Karaoke Forums

Hi all,
I have this cheap $30 program called MyVoice which does work ok on some songs...well not bad for $30 anyways. Well all of the songs I really want to use it on are the ones where it doesn't work. In fact, sometimes it takes out the music and leaves the vocals. Like I said....its pretty cheap.

Well now there's a duet that I REALLY want to do. And I thought I was going to be able to avoid using a remover by just getting the karaoke track. I made sure to get the one without vocals (as they did have one with the vocals too.) But the $%#% singers sang the whole harmonized chorus...both the male and female parts *sigh*. No one else seems to have another version of the track. So I'm back to using a remover. I tried it on the karaoke track and it makes it sound horrible. Does anyone recommend a remover or anyone willing to remove it for me? *Pouts*

Missi

There will be a lot of words said, but the long and short of it is "there ain't no such animal".

Missi there are a couple of rules that assist in making vocal reduction sucessful. Do I move you...the song I subbed most recently is a vox removal. There is not a smidgeon of vox left...just as well cos blues is never made to be sung the exact same way twice . I have a number of songs that I do that are vox removed. But very few I have done myself.

Rule 1. Start with the original disc if possible, rip it to wav or the highest mp3 rate you possibly can...128kbps is not high enough. 320 is most preferable.

2 be prepared to have to rebuild some of the track, bass and percussion tend to be in the middle where vocals are and are often adversely affected.

3. If you can find him, B-flat is the guy I know as being THE most sucessful at removing vox. He has sent me a txt file on what he does and I am quite happy to send it to you. You can email me on theravingredhead at yahoo dot com

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

there is another on SS that does vocal removing, you could see if he would pass on his tips...his name is kjzone

_________________
"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Thanks!!! I will email you!

Missi

What is the song that you are looking to do?
Maybe there is another manufacture that has the song without
all the background singers.

Lone Wolf

The issue is that removing the vocal also takes off most of the frequencies where guitars and other instrument also “reside” With a little luck though some tracks can be made to sound okay for our purpose.

It doesn’t hurt to try, but It helps a lot if you start with the song in CD format, Missi. Thompson advertises a hardware unit that does the best job of vocal stripping that I have heard of (it sells for 1700$ or so!). I know “Raypfob” has one, but I am not sure if he is a member here. He has a website with all his music though. You might want to look him up – he is a very nice guy. Good luck, Missi.

Ron

Morgan is correct suggesting that you will need the original CD. I have removed vocals from close to 100 songs now. You will actually want to rip the song from the CD as a lossless WAV file. If it is compressed in any way (even a high quality MP3) you will have less success.

I use a moderately expensive program called Karaoke CD+G Creator Pro, made by PowerKaraoke. You may be able to find something else that meets your needs. Look for something that allows you to adjust Treble and Bass during the vocal removal process. This program that I use allows this.

There are some songs that I have had to mix with a second program after vocal removal. One song came out awesome, but there was a saxaphone solo that was removed as well. I mixed it back in, and it sounds perfect now.

Overall, I go into each project expecting only about 40% of the songs that I try to actually work well. I have high expectations of sound quality, however. I've been able to predict which songs will work by looking at a few different factors:

Lots of vocal effects like echo will be difficult to remove
Back-up vocals and harmonies that seem to be a center channel (coming from both speakers simultaneously) often get removed

Good luck with your project! It's awesome when it works.

As stated, MP3 is not a good choice for doing vocal removal. A typical vocal remover works like this. Typically the lead vocal is recorded equally on both left channel and right channel. So, what it does is they take out what is equal on both channels and subtract it from the original music. Hopefully it will be the lead vocal only.

The problem is using MP3 compresses signals digitally. So, the left and right channels are no longer exactly what it was, a slight difference because MP3 compresses each channel separately. That's why you will hear a slight echo of main vocal and much of the effects when you use MP3.

Use uncompressed straight from a CD, you eliminate a lot of this issue.

Also, the program tend to EQ out a bit of mid level because your voice is in that range (I think it's like 10KHz range). So, lot of the other instruments in that range gets lost as well. So, it's a good idea to go in after you remove the vocal to increase the mid range frequencies.

Other than that, as others have stated, it's up to your luck on how well it will come out. Each song differs from others so you will have to try it out and see. Good luck.

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