karoke

[Rexneel]

hi there. am kind a new around here but i really like the whole vcd dvd help site. well my question is how i can make karoke cd out of normal audio cds ie how can i take the voice out and just have the music for karoke purpose. PLEASE HELP ME IN THIS ONE, REALLY NEED TO KNOW


Thanks

[b_n83]

NOT POSSIBLE!!
You just can't seperate the voice from the music in an audio CD. You will need to obtain the music only audio seperately!

[Captain315]

Absolutely correct about not being able to remove vocals from modern day recordings. Vocals are most often recorded in both tracks. It's kind of like putting cream in your coffee, you can't take it out.

Sorry for the bad news.

[Jester700]

Just some more info, since some people may not believe the above responses, due to there being tons of "vocal eliminator" hardware & software fixes out there...

Basically it's true; you CAN'T remove vocals from a mix. But there is ONE trick:

Vocals are usually panned smack in the center of the stereo image, whereas *most* instruments are panned left & right. These vocal eliminators combine the channels out of phase, which gives you a mono signal that contains the difference signal (L-R, or whatever was different between the channels). Ideally, this sucks out most of the vocal. In reality, it doesn't work so well, because:
a. The vocal may NOT be centered, plus the reverb & delays on the vocal are usually NOT centered. Plus, a common recording technique is "double tracking" - the singer sings the same exact part twice - close enough to sound like one voice. But these are panned L&R, not centered.
b. it also removes whatever else was centered, typically snare drum, kick drum, and bass.

Some of these gadgets also use a lowpass filter so they leave some of the bass & kick drum untouched, but it still isn't great.

I've done this a LOT for kids wanting tracks for talent shows. It ranged from being totally unusable to being usable but crappy sounding. If a karaoke track is available, use it. If not, look for a MIDI version. If not, try it, what do you have to lose. YoGen's Vocal Remover software is as good as any, for $20. Alesis has a hardware one called "vocal zapper" for $100. Definitely try before you buy on this stuff.

[Suntan]

Download Audacity, it is freeware and it will allow you to nullify L and R info (what Jester700 was talking about).

-Suntan

[adam]

There is a free directX filter that does this. It can be used from within some audio editors or it can be used as a plugin for Winamp, which can export to a new file. I posted a link to the program on this board not too long ago. You should be able to find it through the search function.

Its true, results vary drastically. Sometimes its like a true karoke track, but its always mono so the quality will always suffer. Still alot of fun though. If the song has any background harmony singers in it, forget it.

[Jester700]

Good call on Audacity - that is one cool freeware program. It doesn't match the commercial stuff, but it's a great way to do basic stuff & play with the concepts (and for FREE!). My only issue for this application is, no lowpass filter. That can help make the sound passable.

Incidentally, a cool place to download karaoke tracks is www.singingstation.com. It's better to get CDs if you're doing lots of tracks or need the best quality, but to just get a few tracks this is really convenient.

[Suntan]

@jester700

You can check for a lowpass filter plugin, There are quite a few plugins available, but I haven't looked at many myself. I hardly use Audacity, but for the little I do I felt it justified the cost. 8)

-Suntan