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Beta-testers needed for a new karaoke hoster/player I'm developing

Ok, I just upped version 0.48 which should be Vista compatible now (crossing my fingers). PLEASE USE THIS VERSION AS .47 had a bug with zipped file import!

Scott: if you look at the first post on this thread, you will see the list of all the things this software does. It has some features that S&D doesn't (venues and favorites and AN EMBEDDED PLAYER to name a few).

And, believe me, there are enough significant differences between S&D and mine to warrant its own stature. I have a lot of repect for the developer of S&D. I used his software for years and liked its simplicity. I modeled the layout of Flex after S&D but added more and different functionality.

Joker: I appreciate your efforts in helping me test out the software. At this point, I need to focus on just getting this to run stable in XP and Vista. When that is completed, I will visit new features. If you have time, fill in a wish list entry on my message board.

Guys, at this point in the game, it's premature to say, what does my software offer. It will offer a lot more once I get it working for all Windows users. Believe me, I have a lot more planned for this program, but since it's just me developing it and I'm not some software giant, I'm humbly asking you guys to give it a test run and report bugs and suggestions. This software does NOT alter the registry (it does check it, however, to make sure you have .NET 3.5 SP1 installed) or register any exotic ActiveX controls. It is very self-contained. If you tested it, sent me a bug report and decide not right for you, then uninstall it, and thanks for the help. Those who help me along the way will get one free liscence for the software when it's in release form.

Thanks again for your interest,

Ryan
 
As soon as someone gets it to run on Vista, I'll be giving some feedback. Looking forward to seeing what it looks like.
 
Why not get the file and try it yourself? Have you tried V 0.48?

That's the whole point of this is to get Vista (and XP) users to install and fill bugs here of what's not working!

If it crashes, just uninstall. This app does not mess with the registry settings or activex embeds. It's self-contained.

Thanks,

Ryan
 
machine used: windows xp, pen 4 3GZ 1g ram

ver used .48

my background: used to do a lot of karaoke at bars...now i don't do a lot at all. Only karaoke software i've used on a regular basis is S&D. I have karaoke ability in OTS, but never really used it due to lack of hosting ability. I bought pcdjfx with kj plug inwhen it first came out but it crashed on a regular basis, so i never used it at a gig.

my review of flex:

works great. very simple. i agree that it looks similar to s&d but has features S&D does not.

i like:
simple--very quick learning curve...buttons very obvious
no winamp
2 screens
history
venue stuff
favorites....can have multiple favorite lists...like one for each venue.

things i would like to see:
1)options to have it start playing when i double click on a singer
2)options to to be able to double click on anyone in the rotation to load them without having to make them the top in the rotation.
3) key changer..probably most important

"stop and select next" did not work like i thought it would. I thought it would stop the song and load the next, but it just stopped the song.

when i click on singer to load the song...i sometimes hear about a half a second of the song start to play and then stops and then is ready when i hit play. i could see that being annoying through the loud speakers.

none of these things are showstoppers for me
I ran it while online...with several browsers open...it had no problems

overall though, I would say, very simple, direct, worked great. Especially for not even being at version 1 yet.

And I will say this. Features are nice, but if they bog down the computer, or give it the temptation to crash, or all the added features make it complex or expensive due to the time needed to make all the added features work and be stable, then it's not worth it to me.


hope that helps. nice job!
 
few other things i like about S&D.

i don't have to add a singer's name. most of the karaoke i do nowadays is at corporate parties. sometimes someone comes up...and they want to change their song right there...i'd like to be able to find the song and get it to play ASAP...so not having to add the name and being able to select the song without having to move it up would be nice.

again...not a big deal...cause i know i can load the song...then hit "top" and play the song from there. that may be just more of a function of what i am used to.

another feature i use when i do an old folks home is the "restart" button, with flex i have to hit 2 buttons...stop and then play....think of the time savings:sqwink:
when i write this...it seems like little nit-picky stuff.
 
Fishback, I offered to give you my feedback once it's running on Vista. Like you, I'm very busy and I just don't have that much time. I'm sure that once I can run the program you will get some valuable feedback from me. This is all I can offer you. I can't be a full time Beta tester.

You'll get more responses and better quality suggestions here than nearly any other place you try.

So just sit back, relax, and we'll help you tweak your program. If you listen to these guys, you'll have the most popular features in a logical layout that should appeal to most users. There are some very experienced people here.
 
Wizard: I'm counting on that. Based on the quality of posts in here, I know I came to the right place!

Scott: Glad you found the software useful. Your report was excellent and gave me good feedback and a direction to go next. BTW, how fast was your song import? Really curious how is stacks up against other software.

The autoload feature will be added next. But first, I gotta get this Vista compatibility working (driving me nuts). I'm going to my mom's house right now to get the thing working (if v 0.48 doesn't work already).

jokerswild: dude, I was driving home today and thought of a pretty **** good idea for true rotation that will fit in my layout with a few tweaks. The biggest thing is making suring it doesn't over complicate and I may have an idea that will work. I'd like to send some privtae messages to you and bounce the idea off. Then, when i think it's doable, I'll post here and see waht others think.

Thanks all!

Ryan
 
fishbox said:
Scott: Glad you found the software useful. Your report was excellent and gave me good feedback and a direction to go next. BTW, how fast was your song import? Really curious how is stacks up against other software.

Ryan
Click to expand...

ryan,
i only loaded about 30 songs. I will try loading a whole library and report back.

again, nice job!
 
V0.48 WORKS ON VISTA!

Hey guys,
I'm at my mom's house right now and .48 installed and worked fine on my mom's Vista computer! I installed and ran in BOTH with UAC on and off. Worked both times!

Getting excited here! PLEASE! All you Vista users, get v0.48 from my message board and try it out!

www.sunrisehypno.com/flex/index.php

Scott, NP, look forward to hearing how fast it is when you try a big library.

BTW, noticed with 2 gig of RAM on this quad core pentium, the program only used 10-12% CPU cycles on Vista even with two screens running and one at full screen!

Ryan
 
axhmns

If someone could just post a yay or nay about whether v0.48 worked on Vista, I'd apprecaite it. I'm sticking around my mom's for awhile hoping to get verification from otehr users out there.

Scott, do I have your permission to copy your post on V.48 to my message board?

BTW, only posts directly related to Flex will be asked to put on my message board.
MY MESSAGE BOARD WILL NOT BE USED AS A GENERAL KARAOKE MESSAGE BOARD!

That's what this fine board is for!

Thanks,

Ryan
 
ive never really done any Karaoke and i am mostly just a regular DJ
im not sure how valuable my feedback will be but i own vista and i can see if it works
i can also tell you how user friendly your program is from a person who would like to get into Karaoke DJing

i can tell you things i found easy about the program and things i didnt understand
soo you can have some kind of news how this will work out as a starting program for people

go into live chat and we can discuss more fluently
 
Ok, here's some feedback,
The program installs and loads under vista, good job, that's progress.
When the program launched I was pleased with the way it looked. Simple, not cluttered or complex. However, when I resized the two boxes on the right I was unable to read or see the buttons that were on the right. They didn't mocve to the left.

I tried to load a song database and it's very slow. I also got some cryptic error message which I didn't copy, but I will when I have more time, I'll cut and paste.

So far I haven't been able to play a song yet, but I'll fool around with it more . . .

I was unable to drag a file from an open folder into the player as I can do with nearly any other karaoke program or any media player. This is an important feature IMO.

Here is the error message I get when I try to load a folder of songs.

Songdatabase

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.
String Truncation: max=10, len 13, value='All My Loving'

I went back and it won't load a song database at all now. I have no way to get songs or even a song into the player.
 
Can I still get in on this?

I run over 1200 weekly karaoke shows a year, and have beta tested PCDJ, Sax N Dotty, Roxbox, Kjams Pro, Virtual DJ, and several other apps.

I'm always looking for something better than what I use (I am thotoughly satisfied with roxbox)

But I'd love to be involved in yet another development project, as it's only a matter of time before someone finally gets all the features into one program. if you're open to detail oriented input, I'm game..

Thanks!
 
Steve, just go to the first post in this thread and go to his bulletin board and register, then download the most recent beta version and you're off to the races. Post your comments here or to his BB and I'm sure he will be very pleased and thankful for your input.
 
The Wizard Of OZ said:
Steve, just go to the first post in this thread and go to his bulletin board and register, then download the most recent beta version and you're off to the races. Post your comments here or to his BB and I'm sure he will be very pleased and thankful for your input.
Click to expand...

You bet I will. Always looking for experienced beta-testers.

OK update: I have done some preliminary testing on v0.49 which has auto-load feature so you don't have to double-click on the rotation list on the next song load (you just hit play) but, I'm considering adding expanding somh database import functionality to cope with different file formats.

Wizard, your problem is one or more of your files is not following the DISID-TRACK-ARTIST-SONG format. The software needs to see those three -'s to imprt correctly. That's why I'll probably wait to roll out v0.49 until I have that handled. What do you guys think?

OK, now some bad news: I discovered very recently that the embedded VLC player I use to generate the lyrics on screen is liscenced as a GPL application, which means if I use it, I have to make my software GPL (open source). Sorry guys, not prepared to do that. Eventually I do plan to market this software and don't want to run into any legal issues.

So, I am coding my own custom CDG reader from scratch (with some help from some good coders). It's going to take awhile, but when I get it done, I'll know CDG decoding inside and out and can handle issues with it if they arise.

I may just wait until I have my new CDG player done before posting any new revisions. My apologies for the delay but I WILL be working diligently to get it working better than ever!

Ryan
 
ryan, I'm not a programmer, so there is a lot I don't know, but why not use winamp like Sax and Dotty's and autokdj do?

What I like about Sax and Dotty's is that it's on top of winamp with it's own interface and that's exactly what I don't like about autokdj.

An overlay on top of winamp or Spider player or Quintessential player or DJ Mix Pro would be my preference, but I'm not a programmer and I'm sure there are a lot of considerations.

As far as those files not playing because of the way they are tagged or whatever you said is preventing them, they load and play in all the other programs I use.
 
OK, I'm in.

I'll download the program and take it over to the warehouse where I keep my gear on Friday (day off).

I've got tons of karaoke on the machine so it should be a good test.

Also, in a former life I was a software test engineer. This will get the professional approach.
 
so when performing your tests Thom will it be as a PArt Time Professional/Retired Professional or a Hobbyist? LOL sorry I couldnt resist you leaving yourself wide open. Wam Bam Thank Ya Mam!!
 
Hey guys,

Didn't want to go for too long without posting an update.

I have been hard at work replacing the VLC player for cdg/mp3 playback (it was buggy and crashed a few times on me anyway) and was able to create a cdg player from scratch! It took a lot of work (and several soft fruit thrown at the monitor) to get it implemented. I researched several different ways and found a gaming graphics plugin was the best option for me. It allows multiple graphics modes (DirectX 8/9, Open GL, software rendering) AND it uses 3d graphics to create the lyrics which is way less CPU and resource intensive. I'm still working on integrating it into Flex but expect an updated version out within a week.

version 0.55 will include:
- SongKey changer (by popular demand!)
- multiple file format importer (I know, I know!)
- Autoload (one song ends, next one gets autoloaded to player

Thanks for your patience and hope to get a new round of testing done.

Ryan
 
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