how can I extract the 'instrumental only' part

Colleen · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 5

I think I have a nice voice and was in a musical recently in a local
theater and sang 3 solos in a Diana Kraal, Holly Cole sort of style.

I'd like to know if/how I could extract the voice and keep the
'instrumental only' part of a few recorded songs on some of my
favorite CDs so I can practice some new songs.

I'd like to do it on the cheap. I use Mac OS 9.2 and have the free
version of Quictime 5

Thanx much,

Archived from group: alt>music>karaoke

Bob Eldridge · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 1

There are programs that "remove" vocals from music but they work so so at
best since they also remove any music in the same frequency range as the
voice. A good alternative is to use well done midi (also called kar files)
music files and turn off the lead instrument which is usually on channel 4
of 16 channels. (Each instrument has it's own channel including the drums)
There are Diane Kraal, and even Holly Cole midi files available. I use a PC
and Van Basco's midi player to turn off the unwanted channels. I don't know
what is available for the Mac, but I do know that Quicktime 5 will play
midis and kar files but you can't adjust the channels. If you like you can
e-mail me with and I will send you some sample midi files in the styles of
the artist you mentioned. When you get them you can use Quicktime to
listen to them but, remember that the lead voice that is "playing the vocal
melody" can be turned off with the right software.
"Colleen" wrote in message@posting.google.com...
> I think I have a nice voice and was in a musical recently in a local
> theater and sang 3 solos in a Diana Kraal, Holly Cole sort of style.
>
> I'd like to know if/how I could extract the voice and keep the
> 'instrumental only' part of a few recorded songs on some of my
> favorite CDs so I can practice some new songs.
>
> I'd like to do it on the cheap. I use Mac OS 9.2 and have the free
> version of Quictime 5
>
> Thanx much,

Colleen · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 5

Thanks for your reply Bob,

I finally found a very good shareware program that
basically does what I want and much more . As mentioned in other
posts, it seems no software does perfect voice elimination, but
although its not really designed for it, it does a good job to "soften
the singer's voice" and the price is right...

I don't usually do commercials but this one I've tried and can vouch
for:

Melody Assistant v. 6.2.0
Macintosh OS 8 – X (also exists for Windows)

http://www.harmony-central.com/Software/Mac/melody-assistant.html

Melody Assistant is a complete score editor and music composition
software. It includes a built-in softsynth, and offers a friendly
interface and powerful features: An easy-to-use editor enables you to
place and move notes on the staves. It processes all the break and
effect symbols and uses them while playing the music. You can record
your own sounds and use them as instruments in your tunes, and
import/export MIDI files. Load & save in MID,
KAR, TAB, ABC, AIFF, MP3, WAV...

Melody Assistant also calculates tablatures for any fretted instrument
or harmonica and displays the chord diagrams. A wide guitar chord
diagram user-defineable library is provided.
You can associate lyrics to a tune, and let the music play in Karaoke
(multi-voices) mode.
Graphic and texts can be inserted at any point on the score. A jukebox
is integrated (playlist).

New : Virtual Singer shareware plug-in, which makes your computer sing
the lyrics !

Melody Assistant is shareware (fee : US $15). In unregistered version
:
limits on document length, exports limited, no key/clef changes.

Colleen
==============================
"Bob Eldridge" wrote in message news:...
> There are programs that "remove" vocals from music but they work so so at
> best since they also remove any music in the same frequency range as the
> voice. A good alternative is to use well done midi (also called kar files)
> music files and turn off the lead instrument which is usually on channel 4
> of 16 channels. (Each instrument has it's own channel including the drums)
> There are Diane Kraal, and even Holly Cole midi files available. I use a PC
> and Van Basco's midi player to turn off the unwanted channels. I don't know
> what is available for the Mac, but I do know that Quicktime 5 will play
> midis and kar files but you can't adjust the channels. If you like you can
> e-mail me with and I will send you some sample midi files in the styles of
> the artist you mentioned. When you get them you can use Quicktime to
> listen to them but, remember that the lead voice that is "playing the vocal
> melody" can be turned off with the right software.
> "Colleen" wrote in message
> @posting.google.com...
> > I think I have a nice voice and was in a musical recently in a local
> > theater and sang 3 solos in a Diana Kraal, Holly Cole sort of style.
> >
> > I'd like to know if/how I could extract the voice and keep the
> > 'instrumental only' part of a few recorded songs on some of my
> > favorite CDs so I can practice some new songs.
> >
> > I'd like to do it on the cheap. I use Mac OS 9.2 and have the free
> > version of Quictime 5
> >
> > Thanx much,