karavox
the open karaoke format
One file with everything a karaoke player needs — and nothing burned in that a player might want to change.
- Audio in roles and keys instrumental, vocals, backing chorus — tagged tracks, optional pre-baked key changes
- Lyrics as data, not pixels soft ASS subtitles with karaoke timing — restyle colour, font and position at runtime
- Self-contained and round-trippable fonts, artwork and the original source files ride along in a standard Matroska container — a master alone can reconstruct its source
The karavox toolkit converts KaraFun (KFN), CD+Graphics and MIDI karaoke (.kar) into masters, and exports portable MP4s with burned-in lyrics. Binaries are self-contained — nothing to install.
$ ls -l
total 768
-rw-rw-r-- 1 karavox karavox 786095 Dec 31 1788 'Robert Burns - Auld Lang Syne.kfn'
$ karavox mp4 'Robert Burns - Auld Lang Syne.kfn'
Robert Burns - Auld Lang Syne.kfn -> Robert Burns - Auld Lang Syne.mp4
$ ls -l
total 784
-rw-rw-r-- 1 karavox karavox 786095 Dec 31 1788 'Robert Burns - Auld Lang Syne.kfn'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 karavox karavox 13157 Dec 31 2026 'Robert Burns - Auld Lang Syne.mp4'
One command: a ready-to-play MP4. The archival master tier is
karavox convert.