Vocal Removal Problems

[kozikowski]

-- Koz posting on behalf of DiamondDave. --

I am using Windows 7 Home Premium and Audacity 1.3 13-Beta.

I have been working with Audacity for about two weeks and have had some success with about ten songs. But on the flip side, I have had trouble with certain songs that I like better. I have done the method of splitting tracks and inverting. I also have tried different versions of the same song(sometimes up to ten versions) and it doesn't remove any of the vocal(Seagull-Bad Company). I have had some tracks come back all muffuled and distorted. I also tried the Vocal Remover(for centered-panned vocals) and when I go to play it in Windows Media Player, it says it can't open up the file. I would appreciate any help with this problem.
DiamondDave

[steve]

The Vocal Remover(for centered-panned vocals) effect is basically the same as the "split and invert" method. The only difference is that recent versions of the Vocal Remover effect also have a feature for limiting the frequency range that the effect is applied to. This additional feature does not improve the amount of vocal is removed, but can help in not removing other sounds (such as low bass or high treble sounds).

Whether using the Vocal Remover effect, or doing it manually with "split and invert", it will only remove (mono) sound that is panned dead centre in a stereo mix. If the vocal has been processed with a stereo effect so that the vocal is a wide stereo sound, then it will not be removed. "Stereo Reverb" is a common effect for vocals in much modern music and makes this method of vocal removal ineffective.

Also, MP3 encoding can effect the stereo balance of a recording and it is quite common that vocal removal is less effective on an MP3 encoded (or other compressed file format) track than on the original WAV file.

There are a few additional tools (mostly non-free) such as "Extraboy" that claim to be able to remove vocals that are not centre panned, though my personal experience with these tools is that they can work well with some material, but badly with other material (your mileage may vary).

See here for more information: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Vocal_Removal

when I go to play it in Windows Media Player, it says it can't open up the file.

That is probably an unrelated problem.
Windows Media Player cannot open Audacity Projects. Ensure that you Export as 16-bit 44100 Hz WAV format and Windows Media Player will be able to play the file.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Audacity_Projects