Remove vocals

[wollie_3351]

Hi,

First post

Linux: Fedora 34
Audacity 3.0.2
Installed dis-release

is it possible to mark vocals so ik could easy remove them?
I would like to remove all vocals in a file.
I know it is possible to mute the vocals but i want to complete remove them.

[steve]

I know it is possible to mute the vocals but i want to complete remove them.

I’m not sure exactly what you mean.
Are you wanting to remove vocals from a song to give you just the music (like a karaoke version)? If so, see: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_vocal_removal_and_isolation.html

[wollie_3351]

No … not just mute them but completely remove the vocals … including the part where the vocal is in.
So the actual song is getting less long.

[steve]

completely remove the vocals … including the part where the vocal is in.
So the actual song is getting less long.

“Select” and “Delete”.

See here about selecting audio: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audacity_selection.html
Press the “Del” (or “Ctrl + X”) to delete.

[wollie_3351]

First … thanks for thinking with me !

I know how to select and delete … . Did that with a large file (2h) and that’s very time consuming (if you want to be precise, and that is what i want ) but i want to automate the process some more.

Let me be a little more precise.

I have big music files from 2h and larger. So not only one but multiple. And there are, spread over the file multiple vocal parts in it.
From those files i want to delete the vocal parts. Not by selecting it part for part but just like audacity is working with “Vocal Reduction and Isolation”.

So it would be great if i could select a file and then activate a plugin like “effect > Vocal Reduction and Isolation” which remove the parts with vocals in it.

[steve]

So it would be great if i could select a file and then activate a plugin like “effect > Vocal Reduction and Isolation” which remove the parts with vocals in it.

That feature would be extremely difficult to develop. Personally I wouldn’t know where to start. Even the “state of the art” speech recognition systems require voices to be reasonably clear with little other sound, so detecting vocals in music is likely to be a multi-million dollar project for one of the tech giants rather than for a tiny development team like Audacity.

[MediumRare]

Not free, but it gives decent results: UnMixIt https:_//_unmixit.com/

[steve]

Not free, but it gives decent results: UnMixI

But doesn’t do what wollie_3351 is asking.

[wollie_3351]

That feature would be extremely difficult to develop.

I’m the first to agree with that !

But …

Is the way “Vocal Reduction and Isolation” is working not half of what I’m asking?
I mean … if audacity is capable to locate the vocals and than “mute” them, the positions (begin and end) are clear to audacity and that is actually just what i need.
From that point on it’s easy for me to exactly isolate them and manually delete them.
That would be a perfect workaround for me.

But I’m not a developer and don’t know the amount of work that requires.

Not free, but it gives decent results: UnMixIt https://unmixit.com/

This is indeed a perfect workaround for me !
Locate the vocals and create a second track with only the vocals. In that way it is easy to locate them in the original track (above)

Or … is “Vocal Reduction and Isolation” (or other plugin) for me in some way workable ?

Thanks steve & MediumRare for thinkng with me

[steve]

Is the way “Vocal Reduction and Isolation” is working not half of what I’m asking?

No. The way that vocal reduction works is to look for sound that is common in both left and right channels. Audacity has no idea about what that sound is. In a typical song recording there will be some degree of correlation between left and right channels throughout the song, whether there is a vocal present or not.

This is indeed a perfect workaround for me !
Locate the vocals and create a second track with only the vocals. In that way it is easy to locate them in the original track (above)

Or … is “Vocal Reduction and Isolation” (or other plugin) for me in some way workable ?

Yes, “Vocal Reduction and Isolation” may be used to produce a “vocal” track as a guide to manually deleting vocals, but you will need to make the judgement calls about whether sound in the “vocal” track really is a voice or some other sound. How well “Vocal Reduction and Isolation” (or “UnmixIt”) works depends largely on the audio that you are working with. In some cases the separation can be fairly good, or in other cases it can be totally ineffective.

[wollie_3351]

Ok … understand.

So … if I will create an extra track with VRI.
Is it possible in one way or another to extract or compare this track with the original so there are (roughly) positions where to start manually ?

[steve]

So … if I will create an extra track with VRI.
Is it possible in one way or another to extract or compare this track with the original so there are (roughly) positions where to start manually ?

1. Duplicate the track (“Ctrl + D”)
2. Apply Vocal Isolation / Reduction set to “Isolate Vocals” to the duplicate tracks.

You “may” be able to recognize some vocal regions just by looking at the processed track. You can also use the Solo / Mute buttons to listen to one track at a time (see: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audio_tracks.html#panel)
The duplicate track may be useful as a guide for editing the original track.