A good cheap system?

[applesmasher]

Hay im noob at the home recording stuff. Thanks for helping out. What im looking for is advice on a system to record lyrics at home to be burnt on a cd, that also has ability to remove vocals from tracks. Id be grateful for any advice on general setup specs/brand reccomendations and a cost estimate. Id like to keep it as cheap as possible. Thanks guys,girls.

 

[mbuster]

The first thing is to figure out exactly what you NEED to produce the results you WANT. I presume you want to use your PC for recording. You mentioned you wanted to record vocals. What are these vocals going over? Are you recording instruments as well? You are going to need a decent soundcard, pre-amp, mic, and compressor to get some good quality recordings. Of course, you need a good audio recording app. to put it all together. So figure out your goals, tell us what you have, what you will be doing, then we can get down to specifics.

 

[Innovations]

If I am reading between the lines of your post what you are looking to do is to take commercial CDs, remove the vocal track, record your own vocals over them, and then write the results back to a cd.

Then your first purchase should be to put a lawyer on retainer in case the RIAA finds out about this

 

[Porter]

Please also don't cross post.... one is enough, you don't need to post the same message all the forums:

Recording Techniques,
Other Equipment and Reviews,
The Rack,
Newbies &
Computer Recording and Soundcards

That's just a joke..

Porter

 

[applesmasher]

First to Porter- Why dont I need to post in different areas? I posted one first and it got no response so i posted more and now ive gotten alot of unique opinions in each different thread. So it was actually productive and most people dont care if theres an extra post. Big Deal!

Mmkay to the guys helping...

hehe get a lawyer...good one... but no worries im not using for commercial use just fun/practice/demo. As Far as my goals they are pretty simple right now. I just want to put my vocals over some tracks of my favorite bands that I like to sing to to see how i sound thats all. So I would need the ability to remove vocals, and a way to record my own onto that track and then burn to cd( I already have a burner). Im not even doing this for a demo, but correct me if im wrong, you can use covered tracks for demos anyways right? Yah thnks

 

[g on the wc]

You are correct in that you can use someone elses music for a demo- however you CANNOT use there original recording of the song- ie, useing their song from CD and replacing your vocals over it. If you use it for any reason to profit from you could get in SERIOS trouble. Check out the copyright act of 1976 before you mess with other peoples music. Just a thought- of course if it's all for fun you should just get a karaoke machine

 

[cstockdale]

First to Porter- Why dont I need to post in different areas? I posted one first and it got no response so i posted more and now ive gotten alot of unique opinions in each different thread. So it was actually productive and most people dont care if theres an extra post. Big Deal!

dude, it is just etiquette around here. This is a newbie question, just be patient and you will get answers. You will also find you get better advice from more people if you play by the homerec etiquette

 

[ambi]

you can't remove vocals from a comercial mix. But you could try and get your hands on an instrumental.

But why? Why sing someone else's lyrics over someone else's song, mimicking someone else's style?

I think you'd be best to keep singing in the shower for a while if this is all you want to do. Or maybe plug a sm58 through a single channel behringer preamp into a SB live on your computer from home if you're really gung ho. Get some free softwear..

 

[ambi]

i take it all back, i found the perfect piece of gear for you.

http://www.longandmcquade.com/hot_gear/hg_right.asp?id=570

 

[mbuster]

That would sound better than my stuff......

 

[mbuster]

It is "professional quality" after all.

 

[Innovations]

http://www.magicvideoke.com/pc_karaoke.htm

Maybe this is all he really needs, plus a decent mic.

 

[applesmasher]

Hehehmm...well you might not be too far off with that. Except I actually want to record what I sound like. So then i can make a cd and like play it loud in my car when im driving and see if people thinks it sucks hehe. But no my friends already got a karaoke machine so i dont need another one unless it records good. Just the quickest route to record my lyrics over music of my fav. bands is waht Im looking for. But you say I can't record on a removed-vocals track and then show it to someone? If I do id get in trouble huh? Well damn, does that go for karaoke tracks as well, beacuse i believe some are just instrumentals not by the original artist.

 

[mbuster]

naah, nobody would give you trouble until you tried to sell it, and even then not unless you made some money. I think he was ribbin' ya.

 

[ambi]

yea you can record it and show it to people apple. But you can't sell it or anything, or market it. If it's just for fun to show your friends and goof around, whatever. But it is some sort of copyright infringment so don't try and sell it or pass it off as your own work.

Your best bet would be to get the instrumental tracks from the karaoke machines somehow, load them into your computer, and then record your voice into it. Unless you can download instrumental tracks from the net. You will NOT be able to download a vocal mix of some popular song and just remove the vocals.

 

[applesmasher]

hehe yah i figured he was ribbing me with the $30 dollar karaoke machine. But I actually dont want much more than that, it just has to be a system that can record vocals and then lay em on the background track. And possibly/hopefully remove vocals? Im still not sure on that cause...

... You will NOT be able to download a vocal mix of some popular song and just remove the vocals.

Even if it doesnt sound perfect cant some systems get rid of the vocals? And wouldnt that be cheaper than having to buy the instrumental to each song that was gonna be used. It just seems it would be alot easier for for what im tryin to do. I DONT want to sell it just to have as novelty.

 

[ambi]

well they are embedded in the mix. There is no magic tool that just removed them. But you can target the main frequency the vocals take up and EQ them out, but in doing that you take out everything else in the frequency range. So you just make a big hole in the song, and you can still hear the vocals, just not as prominent. You'd basically just have to get a multiband EQ and butcher the song to death to do the best to get the vocals out, and then the song would sound like shit and you'd still be able to hear the vocals.

 

[applesmasher]

Does everybody agree with this? I believe you but it doesnt make sense that they would sell remove-vocals machines if they worked like shit. Maybe it is just some ripoff deal. Maybe Ill just have to try one if it has a money back guarantee. Cause the alternative is finding and paying for instrumentals from all kinds of wierd punk/ alternative rock bands that could be hard to find. I checked www.karaoke.com and even for a famous band like greenday they didnt have very much. Although im sure theres a site somewhere that has more.

 

[ambi]

i've never heard of a remove vocal machine to be honest with you
maybe it has some special noise gat eq compressor thing that works wonders, but everyones voice is different so i don't know how they could invent a cure all.

any links on the web to these vocal removers? I'm not saying i don't beleive you, i just haven't seen them before.

 

[applesmasher]

Well theres this one called the "Thompson Vocal Eliminator" thats says it works 90% of the time. That site is www.LTsound.com