imported wav file won't play

[artsneef]

using windows media player 11, i have ripped a cd track to wav file, and then imported this wav file to audacity. my goal is to remove the vocal and replace it with my own, but although i can see the wav file, when i hit play nothing happens. any suggestions?

[kozikowski]

Can you download and play any of these short WAV files OK?

http://www.kozco.com/tech/soundtests.html

<<<using windows media player 11, i have ripped a cd track to wav file>>>

I would be very skeptical WM would let you do any such thing, but I guess it's possible. More likely, it produced a Windows Media file and told you it was a WAV. Windows is good that way.

What happens if you use CDEX to rip your Music CD instead of Windows Media.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

Koz

[artsneef]

well im able to play the sample clips you provided in windows media, no problem. should i just go ahead and download cdex?

[kozikowski]

<<<should i just go ahead and download cdex?>>>

Yes, but do they play in Audacity?

Koz

[whomper]

using windows media player 11, i have ripped a cd track to wav file, and then imported this wav file to audacity. my goal is to remove the vocal and replace it with my own, but although i can see the wav file, when i hit play nothing happens. any suggestions?

nothing happens or you just dont hear anything
does a line move from left to right over the track ?

assuming you can play it
how do you plan to remove the voice from the music?

[kozikowski]

<<<how do you plan to remove the voice from the music?>>>

We assume one of the voice isolation programs...

--Voice Trap
http://www.cloneensemble.com/vt_main.htm
--Extra Boy
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1651.html
--Kn0ck0ut
http://www.freewebs.com/st3pan0va/

...You can't do that with normal Audacity tools. However you are warned of two things that can kill vocal isolation: High Compression and a Mono Show. Stuff you downloaded from the internet tends to be both. CD tracks should be OK, but not taken through Windows Media.

Koz

[artsneef]

koz, the files you provided play just fine in audacity.
whomper, i do not get any movement or sound of the track, when i pressplay. to remove the vocals, i was instructed to, split the track,and then select right track, and then select mono.

[kozikowski]

That sounds like most of the instructions for vocal removal. Split the stereo track, select one side or the other, invert that track, mix the two into mono. What that does is take the vocal out, not isolate it.

You don't have to work all that hard. Audacity 1.3 has a pre-packaged effect called Vocal Remover that does all that for you.

I don't think Audacity has Vocal Isolation tools. That's the hard one.

Not that any of these are going to work well. Most vocal management tools don't. If the singer isn't in the middle of the stage or somebody added stereo effects to the voice, that will kill a successful removal or isolation.

Anyway, back to the beginning. Your show should look something like this (your sound meters may be different).

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_playback.jpg

If you don't have two wavy blue lines, then you have no show.

Koz

[artsneef]

yeah, i have 2 blue lines, but they are of the extremely thin variety.

[kozikowski]

I don't know why I thought you were in Audacity 1.3. You aren't, are you? Can you download and install Audacity 1.3.11?

http://audacityteam.org/download/

1.2 is no longer supported and if you run into problems (like now), that's pretty much the ball game. You can put both 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine, but you can only use one at a time. Audacity 1.3 projects will not open in 1.2.

Koz