Our karaoke player: it plays the files you already own

We make a karaoke player, and it is built around one fact: the files are already there. RocketKaraoke brings no songs of its own. It opens the library a host has collected over the years and runs the evening from it, on a Mac or a Windows laptop. The program and its download are on the home page.

The files you have

It plays KFN, CD+G, EMZ, MP4, AVI and plain audio. The files stay where they are: the program reads the folder, builds an index and searches it as you type — in either keyboard layout, so a Russian title typed on an English layout is still found. Key and tempo change while the song plays. A file that carries several audio tracks shows them, so the backing track and the guide vocal are set apart with two sliders. On a Mac with an Apple processor and on Windows, the program also takes the voice out of an ordinary song and times its lyrics to that voice, on the same computer.

Two screens

The laptop is the console: the search, the song that is playing, the microphone, the queue. The room’s screen is a second window the program puts on a television or a projector: the words, the line being sung filling in as it goes, the next line under it, and between songs whatever video you chose as a backdrop. The console shows a live miniature of that screen, so the host sees what the room sees without turning round. A running line along the bottom of the room’s screen carries any text you type in — switched on and off with one button beside the miniature. The microphone goes into the same output as the music, with a gate, echo, reverb and a level meter.

The room

With the licence the program runs the room. Singers line up in a queue that goes round the room or gives the next song to whoever has waited longest; two people can take one song; a song removed by mistake comes back. Guests ask for songs from their phones: the room’s screen shows a square code, the phone opens a page with the library, and the request lands on the host’s list, where it is accepted or declined. Between songs the program plays background music from your folder and turns it down when a song starts; whether it starts with the program is a setting. The archive remembers who sang what and in which key, so a regular’s song comes up in their key next time.

The battle

«Sing as a battle…» on a song’s menu turns the song into a contest. Singers sing it into the microphones and into their own phones, which join by a square code on the room’s screen, and the program scores each against the song’s notes. Up to ten sing together, microphones and phones in any mix, or up to eight take turns at one microphone. The room’s screen shows each singer’s points and lane of notes, and the places after the song; the evening’s battles go into «Tonight’s table».

Free, and with a licence

Everything about one singer and one screen is free, for good: every format, the library and the search, the words on one screen, key and tempo, the microphone, the video behind the words, taking the voice out and timing the lyrics. The rest of the room comes with a licence. The full one opens all of it: the battle for up to ten singers, the singers’ queue, the requests, the console on a phone, several screens, the background music, the archive, the song editor, and the screen between songs in the venue’s own name, with or without our mark. Before a licence, the room is open for five trial evenings of eight hours each.

The full licence is $99, once, for two computers, and covers every version released within a year of the purchase; after that the program keeps working as it is, and another year of versions is $39. The home licence is $50 on the same terms: the battle with up to three singers together and up to eight in turns, the queue as one playlist, the console on a phone and music between songs. Another year of its versions is $20, and it becomes the full licence for $49, with the same key. The key comes by email right after the payment and is pasted into the program. A computer is released with a button in the program when the licence moves on.

Mac and Windows

One download for Mac, Apple Silicon and Intel alike, and one for Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. When there is a newer version, the program says so with a mark by the gear; it downloads it in the background and updates only when you press the button in the settings.

It is written for hosts who run evenings from a library of their own. Download it on the home page.