Making it all work together

Sax & Dotty's Show Presenter

Browse to Start / Programs / Show Presenter 2.2 / Show Presenter 2.2 . This opens the main window of the software, along with the Performer Screen (the small white square). Close the Performer Screen by right-clicking on it and clicking "Close". Why? Because it's useless, period.

So here you are in SDSP, your main control center for Karaoke. Let's set it up properly so that it works.

First, click on Tools, then Options. The first important thing is to setup the Winamp Path. You can either use the [...] button to navigate to your winamp path, or simply copy this default path in the box: C:\Program Files\Winamp\Winamp.exe . How nice of me. Then, set up the options as you like. Here's a description of each option.

Winamp / General

• Interactive Search is a very useful option if your computer is fast enough, and you don't have too many songs. This will cause the search window (S View) to update on-the-fly while you're typing in the song name, instead of waiting for you to hit Enter after typing in the search query. You can see then what matches your query instantly. I'm not sure how large the database has to be to cause "glitches" in the sound, I currently have over around 2000 with no trouble at all.
• Allow Double-Clicks in Queue will allow you to play a song in the Performer Queue by double-clicking on it. If you notice after a few times that you constantly cut of your performer by double-clicking in the queue when you only wanted to double-click, then you should switch this off and use the Play button. Otherwise, keep the option on.
• Allow Drag and Drop in Queue is simply what it sais - it lets you drag songs up and down the queue, instead of using the up and down arrows on the right of the queue screen. This is useful if you have the habit of ordering your performers around in the order they're supposed to sing, which is what I do.
• Prompt for Performer, when active, makes the software ask for the performer's name when you double-click on a song from your list to add it to the queue. Then name then appears on the queue next to the song. Useful if you want to get rid of song papers quickly or if you don't use them.
• Display TrackCount simply displays the number of total karaoke tracks you have in your database, if you're in the habit of announcing that information to your crowd.
• Auto Remove From Queue will automatically delete your performer's entry from the queue as soon as the song starts. Personally I remove this option, as I prefer to have a history of past performances so as to better determine the order of my performers on the next round.
• Restore Queue on Startup keeps your Performer Queue on memory when you close the software. This could be considered a safegard against Winamp shutting down or your computer crashing alltogether, so your queue is restored upon restart of the software. If you don't enable this option, you probably will after your first computer problem (which means enable it!)
• Play From Position 1 in Queue works only if Autoplay is enabled (and if Auto Remove from Queue is enabled). Since it's always preferable to manually select the next song instead of having it play automatically, this option will proabably be as useless for you as it is for me.
• Jump Back To Queue After Track Select will switch the screen to the queue when you double-click on a song in your list window. This is useful only if you add one performer at a time. If you go by batch or by round, leave it unchecked.
• No Fade on restart ... I have no clue what this does.
• Show All Songs in Search does just what it sais. When it's turned off, the search windows will be empty until you enter a search term (and then until you hit Enter if Interactive Search is disabled). Again, myself at 2000 songs this can be checked, I'm not sure how large of a database is needed to turn this off.
• Save Window Postion is useful if you have your own window placement setup you like, instead of the SDSP opening up small and centered to your screen on every bootup.

Utilities

• This screen enables you to assign software to the quick utility buttons in the main window (the 1 to 15 blue buttons). I have yet to find a use for them, personally.

Performer Screen

• The Autoshow On Startup should normally be unchecked. As mentionned before, the Performer screen should not be used, and cannot be used anyway on normal setups. The rest of the options, thus, become useless.

Once you've finished setting up all your options, click Close, then Yes to save all the options.

The main SDSP window should look like this. The top part of the SDSP screen is permanent, and contains the current/last singer's song. During the song play it will also display the time remaining to the song, and lets you control it (play, pause, stop and restart). The top part also contains the utility shortcuts (#1 to 15 buttons), and buttons that let you Blah, check the button functions .

Show Presenter Views

The first screen is called the Queue, or Performer Queue (PQ). This will show who's singing now, who's next in the order and, if set up like I do it, who sang previousely. It can be accessed by clicking on the Q View button, or by hitting Alt+Q on your keyboard, while in any of the SDSP views.

The second view is the Search View (SV), and displays all of the songs in your database for you to search and add to the PQ by double-clicking on it. It can be accessed by clicking on the S __V__iew button, or by hitting ALT+V on your keyboard.

The last view is the File View (FV), and would probably not be used in any normal karaoke situation. If you have new songs not yet added to your database this would be useful, or if you're not using a database at all. Access it through F View or ALT+F.

You can now close SHSP

Nullsoft Winamp

You might have noticed, but when opening SHSP the Winamp window did not appear, and it will not unless we do a small bit of tinkering. Why would you need it? If you want to control the karaoke song directly this would be useful (as an emergency stop also), or if you want to be able to see the equalizer as I do (though it's not that useful when you have the right console).

So in order to see the Winamp window and configure the plugins we need (CDG and Pacemaker), you need to open the following file in a text editor such as notepad: C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.ini .

There is a line that sais taskbar=0 , change it to taskbar=1 and then save and close the file. Now re-open SDSP from the start menu as before. An icon for Winamp will now appear in your system tray (the small icons next to the clock, bottom-right corner of your screen). Right-click on it, then select Options, then Preferences.

In the list on the left, click DSP/Effect , and select the Pacemaker tempo controller v1.32 [dsp_pacemaker.dll]. A new window will appear. You can ignore it. Then click on General Purpose, and you should see the CDG Plugin v1.2a [gen_cdg.dll]. Click on it and click Configure selected plug-in, you will see a small configuration window. On this window there is a little option which is really usefull - Full Screen Monitor. When you have a TV plugged into your laptop or computer, or a second screen, you will be able to select this screen from here so that when you put your lyrics window in full screen, it will go to the second monitor. It's way easier than dragging it there and resizing it manually!