Clueless Newbie Questions, Karaokeing recordings. Options

[nickdaum]

My current hard and soft:
Mac G5 dual
M-Audio FireWire Solo
GarageBand
Audacity

I'm not a professional musician and don't intend to be. I just want to start singing and playing guitar Blues on my own as a retirement hobby.
Instead of using loops for the drums and bass backing I would like to use actual recordings of my favorite musicians as karaokes. Is it possible to remove both voice and guitar from a recording? If so how?

Secondary question, a little off topic: I need to buy an electric guitar, not too expensive, possiblly second hand.
As a matter of fact I'll stick to a slow tempo, like Blues does, so I don't need a "fast" guitar. I don't care about the look or the shape since I find them all ugly whether Strato or LesPaul or whatever. I don't care about accessing the highest treble notes.
I care only usability and sound.

What are the specs I should put on my list? Any brand you would recommend?

TIA

Nick

[gonechan]

hi


well there's is a way to get the vocals 'faded' but you'll have to trade that with sound quality and not always works.there's a little app that can take the middle part of a stereo file away by changing the phase on both sides cancelling the center ,so the vocals will dissapear(if they're placed in the middle) but all the reverb and choruses will remain(supposing they're panned on the sides,the standard way).
the app is called Amazing Slowdowner and is a very inexpensive shareware,you can also as it's name suggests slowdown tracks without changing pitch,ideal to copy solos and stuff like that.
mmm,guitars ,it's a very deep topic indeed.it all depends on your budget,tipe of sound you're looking after(even within blues!).i recomend you to get a decent guitar ,something that you can play for long time,that will remain tuned ,and most of all that you'll feel a connection with(this is not a new age comment!).
a Fender Stratocaster is a good guitar ,versatile ,easy to play(this can be fixed by taking it to a luthier to calibrate it,but not always) .a second hand guitar is definitely something that you can check and rely on( the older the better) since the wood becomes mature and wont bend,check that the electronics are good ,that it's got good pickups.
good luck!

This post has been edited by gonechan: Sun 9 Oct 2005, 05:33