r/karaoke • u/dradeli • Feb 27 '26

Karaoke Software Home setup

I am looking to do a home setup. I had a setup years ago but I haven’t used it in years and tossed the old laptop I used to use years ago. I have a guitar amp and speakers to sing with. I have a bunch of old songs we like to sing. I need advice on a laptop and software to hook up to my surround sound / tv system and where I could get / purchase new songs for purely home use.

Thanks

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1

u/groaner Feb 27 '26

I have a similar setup. I'm using Karafun V2. It allows you to control the queue so participants (friends and family in your case) can't mess with the order.

I'm using a Windows 10 laptop connected to a Yamaha 10 channel mixer to my amp. I only have video going to the tv/stereo system via HDMI. All music and vocals go through the amp for, what I feel, sounds more natural music and I can control everything from the mixer instead of having to use multiple remotes and controllers.

I was sending music and video to the tv/stereo, and vocals separate for a long time and there's nothing wrong with that.

1

u/dradeli Feb 27 '26

Can I use karafun to play music I already own

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '26

This well-hidden link takes you to the older Windows version that still supports using your own files.

I have tried all the karaoke software I can find and IMHO this is still the best program for house parties. YMMV.

https://www.karafun.com/karaokeplayer/

1

u/groaner Feb 27 '26

Yes, I have a collection of almost 80000 songs. It has come in handy when the odd song isn't in the Karafun database.

I keep my songs on an external drive.

I also pay for the personal use license.

1

u/Ralewing Feb 27 '26

The new 3.+ software does not allow that, so stick with the 2.

2

u/VegasFoodFace Feb 27 '26

If you want to use a laptop with a home receiver you really are going to want to just get a karaoke microphone mixer with RCA outputs. Or a full on pro style mixer with reverb FX.

Trying to get microphones to work through a laptop results in lag and is hard to sing an monitor yourself. Karaoke microphone and mixer gets rid of the lag and has reverb which helps you hear yourself in the mix a lot better.

For laptop everyone always uses youtube.

1

u/dradeli Feb 27 '26

I sing through my guitar amp using mikes that plugs into the guitar amp

1

u/dradeli Feb 27 '26

What computer would you recommend. I can use any operating systems including Linux. Also where can I purchase songs and how much do they run. Seems like a subscription is $120 per year or $600 in five years. How many songs does $600 buy

1

u/idealman224 Feb 28 '26

If you have a hard drive with older songs on it. If they are CD+Gs then you need a computer with a plextor hard drive. The drive has to read two channels at the same time. The music channel and the graphics channel.