Karaoke files storing MIDI music messages and synchronized lyrics to play on Karaoke machines. A KAR sample file is provided. Free Karaoke players and editors are listed.

File Extension: .KAR

File Content: Music data.

What is KAR? KAR is a short name for Karaoke, which is a music file format extended from the MIDI format by adding synchronized lyrics on top of music messages.

KAR is the file extension of Karaoke files.

Technical notes on Karaoke file format:

• A Karaoke file is an extension of MIDI file.
• A Karaoke file contains synchronized lyrics on top of MIDI messages.
• A Karaoke machine or a player software will display these lyrics to allow singers to follow.

Here are the first 128 bytes of a sample Karaoke file dumped in HEX values:

4d 54 68 64 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 01 01 80 4d 54 MThd..........MT
72 6b 00 00 eb c6 00 ff 02 39 43 6f 70 79 72 69 rk.......9Copyri
67 68 74 20 28 63 29 20 76 61 6e 42 61 73 63 6f ght..c..vanBasco
20 53 6f 66 74 77 61 72 65 2e 20 44 69 73 74 72 .Software..Distr
69 62 75 74 69 6f 6e 20 70 72 6f 68 69 62 69 74 ibution.prohibit
65 64 2e 00 ff 54 05 60 00 03 00 00 00 ff 21 01 ed...T..........
00 00 f0 0a 41 00 42 12 40 00 7f 00 00 f7 00 ff ....A.B.........
21 01 00 00 ff 58 04 04 02 18 08 00 ff 59 02 00 .....X.......Y..

Karaoke files use the same magic number, "MThd", as MIDI files.

Karaoke sample file: Click sample.kar to download.

Music data stored in Karaoke files can be retrieved, played or edited by popular free software:

• vanBasco's Karaoke Player - Plays Karaoke files.
• Windows Media Player - Plays Karaoke and other music files.