Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Hi David,

First of all, mp3 and midi are like apples and oranges. Midi is a 
set of musical commands that can be sent along channels as digits, 
or numbers, to all sorts of compatible devices, at least one of 
which can eventually translate those commands into voice, pitch, 
tempo, level, etc., that you can hear as music (or a reasonable 
facsimile). A midi track is not an audio track--at least not until 
the actual musical information is translated into a concrete musical 
event either played live or converted into an instrumental audio 
file (like wav or mp3) to be recorded. In other words, you can 
convert something originally created as a midi file into an audio 
file, but a particular audio file cannot become a midi file, because 
midi material derives only from midi commands not yet translated 
into music, not from intrumental material already completed.

All of the Cakewalk products, as far as I know, will accept tracks 
from both midi and audio/instrument sources and eventually allow 
them to be mixed together into an audio format (like wav or mp3) to 
be burned onto disk or tape, but only after the midi tracks have 
been attached to an audio-ready instrument. But this is not the 
process that you are driving at. You can't delete any drums that 
appear on the recorded tracks in your software unless you recorded 
them independently yourself via audio input or midi input.

For what you want to do, you'll either have to find midi-based 
material that you like and mute the drum tracks on channel 10 
(traditionally, the midi channel that contains percussion) so that 
you can play along with it through the module, or get one of those 
instructional CDs without drums that you can run through the aux 
input or a mixer. I used to play along with them when I was learning 
another instrument in my . . . ahem, youth. They still make the 
Music Minus One series, but I believe that members of this group 
have used newer, more dedicated DTX products.

Ed

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "tempdir" <tempdir@y...> wrote:
> Hi Ed
> Thanks for the info. I did some search key words but couldnt find 
> any posts related to the specific topic. Perhaps if we end up 
moving 
> our discussion list off of Yahoo, we can put in some more robust 
> searching capabilities!
> 
> I guess my next course of action will be taking an MP3 and 
> converting it to MIDI and removing tracks that way. Ideally, Id 
like 
> to convert it back again to MP3 so that I can play it through an 
MP3 
> player I have hooked into the DTXpress. Unfortunately, my PC is 
> located so far away from my drums that looking at a PC-DTXpress 
> connection isnt really an option.
> 
> I know that Cakewalk is a popular software. Do you happen to know 
if 
> it can import from and export to mp3 format ?
> 
> Thanks,
> David
> 
> --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "liberatusvirus" 
> <liberatusvirus@y...> wrote:
> > Hi David,
> > 
> > We were just talking about that recently on the board. Though 
> > members have various methods of minimizing the distraction of 
> > prerecorded drums when they play along with MP3s, CDs, et al., 
no 
> > real method of removing embedded tracks is possible, short of 
> > getting your hands on the master tapes used to create the final 
> > mixdown and eliminating all of the tracks with drums on them. 
The 
> > only ready to hand method that I can think of is to take some of 
> the 
> > early stereo recordings (the Beatles qualify sometimes), in 
which 
> > the drums were panned all the way to the left or right channel, 
> mute 
> > that channel on your playback system, and play along with what's 
> > left, maybe by panning the drums through the module to the muted 
> > channel.
> > 
> > Ed
> > 
> > 
> > --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "tempdir" <tempdir@y...> wrote:
> > > Hi -
> > > 
> > > Does anyone know of a preferrably inexpensive software that 
will 
> > > allow me to take an mp3 or wav file, remove the drum tracks 
and 
> > then 
> > > save it back again as a mp3 or wav? The full blown MIDI 
sofware 
> > > packages out there seem like overkill given I only want to 
> remove 
> > > drum tracks. 
> > > Just wondering if anyone had any good solutions?
> > > 
> > > Thanks for your time,
> > > David

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "tempdir" <tempdir@y...> wrote:
> Hi Ed
> Thanks for the info. I did some search key words but couldnt find 
> any posts related to the specific topic. Perhaps if we end up 
moving 
> our discussion list off of Yahoo, we can put in some more robust 
> searching capabilities!
> 
> I guess my next course of action will be taking an MP3 and 
> converting it to MIDI and removing tracks that way. Ideally, Id 
like 
> to convert it back again to MP3 so that I can play it through an 
MP3 
> player I have hooked into the DTXpress. Unfortunately, my PC is 
> located so far away from my drums that looking at a PC-DTXpress 
> connection isnt really an option.
> 
> I know that Cakewalk is a popular software. Do you happen to know 
if 
> it can import from and export to mp3 format ?
> 
> Thanks,
> David
> 
> --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "liberatusvirus" 
> <liberatusvirus@y...> wrote:
> > Hi David,
> > 
> > We were just talking about that recently on the board. Though 
> > members have various methods of minimizing the distraction of 
> > prerecorded drums when they play along with MP3s, CDs, et al., 
no 
> > real method of removing embedded tracks is possible, short of 
> > getting your hands on the master tapes used to create the final 
> > mixdown and eliminating all of the tracks with drums on them. 
The 
> > only ready to hand method that I can think of is to take some of 
> the 
> > early stereo recordings (the Beatles qualify sometimes), in 
which 
> > the drums were panned all the way to the left or right channel, 
> mute 
> > that channel on your playback system, and play along with what's 
> > left, maybe by panning the drums through the module to the muted 
> > channel.
> > 
> > Ed
> > 
> > 
> > --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "tempdir" <tempdir@y...> wrote:
> > > Hi -
> > > 
> > > Does anyone know of a preferrably inexpensive software that 
will 
> > > allow me to take an mp3 or wav file, remove the drum tracks 
and 
> > then 
> > > save it back again as a mp3 or wav? The full blown MIDI 
sofware 
> > > packages out there seem like overkill given I only want to 
> remove 
> > > drum tracks. 
> > > Just wondering if anyone had any good solutions?
> > > 
> > > Thanks for your time,
> > > David