The KarVCD
Main Help Page
This program is collection of tools that
include all that you need to convert your MIDI or KAR files to WAVE. You can
use the resulting WAVE file to burn an Audio CD, that you can listen to in your
Hi-Fi or car stereo or convert it to MP3 with one of the tools included in
KarVCD, in order to obtain a compact file that you can mail to your friends,
post on Usenet or put on a Web page. With KarVCD you can also create a karaoke
VCD that you can play on a CD or DVD player that is VCD compatible.
For
an overview of the operations involved in building a karaoke VCD using the
KarVCD tools, take a look at the KarVCD tutorial.
For
an overview of the sound effects available in KarVCD you might want to take a
look at the Sound Effects tutorial.
If
you want help on one of the KarVCD tools go to one of these pages:
If
you want information about a specific topic go directly to one of the sections
bellow:
The Options Dialog
Overview
This program is very easy to operate. All you
have to do is use each of the tools in turn to obtain the final MPEG file with
which you can build a VCD.
You
can also convert WAVE files to MP3 with one of the tools included in KarVCD, in
order to obtain a compact file that you can mail to your friends, post on
Usenet or put on a Web page.
To create a
karaoke VCD you need to get the MPEG file with the movie that contains the
sound and the associated lyrics. The MPEG file is usually obtained by encoding
an AVI file with the MPEG encoder included in KarVCD. To get the AVI file you
use the AVI file maker, also included in KarVCD. This program can extract the
lyrics contained in a KAR file and combine them with a WAVE file into an AVI
file.
KarVCD
can also create the WAVE file from a MIDI or KAR file. To convert your MIDI or
KAR files to WAVE you can use any Windows standard synthesizer, internal or
external, or use the Sound Font based softsynth embedded in KarVCD.
With
KarVCD you can add your voice to the resulting WAVE file. If you are using KAR
files, which contain embedded lyrics in addition to the instruments sounds,
KarVCD will show you the lyrics playing synchronously with the music,
highlighting each word at the appropriate moment while you record yourself
singing.
You
can also record yourself playing an instrument and add that to the final WAVE
file. You can do that while the MIDI or KAR file is playing. If the instrument
that you want to play is already in the MIDI or KAR file, you can mute it while
the file is playing so that it does not appear in the WAVE file after the
conversion.
You
can apply several sound effects to the WAVE files that you record with your
voice or the playing of one or more instruments. The sound effects available
include Reverberation, Chorus, Compression, Echo, Phaser and Flanger.
You
can mix the WAVE files resulting from the MIDI or KAR conversion with the WAVE
files resulting from your own recordings with the audio mixer included in
KarVCD. This allows you to align the several files to mix and to add sound
effects to the final mix.
For
an overview of the operations involved in building a karaoke VCD using the
KarVCD tools, take a look at the KarVCD tutorial.
The Main Window
Let us take
a closer look at the main window fields and buttons:
At the top
of the window there is a toolbar, which allows a speedy access to the most used
commands. There are also keyboard shortcuts to the more frequently used
commands.
Bellow the
toolbar there are three fields with the names of the MIDI/KAR WAVE and AVI
files currently being processed. These are the files that each of the tools
that are part of KarVCD will process. To select these files you use the
File/Open menu command, the equivalent toolbar button or the Ctl+O shortcut.
You can also select files by dragging them with the mouse from the Windows
Explorer to this window.
At the
bottom of the window there is a status bar where the program shows
general-purpose messages, e.g. a description of the menu command currently highlighted.
The second
group of buttons in the toolbar, counting from the left, gives you access to
each of the tools included in KarVCD. When you hit one of these buttons or use
the equivalent menu command, the main window hides itself and the window
corresponding to the selected tool is shown. When the tool window is closed,
the main window is shown again.
Menu Commands
This section describes the menu commands available.
The File
menu has the following commands:
¨
Open. This command lets you open a MIDI, KAR, WAVE
or AVI file for processing.
¨
Properties. This command shows you the
properties of the files currently open for processing in a dialog box like
this:
¨
Clear. This command clears the current
file selection.
¨
Exit. This command closes the main window and exits
the application.
The Tools
menu has five commands that will give you access to each of the tools included
in KarVCD:
¨
MIDI
Converter
¨
Player
¨
Recorder
¨
Audio
Mixer
¨
AVI
Maker
¨
MP3
Converter
¨
MPEG
Converter
The Settings
menu has the following commands:
¨
Options. This command opens the Options Dialog.
¨
Effects. This command opens the Sound
Effects Dialog.
¨
MIDI Mixer. This command opens the MIDI
Mixer Dialog.
The Help
menu has the following commands:
¨
Main. This command shows you the file that you are
now reading.
¨
Tutorial. This command shows you the KarVCD tutorial.
¨
MIDI converter. This command shows you the MIDI
Converter help page.
¨
Player. This command shows you the Player
help page.
¨
Recorder. This command shows you the
Recorder help page.
¨
Audio Mixer. This command shows you the Audio
Mixer help page.
¨
AVI Maker. This command shows you the AVI
Maker help page.
¨
MP3 converter. This command shows you the MP3
Converter help page.
¨
MPEG converter. This command shows you the MPEG
Converter help page.
¨
Register. This shows you how to register
KarVCD. See bellow How to Register.
¨
About. This command shows you the About
dialog box:
The Options Dialog
Here
is a picture of the Options Dialog Box.
At
the top of the dialog there is the Sound Bank group of controls, which
include:
¨
Sound Font name. This is the name of the Sound Font
file that the program will use when converting MIDI or KAR files to WAVE with
the embedded softsynth.
¨
Browse. This button lets you select
another Sound Font.
Bellow
the Sound Bank controls there is the Working folder group of
controls, which include:
¨
Working folder name. This is the folder where KarVCD
will by default put all the files it creates. This folder will also be used to
hold any temporary files that KarVCD creates.
¨
Browse. This button lets you select
another folder.
Follows
a description of the remaining fields and buttons.
¨
Wave output device. This is the device that KarVCD
will use to play WAVE files.
¨
Wave input device. This is the device that the
Recorder tool will use to record sound to WAVE files.
¨
MIDI output device. This is the device that KarVCD
will use to play MIDI or KAR files. It can be any standard Windows defined
synthesizer, internal or external, hard- or software based.
¨
Help. This button shows you the file that you are
now reading.
¨
Cancel. This button closes the Options
dialog without keeping the changes that you may have made.
¨
OK. This button stores the changes that you have
made and closes the Options dialog box.
The Sound Effects Dialog
For
an overview of the sound effects available in KarVCD you might want to take a
look at the Sound Effects tutorial.
Here
is a picture of the Sound Effects Dialog Box.
It includes
the following controls:
¨
Reverberator. This group of sliders allows you
to set some of the reverberator’s parameters. For a description of the
Reverberation effect and how it is used, see the Sound
Effects tutorial. Parameters:
1) Room size. This controls the simulation of the acoustic
characteristics of the place where the music would be played. It can range from
a small room to a concert hall or a cathedral.
2) Damping factor. This value determines how fast a given sound
will die away. If you push the slider full to the left, that will cause the
sound to last the longest.
3) Amount.
This works in the same way as the Amount
parameter for the Chorus effect, described above. Here we are talking about the
amount of sound that passes through the reverberation effects processor. The
MIDI controller for reverberation is CC91.
¨
Delay. This group of sliders control the
Delay unit. This is a very versatile unit, which can be used to implement not
only the classical Delay unit, but also Echo, Phaser, Flanger and even Chorus.
For a description of the Delay effect and how it is used, see the Sound Effects tutorial. Parameters:
1) Delay time. This slider defines the delay time in
milliseconds. In order to accommodate a wide range of values and still be able
to fine adjust the small values, this control is not linear but logarithmic.
This means that the further it is to the left, the less amount corresponds to a
unit of displacement. For instance, the mid position of the slider doesn’t
correspond to 500 ms as it would if it were linear, but to 30 ms.
2) Modulation. This is a periodic variation of the Delay Time.
The amount of time specified in this control is added to the Delay Time under
the control of a triangle wave, which has a frequency of 2 Hz.
3) Feedback. This slider controls the amount of time that a
given sound will remain in the Delay unit, by feeding back to the input a
percentage of the output sound.
4) Stereo spread. This slider introduces an asymmetry between the
right and left channel. This results in the scattering of the instruments
throughout the stereo image, resulting in a more agreeable sound.
5) Amount. This
controls the amount of sound that passes through the Delay unit. Contrary to
what happens in the Chorus and Reverberation units, this unit is not controlled
via MIDI and therefore, this slider doesn’t have a negative range.
¨
Chorus. With the chorus slide-bar you can
change the amount of chorus applied to a MIDI file during the conversion
process. It allows you to specify a value to be added to the amount of chorus
specified by a CC93 MIDI command and to the value specified in the SoundFont
for the samples you are using. The range of possible values is from –100% to
100%. The value can be negative, so that you can actually subtract from the
value specified by the CC93 command or SoundFont. The drawback is that the
value you specify in this field affects all the channels. The total amount of
chorus (the value you specify in this field plus the value in the CC93 MIDI
command plus the value specified in the SoundFont) must remain in the 0-100%
range. If the result is outside this range the sum is limited automatically by
the program. For instance to completely remove any chorus effect that is set in
your MIDI or SoundFont files, you set the slider full to the left, which
corresponds to a value of –100%. For a description of the Chorus effect and how
it is used, see the Sound Effects tutorial.
¨
Master Volume. With this slider you can control
the overall amplification applied to the output file. It can have positive or
negative values and ranges from –20dB to 20dB. If you feel that the output file
sounds too quiet, set this field to a positive value. For instance 20dB will
provide a tenfold increase in the value of the output volume. On the other
hand, if there is distortion in the output or the effect of the Limiter is
noticeable (you hear sudden changes between to quiet and too loud in the sound)
you should put a negative value in this field. For instance –20dB will provide
one tenth of the value in the output volume. The Master Volume control is
associated with the dynamic compressor unit. For a description of the
Compression effect and how it is used, see the Sound
Effects tutorial.
¨
Compressor level. This slider controls the static
compressor part of the output unit. It provides a “soft” clipping of the output
peaks, so that the overall volume can be cranked up. You apply this feature
when you feel that the output sound seems to be all right but is otherwise
dull, it lacks that “punch” quality that you can hear on commercial records.
This works best in files with lots of percussion. Be careful though if you set
too high a value you will get noticeable distortion on the output sound. This
slider, controls the static compressor unit. For a description of the
Compression effect and how it is used, see the Sound
Effects tutorial.
The Midi Mixer
On
this window you can adjust the volume for each instrument in a MIDI file. Here
is a picture of the Midi Mixer window.
There
are 16 sub-windows, one for each channel in a MIDI file. Let’s take a look at
each element of a sub-window:
¨
At the
top there is a text box where appears the name of the instrument assigned to
that channel. Usually there is just one instrument per channel but sometimes
can be two or more. When there is more than one, their names will be separated
by slashes.
¨
The
slider lets you adjust the volume of the instrument assigned to the channel.
You can either increase the volume or decrease it. The excursion is from –25dB
to 25dB in steps of 5dB
¨
The MUTE
check box allows you to completely remove the instrument assigned to the
channel from the output mix.
¨
The SOLO
button lets you mute all the channels except the current one. This will cause
the output file to include just the instrument assigned to that channel.
The
RESET button lets you set all parameters to their default settings: All
the sliders are set to 0dB and all the MUTE check boxes will be reset.
How to Register
KarVCD is
shareware. The registration fee of US$ 75.00 (including p&p) will get you
an installation CD with everything you need to use KarVCD (including the
default SoundFont), plus a set of alternative SoundFonts for you to experiment
with, together with some examples and a bunch of MIDI and KAR files. To take a
look at pictures of the KarVCD CD click here.
There is a
trial version of KarVCD that is identical to the registered version except that
it will only generate one minute of sound/video.
If you are
using the trial version, when you start processing in some of the KarVCD tools,
the following message will appear:
To order KarVCD, go to the KarVCD order
page. Upon registration, you will receive by mail the KarVCD installation
CD.
Copyright & Disclaimer
Shareware
notice
This
software is distributed as Shareware with a 30-day trial period. This means
that you may use the unregistered version of the program for a maximum of 30
days from the day when you first try it, after which you should either register
it or delete it from your hard disk. If you decide that you want to continue
using it, you must register it and pay for a user license. The license is valid
for one single user only and cannot be transferred or resold. Please see the
preceding section (How to Register) for details on how
to register the program.
Copyrights
This
program and its components are the copyright of its author, Antonio Esteves,
and Future Algorithms.
The
program and its components may not be modified or altered in anyway whatsoever
without prior written consent from the author. Disassembly or reverse
engineering are strictly prohibited.
All
trademarks, service marks and other registered names, mentioned in this, and
accompanying documents are the property of their respective owners.
Distribution
notice
Subject
to conditions listed below, you (an individual or an entity) are hereby
authorized to freely keep, distribute and multiply copies of the unregistered
distribution archive for this software with, through and on, BBS’s,
Internet-sites and equivalent information and on-line services. You are also
allowed to store it on personal media like hard disks, floppy disks and
networks, for personal use only. You are further allowed to include it on so
called Shareware collection CD-ROM’s and equivalents without any charge. You
are also allowed to share it with your friends using a transportation medium of
your choice. Note that this authorization only concerns the unregistered
software. Distributions of the registered software and/or registration codes
are strictly prohibited.
·
You
must always make clear to the recipient that it is unregistered shareware.
·
All
the files that are part of the program distribution package must always be
supplied in completely unmodified form.
Disclaimer
of warranty
Future
Algorithms exclude any and all implied warranties, including warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
Nor
does Future Algorithms make any warranty of representation, either express or
implied, with respect to this product, its quality, performance, functionality
or fitness for a particular purpose.
Nor
shall Future Algorithms have any liability for special, incidental, or
consequential damages arising out of or resulting from any use of this product.
Nor
shall Future Algorithms have any responsibilities, or any obligations
whatsoever to provide support for this product.
Nor
shall Future Algorithms have any responsibilities whatsoever to provide
upgrades or bug fixes of any kind.
Feedback
Comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome and should be sent to fadevelop@clix.pt
This page last modified 2003-07-28 - Copyright
© 2000-2003 ACE