How to make my own karaoke discs from scratch?

March 27, 2008 3:09 PM

How do I take a song off a regular cd, add viewable lyrics (and whatever else is necessary) and turn it into a karaoke disc that I can hand to the kj at a karaoke joint? I already have evil lyrics and some other audio software, but I can only find reference to working with songs that are already on a cdg ... no references in my audio programs to exactly how to make one myself.

Further info: Evil lyrics will yield me a .kar and help me sync it to the music I'm playing ... but it doesn't explain what a .kar is or what to do with it.

And I want to make my own rather than find or purchase karaoke tracks because I tend to pick nonmainstream songs that are often not found anywhere but on the cd's I bought them on!

Thanks in advance!

posted by thewhynotgirl to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

Karaoke discs are the one last remnant of CD+G technology. Basically, it allows you to create a series of static image files that are timed to the audio tracks on the CD, which of course is ideal for karaoke.

this site has a tutorial, but assumes you have karaoke mp3s, and are willing to buy some custom re-authoring software, so usefulness will vary, but it should give you a grounding in the basic concepts required.

The most important thing to realize is that a 'real' karaoke CD doesn't have lead vocals on it, so you'll have to process your audio to remove them, and it won't sound as good as a proper karaoke CD. But if you gotta sing, you gotta sing.
posted by nomisxid at 3:50 PM on March 27, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks, anyway, nomisxid ... but that site says what the other sites I've found say:

"Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take your favorite songs from your CDG collection and burn them to a single disc."

I am willing to by the re-authoring software ... I just don't know where to get it. All the products on that site also assume that I have cdgs :(

On the other hand, you gave a really good visual of what the whole thing is about -- and in a single sentence, no less! Better than any lengthier explanation I've seen :)
posted by thewhynotgirl at 4:10 PM on March 27, 2008

In reading your question, I think I understand that you are trying to remove the vocals from a CD track...

I have read a way you can do this on *most* tracks out there...using a technique called Phase Cancellation.

Here's an explanation of how to do it manually with Audacity..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqXiKYG3J7M

And here's a link to an app that is supposed to do it for you...
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/vremover.htm

I can vouch for the quality of the AnalogX applications in general, however I have never actually used this one. ( I use their proxy app every day for a couple of years now though )..

Hope this helps! :)
posted by AltReality at 8:44 AM on March 28, 2008 [1 favorite]