Turn CDs into your own karaoke mixes

I’m always on the lookout for something that’s really different. DARTech has cooked up a clever software product that begins with the already popular technologies of MP3 music files and recordable CDs. Next they added in ripping, the ability to read music tracks off of CDs and convert them into wave or MP3 files.

To complete the recipe, they tossed in a really innovative technological twist inspired by the popularity of karaoke.

The result is DART Karaoke Studio, a program that literally lets you remove the performing artist’s voice from most any recording.

Anyone who has tried to sing along with a favorite song knows it’s no fun competing with the person whose voice is on the track. You can buy karaoke songs, but they’re usually either classics or songs that have been out for a while, and they’re usually not arranged like the recording artist’s version. And because they take time to produce, you won’t find a karaoke version of a newly released hit.

But with Karaoke Studio, you don’t have to wait for anyone. Just pop any audio CD into your computer’s CD-ROM drive, press the DeVocalizer button on Karaoke Studio’s control panel, and the singing virtually disappears.

The DeVocalizer works on MP3 files as well. The only requirements are that the original recording be in stereo with the artist’s voice coming from the center image. Most are.

The level of success regarding vocal removal depends primarily on how the recording was made. Results vary from total vocal removal to a slight residual echo. But even with an echo, your singing along usually masks it or it’s perceived as a reverb effect.

The echo also makes for a slightly audible sing-along guide that can help improve your performance style and phrasing, or at the very least assist you in mimicking the original artist’s interpretation of the song.

For the technologically minded, Karaoke Studio removes the vocals by a process known as destructive interference. You may have seen or heard of other products that use this method such as electronic car mufflers and headphones that cancel out airplane and construction noise.

By putting one of the left or right channels out of phase from the other, any center image sound that is on both channels is cancelled out. Usually this process results in a loss of bass, but Karaoke Studio tweaks the sound by letting you adjust the amount of phase balance, filtering out only the vocal-frequency ranges and adding extra bass.

After using the Remix feature that lets you add your own voice to the recording, you can burn your own CDs with Karaoke Studio’s recording feature. Or create a new MP3 file with your voice for uploading to computers around the world. Whatever format you select, Karaoke Studio supports you from start to finish.

You can even type in the lyrics and watch them appear on the screen in synchronization with the music.

Imagine the fun as you send your singing CDs to friends and family, unleashing MP3 files of you singing the newest hits to computers everywhere. Clay Aiken, eat your heart out.

Karaoke Studio sells for $49.95 and requires Windows. A professional version that lets you create actual karaoke CDs that work in most karaoke machines, along with visual cuing of the lyrics, is available for $199.95.

For more information, go to www.dartpro.com.

Craig Crossman is a national newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. He also hosts the No. 1 daily national computer radio talk show, “Computer America,” heard on Business TalkRadio Monday through Friday, 10 p.m. to midnight. For more information, visit his website at www.computeramerica.com.

2011, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services