Hi, sorry this may not be the sort of question that gets ask but. My grandchildren (and I must admit I also) have taken an interest in. It came about when in one of the stories I was produceing involved one of the characters performing a song.
I have had a look at various sites and also read the MP3 Magazine which has recently featured this subject. The following seem to be worth looking into.
Karaoke Island this mainly deals with MP3 (got it from the magazine) It seems they do everything needed.
Kool Karaoke Studio, a complete software packege with huge support for downloading songs.
Also Vogone, seems to be a programme that is well respected amongst Karaoke people.
Has anyone any experience/comments on the above, or, can advise as to what they suggest, even use maybe.
All the best, Ron.
I have had an email from someone on the forum who does not wish to post directly on the forum because of the subject matter!! Obviously respect their feelings and the link provided by them seems very interesting, not only in connection with my above request, but also in connection with being able to change voices of characters within my stories.
But, is this subject really so naff or out of line with what this forum is all about, ie Audio.
To be able to produce what I want to achieve has opened up a great deal about Audio and Sound in general and it is also a good lead into the future where Videos could be added to the Stories and songs/music produced.
I would still welcome any comments on the subjects above and on the link now given to me for the programme, Audio4fun .
All the best, Ron.
what exactly is it that you want to know Ron...? The best way to change voices is by changing the pitch (but preserving the speed), which can be done in most high-end audio editing software and you must be able to get some freeware to do the same.
With regards Karaoke, isn't it just singing along to songs? the only technical part involved would be removing the main vocals for the track you want to sing along with. There are two processes that can achieve this:
Subtract one channel (in a stereo mix) form the other. Pop music (unless the producer's trying to be artistic) has the main vocals recorded the same on both left and right tracks while the stereo seperation is provided by shifting instruments slightly left or right. So, if you subtract one channel from the other you'll loose the main vocals becuase they're the same on both tracks. You should keep everything else because it's slightly different on each track.
There are problems with this method. Kick drum tends to sit dead centre with the main vocals so you loose this too. Sometimes the vocals will have a slight echo which is offset on each track so you are left with an echo of the vocals - this can be quite useful in karaoke though as a prompt for the singer! Also is can make the music sound a bit tinny and give it a slight flange effect.
You could do this yourself by inverting the phase of one of the channels and then mixing it together with the other channel. A much quicker way is to download AnalogX's Vocal Remover which will do it for you, either as a DirectX plugin or as a Winamp plugin.
The other very crude option, and the only way with a mono mix is to take out or lower the mid-range frequencies where the vocals are. This sounds terrible and normally doesn't work.
hope this helps,
mark.
Thanks Mark.
Regarding changing the sound of voices, yes I do change the pitch, that is not a problem. The problem is that it changes all the characters voices, so unless I still try and create different voice sounds for each character, they all sound the same.
I have been able to overcome this by createing a different track for each character and applying a pitch changeto each track. But this takes time and feel that there must be a better way.
As for Karaoke my main concern was to try and get feed back from people who have used it as to what they use. But I guess this is not the forum for it!
I understand about taking vocal out of a commercial CD but as you say, it can be problematic. There are some that sell recordings in a certain style with no actual vocal recorded at all and they supply with it, the same recording with the vocal on it, so you can learn from it.
However, I guess that this really is all about just trying and seeing how it all works.
Thanks for your help, Ron.
(May be slightly off-topic, but somewhat related). Have you looked at Vocoder?
"This program is a free software channel vocoder, which imposes vocal effects on a waveform. It can be used to make your voice sound "robot-like", to create a singing synthesizer, to disguise your voice, and many other fun things. This effect has been made popular by artists such as Kraftwerk and Laurie Anderson, and is overused by Daft Punk."
The Laurie Anderson examples are good, if you have a chance to listen to them. She used the technique as part of story-telling, often to turn her voice into a male voice - the "voice of authority".
Also, try to listen to Wes Harrison - Mr. Sound Effects, who does brilliant sound effects without the aid of processing at all! Not that we can all do what he does, obviously, but it shows what is possible.
Richard