Audacity Forum

... or at least knocking it out to Karaoke levels. Side track, I got interested in this effort went I came across YT videos of TV sitcoms were the posters had removed the laugh track. I still don't know how they have done this. Amazing! I've searched without luck. Dozens if not more of YT clips of people claiming to do the music version with Audacity to knock out the vocals. I know each song will be unique as to if it will work as they show in the clips.
Not even close to having a small bit of success copying the methods shown - the comments usually bear out similar frustration. They all have heavy thumbs down ratings. I am up to the latest AUD release. Can anyone point to a song that is one I could find and practice this method(s) on ? A song with the right mix. I know I have two vocal reduction effect filters but have zero results with those as well. Maybe this is just urban legend.

Thanks.

You rarely get "professional" results... I consider this a novelty effect... Something that can be fun to play with but not very useful. "You can't un-fry an egg or un-bake a cake and you can't un-mix sound."

The Vocal Removal and Vocal Reduction and Isolation effects can work "perfectly" if the vocals are perfectly centered (identical and in-phase in both channels). In most songs the lead vocals are centered, but there may be some off-center or out-of-phase vocal reverb that remains, and the backing vocals may not be centered. The bigger problem is that the vocals aren't the only thing that's centered and EVERYTHING in the center gets removed. (Except there are filters that allow you to keep the bass and very-high frequencies.)

As you probably know, real karaoke songs are completely different recordings, usually by different musicians copying the original style. You may also be able to find MIDI versions of various songs, and MIDI can't contain vocals/lyrics (but it can have vocal-like sounds).

Maybe this is just urban legend.

Or more likely, the clean sitcom track is available. No separation needed.

Even if absolutely all the moons and starts line up and the stereo separation is perfect, just sending the track through YouTube processing or MP3 (or both) just kills you.

Koz

Oh, there is one consumer-level trick that actually works. Movies with Dolby Stereo put the dialog on the middle track and the music on Front-Left and Front-Right. Those separate perfectly. Now all you need is a Dolby Movie with your track on it, a movie ripper and a sound editor that knows what Dolby is.

Piece 'o cake.

Koz