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Karaoke Mugen + StemSplit

~12 min

Build your personal karaoke collection

What is Karaoke Mugen?

Karaoke Mugen is a free, open-source karaoke player and library manager. It's perfect for home karaoke parties, anime karaoke nights, and building a personal collection. This guide shows you how to expand your library with StemSplit.

Home Use
Perfect for parties
Lyrics Display
Synced karaoke text
Video Support
Full media player

Prerequisites

  • StemSplit account with API key
  • Karaoke Mugen installed (download)
  • Original songs or YouTube URLs
1

Create Instrumental Tracks

Use StemSplit to remove vocals. You can process local files or YouTube videos directly.

Create karaoke from YouTube
# Create karaoke from YouTube video
curl -X POST https://stemsplit.io/api/v1/youtube-jobs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_xxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"youtubeUrl": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"}'

YouTube is great for karaoke! Most songs are available, and you get the video thumbnail for display in Karaoke Mugen.

2

Create Karaoke Metadata

Karaoke Mugen uses a specific format for karaoke files. Create a .kara.json file:

song.kara.json
{
  "header": {
    "version": 4,
    "description": "Karaoke Mugen kara file"
  },
  "medias": [
    {
      "version": "Default",
      "filename": "Never Gonna Give You Up.mp4",
      "loudnorm": "-10.5",
      "default": true,
      "lyrics": [
        {
          "filename": "Never Gonna Give You Up.ass",
          "default": true
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "data": {
    "title": "Never Gonna Give You Up",
    "year": 1987,
    "songorder": 1,
    "tags": {
      "songtypes": ["OP"],
      "singers": ["Rick Astley"],
      "langs": ["eng"]
    }
  }
}

The media file can be MP4 (video) or MP3 (audio only). For video, you can use the original YouTube video or create a simple video with a background image.

3

Add Synchronized Lyrics

For the full karaoke experience, add an ASS subtitle file with timed lyrics:

song.ass (example)
[Script Info]
Title: Never Gonna Give You Up
ScriptType: v4.00+
PlayResX: 1280
PlayResY: 720

[V4+ Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, ...
Style: Default,Arial,48,&H00FFFFFF,&H000000FF,...

[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.00,0:00:22.00,Default,,0,0,0,,We're no strangers to love
Dialogue: 0,0:00:22.00,0:00:26.00,Default,,0,0,0,,You know the rules and so do I
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.00,0:00:31.00,Default,,0,0,0,,A full commitment's what I'm thinking of

Where to get lyrics:

  • kara.moe - Community karaoke repository
  • Lyricify - Synced lyrics from Spotify
  • Aegisub - Create your own timed subtitles
4

Import to Karaoke Mugen

  1. Place your files in Karaoke Mugen's data folder:
    ~/KaraokeMugen/app/data/karas/
    ├── song.kara.json
    ├── song.mp4 (or .mp3)
    └── song.ass (lyrics)
  2. Open Karaoke Mugen and go to System → Generate Database
  3. Your new karaoke tracks will appear in the library

🚀 Quick Method: Audio-Only Karaoke

Don't need fancy videos? Just want to sing? Here's the fastest way:

  1. Process song with StemSplit → get instrumental MP3
  2. Rename to Artist - Title.mp3
  3. Drop into Karaoke Mugen's inbox folder
  4. KM auto-imports with basic metadata from filename

No .kara.json needed for basic imports!

Tips for Great Karaoke

  • • Use BEST quality in StemSplit for cleaner vocals removal
  • • Check kara.moe first - someone may have already made what you need
  • • For anime songs, Karaoke Mugen has a huge community repository built-in
  • • Keep both vocals and instrumental - sometimes you want to hear the original
  • • Organize by genre/language for easier browsing at parties
YouTube API
Process YouTube videos directly
OpenKJ Guide
Professional KJ setup