Seperating Instruments and Vocals

Version of Windows is Window 10.
I’d like to take a song and separate the vocals from the instruments. However, I don’t know how to do that…

There a couple of “tricks” & effects but don’t expect professional results. Professionals record multitrack with each vocal instrument & vocal on a separate track. With most live performances there are several microphones going into a mixer where each microphone/channel has it’s own level control where the volume of each mic can be adjusted independently before it’s mixed.

“You can’t un-fry an egg or un-bake a cake, and you can’t un-mix audio”.

The [u]Vocal Removal Effect[/u] works by subtracting left from right. Any “center channel” vocals are subtracted-out and anything that’s different in the left & right remains. That can completely remove the vocals if they are identical in both channels, but any centered instruments are also removed. There are some filters so you can leave the bass below the vocal range (which is almost always centered) and the highest-frequencies above the vocal range.

The [u]Vocal Reduction and Isolation Effect[/u] is more sophisticated and it can do the opposite… Remove the left & right, leaving the center.

??? I don’t understand.

??? I don’t understand.

Audacity can’t split a mixed performance into individual voices, instruments or sounds.

The two effects called out above can sometimes, under some conditions, remove a lead vocal from a stereo song or separate a vocal from the rest of the instruments. But it can’t give you a pile of good quality isolated performers so you can remix the show.

Koz

Ahh, okay.

EDIT: The first worked to remove the vocals! Well not entirely, sometimes I can faintly hear them, but still good enough.

Well not entirely, sometimes

Exactly correct. The effect and tools depend on how the song or performance was mastered. If the mastering engineer added background stereo echo, the voice will vanish and leave the background.

Koz