Setting up Performous

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Download page

Performous is actually UltraStar-NG's new name. It is a fork of the original Ultrastar project, and changed name when its dev team decided to add support for more instruments. Performous not only support karaoke files, it can also be used to play Stepmania and Frets-on-Fire song packs, making it an all-around software for rhythm games.
Head to the download page and pick the installer for your OS.
Ubuntu users can simply click <a href="apt://performous">this link</a>, since the game is already available in the official repositories.

Song library
Songs are located in the "songs" subdirectory of your Performous install.
http://wiki.performous.org/index.php/Songs

Sound setup
Head to the preferences. You'll find a list of all your system's sound cards and sound sinks; this works like a grid.



Move the microphone icon on the line of the sound card you wish to use. Singstar microphones will be on a "USB Microphones" line, or something akin. Two players can use the same sound card if it has various inputs. For instance  Singstar microphones consist in an external USB sound card with a Stereo microphone input; the first player uses its left channel as a mono input, and the second player uses the right channel as a mono input.

Check that the output is on the sound card you'll want to use (this should already be the case, without doing anything) or just use your OS' default sink.

Double-check for lag / latency with a test song.