Karma for Windows

User Reviews

• This is the type of customer support you can expect

  Ryuuni3/17/2014

  Pros

  If would only work, it would be useful. But dead air at gig is a very bad thing, the try to explain why the show stopped.

  Cons

  Software is unstable and will crash. Customer support is rude and arrogant. I guess they can't believe that there could be a problem with the software, they decided it was easer to take it out on the customer.

  Summary

  This is from Karma customer support if you can believe it. " Because you're a customer who deserves a berating. Now stop pretending like you're so smart about this stuff because in my eyes you're an idiot. You need to bring your computer knowledge ego down a notch and start realizing that you don't know what you're doing. Again, if you just start listening and stop talking, you'd probably be running fine now." "I see people like you all the time. You think you know just enough to be dangerous and you tinker too much and don't pay attention to what matters." The thing is, if the software worked, and the company was respective to trying to find out what was wrong, this post would not be here.

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• Best Karaoke Software you'll ever use.

  Kjmann1212/24/2013

  Pros

  Drag And Drop Interface. Simple Clean Screen Layout. Runs Smooth on Any Computer that has a Single Core 2ghz Or better. Runs MP4/AVI and MP3+G. Can Update the Database On the fly Without Disturbing the current singers Song playback. Updates the Database FAST. Too Many Pros To list them all.

  Cons

  Doesn't Work Well With Some 64bit Windows Installations Doesn't Work Well With Some 3rd party Virus Scanners.

  Summary

  This is an excellent product. Great customer service from the company. A fast smooth program that has NEVER crashed on me. Highly recommended.

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• THE WORST I'VE EVER USED OF ANY PROGRAM!!! HORRIBLE!!!

  MaconsBestDJ12/8/2013

  Pros

  I used this program on a friend's machine and thought it was pretty cool. When I tried to download and use it later I found beneath the surface it's a total nightmare and that my friend had needed to bring in a software engineer to get it operating properly. There are NOT ENOUGH PROS of any kind to get me to recommend this joke of a program.

  Cons

  This program requires 3IVX Codec or some other ffdshow codec to operate, and while the instructions state this is a 'download and use' product, it is anything but. I have at least 10 hours invested in loading, removing, and reloading this junk. I've tried every setting imaginable to no avail. I even removed and reloaded Windows 7 three times in trying to get this it to run. 'Customer Service' if you want to call it that is virtually non-existent. The company can only be reached via email and allows 24 hours for any reply. These replies consist of directing the purchaser back to the FAQ's and directions on the company website. If these instructions worked as claimed there would be no need to contact the company in the first place. One may also expect unbelievably rude, flippant, unnecessary comments in these replies, some of which I experienced personally and others I've read about on other forums. DO NOT expect any customer satisfaction or professionalism from this 'organization'.

  Summary

  After following the company directions on this program no less than 8 times I finally received an unprofessional reply from the company that I should contact 3IVX directly and ask them what settings to use to make Karma Karaoke work. As 3IVX may also only be contacted via email, at this point I had so many hours invested I surrendered and informed the Latshaw organization I would be utilizing other software, or would wait for them to produce a product that would perform as advertised. They offered me good luck in the future. It's very disappointing that this company and this program are in this poor state. The basic design of the program is brilliant and if the product could simply be made to work easily it could be a multi-million dollar homerun. I'm afraid, however, in order for that to happen it will need to be picked up by a company designated toward a higher standard of professionalism. My recommendation? AVOID THIS PROGRAM LIKE THE PLAQUE!!!

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• Good Product Poor Support

  Coldinwi751/4/2013

  Pros

  The product does work well on Windows 7. I like the auto-rotation. The learning curve is small if you read the instructions. The interface is customizable.

  Cons

  It does freeze in the middle of a show for no apparent reason. I have had an issue with adding a singer and song to the rotation and the program will play the song before last??? You can add email addresses of singers in their profile but you can't mail out from it. Will not play most of the videos I have. It freezes up the program and I have to restart. I do not play any videos now during shows. I cannot turn off the auto-rotation if I want to do a two song per person on slow nights. Customer support is very poor.

  Summary

  When I inquired about a product suggestion I recieved responses with personal insults. My suggestion was a program that would link with Karma allowing singers to look up my song book via a satellite pc, Iphone or Android phone. Also allowing singers to make a request to be added to the current rotation. All of this of course from the convenience of the singers table. The unnamed customer rep responded with "Freeing up your time is one thing, but moving the work to the singer is frankly lazy on your part, and I believe any KJ with this attitude shouldn't have a job, let alone have software that caters to their lazy ways." and "Why not add a coin slot, call it a karaoke jukebox, and eliminate your job altogether? I mean if you're going to follow the logic that work should be shifted from the KJ to the singer, this would certainly be the logical conclusion." I'm not sure if this person on the other end of the email has ever ran a Karaoke show but the less time I spend behind my pc looking up songs and adding singers is more time I can spend interacting on a more personal level and working the room. Many Asian night clubs have private rooms with no KJ and I know of two bars in my area that have a sattelite pc/station for the reasons I mentioned above and the singers love it. My belief is the program should work and the company should value it's customers. This program does have it's flaws but I do not feel comfortable working with customer support on any level. Keep this in mind if you spend the money for this software.

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• very good software

  richardfilion211/13/2010

  Pros

  i have to use it more to give feedback thank you

  Cons

  it does not read .cda files

  Summary

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• great features, horrible stability and customer service

  chvyklr857/19/2010

  Pros

  This is a very feature rich program with great functions for KJ's. Some of the features I love the most are the audio waves which you can mark in and out points, and the adjustable auto fade for DJ songs. The ease of use is amazing

  Cons

  The above features do not matter when the program tends to crash A LOT! I have a laptop the well exceeds the recommended specs. Also once you contact support and get the program running your license may just vanish and support will blame this on you!

  Summary

  Horribly rude and unprofessional support staff. 2 Latshaw systems programs crashed on me on 2 different computers and they would not acknowledge or investigate the issue of why my license was disappearing, causing me to use resets (which you get only 3 per year). Instead of professionally handling the situation they 1st claimed that either deleted my own license or change my network name, which I did neither. Then the second time around they claimed that both of my computers must have some virus or serious issue (even though one never see's the internet). They responded fast, too fast in my opinion to even look into the issue. They of course have no phone support so you just get some person yelling and being rude through email. Bottom line when the program they designed not only crashes and will not restart, but also deletes your license in the process, this is there problem not mine. And they clearly and rudely stated the problem was mine. Do not buy this program and support people of this nature. The program does have a great features, I just wish different (more caring) people stood behind it!

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• Karaoke Software, Not Ready for Prime Time

  karauser8/10/2009

  Pros

  Many good features for karaoke hosts. Singer queuqe distinct from playlist queue. CDG adjustment capability. Reads the media files and creates catalog quickly! Adjustable font size to make the type bigger! Big time-remaining clock.

  Cons

  CPU hog! Commands to add songs go unanswered. Sometimes plays the words to one song and music to another! All fonts in every window must be the same size. Some controls at top of screen while others are at the bottom. Word screen not enlargable.

  Summary

  This software package has had a lot of thought go into it before design. I predict that future versions of this software will be very popular. However, after using the product for about two hours I found a number of problems with it. The product is a CPU hog! Granted I don't use the fastest CPU but my 1.73 Ghz Pentium running XP, has run numerous other Karaoke software with no problems. This product gets so busy it does not respond to commands, like add a new song to a singer. It does not tell you the the command could not be carried out, it does not queue the command to execute later, it simply ignores it. A beginner KJ I watched played the wrong song and had to stop and find the right song, about 5 times in the 3 hours I was there. I now think it was software related. Using the "Next" and "NS" buttons I was able to get the software to play one song's music and show another song's lyrics on the screen at the same time! I would have to sit down and think about how to write the software to make that happen on purpose! That might bring some levity to the show but I don't think it would inspire confidence in the singers if they were to see that! The program allows you to make the fonts bigger which is great! However, the column headings must loose some characters to do that. It would be nice if the column headings could be locked while the data font could be enlarged. The controls for volume, mute, CDG synch and pitch are at the top of the screen while the controls for EQ, tempo, fades and Master volume are loaded in a screen at the bottom that can be hidden. It would be nice to have all those controls in the same place. I someimes use my karaoke system to do gigs for dance parties where I am the only singer. I do not hook up a second screen, I just make the screen bigger so I can see it when I am standing. I could not find a way to make the screen take up half the screen like I am used to. I would have to bring a second monitor to use this software. I lowered the pitch of a song by 3 steps and compared the sound quality between Karma and Winamp. Winamp sounded much better. In Karma I would hear a warbeling sound on the electric piano sounds while Winamp had a good quality lowered that much. There were a couple of features that I could not figure out how I would use is a Karaoke show. One was the VU Meter like bars at the top of the screen and the other was the sound wave representation with song position/ending at the bottom of the page. I can't think why I would want to look at the sound wave and stop a song part way through. I am sure this eats up some of that 100% CPU usage. All in all I think the software has the potential to become a really great product. It still has some real bugs that need to be worked out before I use it in front of a crowd, and some features that will take some getting used to if I decide to use it.

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• Very well engineered and a breeze to use!

  thekaraokewhore9/24/2008

  Pros

  - first karaoke product to actually consider the anti-glare factor in low light envrionments - no-click searching is awesome - everything is drag and drop and makes running a karaoke show a breeze

  Cons

  - No scrolling marquee support. Display of next singers is between songs. the creators say they don't like things to distract the singers or the audience.

  Summary

  - Even if you're an experienced KJ, you should at least try this. I'm glad I did.

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