Preferences

Access the Prefences window thru menu option Preferences.

MIDI ports

You can select a synthesizer to play the midifiles. By default this is jmseq, but you may have others available on your computer. In Linux jmseq is not available install QSynth and have it running before you start Serenade. If there is a midi keyboard controller connected then you can select it as MIDI In.

Karaoke

On top is the selection for the lyrics font and size.
Unicode is checked by default, it allows you to enter lyrics in languages with very much different characters like Chinese, Japanese and Korean. However if you want to play karaoke files with lyrics that contain language specific characters that are not in Unicode but need to be played with a language specific font file (e.g. Russian font) then unicode must be switched off.
Editor font and size should be a fixed width font, otherwise you will be able to work in Chords&Lyrics mode. If it is anything else then "Courier New" then it will also be used for the lyrics displayed in the eventlist and staff window, because it might be a language specific font and characters will not be displayed correctly without it.
Outline thickness makes the lyrics better visible on backgounds with various colours (pictures).
Click on the colour of lyrics, chords to change them.
Load or remove a background picture that is shown when no other picture is specified in playlist or karaoke file.
Check the right to left option if you have lyrics in Arabic language.
Check the play drums while paused to prevent complete silence when you interrupt the song for some comment during a performance before public.
Check the stop at end of song option if you want to continue only after some intermediate action.
Specify a delay in seconds between the songs if you need that.
By default the inserted lyrics will be MIDI lyrics events but you can also choose MIDI text events. Some karaoke players will only show text events.
The default to specify a linefeed in the MIDI file is a slash (/) at the beginning of the line but there are other options. The slash is automatically added when you insert lyrics. Already existing linefeeds in the MIDI file are not changed by this option.
The default code for new verse is a backslash (\) you can also choose a slash or have no verses displayed. You need to to place a slash at the start of each first line of a verse in the Editor window before you insert the lyrics . When the song is played only one verse will be displayed at a time.

Apart from the preferences you can also change fontname, fontsize, picture, subtitles, unicode and right to left settings for a specific MIDI/karaoke file. Add a marker event in the eventlist with the value:
fontname:specifyname
fontsize:specifysize
picture:specifyname
subtitles:on
subtitles:off
unicode:on
unicode:off
righttoleft:on
righttoleft:off

These changed values will be valid for the currently loaded MIDI file only and will be in effect for the entire MIDI file regadless at which timing they are placed. An exception is the specified picture, you can insert multiple pictures at different timings in the midifile, thus creating a slideshow.

Remote

Enable the remote control.

MIDI files

Select to save Karaoke/MIDI files as type 1 (default) or type 0 (if to be used in older software/devices)
Select to maintain tracks from original file or to place each channel in a separate track.
Select to save chords in XF chords (Yamaha standard) or in marker events (visible in any sequencer).