Live Show

Your main screen for running a night. Three areas, left to right: Song Search, the player, and the right panel with Singer Rotation, Song Requests and Background Music. The dividers between them drag, and the app remembers where you put them.

Song Search

Search box

Type any part of an artist or title — results appear as you type. Arrow keys move through the suggestion list, Enter accepts, Escape dismisses. The ✕ Clear search button empties the box and the results.

Version column

Shows which pressing is selected and how many exist — SC (5) means the Sound Choice version of five available. Double-click a row (or use the right-click menu) to pick a different version.

Getting a song to a singer

Drag the song onto a singer in the rotation, or right-click it — the menu shows Choose Version… on top and every singer's name below. One click adds it.

Now Playing (the player)

CD+G preview

Shows exactly what the room sees — including KaraFun songs when mirroring is on. The current app version sits in the bottom-right corner.

Play / Pause / Stop / Skip

Stop (single click) fades the song out and brings the background music back. Double-click Stop does the same with a slow 5-second fade. Skip ends the song and moves on. How fast Stop/Skip fade is set in Settings.

Seek, volume, key and tempo

Key (±12) and tempo are per song — they reset when the next song starts. A singer's key is remembered: sing a song two semitones down tonight and it comes back two down next time, automatically.

Auto-advance countdown

If Singer Auto-Advance is on, a large green countdown appears over the preview when a song ends. Click it (or the button below) to cancel; pressing Play on anything also cancels it.

Karafun Options row

Appears beside the Key and Tempo controls when KaraFun is enabled. Reset KF Display snaps KaraFun's second screen back into place — restores it from fullscreen or minimized, re-matches it to your Player Window and fixes which screen is on top; try it first. Restart KF closes the KaraFun player and brings it back connected — without touching your rotation — if it ever stops responding.

Singer Rotation

Adding singers

Type a name and press Add — known names are suggested as you type (Enter accepts the highlight, Enter again adds). An empty box opens a name prompt instead.

Order and colors

The top singer is up next (blue bar); the one currently singing shows a green bar. Reorder by dragging rows, with ▲▼, or Move Selected Singer to Top. Rotate sends the top singer to the bottom (for someone who isn't ready).

Each row

Shows the singer and their next song. Double-click opens their song queue (reorder, remove, set a key with ▲▼, right-click a song to switch versions). The ⏱ button opens their history — every song they've sung, with dates; double-click an entry to queue it again.

Right-click a singer

Rename (their history follows the new name), View Song History, and Set Active/Inactive. An inactive singer keeps their place and queue but is skipped by everything — shown in red — until you set them active again.

Play Next

Starts the first active singer's next song. Singers move to the bottom when their song ends, not when it starts — while someone sings, the list still shows it's their turn.

Song Requests

The panel

One row per patron, with a green Connected: CODE badge when signed in. The Ver column shows which pressing would be queued — a red dash means the song isn't in your library (you'll get close-match suggestions).

Double-click a request

Opens the request window: pick which rotation singer gets the songs (with a Rename button to make the singer match the patron's name — needed for their "you're up next" notifications), Add Selected (ctrl+click for several), or Add All. Queued requests leave the online queue automatically; when the last one is dispatched the window closes itself.

Right-click a request

Queue as: — pick exactly which pressing to use for that request.

Background Music

Manage…

The playlist manager: browse folders (with search), build named playlists, drag tracks in, reorder, shuffle. Use This Playlist applies it — if the playing track survives into the new list, the music never stops.

Play/Stop and Next

The playlist pauses automatically when a karaoke song starts and fades back in — same track, same position — when it ends. Pressing Play during a song doesn't blast music over a singer: the track arms (shown yellow) and starts when the song finishes.

Fade in / Fade out

Separate times (0–30s) for how the music enters and leaves. ▲▼ nudge the selected track; rows also drag to reorder.

Song Database

Scan Folders

Add every folder that holds your karaoke files (.zip and .cdg+.mp3), then scan. Subfolders are included. Rescan after adding new songs — your library is remembered between sessions.

The grid and its search box

Your whole library. This search box is separate from Live Show's — filtering here never touches what you see mid-show. ✕ Clear shows the full library again.

KF column

Ticked rows also exist in the KaraFun catalog (when KaraFun is enabled), so one search covers your files and KaraFun together.

File names

The scanner reads DISC-TRACK - Artist - Title style names. If your files are named inconsistently, the Song Mapper tab can identify and fix them.

Settings

Songbook Connection

Sign in

Your host account email and password. Once connected, patron requests flow to the Live Show tab (refreshing every 30 seconds), your rotation publishes to the songbook, and your show code appears in the Song Requests header. The password is remembered so the app reconnects automatically at startup. Note: five wrong passwords locks the account for five minutes.

Software Update (top-right corner)

Shows your version and checks for a new one. Updates download quietly and apply the next time the app starts — never mid-show. Your songs, singers and settings are never touched.

Disc Brand Preference

Brand priority

When a song exists on several brands, the highest brand in this list is auto-selected. Edit Priority… opens a visual editor listing every brand in your library with its full name and song count — drag rows (or use the arrows) and Save. Sits below the Songbook Connection in the left column.

Playback & Rotation (right column)

Stop/Skip Fade Out

How many seconds a song eases out when you press Stop or Skip (0–5). 0 cuts instantly — which can land as an audible pop through a PA.

Singer Auto-Advance

Off by default. When on, the next singer starts automatically a few seconds after a song ends — with a click-to-cancel countdown on the player.

CompuHost

Import From CompuHost…

Brings your singer history across — every singer, their songs, and remembered key changes. See the note at the end of the Setup guide.

System Backup

Export Backup…

One zip with everything you own: song database, singer history, rotation, playlists, settings, venues and song map.

Import Backup…

Restores that zip — for moving to a new machine. Your current data is safety-backed-up automatically first, then the app restarts with the imported copy.

KaraFun

Everything for playing KaraFun subscription songs alongside your own files. The Setup guide walks through first-time configuration.

Enable Karafun Integration

The master switch. The app finds your KaraFun Player install automatically; if it can't, use Locate… to point at the player once.

Test Internet Speed

A quick download test. "KaraFun is lagging" is almost always venue wifi, not the machine — this settles which. Below ~6 Mbps, queue songs early so they download ahead.

Show KaraFun lyrics in my CD+G display

Mirrors KaraFun's picture inside your own display window, so your banner, QR code and branding stay on screen during KaraFun songs. Off means KaraFun's own window is the audience screen during its songs (the app manages putting it in front and away automatically).

Start KaraFun with the Hoster (recommended)

Launches and connects KaraFun during your setup time, so the first song of the night doesn't wait on a cold start.

Mirror quality

Smooth / Balanced / Light — lower it if mirroring stutters on a weaker laptop. Only applies while mirroring is on.

Download queued KaraFun songs ahead of time

Songs already in singers' queues download while they wait, so they play from local storage instead of streaming over venue wifi. It only fetches songs you queued anyway.

Karafun Song Catalog — Import

Pulls the full KaraFun song list into your database so KaraFun songs show up in your searches. The catalog comes from the songbook server's weekly mirror when you're signed in — and when KaraFun adds new songs, the app tells you an update is ready; one click brings your database current.

Audio

Audio Output

Pick which output device the app plays through (your PA interface rather than laptop speakers). Switching devices mid-session keeps the background music's position. KaraFun plays through its own audio settings, inside the KaraFun player.

Banner

Venue

Venue profiles

Everything audience-facing on this tab — banner wording, QR code, idle screen, screen fit — saves as a named venue. Type a name and Save; pick one from the list to load it. Arriving at a regular room becomes one click.

Scrolling Banner

The strip along the bottom of the display

Lists who's coming up. The format uses tokens: {showcode} (what patrons type in), {hostname}, {count}, and per-entry {singernumber} {name} {artist} {title}. Speed, number of singers shown, height and font are all adjustable.

Up Next Display

Show who is up next between songs

Puts the next singer's name across the middle of the room's screen the moment a song ends — for the singer who isn't watching the screen. The lyrics cover it when the next song starts. Size is a share of the screen's height.

Background Banner

Background Image

Your backdrop between songs (JPG/PNG/GIF). Stretch fills the screen exactly, Fit keeps the image's shape, Fill and crop covers without distorting.

Background Text

Text drawn over the idle screen — your name or the venue's — with font, color, position and size (as a share of screen height, so it reads the same on a projector as on your preview).

QR Code Overlay

The code patrons scan to reach your songbook. It fills in automatically with your show page when you sign in (only if the box is empty). Position, alignment, and size — again as a share of screen height, so it stays scannable from the back of the room.

Display

Screen Fit

For a venue TV that cuts off the edges of the picture. Shrink/Grow move all four edges at once; the per-edge arrows fix a screen cropped unevenly. Saved with the venue, because it describes their TV.

Song Mapper

What it does

Identifies what each file in your library actually is — whatever somebody named it — by matching against a 190,000+ song catalog. Most files identify automatically; the rest get a shortlist for you to confirm.

The five steps

The tab is laid out as numbered steps, and a blue border follows you to the next one: 1) Identify Files, 2) Accept Matches (optional), 3) Fix Mismatches (Auto-Verify reads each flagged file's CD+G title screen and lets it decide), 4) Apply Fixes to My Songs (writes the correct artist/title onto your songs — your own spellings are kept unless the fix is a real difference), and 5) Upload to Online Karaoke Book so patrons search the corrected names. Files can also optionally be renamed on disk — with a full plan shown first and a one-click undo.

File Checker

What it does

Scans a folder of karaoke files and answers what a filename can't: does the file actually play, is the rip damaged, and is it really the song it claims to be (read from the disc's own title screen).

Reviewing results

Double-click a flagged file to watch it in a built-in preview (safe mid-show — it never touches the live player), then mark it Verified OK or Verified bad. Your verdicts stick across rescans. Results export to CSV.

Help

The Help tab

Quick-reference cards inside the app, your current version, and the Open Online Help button that brings you here.