Karaoke Forums

Hi, I'm new to this site/forum, so please bear with me if this quesiton has already been aswered.  

I want to be able to do the following:

Use my current music supply (CDs, itunes) to make karaoke songs that are not available commercially.  I like a lot of music that isn't neccessarily popular and thus there is little demand for it. Stuff like the Pogues, Joy Division, Husker Du, Replacements, etc.  I am not a KJ and will be using these for my own basement parties.  

I'm looking for software that is easy to use and will allow me to do the following:

Either cut/paste or type lyrics into a progam that combines the lyrics with mp3 to make a file (CD+G) that can be burned onto a disc.  The vocal removal is optional.

There are a couple of companies that I have found that seem to provide this, but not being very IT savvy, don't want to spend money only to find that the program is beyond my capabilities.  

Does anyone have any recommedations for software (under $100 preferably)?????

L O L!!

nope! Not for under a hundred!

AND you'll find that ripping the lead singer off songs is very, VERY hard... only ten out of 400 songs worked for me, and of those, eight were on one cd!! It's all in how the vocals were originallly recorded.

The lead vocal is SUPPOSED to be in the midrange... but if it's an unusual vocal range, or there's lots of special EFFECTS, then all you'll do is remove the midrange of music and have a weird effect on the song.

You can download goldwave for free (I think... )... and try it.

Best karaoke creator software I ever saw was karaoke builder studio, and that was a couple hundred!

one of the most user friendly software that allows duets is Power Karaoke's CDG creator.  It takes you through the process via a wizard that creates a unique song at the end of the process.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

And it is just $99.00

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

Thanks for the quick reply.    Power Karoake is one of the products I was looking at.   Would you be able to answer a couple of questions regarding that?

1 - The description on their website seems to emphasize midi files, which I want to avoid.  Can you use itunes or songs from my own CDs instead of midi files?

2 - The description doesn't include information on burning the CD+G files onto a disc.  Is it possible do tthat with this software?   Or are the files at least able  to be burned onto a disc using other software?  I don't have my computer hooked up to my stereo, so I need a disc to play on my $50 machine which is hooked up to my stereo.  (yeah, I'm real high tech here!)

Thanks again!

Midi; because the file has no vocal in it. Yes you can use audio file such as itune. But you will have to deal with the vocal.

Power Karaoke have another program for burning cdg files.

He is a member here and he can answer you question in more detail

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

As for the vocal removal, yes it is rare that it will work great, usually only a part of the vocals will be removed. Also you only will be able get it to work on songs that you have .wav or full uncompressed cd tracks for (the MP3 compression removes enough information such that the vocal removal will not work). Itunes is a wierd proprietary format, and conversion of it to something that will work for vocal removal is going to be difficult if not impossible. You pretty much have to have the cd track itself.

In general at best I have been able to remove 90%-95% of the vocals as judged by a dB meter (-13 dB), but even then the remaining vocals are very apparent if you are just listening to the vocal removed tracks alone in an otherwise quiet room. However when it comes to the karaoke setting, and if you have a good singer, they might not even notice the remaining vocals. A poor singer that is too quiet or skipping parts of the vocals make it apparent that some vocals remain though. Some songs are almost all "vocal" and the backing instrumentals are hardy any of the sound, in such cases success is not likely. Some karaoke songs commercially have some "guide" backing vocals anyway. If done right the remaining vocals just round out the singer and produce a good result.

My first impression was that almost no songs "worked" but then I realized in the performance setting 75%+ removal of the vocals is usually enough. Now I think about 50% or so of the songs somewhat work, although only about 25% really well (sample mainly 80s-current pop/rock). In general the origional vocals are reduced about 95% but any effects on the vocals tend to remain near full power. Depending on how much effects the artist used it may or may not work.

A few of the songs have a bit of distortion of the backing instrumentals, often a lot of loss of the higher frequencies, and this can be to some extent compensated in the equalizer. Sure it won't be perfect, but for a special song it may be good enough.


I currently Use Vogone,  KH pro and songverter from MTU. The total cost of the three programs is a bit over 100$ but not too much (130$). The vocal removal from vogone is pretty brainless and easy to optimize and see if it will work or not on a song.

I like vogone because it allows you to only remove the middle channel from a range of frequencies, and therefore it can allow you to keep more of the insturmentals intact. It allso allows one to remove the vocals if they are not exactly 100% in the center, but that rarely helps.

My opinion is that even a few songs that cant be found elsewhere but are personal favorites of some of your clients may make it a much better show. If the singer REALLY likes the song they might not even notice the minor defects that the process produces. I have only done a few songs (about 20) but it takes a long time (30+ min a song) for me.  I plan to convert a lot more songs over the holiday vacation. I have a freind who did a few hundred.


Don't think of it as a money saver though. Finding the original cd, (not just a purchased downloaded track) buying it, and the value of the time spent make it almost always make it a much better investment to just buy an commercially made karaoke version.

Another software system I have tried is using the program Audacity and Del karaoke, (both freeware). The audacity program has many more features and while it will do the vocal removal it is not really streamlined for the process. Audacity has a lot of features that are useful as well, such as allowing you to edit down the 3 minute guitar solos in some songs, but it is a bit harder to use. With vogone the vocal removal only takes a couple of minutes. The time consuming part is verifying that the lyrics are typed in correctly (too often the web resources are off by a few details like the number of times a refrain is repeated) and then syncing the lyrics to the song. If I dont know the song well I usually have to listen to it a few times to get the tempo down before I can sync the lyrics.

My general approach is to create a karaoke version with the screen lyrics using the origional song (with vocals) and then replace the track with the vocals removed after I have finished syncronyzing the lyrics.  

Del karaoke allows you to create karaoke versions of the songs but they can only be played on the Del karaoke software, so that is a limit to that system.

Thanks everyone!

I'm not a KJ, so I'm only interested in making these for my basement parties.  Therefore, quality or perfection isn't that important.  I'm more interested in making the song from a CD into a karaoke version than removing vocals.   If I can remove vocals, its a bonus.  I'd be happy just to have some words showing up on the screen to sing along to.

It sounds like everyone has a wealth of knowledge here!  :) Thanks!

Karaoke CD+G Creator will use regular MP3s as soundtracks (it also converts MIDI). And it includes Vocal Remover, which works as good as any other (including Vogone, as it also allows to keep low and high frequencies). But I agree with other posters -- vocal removers will not give you the result of a professional backing track.

The trial version allows to test the software in full -- please give it a go. If you have any questions post here or email our support.

As both a professional host and an EE, my advice is not to waste your money. First, most of these vocal eliminator programs only eliminate the midrange, leaving nasty sounding bleedover in the music track. Second, you still have no lyric graphics until you sit and type them in. Third, there are over 380,000 songs in the KJPro database alone. The songs you are looking for are probably out there on a professionally made disc.  For instance, the Pogues are available on Sunfly, Music Factory, Zoom, and Sound Choice.  You're better off looking for the pro versions.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

 

It depends on your audience. If your singers like mainstream music it is probably not worth the time. But if they are into a more obscure genre it is very worth it.

While there may be 380,000 songs out there in the KJ pro database, really there are far less. Many of the most popular songs have nearly 100 different versions made as karaoke (and the database lists some CDs multiple times, and also the same song is often on multiple compliations from the same manufacturer).

The 380,000 songs shrinks to about 80k when you remove the duplicates.

For some genres the coverage is very good Country, and 70s-current mainstream rock are well covered. On the other hand heavy metal, punk, rap are much more restricted in the choices that are out there.

For example I found a list of the 100 most popular "new wave"  songs and found that 92 of them have karaoke versions. for rock or country such a list is probably even better covered by commercial karaoke.

On the other hand a similar list of the 100 most popular "punk" songs only 17 have commercial karaoke versions according to KJ pro.

While there are lots of such "lists" out there and no one is authoritative, I think that this comparison illustrates the uneven coverage of some music genres.

I have only begun to convert song myself but the previous KJ at the bar where I work had converted several hundred songs that could not be found on commercial karaoke. I would say that about 1/3 of the songs sung at his shows were the converted versions, and the other 2/3 were songs from his list of commercial karaoke.

The customer is "right" in a commercial setting. If your singers want to sing an obscure song that they cant find elsewhere it, they will sing it even if it is not as technically perfect as a commercial karaoke version. In any case some can have their vocals removed and produce a result as good or better than commercial karaoke. For most songs that is not the case, but if you are striving for a niche audience it is a good idea.

If a customer requests a song that cant be bought as commercial karaoke, a good way to make them regular at your show is to make the best attempt possible to obtain it, even if it means converting it yourself.

As for the lyrics, just search for lyrics on the net and copy and paste them into the karaoke making program. It is then just a simple question of getting the timeing down.

I agree that it's harder to find professional versions of many songs, but many ARE out there, such as the Pogues.  My point was that a thorough search of the databases prior to trying homemade conversions may be a good idea.  I have also made many conversions, but I have a fully equipped studio to work with. Chances are that whatever he ends up with created on his laptop will not meet his expectations.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

there is a guy on KS called londonlive who can create backings for a price...I have listened to some of his stuff he is pretty damned good....I would certainly be happy singing to his backing

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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."

Crazy drunk guy,

I created dozens upon dozens of karaoke tracks that are not available in the KJPro database.
As you said, you want the karaoke tracks for a Basement Party;
POWER KARAOKE is the way to go. Its user friendly and will do the job.

Don't make the mistake I made and purchase this, that and the other.
Each program has its own unique Sync'ing system. It takes a while to get used to.
As for Vocal Removal, Your Not Looking For Perfection (Basement Parties)!!!!
Power Karaoke is the Economical Answer!

P.S.  I agree with Nightshow, that KB Studios is the BEST!

Hope this helps,
sw00000p