Set to be released this month, anywhere from tomorrow, Oct. 2 (for Japan), or Oct. 15 (US/CAN), TASCAM will start selling their “special” cd player that will not only play music from CD-DA/CD-R/CD-RW discs, but will remove the voices singing from your popular songs, acting as if it were a karaoke player. This means no more embarrassing trips to the bar on Tuesday nights without preparing first! The stand-alone portable player even has two microphone inputs so you don’t have to be alone when you practice–because you know everyone would rather hear your voice rather than the original singer!

The idea behind the product is based on vocal/instrument training, and being able to do it with any CD that you have. The boxy-styled player has a simple-yet-useful graphic interface, and allows you to not only remove the voice of your favorite artist so you can be the star, it also allows you to change the pitch, enabling you to hit those notes that you never could before, and the speed or rhythm of the song, making any love song go by quicker.

Other uses: if you are prone to sing in the shower and are tired of competing with those professional singers, then this is the right product for you. Also, if you ever wanted to learn how to play your favorite songs on your recorder or tuba, get down there when the store opens and pick one up–they retail for about $150.

One downside–they don’t give you the words to the songs when you do karaoke, so you either should have them memorized or printed out beforehand!