Audacity Forum

Hi i have been using audacity for little over a month now and have a question. When I use the vocal remover on some songs, it dosen't just delete the vocals, and a little music, it deletes it all but a little bit. so there is a little bit left in the middle, but the vocals are still there, and the song sounds awful. If you can help me out I would apreciate it.
Thanks

Are you really using Audacity 1.2? I don't think the Vocal Removal effect was included in 1.2.

Please have a look at this page: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Vocal_Removal which explains how vocal removal works.

If you are using Audaciyt 1.3.x, please see this page http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Vocal_Remover which explains how the Vocal Remover (for centre-panned vocals) works.

-- Bill

For a long time, that tool was labeled what it really does: Center Pan Remover. It sucks out everything in the left-to-right middle of the stereo field. A lot of the time, the lead singer is in the middle so that's a handy way to make karaoke. On a mono show, like a lot of internet downloads, everything is in the middle. Mono has no left and right. So you apply the tool and the whole song vanishes.

That's normal.

This is getting to be such a problem that we're talking about removing the tool from Audacity. It fails most of the time now, and we get the complaints.

People always point to that guy on YouTube that produces a perfect Karaoke and shows you how he did it. You could do it too, if you had his exact same song. A lot of other songs don't work that well.

Koz

I forgot to metion I am using 1.3.14, i tried the inverting, and that did work for about five of the songs but the rest it won't work, but I understand why. But is there anything else I could try, would some of the plug ins work? I've heard about them and did a little research but thought I'd ask before downloading.

The problem that you are up against is that your brain is a damned sight smarter than even the most powerful computer. For example: you can use your knowledge and experience to pick out the clarinet from the rest of the orchestra. You do this because you can apply your knowledge of the "colour" of the instruments music (it's characteristic tones, harmonics, attack/decay, etc.) But to an audio file editor program, the 0s and 1s used to encode that clarinet's tone are the same 0s and 1s used to encode other, similar sounding tones. It cannot differentiate between, say, the clarinet and a human voice that has a similar tonal quality. It just isn't possible. And if I'm wrong, and it is possible, you can bet your bottom dollar that the karaoke companies are not going to let that code out if their buildings!

newbie22 wrote:I forgot to metion I am using 1.3.14,

Please try to post on the appropriate forum board - it helps us to provide relevant suggestions.
Topic moved to the Audacity 1.3.x board.

There is a plug-in called "Extraboy" that you could try. It is not free ($29.95), but there is a free demo version that you can try http://www.elevayta.net/product13.htm
It is more sophisticated than the Audacity vocal remover effect and may provide better results with some audio tracks but don't expect miracles. This is a VST effect. See here for how to install VST effects: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ: ... lug-ins.3F