I have been on a hunt for software that will scrub vocals from a CD; to create my own karaoke-type track.

Of course, I can’t do anything the easy way.  Easy would make me happy, and nobody wants that! 

Now, you can get just about any song already made into a karaoke track.

BUT (yes, it’s a big but, I cannot lie) not if the song is from an original musical with the cast album done on vinyl with limited production and distribution.

Like I said, I seem to never choose easy.

First, I am working from a CD that is a remaster of a vinyl recording.  So it is already sort of a remix of the original; and thus, unlike your usual recording, the vocals are more “mixed in” than your usual recording.

Oh boy.

I tried various software formats (I refer you to last week’s WTF Wednesday post), and finally settled on Wavepad by NCH Software.  I wish I had started with this because, really the other stuff that is out there seems to be based on the NCH Software – only not quite as good. 

But at first glance Wavepad is kind of scary.  And it is a bit scary because it can do a lot; but like most computer programs – you don’t have to know how to do everything – you just need to learn about the bits you need.

Thanks to my amazing friends (thank you Steven and David and David’s friend Hollister), I was able to get my hands on an mp3 of the orchestral-only tracks of the song I want.  The reason I could get this is because I am personal friends with the people who wrote and created the musical and produced the album (on which I am featured). In this case, I have contacts and those contacts are my dear friends who went above and beyond for this fat old lady.

To add to the fun – I don’t just want to sing over the orchestral.

I want the ensemble singing and just the solos scrubbed. 

See.  I can never do it the easy way. 

Where’s the fun in that?

So with Wavepad I was able to take the mp3 I made from the CD and add silence where the solos were; and then take the orchestral mp3 and clip out the orchestra only for those sections and paste them into my draft mp3 over the silent bits. 

The results is pretty great. 

I still need to fine tune – just itty-bitty snips (happily, itty-bitty is an incremental form of measurement that Wavepad understands) that need to be removed or replaced; but otherwise, I am so pleased with how it is coming together. 

And while there have been a lot of moments of frustration (and I am sure there are more to come), I have already accomplished so much more with this than I thought possible – and it’s even been kind of fun.

Of course, the best part is getting to chit chat a bit with my friends. 

So if you want to accomplish something – keep at it.  You might surprise yourself.

I sure did.