Announcing BulbaCast - The Bulbagarden Podcast

[Kadabra]

I know a guy who's a specialist in this field, so I'll see if I can get his help in removing the vocals from "Hanako Aikawa - Pokémon Hara Hara Hara Hara Relay "Pokémon Hara Hara Relay"", which someone from #PM just sent me. Kind of doubt it, however. :/

EDIT: Saying that it would be "hard" to sing is an understatement...I doubt a Japanese person could sing this. @_@;; (I bet this was edited...as most songs are.)

 

[Argy]

My computer's sound card comes with a panel that allows voice cancellation. It works satisfactorily (not perfectly, understandably. there is some sound distortion.) on the song in question.

The only problem is, I have neither the means nor the knowledge to record it into some sort of MP3 file.

EDIT: I'm testing this thing and it only works well on certain songs:
"Pokemon Haraharaharahara Relay"
"GLORY DAY ~Kagayaku Sono Hi~"
"Hyaku Gojuu Ichi"
"Mezase Pokemon Master 2001 (Rica Matsumoto ver.)"
"Utau Pokemon Zukan (Mushi Pokemon Parts 1 and 2)"

Everything else either sounds like crap or the vocals can still be distinctly heard.

 

[PPNSteve]

hmmm
i lost a bunch of the drum track and the song's 'musical highlights' when i removed the center (vocal) channel.. i'd like to hear what you came up with.

 

[inu-liger]

I don't know what you're working with, but hopefully you have the original CD's, or at least WAV/FLAC files, to work with, because MP3's WILL sound messy with vocal extraction.

 

[Argy]

Nope, I only have MP3s.

 

[inu-liger]

Then I would personally advise you to drop the idea, or choose an alternate track (perhaps the original HaraHara song instead, since that one has an official karaoke version, for which I could provide an MP3 copy if necessary), because I can tell you that you're making a very big mistake in going with MP3's as a source for a "faked" karaoke track done using vocal extraction / karaoke tools, since MP3's are *very* heavily compressed, and sound muddy compared to CD's, WAV / FLAC files (the latter which is a lossless compression format, and nearly half the size of WAV on average), especially at 128kbps, which many MP3's online are encoded at.

And not just that, but if you're going to include the end results in a 96kbps MP3 for the next BulbaCast(s), it will not sound any better either (since 96kbps is roughly radio quality).


I'm sorry if I'm not being very optomistic about this idea, but I'm only saying these things since I have quite a bit of knowledge in the area of audio and compression formats, having done lots of remixing and editing in the last 5 years myself and having tried and tested these same sources myself.


Now, while I can't say I remember how HaraHara Rilee goes, since I haven't listened to it in quite some time, how about possibly using that song's karaoke version, or remixing-editing it to allow more time for the lyrics in HaraHara2 to "fit"?
(I can do an edit if necessary)

Let me know.

 

[TSS_Killer]

Then I would personally advise you to drop the idea, or choose an alternate track (perhaps the original HaraHara song instead, since that one has an official karaoke version, for which I could provide an MP3 copy if necessary), because I can tell you that you're making a very big mistake in going with MP3's as a source for a "faked" karaoke track done using vocal extraction / karaoke tools, since MP3's are *very* heavily compressed, and sound muddy compared to CD's, WAV / FLAC files (the latter which is a lossless compression format, and nearly half the size of WAV on average), especially at 128kbps, which many MP3's online are encoded at.

And not just that, but if you're going to include the end results in a 96kbps MP3 for the next BulbaCast(s), it will not sound any better either (since 96kbps is roughly radio quality).


I'm sorry if I'm not being very optomistic about this idea, but I'm only saying these things since I have quite a bit of knowledge in the area of audio and compression formats, having done lots of remixing and editing in the last 5 years myself and having tried and tested these same sources myself.


Now, while I can't say I remember how HaraHara Rilee goes, since I haven't listened to it in quite some time, how about possibly using that song's karaoke version, or remixing-editing it to allow more time for the lyrics in HaraHara2 to "fit"?
(I can do an edit if necessary)

Let me know.

Actually, the source audio is recorded using a lossless audio codec which averages 600MB/hr, when it is encoded in 96kbps, it sounds like a HQ audio file, since the sample rate is 48000hz, which is better than the standard 44100. As for encoding in 128kbps, all I have to say is that isn't necessary and it would make the final result too large for most people to download. Now, next week zhen will be encoding the final edited copy of the Bulbacast, and he says that he has codecs that will make the file size smaller and sound much better than the first episode.

 

[Argy]

I can't record the voice-extracted version anyway. But I did realize early on that without a real karaoke, choosing such a song and actually announcing it was a big mistake. I wish those making the decision would have thought it through more before making this official.

 

[inu-liger]

TSS_Killer: What kind of lossless codec are you talking about?? Even FLAC doesn't go THAT high per hour!

Argy: A very big mistake it was.

 

[Zhen Lin]

600MB/hour is roughly 44100Hz 16-bit stereo PCM (1411kbps, IIRC.)

I don't actually plan to encode using a speech codec - I was saying they exist. (Primarily used in teleconferencing though, as in Skype.) I don't think there are any audio containers that can handle other codecs anyway... except possibly WAV and Ogg, but the area of alternate codecs for WAV is nasty business, methinks, much more so than codecs for AVI.

But it might be worth experimenting with. We'll probably still do a 96kbps MP3 release.

 

[peanutbuttermewtwo]

I agree that going with the "mini" version would be a good alternative. Furthermore, could you not conceivably loop it a few times to fit HaraHaraHaraHara? I'm not sure if the timing is that same or not, but it makes for something, at least. As long as a HaraHara of some persuasion is used, you're not really backing down on the challenge, right?

Good show. Reminded me of the CBC, where, often, phone-in quality is about the same as the lower mic qualities. Where was the discussion recorded? (chatroom? Separate tracks?) and what sort of equipment did you use?