# seperating channels



## darryl (Mar 23, 2006)

I'm not sure how to explain this but I have my Scary Terry board in the skeleton and working. Now I just need to learn how to seperate the voice I want out of a sound track. For example, if I find a voice clip I like but it has music in the back ground how do I seperate the voice from the music so the jaw only moves when the person is talking?
Tried Goldwave like Zombie suggested in his talking bucky tutorial but I can not figure that software out. Any suggestions?


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## ScareFX (Aug 18, 2004)

Separating a voice out of a track that has already been mixed is difficult. I've never gotten good results.

You would be better off re-recording the voice track by itself. Then you can use your audio editing software to put the voice track on the left channel of a stereo track and your background music on the right channel. Save the result as a wave file and burn it to an audio CD. Then connect the left channel of the output from your CD player to your Scary Terry board and the right channel output to your powered speaker. Your skelly will then only respond to the voice (left) channel.

Here's part of a clip I used last year for my talking skeleton that uses a Scary Terry board. Open the file in your audio editing software and you should be able to see the difference in the two stereo tracks.

http://64.226.23.133/woodycarr/scarefx/clips/talking_skeleton_example.wav


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## darryl (Mar 23, 2006)

So then it would be easier for me to just record my own dialog using an audio editor to distort my voice and then mix this with some good back ground music on a left and right channel? I think this is what you are explaining, which is kinda cool because then I'm not limited to someone elses ideas and sound tracks.
I think I could figure that out, now to come up with something good to say!!
Thanks for the help.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

One way to accomplish this feat, is to record your voice in sync with the recording you want to play. Say, for example you want your skelly to sing "This is Halloween" from the Nightmare Before Christmas. You can't just hook up your ST board, because the music will play through along with the voice. What you need, is the song on ONE channel, and your voice on the OTHER hooked up to the ST board. Start by opening up your audio editor, (Goldwave, or Audicity work for me) and load up your song. Merge the stereo onto a single channel. Rewind it, and open a new channel. Make sure mic is on. Now sing your heart out along with the lyrics, but DO NOT HUM with any instruments! Just sing the words...You can't sing? Don't matter, because the new track your voice is on will ONLY go to the scary Terry board and NOT to any speaker. Anyway, when you're done, you should have one channel, let's say the left, and your voice (out of tune singing..lol) on the right. Burn a CD and hook up the right channel to your ST board, and the left to your audio amp/speaker. The skelly should now move it's jaw in sync with YOUR voice,(which no one can hear)which just happens to also be in sync with the song on the speaker. 
Now, of coarse, since the Scary terry board only needs ANY sound to move a servo, you don't REALLY need to sing. You could just talk along with the words, or just say "Blah Blah Blah" in time with the lyrics. It doesn't matter, as long as the jaw moves in sync with the music. Of coarse, the music won't be in stereo, but oh well.


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## darryl (Mar 23, 2006)

thanks Dr. M. Had thought of that without knowing I could put them both on one cd so I figured I would have to have 2 cd players. One w/me singing along and the volume down low and one w/the track turned up so everyone could hear. What a pain!!! Let alone trying to get them sync'd.
Now to try and figure out GOldwave.


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