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.

Everything here assumes you sing with vanBasco’s Karaoke Player (v2.53, March 2004, Windows freeware) and its .vpl playlists, but the system works for any MIDI karaoke collection. Start from the Songs & Resources hub for the rest of the library guides, and keep the player itself safe via the Download page.

Folders first: one axis, three levels

Organize by one primary axis and stick to it. For most singers the most useful axis is language or repertoire — Italian basi in one branch, international songs in another — because that is how you browse when choosing what to sing. Within each branch, sort by artist, then keep the songs loose in the artist folder. Genre folders disappoint in practice because every singer files borderline songs differently each time; artist names are unambiguous. Keep the tree to about three levels: deeper structures hide files from the playlist-building moment, when you want everything visible and quick to add.

Naming: Artist – Title, every time

Rename files to a single pattern — Artist – Title — as they enter the library, whatever name they arrived with. Legacy basi filenames and archive downloads use every convention imaginable, and a consistent pattern makes Windows search, sorted folder views and vanBasco’s playlist window all behave the same way. Add a short bracketed note only when two versions of a song genuinely differ, such as an acoustic arrangement. Resist encoding key or tempo into filenames: vanBasco stores your per-song key, tempo and volume settings in the .vpl playlist and recalls them, so that information already has a better home than the filename.

Playlists are your sets, not your filing system

Treat .vpl files as performance sets — the party set, the Italian set, the practice set — saved in a playlists folder at the top of the library, separate from the song folders. Because a playlist references the song files, moving a song after building playlists can break the references; that is another reason to settle the folder structure first and rename on arrival, not in bulk later. Keep a “new arrivals” playlist as a holding pen: files you have downloaded but not yet checked for lyric quality get auditioned from there before they are filed, so unvetted files never pollute the main library.

Duplicates and quality control

Duplicates accumulate silently — the same song from three sources, in two keys, with one good lyric track between them. Schedule a pass through each artist folder now and then: play the first verse of each duplicate in vanBasco, keep the version whose lyrics are complete and timed correctly, and delete the rest. Storage is not the issue with files this small; confusion at singing time is. A smaller library of verified files beats a vast one you cannot trust — the same lesson as our legal sources guide, applied to what you already own.

Back up like you mean it

MIDI karaoke files are tiny — a lifetime collection fits in a few gigabytes — so there is no excuse for a single copy. Keep the working library on your PC, a second copy on an external drive or a second computer, and a third copy in cloud storage so a house-level disaster cannot take both local copies. The cloud copy is also the one that keeps your library in sync when you sing on more than one machine: update the files on one PC and the same library, playlists included, is waiting on the other. For that sync-and-backup copy, a cloud storage service such as pCloud does the job simply.

Back up and sync your library with pCloud — cloud storage keeps one master copy of your .kar, .mid and .vpl files that every computer you sing on can share.

Whichever services you choose, test the backup once: restore a playlist and a handful of songs from it and play them. An untested backup is a hope, not a backup. When you add new files — from the sources in our legal guide or files you make yourself — file them, rename them and let the sync run the same day, while you still remember where they came from.

Frequently asked questions

Should I rename old basi files with cryptic names?

Yes — rename on arrival to Artist – Title. Many legacy filenames encode artist and title in a compact local convention; translating them into your one pattern makes search and playlist building predictable across the whole library.

Where should .vpl playlists live?

In one playlists folder at the top of the library, backed up together with the songs. Playlists reference song files by location, so keep the folder structure stable once playlists exist, and include the playlist folder in every backup.

How big a backup do I need?

MIDI files are tiny — usually well under a few hundred kilobytes each — so even tens of thousands of songs fit comfortably in a modest cloud plan or any spare external drive. Size is never the obstacle; routine is.

You will test your files in vanBasco’s Karaoke Player (v2.53, March 2004, Windows freeware), so install it from the Download page first. More song-craft guides live on the Songs & Resources hub.

What a .kar file actually contains

A .kar file is a MIDI file with lyrics embedded as timed events. The music is ordinary MIDI — tracks for drums, bass, piano and the melody — stored in the same format as any .mid file. The karaoke part is a stream of lyric events, each carrying a syllable or word and the exact moment it should be highlighted. vanBasco reads those events, displays the lyrics in sync and follows the melody on its piano keyboard window. Understanding that split — music as notes, words as timed text — is the whole secret. You are not “recording” anything; you are authoring data.

Step 1: start with a MIDI file you have the right to use

Begin from a MIDI file of the song: one you sequenced yourself, a public-domain arrangement, or a file whose creator permits reuse. Editing someone else’s commercial backing track and redistributing the result is not made legal by your edits, so keep your sources clean from the start — the rules in our legal sources guide apply to raw material too. For a first project, choose a slow, simple song with clear phrasing. Ballads forgive beginner timing; fast rap does not.

Step 2: prepare the lyrics as syllables

Type the lyrics out and break them into the syllables that will be highlighted, following how the singer actually phrases the line. Mark line breaks where the display should move to a new line — vanBasco’s lyrics window shows a few lines at a time, and well-placed breaks make a file readable from across a room. This step feels tedious and is in fact where good .kar files are won or lost: lyric preparation done carefully makes the timing step fast, and sloppy text produces files nobody enjoys singing from.

Step 3: align the lyrics to the music

In a karaoke authoring tool — a category that includes dedicated .kar editors and sequencers with lyric-event support — you play the MIDI and tap or place each syllable on its note, working phrase by phrase. The melody track is your guide: align each syllable to the melody note it is sung on. Work at a reduced tempo if the tool allows it, loop difficult phrases, and check beginnings of lines especially, because a line that lights up late throws the singer for the whole line. Expect a first song to take an evening; your fifth will take a fraction of that.

Step 4: test in vanBasco, then fix what the test shows

Open the finished file in vanBasco and sing it — yourself, all the way through, at full tempo. Note every place the highlight feels early, late or bunched, and every line break that arrives awkwardly. Then go back to the editor and nudge those events; small timing shifts of a fraction of a beat are normal finishing work. Also test the things vanBasco lets singers change: slow the song down, shift the key, and confirm the lyrics stay in sync, since lyric events tied to the music follow tempo and key changes automatically.

From .kar to karaoke video

Some creators want to share their work as video — a sing-along clip for friends or a channel — rather than as a raw .kar file. That is a different production step: the file is rendered with its lyrics into a video. If that is where your project is heading, a dedicated maker such as MyKaraoke Video exists for turning songs into karaoke videos.

Turn a finished song into a karaoke video — an option for creators who want a shareable video version once the file itself is made.

However you share, share only what you have the rights to share: your sequencing of a public-domain song is yours to publish; a commercial song’s lyrics and melody are not. Once your library of self-made files grows, keep it safe with the system in organizing and backing up your karaoke library, and read the format explainer if the difference between what you made and a plain .mid is still fuzzy.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to be a musician to make a .kar file?

No, but you need a MIDI file to start from. If you start from an existing legal MIDI, your job is lyric preparation and timing — patient work, not performance. Sequencing the music yourself is the optional, harder path.

Why do my lyrics drift out of sync?

Usually because syllables were aligned to the wrong melody notes, or a phrase was timed at one tempo and the file’s tempo map changed. Re-check the phrase note by note in the editor, then test the fix in vanBasco at full tempo.

Can I sell or publish the .kar files I make?

Only when you hold the rights to everything in the file: your own sequencing of a public-domain or original song is publishable. A commercial song’s melody and lyrics belong to their writers and publishers, however the file was made.

vanBasco itself has Italian roots in its user base — the player (final release v2.53, March 2004, Windows freeware) was widely adopted by Italian home singers and piano-bar performers. New to the player? Get it from the Download page, and keep our Songs & Resources hub open for the companion guides.

What basi are, and why Italy loves them

A base midi is a complete arrangement — drums, bass, keyboards, guitars — sequenced as MIDI data, usually with the lyrics embedded and synchronized so the words light up as you sing. Because it is MIDI, the singer controls it: vanBasco lets you change the key and tempo of a song and recall those settings for each track, mute or solo individual instruments, and follow the melody on the on-screen piano keyboard window. For a singer practicing at home, that flexibility is worth more than a fixed audio recording.

The culture grew from live entertainment. Italian piano bar performers, wedding singers and serate (evening shows) built their acts on MIDI backing for decades, because one performer with a keyboard, a laptop of basi and a microphone could carry an entire evening. Home singers followed the same model, which is why Italian demand for MIDI files has outlasted the format’s decline elsewhere — and why so many .kar collections are Italian.

The repertoire: what people actually sing

The core of the basi repertoire is the Italian songbook: the cantautori (singer-songwriters) whose songs every Italian audience knows, classic Neapolitan songs, evergreen pop from decades of Italian radio, and songs made famous at the Sanremo festival, which functions as an annual refresh of the national repertoire. Alongside it sits an Italian taste for international hits, often with Italian lyric adaptations. A good basi collection is therefore organized by artist and era, and Italian singers swap files the way other collectors swap records — quality of the arrangement is a point of pride, and well-made basi by known sequencers circulate with their makers’ names attached.

How to search for basi like an Italian

Searching in Italian gets you dramatically better results. The patterns Italian singers use combine the song or artist with the format words: the title plus “base midi” or “base karaoke,” the artist’s name plus “basi midi,” or the word mid or kar appended to a title. Adding “gratis” (free) works, but read the next section before trusting what it finds. When you evaluate a file, play it in vanBasco and check three things: whether the lyrics are complete, whether the lyric timing matches the music, and whether the arrangement’s melody line is present — the melody track is what you follow when you learn a song, and vanBasco can solo it for you.

Finding basi legally

The same legality rules apply in Italian as in English. Sequencers who make their own basi and share them for personal use, collections of traditional and public-domain songs — much of the Neapolitan classic repertoire qualifies — and licensed stores are the legitimate channels. Anonymous mega-packs of basi have the same problem as mega-packs everywhere: the underlying songs are copyrighted, the pack grants you nothing, and quality is unverifiable until you have downloaded a very large file from an unaccountable source.

For specific songs you cannot find as free files, licensed backing-track stores are the reliable Italian option too: the major stores maintain large Italian catalogs, including Sanremo and cantautori material, sold as properly cleared backing tracks. Those are usually audio formats rather than .kar, so treat them as sing-along purchases rather than additions to your vanBasco library. If a genuine .kar matters more than a specific recording, a well-made file from a named sequencer’s own catalog is the better find.

Building an Italian section in your library

Give Italian songs their own branch of your folder system, organized by artist, and keep the original Italian filenames where they carry useful information — many basi filenames encode the artist and title in a compact form Italian users will recognize. Build .vpl playlists per occasion: a Sanremo set, a cantautori set, a Neapolitan set. vanBasco stores your per-song key and tempo changes in the playlist, so a set you have tuned for your voice stays tuned. Our guide to organizing and backing up your karaoke library covers the naming and backup system in detail, and legal sources for free .kar and MIDI songs covers the general rules this page applies to Italy.

Frequently asked questions

What does “basi midi” mean?

Basi is Italian for backing tracks. A base midi is a backing track in MIDI form — typically a .mid or .kar file with synchronized lyrics — designed for a singer to perform over, with the key and tempo still adjustable.

Why are so many .kar files Italian?

Italy built a strong live and home karaoke culture around MIDI backing — piano-bar performers, weddings and serate — and vanBasco was widely adopted there. Demand kept Italian sequencers producing .kar files long after other markets moved to audio formats.

Can I sing basi in vanBasco if I don’t speak Italian?

Yes. The lyrics display syllable by syllable in sync with the music, and you can slow the tempo and follow the melody on the piano keyboard window while you learn. It is a genuinely good way to learn Italian songs phonetically.

If you have not installed the player yet, start with the Download page for the preserved v2.53 installer and checksum, then come back here to build your library. Everything below is also collected on our Songs & Resources hub.

Why the giant free song packs are a risk

Searches like “28,000 kar songs free download” lead to enormous bundled archives that promise a complete karaoke library in one click. Treat them with real caution. The songs inside are almost never the uploader’s own work: the melodies and lyrics are copyrighted compositions, and bundling thousands of them into a pack does not create any right to distribute them. A pack that size cannot have been licensed track by track, and it usually carries no license information at all.

There are practical risks as well as legal ones. Repacked archives are a classic malware delivery channel, file quality is wildly uneven — wrong lyrics, mistimed syllables, corrupted tracks — and you have no way to know which version of a song you are getting. Building a library you intend to keep for years on files of unknown provenance is a poor foundation. The good news is that legal sources exist for most of what home singers actually want; they just take a little more intention than one giant download.

Legal source type 1: public-domain and traditional material

The safest category of free MIDI karaoke is music whose copyright has expired or never applied: folk songs, hymns, carols, classical themes and traditional tunes from many countries. Volunteers have sequenced thousands of these into .mid and .kar files and share them explicitly for free use. Because the underlying compositions are public domain, a file the sequencer made themselves can genuinely be given away. When you use these sources, still check the site’s own terms — a modern arrangement of a traditional song can have its own rights — but this is the category where “free” most often means what it says.

Legal source type 2: creators sharing their own sequencing

MIDI karaoke files are made by people: a sequencer plays or programs every note and types and times every lyric line. Many hobbyist sequencers publish their own work on personal pages and community archives with a clear statement that the files are free for personal use. Those statements are what make the download legal — the creator is licensing their own file. Look for pages that name the sequencer, describe how the file was made, and state the terms. A named creator offering their own arrangements is a completely different proposition from an anonymous pack of thousands of other people’s files.

Legal source type 3: free sections of licensed stores

Licensed karaoke stores sometimes offer free sample tracks, promotional downloads or free files of the week. These are commercial operations that license the compositions they sell, and their free offers are marketing, not piracy — you get a properly made file and the store hopes you will come back for the paid catalog. The catch for vanBasco users is format: stores today mostly sell audio-based formats rather than .kar, so a free track may be something to sing along to in another player rather than a file for your .kar library. Check the format before you download.

When free runs out: licensed backing tracks

For current hits and specific songs that no one is giving away, the legal route is a licensed backing-track store, where the composition is cleared and the file is made to a consistent standard. That is the model behind Karaoke Version, which sells individual backing tracks in several formats for singers who want a particular song done properly.

Browse licensed backing tracks at Karaoke Version — the legal paid option when a song simply is not available free, and the quality is consistent enough to build a set list on.

A paid track or two for the songs you sing every week, combined with free legal sources for everything else, is how most long-term home libraries are actually built.

A quick legality checklist for any source

• Named creator or operator: you can tell who is offering the file.
• Stated terms: the page says what you may do with the file, in plain language.
• Plausible scale: a person’s own catalog, a store’s licensed catalog, or a public-domain collection — not tens of thousands of chart songs from an anonymous upload.
• Sane delivery: direct file downloads, not installer bundles, download managers or executable “helpers.”
• Format honesty: the site says whether you are getting .kar, .mid or an audio format, so you know if vanBasco can play it.

Any source that fails most of that list is not a library source; it is a risk you are choosing to carry. For the file-format side of the question, read our companion guide on .kar and MIDI file formats explained, and for the Italian repertoire specifically, see the guide to basi MIDI karaoke.

Frequently asked questions

Are free .kar files legal to download?

They can be. A .kar file is legal to download when the person offering it has the right to do so — for example a sequencer sharing their own arrangement of a public-domain song, with terms stated. Large anonymous packs of commercial songs almost never meet that standard.

Why can’t I find current chart songs as free .kar files?

Because the compositions are in copyright and sequencing a good karaoke file takes real work. Current songs are normally only available legally as licensed backing tracks from stores, in audio-based formats rather than .kar.

Can vanBasco play the files from licensed stores?

Only if the format is .kar, .mid, .midi or .rmi. Many modern stores sell MP3+G, CDG or video formats, which vanBasco does not play. Check the format of any purchase if playing it in vanBasco is your goal.