Remove Selective Vocals

[MMClark]

I am using Windows 10, Audacity v2.1.2, and installed the .exe installer.

I am using Audacity to create karaoke versions of songs. I learned how to remove vocals with Audacity, which works great. Now I would like to know how to remove only part of the vocals....

For example, I have a song with a male / female duet. I want to remove only the male vocals and keep the female vocals. This way I can sing the male part myself in karaoke, but still have the female vocals in the audio to sing only that part. How would I do that?

[kozikowski]

Not in Audacity. Vocal removal works by an odd arithmetic sound trick. The trick doesn't extend very well, and the fallback position is that we can't take a performance apart into individual voices, instruments or sounds.

You could try Vocal Removal and Isolation. Past that, we got nothing.

Koz

[MMClark]

Thanks Koz.

[MMClark]

How can I, if possible, record me singing with the singer of a song. Then take my separate recording and pasting it on the original recorded track in audacity. Now becoming a duet but a separate tract on the original tract. Is this possible? Thanks Matt

[kozikowski]

Totally possible. That's overdubbing. Play the original track into your headphones (it has to be headphones) and sing to it, several times if you want. I'll give you the links in a minute.

Koz

[kozikowski]

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tuto ... rdubs.html

The setup is a little wacky because suddenly you have to worry about latency delays and other adjustments to make sure the new and old tracks line up.

This can also fall apart if you're on an underpowered computer. Audacity has to play the base track perfectly and record your voice perfectly—at the same time.

But it's possible.

You are also going to run into all the Home Recording problems. Good Luck.

I would post a sample that I created but my ability to set up the computer ran into my inability to perform music.

Koz

[MMClark]

That's funny. I will try that thanks. One other question, please. Again, I know how to remove vocals. But instead of removing the the vocals "completley," can I just lower the volume? (Not totally illuminate them)

[DVDdoug]

Off the top of my head, I think any mixing of the original track (with vocals) with the vocal-removed track will tend to increase the right-channel or left-channel information.

And... Simply adjusting the left-right balance will make the vocal removal less effective, so you might as well try that...

Split the tracks to mono (so you can edit one side at a time). Then use Amplify to reduce one side by a few dB. (I haven't tried this, but I'm guessing you'll need to reduce one side by around 3dB depending on how much vocal removal you get with the original settings and depending on how much vocal you want to keep.)

Then make it stereo again so you can apply the Vocal Removal effect.

The end result is going to be mono (identical in both sides) so you can choose whichever side you prefer to keep at full volume and reduce the side you least prefer.

[kozikowski]

Vocal Reduction isn't like other tools. When you get done, you don't have the original show minus the vocals. It's a different show with different stereo separation and other artifacts. You can't easily use it as a building block for other effects.

See if any of those tricks works, but you may get odd results for a lot of work.

Koz