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 nick!



well ,i thiunk you'll probably get many different answers regarding guitars ,is a very personal thing,imagine that some people love more their axes than their wives
in my opinion ,as i expressed before ,is that you'll need a guitar ,like a Stratocaster,an amp(preferably tube ridden) and a cable to connect them.
why an amp? it's the tone ,you can get the new 'PLUGMEICANDOANYTHING'effect ,but nothing compares to a real tube amp ,more if you're intend to play blues ,guitar+overdriven tube amp is the sound you're looking for.most amps,like the low range Fenders come with a spring reverb and an effect loop which will let you output the signal to your audio interface.
let's say that an amp is the other half of your guitar.
(gotta work,will continue later)

[nickdaum]

Mhmm nickdaum you just won the award of the most original encoding error. Never seen this one before.

Neither did I ;-)

When I have a rather long text to write I use Word instead of the small editor field. It's the first time it happens. I hope it won't.

Nick

[nickdaum]

Hi gonechan

I've been looking around a little. There are many vendors, all of them with a tube-like stuff but apparently without a real tube.
Ibanez has a cool site where you can listen to mp3 samples from its dozens of pedals. Yerk!!
I am sorry if some people like it but whatever I heard is just not my cup of tea.
I need a fairly straightforward sound and I'll be content with a reasonably good result.

If I get it right, you don't seem to be impressed by the multi-effect BEHRINGER X V-AMP.
It has tons of good reviews on the Musicianfriends site, lots of them from people playing Blues, Rock or Jazz, the kind of music the closest from what I want to do.

Would you say you could use a jazz oriented guitar and make it sound bluesy with an amp?

Nick