Okay, I don't know if anyone knows.

My headphones cable fits loosely into my mp3 player. So yesterday when i was listening to music, i noticed that most of the vocals were cut out. All i could hear was instrumental music. On investigation, i found that the wire had come out a little from the mp3player audio-out(headphone slot).

I got an idea. I connected the mp3player to my comp using a double male audio(stereo) cable, and removed it to a little extent (this step took around 5 minutes)from the mp3player (keep on playing some song and try to remove the cable very slowly from the mp3palyer). And then i recorded the music onto my comp......and TADAAAA no vocals....

If you want an example i will post an mp3 file......

BTW: Some mp3player don't work with the pin removed halfway..
TEST FOR IT IS WHILE LISTENING TO MUSIC REMOVE THE HEADPHONES FROM THE JACK ... NOW LOOK AT THE DISPLAY... IF THE SONG IS PAUSED THEN THIS MP3PLAYER WONT DO THE ABOVE TRICK.

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Also why does this happen.....
Do certain frequencies get cut off or certain channels..

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god dammit man,

good idea!

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Yeah,

I wonder why not many people konw about this

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Yup, I beleive that's the case. If I understand correctly, each stereo channel has both "signals" on the side. On the left channel, the Left side is all the way up, while the right side gets muted. And vice versa for the other side. When you start introducing a bit of the opposite field(i.e. adding the right side to the left sides mix, while the let side is still full) to the signal, it starts to mess with the signal and phase cancel stuff out. This is the effect you are creating I believe. By leaving the jack partially out, it is taking one of the stereo signal(lets say the left side), and converting it to mono, but it sounds in both the left and right speaker. By adding the splitter, you are in effect doing that to both channels, converting to a mono signal, but with both sides of the signals layer on top of each other. I know the Vocal Cut tool in Cool Edit Pro works in a similar fashion. It Inverts one of the channels, and it messes with the mix of how much left and right goes to their respective side, as well as how much goes to the opposite side, which normally should be zero.

People do, there are add ons and plug ins that allow the vocals to be removed from the mix, however it usually drowns out highs that are in the same frequency range, such as cymbals, some guitar etc. Funny too you can always here the reverb from vox or guitars that are cut out. I bought this thing a while back Called a Rhythm Bandit that would do it automatically. You hooked a stereo signal out from your stereo or cd player, it would go through the Rhythm Bandit(device the size of a walkman, in and out like a dist pedal on it), then I could hook it up to headphones or an external speaker device. Then when i played music through it, I could switch it on and the Vox would remove, or you could do the opposite and lower the rest of the music and raise the vox. I'm not sure if they still sell it, but it was like 25 bucks, and a pretty cool little toy. I hardly use it anymore however as cool edit has a vocal cut effect and I work with Wav files rather than live sound files now adays, but it was an awesome tool to help learn songs as the guitar sound is more pronounced without the vox.

ive been doin that for years. on my new player it only picks up one side now. you just picking up the stereo sound. not the direct channel. like just the left and right, notice how sometimes its just the harmony or just the rythem?

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Hahah, I take the jack out half way on my headphones when I'm tabbing stuff, thought I was the only one!

Lol, or you could just download Transcribe. Much better than messing around with wires.

Yeah i could download that but i was amazed when i discovered that.
Going to patent it before Dyvim Tvar does.

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^Hehe, yeah I remeber ages ago my headphones malfunctioned, I just got the guitar track and I was pretty stoked. Still though, nothing compares to transcribe, cutting vocals and pan each side, best tool for tab.

the effect u guys r talking abt is called phase cancellation... trying taking a stereo song, invert the phase of the left channel, copy it, and mix it with the original right channel in a new file... ur get a mono file with that effect...

you guys do this?? Ive known about it for years and always thought it sounded aweful... i guess if it works, do it hehe. But yea, antigrav is absolutly right on this. I do this type of thing when recording sometimes when the mic phase gets out of whack. (by using my recording software, not with the stereo jack :P )

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it does sound awful... it basically removes everything that is panned 100% centre like vocals and the bass guitar...