Bill, you're on the right track. There are programs and devices that claim to "cancel out" the vocals without seriously affecting the rest of the track. I haven't used them myself.
The polarity inversion method is discussed here: *http://tinyurl.com/2mjzzp The Alesis device probably does the same thing with internal circuitry but the reviews aren't good: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Alesis-PlayMate-Vocalist?sku=246025&src=3SOSWXXA Nor are the reviews good for the Tascam version: http://www.zzounds.com/item--TASCDVT1 Another option is to buy Karaoke (shudder) CD's. They've done the hard work for you already -- NO lead vocal anyway... http://www.karaokecdsusa.com/ Hmm, bummer, 'Cool Edit' is now 'Adobe Audition'... I too was thinking that Cool Edit or some such might have programming that would work as well (or as poorly) as any of the above. The REAL difficulty is that the lead vocal is almost NEVER a sole point source center signal. The vocals are nearly always processed across the stereo signal (using reverb, echo, chorusing, etc.) and these signals are NOT symmetric and therefore not removed with a phase shift. Another pro-technique is to mix the lead vocal just SLIGHTLY off-center in the opposite direction from a slightly off-center positioning of the bass and kick drum. This helps the ear discriminate detail in the vocals that might be masked by the kick and bass. This also means that more of the lead vocal would remain after the above attempts to remove it. Again, your best bet probably is to find Karaoke (shudder) tracks that'll give you most of the songs you want to sing. Of course, your singing will ALWAYS sound better when you sing along with the professional. :-) Just remember that Karaoke is one of those factors that's killing live music and please don't forget to feel sufficiently guilty :-) * Bill Kressbach wrote: >You need to feed one channel of a stereo 180 degrees out of phase. This >means that if you reverse the plus and the minus on one side of a stereo to >feed it out of phase, anything that is in the center image (normally the >vocal) will be canceled out. This would best be done up stream of the >amplifier. I'm not sure if just reversing the speaker wires will work. A >program called Cool Edit will do this, probably several others. > >Bill > > > > >>This is for anyone, but I figured Chet would have an answer.... >> >>I want to remove the vocal portion from a "music" file so I can belt out a >>few tunes to my new karaoke machine. Is there a way to do it? Software, >>hardware, or just singing louder than the recording artist? >> >> > > > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
