Karaoke files come in a small alphabet of extensions — .kar, .mid, .midi, .rmi, and beyond them MP3+G and CDG — and singers routinely download the wrong one for the player they own. This explainer sorts out what each format actually is, how they relate, and which ones vanBasco’s Karaoke Player (v2.53, March 2004, Windows freeware) can and cannot play. By the end you will be able to tell, from a filename alone, whether a file belongs in your vanBasco library.
For the player itself, see the Download page; for where to get the files, see the Songs & Resources hub and its legal sources guide.
.mid and .midi: plain MIDI
A .mid file is a Standard MIDI File: a recording of musical instructions — which notes, on which instruments, at what times — rather than recorded sound. The .midi extension is the same format with a longer name; there is no technical difference, and players treat them identically. Because the file describes music instead of containing audio, it is tiny, and a player can change its key and tempo, or mute and solo individual instruments, in ways recorded audio never allows. A plain .mid may or may not contain lyric events; many instrumental MIDI files have none, which is why a .mid can play in vanBasco yet show no words.
.kar: MIDI with lyrics guaranteed
The .kar format — often written KAR or “Soft Karaoke” — is a MIDI file that follows an agreed convention for embedding lyrics as timed text events, syllable by syllable, alongside the music. That convention is the entire difference: a .kar is not a different kind of music data, it is a .mid whose lyrics are stored the way karaoke players expect. When you open a .kar in vanBasco you get the synchronized lyric display, the follow-along highlighting and the piano keyboard window tracking the melody. In practice: .kar means “MIDI, with singable lyrics”; .mid means “MIDI, lyrics maybe.” If you want to see how those lyric events get in there, read how to make your own .kar file.
.rmi: MIDI in a RIFF wrapper
A .rmi file is a MIDI file wrapped in Microsoft’s RIFF container — the same container family as WAV. Inside the wrapper is ordinary MIDI data; the wrapper mainly added metadata handling for older Windows software. vanBasco lists .rmi among the formats it opens, alongside .kar, .mid and .midi, and a .rmi with embedded lyrics behaves like the MIDI it contains. You will meet .rmi mostly in older Windows-era collections; it is a period format rather than a living one, but your existing files remain perfectly playable.
Type 0 and Type 1: a MIDI detail worth knowing
Standard MIDI Files come in types. Type 0 puts every instrument’s notes in a single track; Type 1 keeps a separate track per instrument. The distinction matters for karaoke because per-instrument control — muting the melody so you can sing it, or soloing it while you learn — depends on the instruments being separable, which Type 1 files provide naturally. Most .kar files are Type 1 for exactly this reason. If a file refuses to let you isolate the melody, a Type 0 layout is a likely cause.
MP3+G and CDG: a different family entirely
MP3+G pairs an ordinary MP3 audio recording with a graphics file (the +G) that carries the lyrics as pictures, generated in time with the music. CDG is the same graphics system as delivered on CD+G discs. This family is recorded audio: the backing is a real studio recording, fixed in key and tempo, and the lyrics are images rather than text data. vanBasco does not play MP3+G or CDG — its format support is the MIDI family only — so files in those formats belong to other players and to licensed backing-track stores, not to your vanBasco library. Neither family is “better” in the abstract: audio formats give you the real recording; MIDI formats give you control. Most home singers end up with both, in different folders, for different players.
.vpl: not music at all
Finally, the extension vanBasco adds itself: .vpl is vanBasco’s playlist format — a list of songs plus the per-song settings (your key, tempo and volume adjustments) to recall when each song plays. It contains no music, which is why a playlist file is useless without the song files it references, and why our library organization guide insists playlists be backed up together with the songs, in the same folder tree.
So which format should you download?
When a song exists in several formats, choose by player, not by habit: for vanBasco, take the .kar version first — its lyrics are embedded the way the player expects — and a .mid version second, checking after download whether it shows lyrics. Keep the .rmi files you already own exactly as they are; there is nothing to gain by converting them. And when a store offers only MP3+G or CDG, file it under a different player’s library rather than forcing it into this one, because no renaming trick will make an audio-format purchase behave like MIDI.
Frequently asked questions
Can I rename a .mid to .kar to make it a karaoke file?
No. The extension is only a label. A .kar needs lyric events embedded in the karaoke convention; renaming a lyric-free .mid changes nothing, and renaming one that already has proper lyric events is unnecessary — vanBasco opens .mid files directly.
Why does my .mid play with no lyrics in vanBasco?
Because the file contains no lyric events — it is an instrumental MIDI. Lyrics are separate data inside the file, and only files authored with them (most .kar files, some .mid files) can display words.
Can vanBasco play MP3+G or CD+G files?
No. vanBasco supports the MIDI family — .kar, .mid, .midi and .rmi — plus its own .vpl playlists. MP3+G and CDG are audio-based formats for other players and for disc-based karaoke systems.