Audacity: Can I remove the vocals from a recording to make a Karaoke track?

Today I was asked to remove the voice from a song (for a kid's Christmas event). I already knew that it is simply impossible to achieve in a general-purpose tool - it depends on the frequency arrangements of the voice parts of the song. However, I found a little program (I've used before) called Audacity that is able to help us with this task. the authors have even written a small page with the necessary steps for a specific (albeit common) case:

1. Import your stereo file into Audacity.
2. Open the track menu (click the arrow next to the track title), and choose “Split Stereo Track.”
3. Select the lower track (the right channel) by clicking it in the area around the mute/solo buttons.
4. Choose “Invert” from the Effects menu. 5. Using the track menus, change each track to “Mono.”

[See the full article in Audacity: Can I remove the vocals from a recording to make a Karaoke track?]

UserFriendly Strip

It's always fun when Emacs shows itself in the comics: User Friendly

Mac trackpad tap - a click!

I'm surprised I didn't see this before! Never going back...

Do you use the trackpad on your Mac laptop for clicking (via the Trackpad Gestures section of the Trackpad tab in the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences panel)? I do, and for me, it’s one of those things that quickly becomes natural [From Macworld: Mac OS X Hints: Mac OS X Hints Weblog]

Welcome to Tassilo Horn's Wiki: doc-view.el

This is probably a good alternative to my last post about Skim. but right now I'm so into Skim that I won't break my workflow routine, at least for another 3 weeks - after that, I'll give this a try!

(spoiler - read pdf's within emacs itself!)

[See Welcome to Tassilo Horn's Wiki: doc-view.el]

Skim

This is my first post with an advice for the Macsen, and Emacsen alike!

So let's say you're working on your LaTeX article. Let's assume you're into the "\C-c \C-c" way of life. Isn't that a bore to compile the pdf and then also have to (close any opened window and) open the file, every time you make the smallest of the changes? Fear not. Skim to the rescue! Go to the preferences pane, in the Skim tab, you'll find an unchecked box saying "Check for file changes". Now why is this unchecked in the first place? No one knows for sure... Just pick from the preset Aquamacs Emacs (or tweak arround to match your preferences), and you're ready to go. Open the file once. Now switch to emacs, change the TeX source, and compile it. Skim will ask you if you want to reload the file, just tell it to keep doing it automatically from now on - and that's it! One less "\C-c \C-c" for article compilation, multiplied by... lots!, that means... well.. a healthier life for your fingers, at least! Here's the screenshot, for your delight.

ObjectDock, TopDesk and Launchy

Recently I've come across the task of modding a common Windows XP to look and feel more like a MacOS Tiger. I've stepped up to the challenge, and there's lots of good software to help you. After giving them all a try, I find the following the most usefull:

1. StyleXP - with this one you'll get the bar and windows just like a mac (look for styles in wincustomize!)
2. ObjectDock - Rocketlaunch is also cute, but objectdock is more versatile.
3. Launchy - Remember quicksilver? this is close :)
4. Topdesk - this is a good expose!

As for the dashboard, the only widget tool I'm familiar with is google desktop. so you're probably good with it, too, if you have a reasonably decent machine (RAM-wise).

mp3 links are now a player

Use this greasemonkey script:



Inline Flash Mp3 Player – Userscripts.org