Un-synthesizing Audio

[Draiken]

Is Audacity able to un-synthesize audio?

A friend of mine and I can't find the lyrics to a song, so my friend wants to learn the lyrics by ear. The problem is that the song is heavily synthesized, so it's hard to discern the words of the song.

If not, I'll try elsewhere, but I wanted to see if users here had an answer.

Thank you for your time in responding. *bows deeply*

(If it helps, the song is "69 Balloons", by Aural Vampire.)

-Draiken Talkos

[kozikowski]

It is, isn't it? As a large, fuzzy rule, you can't take apart songs -- in any program I know of. You might try the vocal isolation tools.

Voice Removal or Isolation
--Center Pan Remover (Voice Remover--Search the page for "Center Pan Remover")
http://audacityteam.org/download/nyquistplugins
--Voice Trap
http://www.cloneensemble.com/vt_main.htm
--Extra Boy
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1651.html
--Kn0ck0ut
http://www.freewebs.com/st3pan0va/

Koz

[steve]

Do either of you speak Japanese?

[Draiken]

Do either of you speak Japanese?

Speaking for myself, I speak very minimal Japanese and am currently taking classes to learn the language.

Why do you ask? Aside that the song I'm hoping to (any degree) un-synthesize is Japanese, I'm not sure why this question is relevant to the topic.

[kozikowski]

I think he's trying to establish how "un-synthesized" we have to make the song for you to copy the lyrics. At least one of those tools claims to be able to perform vocal isolation. That may be the ticket for you.

All the usual restrictions apply. The show has to be in high quality stereo, it has to not be an MP3 or other compressed format, no special effects, etc. Some of those restrictions are relaxed because you don't want to generate a new musical performance, you just want to be able to write down the words. If you can establish the show is in stereo (top and bottom waves don't match when magnified), then one of those packages may help.

Koz

[Draiken]

Ah. In that case, I should modify my answer seeing as I misunderstood the "either of you". I speak minimal Japanese, but my friend is proficient enough that he can translate.
I've played around with Voice Trap a bit to understand how it works to varying degrees of success on an MP3 file, but you say that I shouldn't which leads me to a new question:

How do I decompress MP3s?
A few times with other programs on my computer, I've been asked to decompress an audio file to wav, but I wasn't sure what it meant. I know that there are media converters (online and elsewhere) that can turn MP3s to wavs, but I don't feel that it is quite so simple.

Would you please elaborate?

-Draiken Talkos

[kozikowski]

Almost all successful audio compressors damage the show. MP3, AAC, M4A, etc. The show at the end simply isn't the same show that went in. Each compressor has a quality slider and as you make the show file smaller and smaller, the quality of the performance goes down. One of the ways of making the file smaller is to mess with the stereo a little. That's deadly for all the tools that use the two different sound channels in stereo in order to work. After compression, you may only have one and a half channels, because the compression smooched the two channels (left and right) together in spots. One of the ways to halve a sound file size immediately is to go from stereo to mono.

At least one of those programs uses the position of a performer on the stage to manage the sound. Say you're listening to headphones and the soprano appears just a little to the left of center. As long as she stays there, the software can work. If she wanders across the stage for any reason, you're dead.

Koz

[kozikowski]

We don't like trying to use compressed files for special effects work because under the best of conditions, the show keeps getting worse and worse as you edit and apply effects. Most people who write in have already badly trashed shows from multiple compressions and they want to know how to perform fancy effects. With those files, you don't.

Koz

[kozikowski]

<<<I don't feel that it is quite so simple.>>>

Compression damage is permanent. If you download a highly compressed, damaged audio file and convert it back up into an uncompressed wav, then you get a very large, high quality, uncompressed music file with the damage and distortion very clear and accurate. You never get back to the original music.

So I don't paint a completely hopeless picture, there is a time when you want to do that. You intend to do special effects to a show (whatever the quality) and you don't want the show to get worse. Upconvert to WAV and then edit.

Koz

[Draiken]

That's really interesting. Definitely some useful information for me to think about in the future.

Thank you very much for your time to respond.

-Draiken Talkos