Setting up UltraStar Deluxe

[Renard]

Download page

Setting up UltraStar Deluxe (USDX) is pretty straightforward. Head to the download page and pick the release fitting your OS. Ubuntu 12.04 users, please not that USDX has not been yet updated to use the newest version of ffmpeg and therefor will not work on your system (or at least, not without hassle); please use Performous instead till then.

Once installed, there are two things to consider: configuring your song library, and configuring your audio system (microphones, and eventually extra sound cards).

Song Library
Ultrastar DX songs are located, by default, in its installation folder. You'll find a /songs/ subfolder here, that's where you will want to place your karaoke library (by simply copying over the files).
Songs consist actually of subfolder, each of which containing a few files: the music, the background elements, and the lyrics themselves.
Try installing a sample test song to sort things out. You'll also be able to use it to set up your audio system.

Setting up audio
You'll need to pay attention to a few things here:
- Sound output: should be already set up, but if you have specific needs, fill them in!
- Sound input: you'll want to set up your microphone in UltraStar preferences. Before that, check they are correctly working from your OS; they fire up USDX and set them up in the preferences. You can also use the official Singstar microphones - note that they will provide their own USB soundcard, so you'll have to specify USDX not to use your system's default sound card for input - more info here.
- Lag / latency. Please test a sample track and ensure you don't need to adjust the audio or video latency before going any further. You might have a lot of latency if you're using a audio setup (external amplifier) ou HDMI display (mainly TV sets; if you're using one, set it to its "Game"mode when possible to avoid latency).

[Profpatsch]

Why take the files to the program when the program can come to the files?

Fire up the config.ini (Windows: Program folder I think, Linux: ~/.ultrastardx/config.ini) and edit the [Directories] part. Example:

[Directories]
SongDir1=/home/user/Musik/Karaoke/
SongDir2=/home/user/Dokumente/Dropbox/Karaoke/

You can add as many dirs as you like.
That's it.

[sleumas2000]

Correction, just in case someone stumbles upon this thread.
Windows: %appdata%\ultrastardx