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id like to record a song with my mic, for my girlfriend, but i need to get the music from a mp3 without the original singers voice...

should i get audicion? acid? cubase? edit pro?

do you have any tutorial that i could see how to do this?
thanks alot

Comments

moonbaby Fri, 10/13/2006 - 13:19

There is an Alesis device that allows you remove the vocals from a stereo recording for about $100.00. It depends on the original production mix and how the vocals were panned to determine its effectiveness. Basically, it uses phase cancellation of the summed L & R channels to do this, much like the old analog Thompson Vocal Eliminator from the 80s. In fact , you might look on e-Bay for one of those (TVE ). As for the Alesis, I don't have the model#, but they list it in many popular MI catalogs. Also, are the songs available in karoake form on CD?

anonymous Fri, 10/13/2006 - 14:26

thanks alot for your replys..

well, i got this vocal remover program plugin for winamp.. and its not the best quality, but it removes the voice alot.. so if i could use that to play the song in winamp... and record my own voice over the other one.. that could work...

so when i play the song in winamp, the original voice is very low.. so the question is : what program do i need to record my own voice over the song played in winamp using that plugin?

thank guys for your help, and excuse my english.. good new is the song is in spanish (my native language)

pr0gr4m Fri, 10/13/2006 - 15:02

hectkott wrote: i cant belive theres no way of doing it...

Believe it. Just because they show it on CSI doesn't make it true. :)

There have been literally hundreds of different devices (vocal eliminators) that claim to remove vocals from a song. They all are just different variations of the same device and none of them do a very good job. At least not on every song. Some songs are better for this than others.

Although this has been explained here a few times, once by me...I'll explain it again, cuz I'm bored.

A song utilizes different audio frequencies. A bass drum generally occupies low frequencies and a cymbal occupies high frequencies. Things like guitars, pianos and the human voice can cover a wide range or frequencies lows, mid and highs.

The way these vocal removal devices work is by using a combination of phase and frequency. The problem is that since the vocals occupy so many frequencies, when you try to completely eliminate them by cutting out the vocal frequencies, you are also eliminating frequencies from other instruments. Depending on the device and the song, one can get decent results but it's not guaranteed.

I'd recommend that you write your girlfriend a poem, or sonnet, or maybe paint her a picture. It would be much easier.

anonymous Fri, 10/13/2006 - 15:40

There are two options in your situation to woo your girl:

1. Get the karaoke track. You'd be surprised, there's a TON of karaoke discs out there. You may just find your song. Then, it's all up to your voice.

2. Learn to play the song. Piano? Guitar? She'll be much more impressed if you serenade her live.

Other than that, you're not going to get the vox out of a song without ruining the rest of it. Progr4m explained it pretty well. Go get her, Cassanova.

anonymous Fri, 10/13/2006 - 20:47

I was thinking about this about an hour ago. If you took a cd, like say the black album by jay-z and imported a song from it into a recording program, then took the accapella version of the same song and imported that into the program, then flipped the phase on the vocals, would it completly cancel out the vocals in the original song? Hell, why don't I try it and get back to you.

Thomas W. Bethel Mon, 10/16/2006 - 07:07

No because they were mixed and mastered differently so there would be difference in frequency response and levels so they would not null properly.

There IS NO CURRENT WAY TO REMOVE VOCALS FROM MUSIC....

There have been "ways" of trying to do this since their have been people recording. Almost on a monthly basis I get someone calling up asking if we can remove the vocals from a tune. This can be for many reasons. The singer left the band and the band wants to redo their songs without going back into the studio or they no longer have the backing tracks.

I also find people who want to do auditions for recording companies but don't want to pay for someone to replay some music so they want to take a James Taylor song and get rid of James Taylor so they can sing along with the music .

Or they want to do what you want to do.

The problem is that there is part of the vocal in the reverb and ambience of the recording and even if the singer is dead on center they cannot be completely removed and as other have suggested when you try the result, IMHO, sounds like crap.

Best to do as others have suggested and get a Karaoke CD with the song on it and sing along with the backing track.

anonymous Mon, 10/16/2006 - 11:45

Thomas W. Bethel wrote: No because they were mixed and mastered differently so there would be difference in frequency response and levels so they would not null properly.

There IS NO CURRENT WAY TO REMOVE VOCALS FROM MUSIC....

There have been "ways" of trying to do this since their have been people recording. Almost on a monthly basis I get someone calling up asking if we can remove the vocals from a tune. This can be for many reasons. The singer left the band and the band wants to redo their songs without going back into the studio or they no longer have the backing tracks.

I also find people who want to do auditions for recording companies but don't want to pay for someone to replay some music so they want to take a James Taylor song and get rid of James Taylor so they can sing along with the music .

Or they want to do what you want to do.

The problem is that there is part of the vocal in the reverb and ambience of the recording and even if the singer is dead on center they cannot be completely removed and as other have suggested when you try the result, IMHO, sounds like crap.

Best to do as others have suggested and get a Karaoke CD with the song on it and sing along with the backing track.

yea, your right. I could get rid of most of the main vocals right in the middle (enough that if you rapped overit, you couldn't hear it), but none of the backing vocals that were mostly panned to the sides. So it will work if you wanted to rap the main part....

anonymous Tue, 10/17/2006 - 16:44

hectkott wrote: ok guys, so i got karaoke songs.. now how can i record the song with my voice?

Download Audacity. It's a free recording program. Then import the backing track into it. Then make sure it will record with your mic (if not, you'll need to change some settings in preferences or something), then simply record along with it. It might not line up because of latency between the soundcard and mic, so you will need to line it up manually, which isn't hard (if you need help with that, PM me or email me at Nirvalica *AT* earthlink *DOT* net)

anonymous Tue, 10/17/2006 - 17:08

Unless you plan on recording more in the future, by the time you spend some cheddar on a decent mic, cables, soundcard, software, etc, you probably could find a local studio that could do this for you for less. Call around to some smaller studios that will squeeze you in for an hour. Just practice you vocals before you go in so you can nail it in a take or two and you'll save some dough and get a pro recording. If you were in the Detroit area I'd help ya out!