how to isolate instrument from song?

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dbpilot
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how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by dbpilot » Mon May 24, 2010 7:00 pm

I am new and want to purchase Audacity, but before I do, can someone tell me if I can take out drums, or harmonica from a peticular song I have put into new project on Audacity and record those sounds on new project? And is there a way to isolate background singers and use them in the project too? I would like to voice over these in this new project. Thanks for any help

whomper
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by whomper » Mon May 24, 2010 7:41 pm

audacity is free
you should not be paying for it

no software will let you select one voice or instrument unless they were recorded by themselves on a separate track

some software will fake it to various degrees of success
but good enough? you have to decide that.

dbpilot
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by dbpilot » Mon May 24, 2010 8:14 pm

Hi, when you say some software will do this to a degree, do you know what software that might be? Thanks

whomper
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by whomper » Mon May 24, 2010 8:50 pm

not offhand - i never use such utilities
but have seen them andor that feature when i looked for otehr software

google is your friend. put in keywords for what you want.
someone else here may chime in with a program/technique.

you can find one method that might work some in the docs/wiki here

bgravato
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by bgravato » Mon May 24, 2010 10:36 pm

Audacity is free software you don't have to pay for it... You can freely download and use it.

You can of course make a donation if you wish: http://audacityteam.org/community/donate

You won't get any unlocked special feature for it, except for that warm inner feeling some ppl get when they do good deeds :)

About your question... as Steve usually says... to separate instruments from a single mixed track is like uncooking a cake and obtaining the original ingredients...

Some software makers may claim their software makes wonders... but I don't believe in miracles...

Anyway Audacity is a great piece of software and you can't beat the price (free), so why don't you download it and give it a try?
Get the latest version from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/features-1.3-a
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Trebor
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by Trebor » Tue May 25, 2010 8:35 am

The standard Audacity link for "remove" "isolate" ... http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... al_Removal

Usually the results are not good: complete removal or isolation is near impossible and there will be digital artifacts if using the spectral subtraction method, (e.g. using Kn0ck0ut or ExtraBoy).

saveyourmix
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by saveyourmix » Fri Nov 19, 2010 4:42 am

I can do it:
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steve
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by steve » Fri Nov 19, 2010 5:06 am

saveyourmix wrote:I can do it:
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Offering advice on how to achieve good results is helpful to forum users and is very welcome.
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kozikowski
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by kozikowski » Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:47 am

The "Vocal Removal" software in Audacity works very simply. It deletes anything exactly in the middle of the stereo show -- neither left nor right. This is generally the singer and sometimes bass and drums, too. You don't get the singer by herself. The singer just vanishes and you're left with a mono, not stereo show -- perfect for Karaoke.

Other than that, you need Vocal Isolation tools or far more serious software than exists as free plugins.

This is a collection I made a while ago.

Voice Removal or Isolation

--Voice Trap
http://www.cloneensemble.com/vt_main.htm
--Extra Boy
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1651.html
--Kn0ck0ut
http://www.freewebs.com/st3pan0va/

See New Messages at the top of the forum.

Koz

saveyourmix
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Re: how to isolate instrument from song?

Post by saveyourmix » Mon Dec 20, 2010 5:10 pm

Actually I hate advertisers, just like the Audacity guys do. I was just showing off a bit.

Of course if I were a nice 'free community' guy who gave away info on how to separate audio, I'd probably be stuck in my crappy job forever, and I prefer not to do that right now.

Having said that, I've annoyed quite a few people with this new ability. The Elvis camp became annoyed when I unmixed an old song from the 50's without their permission, and the software people would not be too happy if I packaged their apps into a new app and sold it. Oh, and the craigslist flaggers: don't get me started! lol.

Now this forum. Sorry Audacity community-my intent was only to show that it could be done.

Yet, the solution sits here on my computer. This addresses the problem of ripping songs onto individual tracks-which include drums, bass, melodic instruments, and vocals.

In any event, I am not offering a service, since one-the service side is not too hot, and two-I could run into copyright problems.

Instead I'm going to try to somehow turn it into an app, maybe. I dunno.

Anyway-Audacity is quite cool, though I still prefer Vegas, as I find it more streamlined and flexible.

Rant, clarification, or just narcissistic rambling on a forum-whatever it is I'm doing-thanks Audacity team for being there.

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