Audacity Forum

Okay so I'm not even sure exactly the proper wording for this, that's how n00bish I am.
I was simply trying to remove lyrics from a song, which I know how to do because I found it on youtube, but that is not my problem. The problem is when I open a song I get about .1 seconds of strange noise which may or may not be the song I opened. I've only tried it on 3 songs.
I have absolutely no idea what caused this, or if it's normal or anything. And if there is some topic that says how to fix it then I'm completely retarded and missed it. Sorry :/

<<<I have absolutely no idea what caused this>>>

Chances are, we do.

<<<or if it's normal or anything.>>>

When Audacity encounters a strange audio file format it doesn't understand, it tries to open it and play it in real time. If the music file is compressed, the show duration is reduced ("How come my music is playing really fast?"). If it's highly compressed, the whole 10 minute show could go by in a couple of seconds ("How come I get a strange burp or scream instead of my show?").

You get the idea. So you need to convert the music to WAV or AIFF or MP3 for Audacity to understand it. The long way around is to burn the music to a CD, rip the CD in iTunes set for WAV import format and then copy to Audacity.

I would open the music in QuickTime Pro and export it as a WAV file. Quick and Easy except you need the Pro license--highly recommended if you do production of any sort.

A word about "Vocal Removal." Have you personally ever gotten it to work? There are pages of reasons why it doesn't. It almost never works right if you start out with a highly compressed show. The show has to be stereo--real stereo, the singer can't have any special effects added to their voice, the bass and drums can't be in the middle, etc, etc, etc.

Vocal Removal is one of those tools that sounds grand until you try it.

Koz