Vocals And Instrumentals, How to Separate? Options

[korektphool]

Hi all!
Supposing I have a song in mp3/wave/aiff format which has vocals and instrumentals, how do i separate the two? Like I want the vocals separately so I can put a new beat on it and i want the instrumentals so I can sing new stuff over that. Anyone know of appropriate software to do this on Mac? If not on Mac, I could use a piece of software on Windows and then transer the files to my Mac for further work.
Thanks for help
KorektPhool

[paularcher]

Oh if only it were that easy , as far as I know , unless you try gating out some of the sounds you dont want , and will probably end up filtering out stuff you want also , it's unacheivable in the way your thinking , however if it's a famous song your thinking of then try on the net for an accapella version , some of them not being real accapella , ie letting some of the instruments also into the mix but at a low volume . though you may have better luck gating out a low level sound than a full mix . On the other side you could look to license the track and pay for it , then get the song in all its tracks , ie drums , vocals bass ,etc seperate , well gotta run , good luck .

[korektphool]

Hey paul archer!
I liked your first idea, gating out the unwanted sounds, however that is going to be very hard for a beginner like me. I want to 'mix' hip hop classics and I don't think it is possible for me to get licences for them! I found on file sharing programs 'instrumentals' of famous songs, i was merely asking how to do that with Cubase, which i have, or other software. Also, I notice on good hifi players there is an option to put the vocals up by themselves without the instrumentals. Is there an easy way to do this?
Thanks from Raghav KorektPhool
PS what is an acapella?