Importing Audio file

[goldwing]

I am trying to import an audio file in order to remove the vocals. Although it appears to have done so, instead of a spectrogram all I can see is a flat line in each track & when I try to playback the track there is no sound. The same applies after I have followed the steps for deleting the vocals. I am using Vista which has Windows Media Centre. Can anyone help a 71 year old non teckki.

[steve]

Does the file play correctly in Audacity before you try to remove the vocals?
If so, then the problem is that your track is mono.

Vocal Removal (otherwise known as "Centre Pan Removal") is based on the idea that in many stereo recordings, the main vocal is in the exact centre of the stereo field (exactly equal in both left and right channels), but that the other instruments are spread out to the sides (different in left and right channels). The "Vocal Removal" process mixes the left and right channels together, but with one channel inverted so that anything that is identical in both left and right channels is cancelled out.

If you have a mono recording on a 2 channel track, both the left and right channels will be identical, so the Vocal Removal effect will cancel out everything and it will become silent.

For vocal removal to work, the vocal must be dead centre in the stereo mix (identical on left and right channels), and other sounds must be off-centre (different on left and right channels). If this is not the case (and often it is not) then the technique does not work.

[goldwing]

Hi, I cannot get the track to play in Audacity at any stage . The vocals on the original cd come out of both speakers. Given that, after importing the track, all I can see is a single line for each channel, I'm am wondering if it has been imported correctly. I am using 'importing raw data' from the list in the 'Project' tab. It won't let me use 'import audio' Thanks

[steve]

Audacity cannot import directly from audio CDs. (the data on audio CDs are not "files" - it is just a stream of digital data with small "CDA" files that point to where the data is that belongs to each track).

To get tracks off an audio CD into Audacity you need to "Rip" the audio data off the CD to create audio files (preferably in WAV format).
C-Dex is a good, free CD ripper that will enable you to do that.
Once you have your WAV files, they can be imported into Audacity.

C-Dex: http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

[goldwing]

Hi, Thanks for the info. The next question is, how do I import the audio file into Audacity after I have 'ripped' it ?

[kozikowski]

You don't have to "import" anything. Launch Audacity and File > Open.

Koz

[kozikowski]

A note here that Vocal Removal fails a lot more times that it succeeds. It's not click and it works. As indicated, if the original music is mono -- all the performers sound like they're centered between the two speakers -- you're dead immediately. Vocal Removal works on Stereo tracks. If the vocal isn't in the middle between left and right, it fails. If the vocal has stereo effects added to it, a ghost vocal will be left behind.

It doesn't work with stereo recorded choruses or large choirs.

Generally, even if you do succeed, bass and drums can go, too. Anything in the middle is affected, which is why the original title of the tool was Center Pan Removal.

You won't have this problem with a Music CD, but people who "borrow" their music from the internet suffer from internet processing (MP3 compression) which can mess up Vocal Removal.

Past all that, you're good to go.

Oh, wait. One more note. Audacity 1.2 is really old and can have problems with modern computers. You should probably use Audacity 1.3.12 from here...

http://audacityteam.org/download/

Koz

[steve]

You don't have to "import" anything. Launch Audacity and File > Open.

Yes, you can do that, but I wish you couldn't because it is inconsistent and confusing, particularly for new users.

We go to great lengths to stress that Audacity does not edit audio files. Audacity creates projects that contain data that is either recorded, or copied (imported) from existing files. When you "edit an existing file", Audacity does not make any changes to that file, it simply copies data from the file as necessary.
Similarly, Audacity does not "save" audio files. When you "Save" (from the file menu > Save Project) it creates an Audacity "Project" file, which is not an ordinary audio file and will not play in any program other than Audacity. To get a normal audio file it is necessary to "Export" from Audacity (File menu > Export).

So yes, you can "open" an audio file (File menu > Open), but it is not actually "opening" the file for editing, it is telling Audacity to "open" a new project and import the selected file into it.

The alternative method (which I think is a more logical method, given what Audacity actually does), is to open Audacity in the normal way, then "Import" the required audio file.
In Audacity 1.2.x, files are imported from the "Project menu > Import Audio".
In Audacity 1.3.x files are imported from the "File menu > Import > Audio".

You can also import natively supported audio files (such as WAV and MP3 files) into Audacity by dragging files onto an open Audacity window.

[goldwing]

Hi, Thanks for all the help so far. I have managed to download cdexos but haven't a clue as to how to proceed after "Convert/extract CD track(s) to WAV file as Vista won't let me access 'Help' Can anyone let me have step by step instructions from Converting a track to getting it into Audacity?
Thanks

[steve]

Can anyone let me have step by step instructions from Converting a track to getting it into Audacity?

Have you upgrades to Audacity 1.3.12 yet?
If not, download and install Audacity 1.3.12 and if you still need help come back here (then I'll move or split this topic to the Audacity 1.3.x part of the forum).