Here’s another idea people might like to try – next time, try singing the tune while listening to the backing *on headphones*. So your recording will be vocals only. Then bring that back onto your Mac, where you can use something like Garageband or Audacity
(http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to re-combine the two. You may have to do a little juggling to get them in time with each other, but in Garageband at least, that’s just a matter of dragging them around. Then save them as a new WAV file which you can burn or encode to mp3.

The advantage of this method is that you get the full quality of the original backing track, without having it replayed though speakers and re-recorded. Plus, you can change the balance of the vocals afterwards, add a little reverb, maybe even add some harmonies…

Ian

Peace and Blessings,
Happy holidays
Pedro Sanchez, Jr.

I’m really impressed with the documentation of your process which I do think will be helpful to many people, especially PC users. The most important lesson is that, where there is a will, there is a way. Getting creative with the tools and knowledge we have have is the key. Wonderful stuff, especially with all the pictures.

As for converting a file to an Mp3, you can do that in iTunes, regardless of whether you are using a PC or Mac. Let me know I’ll be happy to walk you through it real quick or the help section might do just as well. I used iTunes to do this even when I used a PC. Also, I’ve heard that MusicMatch, a free encoding software for Windows, is something else you could use if you do not want to use iTunes.

I converted to Mac a few years back and have found that the process of recording and production has become so much easier. Still, I’m sure there are various tricks that I might be unaware of or better software that I could use for doing x, y, or z, but I make do with what I’ve got. Even the experience from editing video in S-VHS way back in the day – hee hee – help. My motto is “ask not what you can do for technology, ask what technology can do for you” and then make it happen.

Recently I put a live recording of a new song “out there” and I wanted to add a tag line to the beginning to tell people where and when it was recorded – easy as pie with the tools I have – and it felt so good to do it on my own. : )

Congrats to you and happy holidays-
Manisha

Thanks so much for putting this together. Like Chris, it really helps me to see the steps a person goes through to make/do/put anything together. I love that you have photos, too. Plus, I didn’t know that you could even buy Karaoke tracks for iTunes! Bonus!

Seriously, it’s just really cool to me to see how a real person creates something vs. a big corporation. I think a lot of people might be deterred from creating music by the thought of having to buy a lot of expensive equipment and following a painstaking process. You’ve offered a great example of just getting something done with simple tools and some ingenuity.

Thanks again,
Chris