Arashi Accapella Versions: How to

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Recently I've seen a few posts asking for Arashi accapellas or praising ones found on youtube (at various Arashi coms, not just this one). These are extremely easy to make, so I figured I'd debunk the mystery for you guys ^^;;


IMPORTANT NOTES: You can ONLY make "accapella" versions of songs that have a karaoke/instrumental track. So all album trakcs and b-sides that don't have an instrumental are out. It is also important that your song and your karaoke track were ripped at the same bitrate. Don't know what that means? Don't worry. Just make sure you either rip them from your CD yoursel for download both tracks from the same place. Also this is NOT going to come out perfect for every song. Due to the way some songs are mixed in the studio, some will come out better than others.


You need two very easy to use, very free programs. Goldwave and Utagoe Rip. Just google them to find downloads. Note: Utagoe Rip is a Japanese program, but it only has about 4 buttons so after reading this, you should have no problem using it.

Step 1: Install Goldwave.

Step 2: Open Up Goldwave. Click the Open button at the top and select your song. For this example, I'm going to use "truth." So open up your mp3 of truth.

Step 3: Go to File -> Save. Yup. Savin that file you just opened. But when you save it, save it as a .wav file. If you know another way of converting mp3 files to .wav files, go ahead and do that.

Step 4: Do the same thing with your karaoke file. So Open up "truth (instrumental)" and do the same thing. Save your wav file in the same folder as the regular truth one.

Step 5: Install Utagoe Rip.

Step 6: Open up Utagoe Rip. OH SHIT ITS ALL IN JAPANESE. Not to worry. Here's a translation, and here's all you need to know. Above the box at the top, it says " 入力ＷＡＶＥファイル（オリジナル）" Click the little folder next to this box and open up your "truth" wav file.

Step 7: The second box down says "入力ＷＡＶＥファイル（カラオケ）" Click the little folder next to this box and open up your "truth (instrumental)" wav file.

Step 8: The bottom box says "出力ＷＡＶＥファイル（ボーカル）" Type in here what you want your acapella track to be called. Anything is fine.

Step 9: See that big button on the top right with the music note on it? Click it! Wait for the file to convert and bam! You have an accapella.

Step 10: Your accapella is a wav file! Who uses those anymore. Go back to Goldwave, open it up, and save it as a .mp3. EXCEPT FIRST to do this you need an mp3 codec. Not to worry, the Goldwave site has it. There will be a download there for the "LAME" codec - just download it and put it in the same folder as your goldwave program. No need to install. Now you can save files as mp3s. Alternatively, you can convert in some other program if you have one.

You may be wondering what some of the other features on Utagoe rip are. boohaysaging has kindly provided us with her brother's translations here and here. WARNING: DO NOT mess with these options unless you know what you're doing.

Please feel free to ask questions. I can post picture guides if that helps people.


I had no idea how to tag this, sorry :(

Comments

[ladysakurai.livejournal.com]

i had no idea about this :p
will like to try it someday *saving info* ^^
thank you!!

[statr.livejournal.com]

this is cool! thank you.

[statr.livejournal.com]

also, you can try to not use goldwave if you have to encode it to .wav, there's this site http://media-convert.com that allows you to convert files online. :D

[boohaysaging.livejournal.com]

screencaps w/ some translations of Utagoe, for those who will find it useful




and the other screens which I rarely mess with XD

(http://img72.imageshack.us/my.php?image=u2pp9.jpg)

(http://img72.imageshack.us/my.php?image=u3qu4.jpg)

thanks for this post :) now I don't have to answer questions about acapella versions one by one :)

[arashiheartie.livejournal.com]

thanks for the translation ^_^

[boohaysaging.livejournal.com]

I'll say that to my brother :)

[arashiheartie.livejournal.com]

okay ^^ he's good in japanese ne ^^

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Oh thanks, that saves me the time of having to do that myself XD Would you mind if I used your images in the main post?

[boohaysaging.livejournal.com]

I don't mind ^__^

though I am not 100% sure about the terms on the other screens because those look so... technical XD

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

I just did a quick glance-over, but they look correct to me :)

[eggchan.livejournal.com]

meming this in case I need to make an acapella song some day :D thanks for sharing the info! <3

[j-halo7.livejournal.com]

Cool! Adding this to my memories to try in the future. ^^ Thank you!~

[j-halo7.livejournal.com]

Hmm tried this today with Ayaka's songs. Doesn't work perfectly as I still get the instruments but very very soft. I guess the song must have been a little too complicated to make it 100% a capella. What a waste though, given her good voice. A Capella of her songs would have been awesome.

Thanks again for the tutorial. ^^

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really depends on a lot of factors - part of it is how the song is mixed, and how much they include in the instrumental. The quality of the files matters too. You'll always get the best results if you rip your file directly from CD in wav format (because it's uncompressed). If you don't have the CD, using a .flac file or a 320 rip is the next best thing.

[jocularreaction.livejournal.com]

thank you!

[kashmir-ki-kali.livejournal.com]

YES! THANK YOU!

I have to find out if they are mac compatible, because then I can fool around in garageband and stuff XD

[zephia.livejournal.com]

Wow this is great O_O I always wondered how it's done. Thank you so much for sharing this! <3333

[queenrociel.livejournal.com]

oh wow!!! thank you~ i'm gonna mem this. XD

[kazuh.livejournal.com]

ooo. thank you so much for that!!!

[terge-18.livejournal.com]

ROFL! i remember the 1st time i tried this~ the acapella was so perfect, i got excited thinking that i could do the same for Ohno's solo! but then.. BAM! i remembered, solos doesn't have an instrumental version. dang. xc it would be great to hear his voice without the music.

[urasora.livejournal.com]

oh wow, this tutorial is amazing, thanks for this!!

[arashiheartie.livejournal.com]

thanks~~~~ ^_^
it helps me alot~
you make my day! <333

thanks~ thanks~ thanks~

[reonreon.livejournal.com]

that's interesting..will try it :D

[coolnat466.livejournal.com]

Heeeeey, thanks for the tip :D
I'm trying it right now è.é!

ARASHI - Kaze no Mukou he

[...]

Woaaaaaaa, it works *O*
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu *o*

*hug*

[coolnat466.livejournal.com]

Hey I just tried an accapela version of Daite Senorita XD XD
I like when he's breathing at the end of the chorus haha XD XD DX

Sugoi *o*

[rininjapan.livejournal.com]

LOL!!!! I so gotta try that now!

[coolnat466.livejournal.com]

Yes XD I'm listening it on repeat right now XD XD

*o*

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

You can get some really creepy results with stuff like that sometimes XD Like in Hello! Project songs, Tsunku (the male producer) a lot of times provides back up vocals in the songs, like "uh uh yeah yeah" sounds, and when you make a vocal-only, it sounds like a bad porno XD

[coolnat466.livejournal.com]

LOL XD I don't know this song XD But I'm gonna search it on Youtube XD XD

*O*

Thanks again for the tip <3
Lol I'm very grateful, cause now, I can try recording duets with my favorite artists XD haha, funny :D

[rininjapan.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for this info. Mystery solved. Also explains why they don't take requests or do songs other than singles.

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Yeah - the program isolates what it finds in the instrumental track and removes that from the original. So if, for example, all of the harmonies and back up vocals AREN'T in the instrumental, it won't remove them. Or, if the mixing of the song is more complicated (like vocals bouncing between channels (i.e. left and right headphones) ), the "vocal only" won't come out as clean.

You CAN however make instrumentals out of songs without instrumentals sometimes. Goldwave has a simple vocal remove effect that will do this. It's really hit or miss though, and the result is never perfect enough to then put into Utagoe Rip =/

[abyssinian27.livejournal.com]

sugoi ne~ mystery unfolded... :D lolz

[mystika-d.livejournal.com]

thanks~ ^^

[adeztya.livejournal.com]

haiz...thanks so much, btw do you know a program to turn a song to orgel version??+if there any of it..+

i'm trying Beautiful Days with Utagoe right now, hope it'll turn out good ^^

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

There are programs to make orgel versions, but they are much, much harder to use. I don't know the names of any off of the top of my head, but they require actual music composition skill. You have to program in a lot of the melodies by yourself.

[adeztya.livejournal.com]

wew...so there are alot ...
i don't know any of it >.<;;
thanks, i'll try to look for it now.
btw, the beautiful days turns out good ^^

[shelketuesti.livejournal.com]

Uwah~ It works perfectly XD Made an acapella of truth as well and wuah... I'm even more impressed by the song now. >D Even though I heard it already like a million times or something...

Thanks for the tutorial XD
Gave a some inspiration to fool around with my audio prog again... XD
(Haha, truth backwards is made of pure win XDDDDDDD Like some kind of trance song XDDD)

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Step 8: The bottom box says "出力ＷＡＶＥファイル（ボーカル）" Type in here what you want your acapella track to be called. Anything is fine.

So like "sakura sake vocals.wav" If that's what you're doing and it doesn't work, show me a screen shot of the box you're getting. Sometimes you get an error message if the karaoke file and the original file aren't compatable.

question :)

[(Anonymous)]

unoo


i want to ask you about this step :

4: Do the same thing with your karaoke file.


can you tell me from where i can get the karaoke file if i don't have a karaoke ??



thank you

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

It's saying that you need to set your sampling bit to 16bits. So basically, your two wav files are not at the same bitrate. The problem is with the original mp3s. You probably have versions ripped by two different people. Both mp3s need to be ripped from the CD at the same bitrate.

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Actually I mispoke. 16-bit doesn't really refer to the bitrate, but I'm not really sure how to explain it. It's technically the bit depth. You can read about bit-depth here (http://www.tweakheadz.com/16_vs_24_bit_audio.htm).

I'm not sure how to convert a file to change the bit-depth, or if that's possible. I think that's more something that's set during the original encoding? Usually I just rip my own CDs to ensure the files have the exact same settings overall.

thanksssss a loooootttt!!!!!

[李岳 (from livejournal.com)]

my god!!
I've been searching it for a looooong time
still couldn't find the way that how to make accapellas
luckily,I came here
and the method that you provided DOSE WORK!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR INSTRUCTION!!! YOU HELPED ME A LOT! :D

[topazera.livejournal.com]

Oh man, thanks for clearing this up.. years ago! :D I'd never listened to an "acapella version" until today because I just hadn't been struck by a particular interest but they're actually kind of interesting! Yet another advantage of Japanese singles including an instrumental track. :)