Evidence status: source-reviewed written guide. No new screenshots, paid processing jobs, uploads, account changes, native playback, or downloads were performed for this guide. Historical v1.29.0 simulated captures do not verify the live service. The companion narration is an untimed draft awaiting recapture and timing.
What this tab does
Open Ghost-Trax between Library and Analytics. Its original default shortcut remains Alt+5 in the eight-tab v1.30 layout. The tab connects to the Ghost-Trax service to turn audio into an instrumental, vocal guide, and synchronized karaoke lyrics. The main areas are Account, Make a karaoke track, and Your tracks. Completed jobs can open a fuller editing studio.
Use audio and artwork you have permission to upload and process. Processing is a cloud operation and uses the account's available allowance or credits. Do not use a live show as the first test of an unfamiliar file, output route, or new render.
1. Connect the correct account
In Account, enter the Ghost-Trax email and password and choose Sign in. No account? Create one switches the same form to registration. The alternative is an existing Ghost-Trax API key followed by Save.
Wait for Connected and check the account email. Connecting…, a saved-key message, and Connected are different states; a stored key alone does not prove service access.
Read the displayed plan, remaining included tracks when shown, and credit balance. If the account is unverified, use Resend verification email and complete email verification before downloading tracks.
Buy credits retrieves the service's current packages; choosing one opens checkout in a browser. Review the actual package and checkout before payment. This guide does not quote or guarantee live prices.
Change key reveals the key form. New API key is a rotation action, not a refresh: its confirmation warns that the old key stops working everywhere it is used. Only use it when that is your intention, and update other affected installations.
Check: the correct account is connected, the available allowance is sufficient, and there is no account or verification error. Keep credentials out of screenshots and recordings.
2. Stage a batch before uploading
Press Choose audio files and pick one or more MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, OGG, or AAC files. Once files are staged, Add songs… adds more.
Review Artist and Title for every file. The app guesses from a filename such as Artist - Title; inspect those guesses. The intended library naming scheme is GT-#### - Artist - Title.
Choose processing options individually:
Split backing vocals asks for separate lead and backing guides.
High quality requests cleaner separation with longer processing.
Online lyrics uses published lyrics when available.
Intro title screen chooses Synthwave Neon, Stage Neon, Concert Spotlight, Sunset Horizon, or Disco Nights. Custom title artwork is available later in the studio.
Remove an unwanted staged file with ✕. Selecting files only stages them; Process N songs is the step that adds them to the upload queue.
Press Process N songs only after checking the batch. Verify that the staged list clears and the queued-status message appears.
The waiting upload queue is managed in the desktop backend and saved for recovery. It can continue while you use another tab and resume after the app restarts. The app must still be running and able to reach the service for new uploads to progress. Keep the original files accessible until their uploads have completed. The UI allows up to four active processing tracks.
Queued items show their name and whether one is uploading…. Their ✕ removes a waiting item; it is disabled on the item already marked uploading. Check Your tracks afterward if cancellation raced with an upload starting. Removing a waiting queue row is different from canceling a server job.
3. Follow processing and handle review-required jobs
Watch Your tracks for queued, separating, transcribing, rendering, failed, or completed states. The progress bars are coarse stages, not a measured percentage or promised finish time. Read any inline error before resubmitting; verify an existing job's status to avoid duplicate work or charges.
Some jobs stop at ready to review. They provide Title Screen and Lyrics controls before the finished-track preview:
Open Title Screen and correct the artist/title that will appear on the CDG title screen.
Open Lyrics and correct transcription mistakes. Keeping the same number of words preserves the existing one-to-one timing. Inserting or deleting words redistributes timing, so review those passages carefully afterward.
Press Generate to submit the corrections and render the karaoke output. Close merely closes the editor; it does not submit the edits. Cancel track cancels that job instead.
Wait for the completed state before opening the finished-track tools. The displayed “minute or two” render message is a UI estimate, not a service-level guarantee.
Active jobs have Cancel. A successful cancellation reports the credit returned; confirm the actual response and balance rather than assuming a click succeeded. A failed or canceled job is not a playable local library item.
4. Audition a finished track without publishing it to singers
A finished cloud job is not automatically the same as Added to library. The app checks local file state separately.
Choose Review on a completed track. Select Preview in headphones (mini window) for a private check, or Preview in main window for the main karaoke player.
Preview downloads the track into a holding folder outside the library first. Singers cannot find that held copy in catalog search yet.
For audible headphone preview, configure a separate Headphone Cue device in Settings. If cue is disabled, missing, or collides with the karaoke/Break-Wave output, the app can show a silent-preview notice: the video window may appear without sound.
A main-window preview can use the room's karaoke output. If a song is already playing or paused, the normal flow asks Interrupt and preview or Cancel. Prefer a stopped rehearsal session; do not use the preview to cut off a singer accidentally.
Listen to the backing track, check vocal leakage, inspect title spelling, and read the lyric highlighting against the audio. Use Stop preview before leaving this tab or changing the file.
In the open review panel, choose Add to library when satisfied. That action stops this preview and moves the held file into the library. Discard stops it and removes the held copy; the track remains in the Ghost-Trax account.
The row also offers a direct Add to library, which skips auditioning. Prefer the review-panel action after previewing: the row-level add does not itself stop a running preview before moving the file, which can cause file-in-use trouble. Leaving Ghost-Trax is not a reliable preview-stop action; stop explicitly while its controls are visible.
Check: wait for the successful added-to-library status, then find the track in Library and confirm it can be selected in the karaoke workflow. A completed service row, a held download, and a catalog entry are separate outcomes.
5. Use Edit & downloads
Choose Edit & downloads on a completed job. The studio contains downloads, Look, Branding & Intro Screen, and Waveform Lyric Timing Studio. Confirm the track name at the top before editing.
Download the right artifact
Package (.zip) saves the karaoke package to a destination you choose.
Video (.mp4) appears when the job has rendered video.
Instrumental and Vocals save their individual audio stems.
Harmony appears for jobs with the appropriate duet/backing-vocal output.
These save-dialog exports are separate from the main tab's Add to library workflow. Check the saved destination and success notice; do not assume a stem or arbitrary exported ZIP has been imported into the karaoke catalog.
Change appearance and branding
Pick an Intro Title Screen template, or choose custom intro artwork and a supported PNG/JPG. The editor describes a ten-second silent lead-in before lyrics and rolling CDG begin.
Set Unsung Words, Sung Active Word, Background Color, and Outline & Shadow. Choose a Font Family and check the mini preview for readable contrast.
If required, select a custom logo/watermark and background artwork under White-Label Video Branding. These files are sent for rendering; use material you may share with the service. Intro background and video background art are separate choices.
Press Render CDG & Video. Wait for the render completion notice and read any error. Choosing colors or files alone does not create a new output.
Correct lyric timing
In Waveform Lyric Timing Studio, choose Singer Track (Vocals), Instrumental, or available Harmony as the waveform stem. Play/pause and use the time readout to locate a passage.
Use zoom controls for detail and Follow to follow playback. Seek on the timeline as needed.
Drag a word's body to move it, or drag its start/end handles to resize its time span. Double-click a word on the waveform to edit text. The Lyric Words List also allows direct text edits and deletion.
Add Word at Playhead inserts a missing word. Fine nudge controls adjust timing in 0.05-second steps. Replay the passage after changing boundaries and check that adjacent words still line up.
Press Save & Re-render CDG. Wait for success before closing. This action updates CDG; the appearance panel's Render CDG & Video is the route when a refreshed video is needed.
Re-rendering replaces the output for the same cloud job. When Auto-KJ already has a held or library copy, the completion callback refreshes that local copy too. Avoid editing a track while it is in live use, and re-audition the updated result. Save-dialog exports made earlier are separate files; download fresh exports if you need the new version there.
6. Final checks and common blockers
Not connected: verify account selection, key, network, and the displayed error. A credential being saved is not a connectivity check.
Cannot download: check email verification, the job's completed state, service errors, and local destination availability.
Queue seems stuck: inspect the upload error and existing cloud jobs before adding the same batch again. Background queue recovery does not make an offline computer upload.
Silent preview: inspect the distinct cue device and output warnings in Settings; the preview window can still open silently.
Changes missing: distinguish closing an editor, saving/re-rendering, downloading an export, and adding to the library. Each is a different operation.
Finished track still absent from catalog: confirm Added to library, the library folder, and the Library view. Do not treat “done” in the cloud as proof of local import.
Before going live: audition the final package and any video you will actually use, including intro, lyric accuracy, sync, and ending. The written guide has not performed that native/service acceptance test.