch your song as it will appear on a Karaoke Display, click the Play button.
  10. If you want to adjust some of your highlight placement, click the Adjust Lyrics button.

Steps to Adjust Duet Lyrics

Screen showing adjusting a connected duet song

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Appendix

Menus and Commands

The menus are found at the very top of the display at the left side appearing as:    File    Edit    Vogone    Help    Manual.

Click a menu word to see its list of commands. The underlined letter in each menu word or command name along with the Ctrl key is the hot key (also called accelerator key) for that menu or command. For example, pressing the Ctrl key and the F key at the same time will show the File menu commands.

File Menu

  • New - Use this to create a new Project file to build a new Karaoke song.
  • Open - This openS an existing Project file on the hard drive to edit it and/or export a new song from it. Opening a different Project will close an open Project.
  • Close - This closes an open Project file so you can open a different one, or create a new one. Opening a different Project will close an open Project.
  • Save - This stores the current Project edited contents back to the Project file image on the hard drive. This can be done at any time to insure your work is safe even from a crash or power loss. Extensive checking exists to make sure you do not close a document that has not been saved.
  • Save As... - This stores the current Project edited contents as a new Project file on the hard drive, with a different file name. If the Save command was executed just before Save As..., then the two disc files are identical except for the file names.
  • Export to ... - When your song is done, click the Export to ... command to create your Karaoke song file on the hard drive. The "..." is replaced as follows;

    • BIN if the opened audio is a .wav file, or
    • MP3+G if the opened audio is a .mp3 file, or
    • WMA+G if the opened audio is a .wma file.
  • Zip Files Together - When clicked (shows a check) and exporting MP3+G or WMA+G songs, the music and lyrics files will be zipped together with the same name as the files being zipped.
  • Exit - This will stop any operations in progress and terminate KHPro so it is no longer actively running. If you have a project open and have changed it (shows an * at the end in the Title bar), you are prompted to save it. You can also exit by clicking the exit icon icon at the upper right corner of the screen, or press the Alt and F4 keys together.

Edit Menu

  • Cut - This only works in the Edit Lyrics Screen. It only functions when there is a highlighted area of text. It will remove it from the screen and copy it to the Windows clipboard. The Paste command can then be used to insert the clipboard contents wherever you have moved the text cursor to in the Text window.
  • Copy - This only works in the Edit Lyrics Screen. It will copy a highlighted area of text to the Windows clipboard. The Paste command can then be used to insert the clipboard contents at the current text cursor location in the Text window.
  • Paste - This only works in the Edit Lyrics Screen. It will insert the clipboard contents at the current text cursor location in the Text window.
  • Select All - This only works in the Edit Lyrics Screen. This selects all the text in the screen. The Cut or Copy commands can then process the selected text.
  • Settings... - This allows selecting the fonts, point sizes, colors, etc. that determines how your song looks. It displays the Settings dialog to create a Title Page, design the Lyrics appearence, and create a Credits Page if you want one.

Vogone Menu

Clicking this menu command searches for MTU's Vogone program and if found, launches it and sets its default folder to the same one used by KHPro so you can easily find the songs to remove/reduce vocals, and save them back to the same folder so you can find them in KHPro.

Help Menu

  • Check For Updates - This will launch your default Internet Browser program and access the MTU web site. This requires the computer running KHPro to be connected to the Internet. The page accessed is a script that is sent data about the version you are running so it will tell you; (1) If there is a new versoin, (2) If it is a free upgrade, or (3) If you need to order the Upgrade to be able to install it. It also lets you know if you have the current version.
  • Support - The Support command takes you to the MTU.com Support page (if your computer is on-line) where multiple forms of support are available.
  • View Registration Code - The Help menu View Registration Code command displays your Registration Code used to install Hoster on this computer.
  • About KHPro (Karaoke Home Producer) - This displays a dialog box that shows the product name, the program version number, and copyright notice.

Manual

Clicking this runs your default Internet Browser with the KHPro manual open to see. The manual is stored locally on your computer hardd drive. Blue underlined words are hyperlinks that jump you to that subject when clicked. Clicking the back arrow (at the window top left) will return you to the prior screen. Clicking the icon returns you to the main topic above, or if a main topic it returns you to the Table of Contents.

Printing The Manuals - There are 2 separate HTM documents. Click the following links (one at a time) to open each document, then click your Browser's File menu Print command.

Note: In your Internet Browser, select the Tools menu Print Preview. If words at the right border are chopped off, close the Print Preview screen and run Printer Setup. Set the left and right margins to 0.4 or 0.3 inches or equivalent. Check with Print Preview again before printing.

  1. KHPro User Manual
  2. KHPro Installation Manual

Where to Get Music Files

Consider these ways to get your music .WAV, .MP3, or .WMA files:

  1. Buy a Karaoke CDG disc with music without vocals. Use Microstudio software to import the song tracks to the hard drive.
  2. Buy an Audio CD with the vocals. Import your favorite songs from your Audio CDs with Microstudio software, then use Vogone software to vocal reduce or remove the lead singer.
    We DO NOT recomend importing CD tracks with Microsoft's Windows Media Player because it adds DRM (Digital Rights Management), which makes the .wma files incompatible with many players.
  3. Buy a Karaoke cassette tape without vocals. While playing the tape in a cassette player, use any audio card and software that records to the hard drive. Higher quality Analog to Digital converters (in the analog audio input channels) will record better music.
  4. Create your own music in a recording studio. If you have this capability, it is the best way to get exactly the music instruments you want.
  5. Create your music from MIDI files. You can download many MIDI files over the Internet and use a MIDI synthesizer to play and export them as .wav files to the hard drive.
  6. Buy the music from a recording studio. Find a studio who has the rights to the music you want. If they have it as an Audio CD use Microstudio to import the song as a .wav file, or have them give you the music as a .wav file a CDROM you can simply copy to the hard drive.
  7. Buy your song over the Internet. Most providers use .mp3 or .wma compression to make the file smaller.

File Names & Extensions

KHPro filenames can have up to 256 letters, numbers, spaces and symbols.

You can use these symbols: ` ~ ! @ # $ % & ( ) _ -

You cannot use these symbols: ^ * = + \ | [ ] { } : ; ´ " , < > / ?

.WAV Audio Files - You can use these music files on your hard drive to create Karaoke files. When open,the Export To BIN command appears in the File menu.

.MP3 Audio Files - You can use these music files on your hard drive to create Karaoke files. When open, the Export To MP3+G command appears in the File menu.

.WMA Audio Files - You can use these music files on your hard drive to create Karaoke files. When open, the Export To WMA+G command appears in the File menu.

.TXT - Lyric Text Files - The lyric words and lines are often entered into a .txt file stored on the hard drive and imported into KHPro. These can be created with the Windows Notepad or Wordpad .

.BIN - Karaoke CD+Graphics Files - These files are created by the Export to BIN command when a .wav file type is open. The audio is uncompressed.
NOTE: There are many programs that can use Karaoke BIN, MP3+G, WMA+G and ZIP format files, including Microstudio to write them to a standard Karaoke CD+G disc that plays in any Karaoke Players, or Hoster to play them at shows you host.

.MP3+.CDG - Karaoke CD+Graphics Files - KHPro can open these and use the .MP3 audio file, not the .CDG (lyrics) file. If a .MP3 music file is open, KHPro can create these files with the File menu Export to MP3+G command. The audio is compressed. See Note.

.WMA+.CDG - Karaoke CD+Graphics Files - KHPro can open these and use the .WMA audio file, not the .CDG (lyrics) file. If a .WMA music file is open, KHPro can create these files with the File menu Export to WMA+G command. The audio is compressed. See Note.

.KPR - KHPRo Project File - These hold the music filename, but not the music itself, the edited lyrics, settings and graphic images to create a CD+G song. You can Open, Save, Save As, Edit, and create a New Project files on the hard drive.

 

Installing Fonts in Windows

If the font you want does not appear in the KHPro Font: drop down list box, do the following:

  1. Click the Windows Start button
  2. Click Control Panel
  3. Double click Fonts
  4. Click the Files menu and Install New Font command.
  5. Locate the new font you have on your computer and click it. Click the OK button to install it.
  6. Fonts install in the C:/WINNT/Fonts directory for XP, or the C:/???/Fonts directory for Vista or Windows 7.
  7. Properly installed fonts will appear in the KHPro Font: list box in all three Tabs in the Settings dialog box.
There are also symbol TrueType fonts. For example, http://www.dingbatpages.com/arts/music.html has a Fret Charts Font (part of it is shown here). Using this as the font, you can insert the appropriate Chord Chart "character" in sync to the audio. The created song then highlights when that chord is to play. The full font set is included in your KHPro/karaoke graphic images/frets.zip folder.
 

Requirements for CD+G Graphic Images

Text lines for song titles or credits can either be embedded in the graphic image when it is created, or the text can be entered in the area that writes over top of the graphic images. If a graphic image is not selected, the text will show on the selected background color.

A graphic image on a page will establish the 16 colors that can be selected for the lyrics and sweep colors on that page.

You cannot have a graphic image behind lyric lines that are sweeping.

IMPORTANT POINT: Larger images or images with more colors take longer to draw on the Karaoke display.

KHPro automatically delays the music playing until after a Title Page and its selected Hold: time have appeared.

Image Types can be: BMP, JPG, GIF, TIF and PNG.

Image Size should be 288 pixels wide by 192 pixels high. Images for the Lyrics area must be 288px W by 96px H or smaller. Smaller images can be positioned on the display area in several ways, including stretching to fit. Larger images are automatically scaled down to fit. Some loss of quality may be visible if the image size is reduced.

Image Colors

Images must be either 8-bits (256 colors) or 4-bits (16 colors) format, and should have 10 colors or less out of the 4,096 colors allowed in CDG songs. KHPro will not recognize 16-bit or 24-bit images at all. When a graphic image is imported into the Title Page, Lyrics or Credits Page, the colors are modified to the closest match of these 4,096 colors.

KHPro allows you to independently change the colors for the Border, Background, Text Color, Text Shadow, and Sweep Color, all set in the Settings... dialog. The color pickers only show the 4,096 CDG supported colors.

Click and drag in the spectrum color area to move the "O" picker. The vertical density control at the right adjusts the color density, with black at the bottom showing no color at all. The square box at the upper right shows your color selection. Click the OK button to set that color for the parameter you selected.

Note: Most Karaoke CDG players support the standard CDG specification palette that KHPro maps. However, a very few map the 16 palette colors to different screen controls. For example, they may use the text color for the highlight sweep color.

Red-Green-Blue colors use only these values: 0 16  32  48  64  80  96  112  128  144  150  166  182  198  214  230. NOTE: The KHPro color selector above has been modified to only display 0-15 allowed by 4-bit colors.

Hexadecimal colors use only these values: 00  10  20  30  40  50  60  70  80  90  A0  B0  C0  D0  E0  F0

To make two colors the same, select the color for one, write down the R-G-B settings and type them in for the other's color.

Capturing Graphic Images

Windows has a built-in feature that allows capturing images on the computer display.

  1. Run Windows
  2. Run the application program that will display the image you want to capture.
  3. Load the image so you can see it in the application program window.
  4. Move the mouse arrow so it is within the application program window borders.
  5. Press and hold the Alt-key and then press the Print Screen button (above the Insert and Delete keys). NOTE: DO NOT press the Shift key with Print Screen.
  6. The application window showing the image is captured and saved in the Windows Clipboard.
  7. If you do not press the Alt key when you press the Print Screen button it captures the entire display image, not just the application window with the mouse in it.

You can then paste and edit the image in the Windows Paint program.

Reduce Images to 16 Colors

Graphic image files in GIF format can be color reduced, and even resized at the free http://www.gifworks.com/cgi-bin/gifworks.pl web site.

Use Windows Paint to change a BMP (also GIF, JPG) graphic image into a 16 color (4-bits) format file that KHPro can use.

  1. Run the Windows Paint program. Other Graphics Creation programs should have similar capabilities.
  2. Click the File menu Open command.
  3. Find the folder holding your BMP graphic images and find the desired BMP file. Click the Open button.
  4. Click the File menu Save As command. At the bottom of this dialog, click the Save As Type: field arrow and select 16 Color Bitmap (*.bmp, *dib). Click the Save button.
  5. Enter a name for you new 16 color image.
  6. Click Yes in the dialog box that appears warning that "some color information may be lost".
  7. Your new image is now stored in 16 color BMP format that KHPro can open.
  8. You can now:
    • Change the image to make it the right size for Karaoke (Image menu, Attributes command, change the Width and Height settings)
    • Replace colors
    • Optionally add text in any font, point size, bold-italic, color (you can also add the text in the KHPro Settings command).
    • Import clip art images to overlay on the image as transparent or overwriting what is below it
    • Click the Help menu and Help Topics for more instructions

Windows Paint Program

This free program that comes with every version of Windows allows creating and editing graphic bitmap (.bmp) images. Using it takes some skill to learn its features. Follow these steps to run the Paint program:

  1. Click the Start button in the bottom right corner of the Windows screen It is usually there, but it may have been moved elsewhere around the screen border.
  2. Click the Programs item, then the Accessories Item.
  3. Click the Paint program icon.
  4. You should see the Paint screen as to the right.

 

Paste and Edit an Image in Paint

Follow these steps to paste and edit an image you have saved in the Windows Clipboard:

  1. Run Paint as described above.
  2. Click the Edit menu and then the Paste item.
  3. A message might appear stating: "The image in the clipboard is larger than the bitmap. Would you like the bitmap enlarged?" If you click yes you get all the image. You can make it smaller later. If you click No, you can move the larger image around in the smaller bitmap area, but if the area is too small you will not get all the image you want.
  4. At this time, the entire image area is selected with a dotted box around it. Click any control on the left side to remove this selection.
  5. If there is graphic content along with the image that you want to cut out, do the following:
    1. Click the Select tool at left.
    2. Move the mouse arrow to any of the four corners of the image that you want, not including the unwanted graphic material.
    3. Click and hold the mouse left button and drag the dotted line rectangular box to the corner that is diagonally opposite the corner you started with. For example, if you first click at the top left corner, click and drag to the bottom right corner to include then desired image.
    4. Even if you are careful, you may get some additional material that you do not want. That is alright as you can remove it in the next steps below.
  6. Do not press any key at this time, or click the mouse left button or it will undo the dotted box selection.
  7. With the dotted box still selecting the image area you want to use, click the Edit menu and the Copy To: item at the bottom.
  8. This will display a dialog box that allows you to select where to store the selected image area. Click the Save button after you have selected where to save it.
  9. Once saved, you can edit the image further.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Sweep Highlighting is Delayed

Problem #1: In Windows XP, it has been reported in random cases that after tapping the Spacebar to place each lyric word, the sweep highlighting can be 2.5 to 3.0 seconds delayed. The delay can appear in the Play window, the Microstudio Play Window, or in the created .cdg file written to a CDG disc and played in a Karaoke Player.

Solution #1: Modify the Advance Sweep field value. For example, if the sweep is 2.5 seconds delayed, enter 2.5 in the Advanced Sweep field.

Problem #2: After tapping the Spacebar to place each lyric word, the sweep highlighting can be 10 to 12 seconds delayed at the start of the song, and continue through the song. The delay will appear in the Play window, the Microstudio Play Window, and will be in the created .cdg file written to a CDG disc and played in a Karaoke Player.

Solution #2: Click the Edit menu Settings... Command - Title Page Tab Enable this page check box to OFF (no check). This will disable the 10 to 12 second delay that is automatically added before the lyrics start drawing and sweeping.

Wrong Colors Appear

If the colors are way off from what you expect. You need to change the Video Card color resolution. Usually when the colors are off, this is set to 8-bit color. We suggest you set it to 16-bit or 32-bit color (24-bit is not recommended?????).

 

Version Changes

There are two ways to determine the version number in KHPro:

  1. Click the Help menu About KHPro... command and the dialog box will show the version number.
  2. In Windows Explorer, right click the filename and select Properties. Click the Version tab to see the version number.

5.00 Release August 15,2010

  1. NEW - Open LRC Lyrics Files - The .LRC files contain lyrics on lines in ASCII with a "time-stamp" at the start of each line. Hoster strips the timing data and uses the lyrics only. When a [chorus lyrics] is found with multiple timing data such as: [01:02:003] [02:03:003] [03:23:100], the chorus lyric line is copied and inserted into the song at each timing setting, before the timing data is discarded.
  2. NEW - Windows 7 - This release has been upgraded to run on Windows 7.
  3. NEW - Support ZIP Output Formats - In the Files menu, there is a "ZIP files together" check command. When checked, the created files (MP3+G or WMA+G) are zipped.
  4. NEW - Expoer File Checks for Name Conflict - If you try to save over an existing file name, you are warned of this, but you can approve or cancel overwritting. If there is a .cdg file with the same name, it too is checked and a notice is given to prevent accidental overwriting.
  5. NEW - Create Duet Songs - You can now create duets where only one singer is singing at a time, or Both sing the same lyrics, or both sing different lyrics at the same time.

    1. Singer Buttons Background Colors – These are now set from the selections in the Settings Lyrics Tab when Duet is selected before placing the lyrics.
    2. In the Text Lyrics screen, add a "&" at the start of each Singer2 line, where that line is to sing along with the Singer1 line above.
    3. In the Place Lyrics screen, all lyrics are tapped in sequentially in one pass. Lines starting with "&" are automatically set to the same Start-End timing in the song as the Singer1 line above.
    4. In the Adjust Lyrics screen, After Placing the lyrics you can adjust the simultaneous Singer2 line(s) timing so the words highlight to the music, still starting and ending with their Singer1 line above.
    5. Assign Singer 1, 2 and Both Line Colors - You can assign the Singer colors to their lines at any time in any order; not forced sequential assigning.
  6. NEW - Vogone Button on Menu Bar - When used to launch Vogone, the default folder in KHPro is set for Vogone so you can easily find and save files into this same folder. Using Vogone you can remove/reduce the vocals in your song, and also create a Mulitplex song to give you the most flexibility.
  7. NEW - Create Multiplex Songs - You can place lyrics with music containing vocals, then, when done you can import another music file without the vocals. If that file is a Multiplex file (created by Vogone), then you will create a Multiplex CDG song with the lyrics.
  8. CHANGED - Settings Dialog:

    1. Lyrics Tab????
    2. Title Tab????
    3. Credits Tab????

      1. Text controls group reorganized.
      2. Dither: removed as this didn't really have a positive effect on a graphic image.
      3. Transition In: renamed to Draw to better show what this field does.
      4. Transition Out: renamed to Erase to better show what this field does.
      5. Preview button moved to the bottom right of the Preview screen.
      6. Color buttons moved into a Colors group so you can see all the colors and how they match.
      7. None button renamed to Remove to better indicate what it does.
      8. Display For: field title renamed to Hold: to better indicate what it does.
    4. ????
    5. ????
  9. NEW - Singer Color Buttons - In the Adjust Lyrics dialog, the Singer1 Singer2, and Both buttons now show the selected colors. Clicking one of these instantly assignes the selected line (contains the underlined word) to that Singer and the line color changes. If you change the color assignments in the Settings > Lyrics Tab, the lines and buttons change colors too.
  10. CHANGED - Display Adjusts for Graphics - If you select a Graphic in the Lyrics Settings, then the screen is automatically divided in half, with the graphic on the top, and the lyrics on the bottom. The available Lines: values will also adjust if you select/remove the graphic image.
  11. NEW - Singer 1, 2 and Both Separately Colored - Each line in the Adjust Lyrics display screen is colored with the selected Singer's color.
  12. NEW - Open More Audio File Formats - You can now open MP3, WMA, and WAV format files.
  13. NEW - Output More File Formats - The opened music file type sets the output file type.

    1. If WAV open – Exports a BIN file.
    2. If MP3 open - Exports an MP3+G file or Zip file.
    3. If WMA open - Exports an WMA+G file or Zip file.
  14. CHANGE - "Screen" Out of Bottom Buttons - "Screen" didn't aid in understanding and made the buttons confusing. They are now: Edit Lyrics, Place Lyrics, Adjust Lyrics, Play Final.
  15. REMOVED - View Menu - The 4 Screen buttons are now available at the bottom, with one-button click to display that screen. It was not instantly clear which screen you were in. Now, the current Screen's button shows a green background.
  16. New - KPR Project File Format - Opening a pre-existing KPR project automatically imports and converts it into the new format. A new area was added to the end of the existing project to allow for; Solo/Duet mode, Singer2 color, Both color, Version# of this KPR format, and room for future changes.
  17. UPGRADED - Migrate Projects from the Previous Version - Older (4.xx) projects can be opened and will migrate to the new 5.00 level. Some options will be set to their default values. Any project older than 4.xx will be rejected.
  18. FIXED - Audition Play - In version 4.11, Audition only played the "Defined Area" and stopped. It now plays through the song from the start or from any word you click to start playing from. When you see a word highlighting too early or late, press the Spacebar to stop play and select that word (shows underlined).
  19. FIXED - Adjust Lyrics Screen Audition Play Doesn’t Play - Before, you would hear a quarter-second at the start as a blip and silence after that.
  20. FIXED - Adjust Lyrics Screen "Adjust Play" Doesn’t Adjust - In v4.11, Adjust Play didn't change the underlined word(s) timing when < or > were tapped. You can now again adjust the highlight start or end.

4.11 Released September 29, 2008

  1. Added Ability to Move KHPro To Another Computer - With the computer running KHPro on-line, run the installation program select REMOVE, and continue to the final "Finish" button. This will remove KHPro from this computer, and free it up at the MTU Registration database to install on a different computer. This function is designed for those who want to move KHPro to a new computer.
  2. Added Improved View Registration Code Command - This command now shows the CPU Name of this computer that you can tell MTU Support when you need help so we can identify which computer to reference.

Copyright Notice & Right to Change

COPYRIGHT 2001, 2002, 2003 by Micro Technology Unlimited - This product is copyrighted. This includes the manual, programs and specifications. The customer may only make one BACKUP copy of the software for his/her own use. The copyright notices must be added to and remains intact on all such backup copies. The manual in part or entirety may not be copied without prior written permission from Micro Technology Unlimited. This product may not be reproduced for use with systems that are sold or rented without prior written consent from MTU.

Notice of Changes - MTU reserves the right to make changes to the product and specifications described in this manual at any time without notice. MTU reserves the right to charge for upgrades.

Ship/Mail Address: MTU, 6900 Six Forks Rd., Suite 101, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, 27615

Web Address: http:\\www.mtu.com, Customer Support, and KHPro Open Forum

 

Sample Graphic Images

When KHPro installs, it adds the following graphic images to the C:\Program Files\Micro Technology Unlimited\KHPro\Manual\Karaoke Graphic Images folder on your hard drive. You can use them for an idea of what CD+Graphics can do.

Images Half-Images
colorful border.bmp
spotlight.bmp
female singer.bmp
female singer half center.bmp


female singer half.bmp
fireworks.bmp
fireworks half.bmp
group.bmp
group half center.bmp

group half.bmp
male singer.bmp
male singer half.bmp
pnkpanther.bmp
pnkpanther half.bmp
stars.bmp
stars half.bmp
 

License Agreement

Micro Technology Unlimited (MTU), hereby grants the buyer a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use KHPro (Karaoke Home Producer) "the product" on one Central Processing Unit only. Parts of this license that do not apply to any Demo version are considered severable, but all ownership, liabilities and limitations under this agreement continue to apply.

I agree that I will not disclose my Registration Code that unlocks the installation of the code, or my provided download link to access the code. I will protect my serial number and hold it secret. I understand that if my serial number is disclosed to anyone else or to the public that I will be held responsible for the damage to MTU.

I agree that by running the product and installing it on my single computer, I fully accept all clauses of this agreement and will abide by them for as long as I possess the product. I may at any time remove my single installed copy and return all copies of the product in my possession to MTU without refund, and state in writing that I no longer use, possess or own a copy of the product, thus terminating my rights and restrictions under this agreement. Notwithstanding, all clauses that hold MTU harmless from my use or prior use of this product remain in legally binding effect.

I agree that the product name, logos, software, documentation and other materials are copyrighted and trademarked and are entirely owned by MTU as trade secret proprietary information.

I agree to not attempt to override the security protection in the software. I further agree not to decode or attempt to decipher the code for the intent of duplicating its function. I further agree not to remove any product identification or copyright notices or other such proprietary restrictions from MTU products, screen images, manuals, etc.

I agree that I will only make one archival back-up copy of the product for my personal use. Copying of codes, disks or documentation for any other purpose is strictly prohibited, and prosecutable under the law. I understand my rights under this agreement terminate if I distribute the product in any form via any means without the written permission of MTU.

I understand and agree that violation of this agreement can cause unlimited financial damage to MTU, which will be legally binding upon me.

I agree that if I use the product in any way that would violate copyright law or any other legal statute of the United States of America, or any other country, I will hold MTU harmless for my actions, if any legal consequences or suit are brought against me or MTU because of my actions.

I AGREE THAT MTU OR ITS CONTRACTORS OR SUPPLIERS SHALL NOT IN ANY CASE BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR OTHER SIMILAR DAMAGES ARISING FROM MY BREACH OF THESE WARRANTIES, EVEN IF MICRO TECHNOLOGY UNLIMITED OR ITS AGENT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

This means that MTU is not responsible for any costs, including, but not limited to, those incurred as a result of lost profits or revenue, loss of use of the product, loss of data, costs of regenerating lost data, the cost of any substitute product, claims by any party other than me, legal costs incurred, or for any other costs. I understand that some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to me.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, MTU and its suppliers disclaim all other warranties, representations, promises and guarantees either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. MTU will not be liable for any bug, error, defect or error of any kind in this software. As a result this software is provided "AS IS". This limited warranty gives the purchaser specific legal rights. These rights may vary from state or jurisdiction to state or jurisdiction.

I agree that MTU's liability for damages to me or others resulting from the use of the product shall not exceed the amount of the non-exclusive license fee I have paid to MTU under this Agreement for the use of the product.

Trademarks: Karaoke Pro, KPro Karaoke Home Producer, KHPro, MTU, Microstudio, Vogone, and Keyrite are trademarks of Micro Technology Unlimited. Hoster is a Registered Mark of Micro Technology Unlimited. Windows, Windows 2000, Windows XP Home or Pro are trademarks of Microsoft. If there are any others we have omitted, please notify us.

 
Micro Technology Unlimited, 8390 Six Forks Road, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, 27615
Web site: http://www.mtu.com/
 

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