Karaoke Forums

Being a neal newbie, I first had to work out how to record. I tried several inexpensive programs (paid for them) and couldn't make any of them work. I found out about CEP which would work (not all that intuitive, I found) but quite expensive and couldn't get a purchase to go through anyway (some server incompatibility). The next morning, I discovered "Audacity" which is freeware and it's absolutely brilliant!!!!!!! It's easy and intuitive to use, easy to edit and normalize and I'm delighted with the results. Just thought I'd share this with anyone else who may be wondering what to use.

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Those who bring sunshine to others cannot keep it from themselves  
Snoopy

I agree with you that for free you do get a good software but of course it will not give you the performance of WaveLab Essential for example?

I use the wave recorder in WaveLab to record a session and the software I use the music is Karawin which allows me to use a Wave 16 bit track with graphic (cdg) so this way I have a track that has already been normalise & of course adjusted to my key! for best results I will record my session in 24 bit, 192khz and will start making the adjustments after using the plugins.

After the project is terminated, I will convert a file to mp3 using the Lame Encoder that came with WaveLab.

I am happy with audacity for its simplicity...all-in-one, Start-to-finish capabilities.

But what do I know, I've never even used CEP...maybe its a better path?

I used Audacity and it seem to work quite well. FYI - Cool Edit Pro was purchased by Adobe last year and has been released under the new name Adobe Audition 1.5.

More information on the product, including the ability to download a trial can be found on adobe's website. Look under products/digital video. $69 to upgrade - $299 for the full release. Maybe when I get that new Mackie Onyx 1640 w/ Firewire I'll pick up something like this.

Thanks for your input guys. The more I learn about Audacity, the more it suits my purpose. I do like the devocaliser on CEP but the US$299 becomes over 400 aussie dollars and the budget doesn't quite stretch that far.

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Those who bring sunshine to others cannot keep it from themselves  
Snoopy

FYI - If you read the manual for audacity it will remove vocals as well (on some recordings). The text below is cut and pasted from the Audacity Manual:

"2. Can I remove the vocals from a recording?

With some stereo recordings, it is possible to remove the vocals because of the way in which the recording was mixed at the studio. Often, the vocals are placed in the exact center of the recording, while all other instruments are slightly off-center. If you subtract the right channel from the left channel, the vocals get completely canceled out, leaving only the other instruments.

This only works on some recordings!

To attempt this in Audacity, import a stereo recording, then click on the track pop-up menu (the little down-arrow next to the name of the track) and select "Split Stereo Track". Now select the lower track (the right channel) and use the "Invert" effect (from the Effect menu). Finally, use the track pop-up menus to make both channels Mono channels, and then mix them together using Quick Mix. If you're lucky, the vocals will be gone."

Thanks for that valuable piece of information KM. I've saved that in my Audacity directory and will certainly give it a try.

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Those who bring sunshine to others cannot keep it from themselves  
Snoopy