Backing Tracks

The answer is "sort of". A CD track, like any stereo track, consists of left and right tracks, which are not totally discrete. There is bleed from the right track onto the left and vice versa - just like "real" hearing, your left ear hears some of the sounds, coming from the right and vice versa.

The lead vocal is equally balanced on both tracks (usually, anyway). There is software that will take out the lead vocal, but also some of the backing music, as well. As I understand it, the software looks for identical sound patterns on both tracks and neutralises any that it finds - it can only do this, effectively, if the lead vocal is panned dead centre. Any bleed, from one side to the other will also get removed.
In my experience, you tend to end up with a very quiet lead vocal and most of the backing or no lead vocal and a very odd sounding backing. For practising at home, the result is usable.

Pulling, say, a lead guitar out of a track is far more difficult, if not impossible, because they tend to be panned off to somewhere away from the centre.

There may well be hardware out there that makes a good job, but I wouldn't reckon that the average person could afford one.

Thanks for the reply greybeard and thanks for the excellent explanation as well. I will have a look around and try some demo/trial downloads. Wont hurt to give it a go.

here is a link to a nice backing track collection. there are a few good ones here.
I know it isn't exactly what you are looking for. I haven't heard of software that can remove specific instruments in a CD track completely.

http://www.guitarbt.com/index.php?page=dl_list

Hi everyone
dogbite..thank you. Lots of good tracks there. :D

You should check out Best Practice. You can slow down, speed up, loop certain sections, shift the pitch up or down. It has a Karaoke mode that uses low and high pass filters to suppress frequencies. I use it isolate bass lines.