Another trick to try and hear certain parts of a recording better, is to use 'Out of Phase Stereo' (OOPS)

This basically allows you to remove the centre of the 'stereo picture' so that you just hear what's been panned hard left or right. As the lead vocal is normally placed in the centre of the mix, getting rid of it may allow you to hear the other voices more clearly.

I say may as it's a bit of a hit and miss process dependant upon how the recording was mixed, and that it's stereo to begin with.

This page explains a bit more about the theory, and this page (from the same site) explains how to do it.

It's now a very simple thing to do on a PC with audio editing software such as the excellent freeware Audacity program. (If anyone's interested, I'll explain in a bit more detail)

I've had a lot of fun with this over the years, and have used it to pick out what 'minor parts' in a recording are doing far more clearly.

Ed