Guide: How to search for instrumentals

Please note that this is based on my very own experience in looking for instrumentals. XD
Sorry if it's confusing. ^^;;

1. Youtube

There's always good ol' YT. Some instrumentals are bound to have a karaoke version up there.



However, if no direct link to a download is given in the description it's not recommended that you use a downloader to get the mp3. Those usually ruin the quality of the song so try and look elsewhere. x__x


2. Piapro

Piapro is one of the websites where some Vocaloid song producers directly upload their songs so it's a pretty reliable to search on this website (that is, if you are looking for Vocaloid songs. It's pretty useless looking for other instrumentals here. XD)
You'll have to sign up before you can download any of the songs here. Registration Tutorial.



Just keep the bar looking like that before you type anything. If you change the thingy on the left. You'll be searching for either "pictures", "notes", "users", etc. "音楽" means music so keep it like that. (・∀・)

Do remember that not all the Vocaloid Producers upload their works here and some don't even upload the instrumental even though they uploaded the original. However, there are quite a few who do.


When you click on a link to a song and get to a page with something like this:


(the play button is for previewing btw)

Scroll down and look for something like this.



The pretty pink button is for downloading~ owo

Another bonus on this site is that you can also search for fanart here that you can use for your videos but that's off-topic. 8D


3. Niconico Douga to Nicomimi or Nicosound

Of course you'll also be needing an account here. If you don't there is a guide on how to sign up over here.
In the search bar next to the ニコニコ動画 logo, you may simply type or copy and paste the Japanese title of the song you're looking for followed by the words "カラオケ" or "off vocal". Both produce different results. Just click on a video and check if it's really the instrumental or not.

Let's try it out with the instrumental of Romeo and Cinderella
The Japanese title for that is "ロミオとシンデレラ" (You may find this through Youtube videos.)
Okay, let's type it up in the search bar.


Now let's add "off vocal" and click the search button to see the results.



After you've found the instrumental, you may use Nicomimi or Nicosound.
Get the link to the video and paste it in the search bar.
Nicomimi

Nicosound


Or you can always grab the nico link from the Youtube videos as well. XD
Life is easier that way.

ALTERNATIVE WAY
NICOKARA DB
Just put the title in the search bar.



A list of karaokes on nico should appear like this


4. Downloading singles/albums
In Japan, it is not uncommon to find the karaoke or instrumental version with the CDs and there's bound to be at least one download of the album you want on the internet. It's all a matter of finding them. owo

Googling (GGRKS! D8<) or using Yahoo has proven to be useful for me.
Try using the artist's name, the title of the song/album and adding instrumental/karaoke/カラオケ/offvocal to it.
If your first search fails, try and try again with different terms and different search engines.

Try to find blogs or forum posts that provide megaupload or mediafire download links to the albums. (Sign up for the forums if you have to!)
Or you could try to find torrents as well. owo

Examples:
niCoPicoLo:J-Music

‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…★‥…

Alrighty then. That's all I have for now. I hope this is useful and that it solves some of your questions. (*・∀-)☆

Article written completely by me and screenshots also taken by me. XDD

Arigatou Rin-chan. XDD
I hope this helps some people out. owo

EVERYONE SHOULD USE THIS POST. *A*

Maybe you could mention how some producer blogs have dl links to karaoke as well? Namonaki-P uploads most of his karaokes onto his BDA site~ Most Ps will give you a link to the karaoke on the original video as well, although most of the time it's hidden in the mass of words XDD

Alrighty then. I'll gather some information and screenies of smthn like that and update this later. :3

I totally forgot about that. XDD

Wow~ Awesome guide, Kran-chama~

There are some websites that allow you to download good qualities mp3 from YouTube owo
http://www.listentoyoutube.com/
http://www.vidtomp3.com/
http://www.video2mp3.net/

The mp3s are downloadable in HQ by clicking High Quality before converting oAo!

Excellent guide is Excellent, thanks kran ;_;

you forgotten NicoTunes.

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:you forgotten NicoTunes.

Well, I think nicomimi and nicosound are already enough examples. xDD;;
You can already download mp3 in high quality there.

kran117 wrote:

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:you forgotten NicoTunes.

Well, I think nicomimi and nicosound are already enough examples. xDD;;
You can already download mp3 in high quality there.

i download my mp3 from nicotunes.. which is very fast!

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:

kran117 wrote:

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:you forgotten NicoTunes.

Well, I think nicomimi and nicosound are already enough examples. xDD;;
You can already download mp3 in high quality there.

i download my mp3 from nicotunes.. which is very fast!

Nicomimi is also quite fast too. xD

kran117 wrote:

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:

kran117 wrote:

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:you forgotten NicoTunes.

Well, I think nicomimi and nicosound are already enough examples. xDD;;
You can already download mp3 in high quality there.

i download my mp3 from nicotunes.. which is very fast!

Nicomimi is also quite fast too. xD

yeah!

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:

kran117 wrote:

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:

kran117 wrote:

(ツ・ω・キ) wrote:you forgotten NicoTunes.

Well, I think nicomimi and nicosound are already enough examples. xDD;;
You can already download mp3 in high quality there.

i download my mp3 from nicotunes.. which is very fast!

Nicomimi is also quite fast too. xD

yeah!

Anyway. The main point is to be able to download. lol

Stickied because this is an amazing topic and more people really need to read this.

Also as much as possible I recommend NOT using the videos for karaokes because the audio quality is usually downgraded to fit encoding requirements.

Ciel wrote:Stickied because this is an amazing topic and more people really need to read this.

Also as much as possible I recommend NOT using the videos for karaokes because the audio quality is usually downgraded to fit encoding requirements.

Agreed, but we need to consider that it is the easiest way xD Since most of us don't know japanese and we have no ways to dig into the author's webpage or data base to look for the off vocal...
Also, not all of us has a piapro account so it is harder xD;;...

But yeah, again, being the stalkers that we all are xD there won't be any problems on finding off vocals =w=;;

I really cant find the difference between a 9mbs mp3 file downloaded from nicosound and a 9 mbs mp3 file downloaded from piapro/P's website.... Or maybe my ears are not as good xD;;

Lolol me neither but I just tend to trust stuff that's much closer related to the original producer. I usually use nicosound if it's not on piapro. It's easier. ;3;

wow what an eye opening post! I had no idea people sought after instrumentals! Let alone the fact that it was a big thing for vocaloid users to add on instrumentals to their songs.

Another way you can accomplish cover work is if you play an instrument, you could copy the chord progression and create a similar sounding but completely different original background instrumental!

I believe some websites have sheet music with some musical works if you want the original chord progression as well.

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Tempo