Karaoke Forums

First, let me say that I don't pretend to know everything or have the best sound, but just wish to share some of my experienced!

Preparation for the music file:
If you want your mix to sound like the pro's you'll need to extract the music from your cdg using a good editing software (I use WaveLab Essantial) of course in wave and if possible 24 bit, 96k. After, normalise the file and save it in a FAT 32 drive not NTFS.

Vocal track:
Now, the most difficult part is to get your nice voice in the HD! I use Karawin to record my vocal only, while I'm playing my standard mp3+g file, I'm recording my voice ONLY in my FAT 32 HD so that I can than after use Audacity to match with the music file that I had prepared!!

If you record yourself on a single track (what you hear) I would recommend you use a wave+g file & not a mp3+g or wma or any compressed file! The quality of your sound will only depend on the preparation of the music file!! Again, this software will play the perfect wave file that has already been normalised and by attaching the graphic part (+g) you will have everything you need! Can't play the 24 bit format yet on this software but soon it will be possible.

Once you have done both the music & vocal track, you'll need to open them on a multitrack software (I use Audacity) and make sure they are well in synch and both playing at the 0db mark so you can than save into one single wave file. I than use Wavelab to open this wave file and if necessary use my plugins to give it my final touch and save the final work in mp3 using the Lame Encoder. If you save your file using a commercial mp3 encoder you'll loose all the quality even if compressed at 320k!! Try not to use these commercial encoder, why not download a freeware call, Razorlame and update the lame.dll with the latest version 3.96.1 dated July 29/04.

Hope this can help...

Regards,
Micky

Micky -

I pinned this because I thought it was a nice addition to the instructional information that has been provided previously.

Now if I knew what the heck you were talking about... I haven't quite figured out what to use and then how to use it. Maybe I should read your post again.

P H I L L

Hi Phill,

The reason I post this, is that I was asked before, how do you manage to come up with such a clean sound? Not sure it will be well understood by everyone because it might be a bit to technical.

Most important, is understanding how to prepare your music track, it has to be a wave file not compressed and a drive that has been formatted in FAT32 not NTFS. If you have only one HD and have XP, good chance it's installed on a NTFS formatted drive which is correct. XP will work much better in NTFS but the best would be to have another HD formatted in FAT32 where you can keep all your music file.

That is by far the basic to get a clean (studio style) sound!!

Wave blah blah blah (I don't use/have .wav, mine are .aiff:), ,xp, blah blah blah.

Why can't you be a mac user, Micky, and THEN explain to me, how to sound as good as you?! Seems like SUCh good info... but.. Is there ANYONE here who is a mac user?! Anyone?!! Ok, I am done crying.

Hi Gilly,

First, no need to cry because you're all alone in your world with a Mac! FYI, in most studio recording that's what they use. Both a wave & aiff file are identical, Microsoft calls it Wave & Apple AIFF!

Using itunes, I just convert it a wave to aiff and found out it plays in Audacity & Wavelab!! Now, not sure but I think Karawin does work with a Mac, again, not sure but in the French forum (Karawin) there's a good member who seems to be a pro and is using a mac?

Why don't you try both Audacity & Karawin? If you start now with your dial up connection you should enjoy by the end of the day!! Not funny right? I like to tease you!!

Let us know if it works!

Did you give up on Cubase then, Gilly?

Lol, I know, I am always trying to convince people, that MACS ARE what "real" people use:) Lol, like, for graphic design, and music.


I have A LOT of programs.... ALOT... (Atomic, yes, I tried Cubase for about 4 songs) I have used audacity, Deck, peak, sound studio, macromedia's old sound edit pro,oh my, I am mising a lot..... Spark, sound sculptor, apple sound track(To play with)(http://www .apple. com/soundtrack), Oh, of course, Logic Pro, and Express, (www .apple. com/logic/), and since I got my new laptop, I have been using garageband (www .apple. com/garageband), and have basically given up on everything else:) Lol, Garageband is INCREDIBLY easy to use.. but, I still use, Deck, and Logic, depending on the computer I use. BUT, I STILL have yet to get a mic.. or soemthing that works well to record, so what REALLY limits me, is the fact that I record with my built in mic... ON my emac, I need to buy an amplified mic. (I am poor:) And my laptop lacks an audio line in, so I need to get a usb mic.. etc...

So, that was a lot of babbling eh? I LOVE my macs, (I have a few computers:) And would NEVER switch to a pc:) Basically, I work with a lotttt of graphics, etc, and require a mac... , yes, I just noticed on itunes the .wav option. I owned a pc a LONG time ago, what I find amusing, is that MOST pc people have NOOO clue what a .aiff is:)



Lol, atomic! Thanks for remembering me;) (Because that was a LOOONG time ago:)

Okay, <tilting head> trying to understand .. la la laaa...

1) What is a cdg?
2) What is FAT 32?
3) What is NTFS?

Lin

1.) CDG is Compact Disc with Graphics
2.) Fat32 and NTFS are the terms for Operating Systems FILE systems.

FAT32 - File Allocation Table type 32, supports smaller file sizes than normal FAT. Therefore this results in a more efficient space allocation than the normal FAT.

NTFS - a high-performance and self-healing file system proprietary to Windows XP 2000 NT, which supports file-level security, compression and auditing. It also supports large volumes and powerful storage solution such as RAID.
The most important new feature of NTFS is the ability to encrypt files and folders to protect your sensitive data

Check out google or yahoo search engines.

a good couple of ref. sites:

http://www.ntfs.com
http://www.project9.com/fat32/

Thank ya, Knightshow.