For a while, now, I've been listening to "mash-ups" (combinations of
instrumentals of one song with the vocals of another, often with
beautiful/hilarious results)  and I am finally ready to try my hand at
making some myself.

The catch: while there seem to be a wide array of instrumental
versions of popular songs available on CD (or various P2P networks), I
am very hard pressed to find "vocals only" versions of songs to "mash"
them with. This limits my possibilities dramatically.

In the last few weeks, I have run across articles in Wired
(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/play.html) and Time
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030324-433258,00.html)
that suggest that these kinds of "mash-ups" are becoming pretty
mainstream. If this is so, shouldn't there be some kind of online
messageboard, newsgroup, or storage space where people post source
materials for the remixes they've done? How do underground DJs find
these tracks to begin with?

I am open to the idea of isolating vocals from a track manually (I
currently have CoolEdit 2000 and a couple of its plug-ins), but I've
had some pretty awful luck doing this - though if there was a website
that had some good step-by-step instructions, this may answer my
question, too.

---

Clarification of Question by stuckie-ga on 23 Mar 2003 22:31 PST

OK - I probably should have mentioned - probably most useful would be
isolated "rap" tracks, either current or "old school" classic, though
traditional "Top 40" music would be great, too. Basically, the more
recognizable, the better...

Finally... another fan of mash-ups! I can't believe Boom Selection
went down. That was the best resource for new mash-ups. Anyways, all
the big mash-up DJs use "a capella" versions of their tracks (that's
the voice only). You can find CD singles of "a capella" versions of
songs usually with a b-side of just the background. So making mash-ups
are just a matter of pitch-shifting, bpm matching, and creative
cuts/edits. If you go to your local record shop, you can find where
the DJ supplier shops are usually. Unfortunately, buying these special
versions of songs are very hard to come by online as these shops often
make you "prove" that you run a DJ business, or mix professionally.
The local shops are less strict. If you're looking for "free" music on
P2P services, I can't really support you 100% on that because then
there's no kickback to the artists (piracy debate blah blah blah...),
just search for "acapella" or "a capella", just keep the mash-up
revolution alive and keep your wares free once you're done.

As for voice removal / voice isolation... professional sound engineers
use multi-thousand dollar equipment and software to achieve this.
Anything you could do with over-the-counter software would sound tinny
from losing the bass, or just not quite right. Not saying don't try,
just that you don't need to. All the popular songs have a capella
versions sitting on a shelf somewhere just waiting for you to work
your digital magic. I'm posting this as a comment because it's not
along the lines of an answer that you were expecting...

skermit-ga

The 'Swingle Singers' are absolutely great!

However, sometimes they also mimic musical instruments, etc.