how to remove music and keep vocals?

[migueford]

Ok Ive done some research and couldnt find the answer. Everybody seems to post tutorials to remove vocals and keep music. I need to do the opposite.
Has anyone done this or know how to ??

[steve]

I'd like to be able to say "it can't be done" and save you a lot of time and trouble, but there are some tools that claim to be able to do this (though I'm yet to be convinced that they can do a very good job on anything other than a few "special cases", and even then they require a lot of careful tweaking.
See here: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 12&t=15197

[billw58]

I think 1.3.9 includes the "Vocal Remover" Nyquist effect?

-- Bill

[steve]

I think 1.3.9 includes the "Vocal Remover" Nyquist effect?

Yes it does, but migueford wants the opposite - keep the vocals and remove the music, which is like trying to unscramble eggs.

[kozikowski]

It does. Vocal Removal (karaoke generator -- offically: Center Pan Remover)) has been available for a while. It doesn't work, but it's been available.


At least one of these packages claims Vocal Isolation.

Voice Removal or Isolation
--Center Pan Remover (Voice Remover--Search the page for "Center Pan Remover")
http://audacityteam.org/download/nyquistplugins
--Voice Trap
http://www.cloneensemble.com/vt_main.htm
--Extra Boy
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1651.html
--Kn0ck0ut
http://www.freewebs.com/st3pan0va/

Koz

[billw58]

I think 1.3.9 includes the "Vocal Remover" Nyquist effect?

Yes it does, but migueford wants the opposite - keep the vocals and remove the music, which is like trying to unscramble eggs.

Oops Should have read the title more carefully.

You'd think you could "remove the vocals" leaving just the music, then turn around and subtract that "music only" track from the original, thus removing the music and leaving the vocals. But it doesn't work. The problem is that "vocal removal" doesn't really "remove vocals" - it removes anything panned to the middle by subtracting the right channel from the left channel. Anything that is common to both channels (like vocals, or bass, or kick drum) is removed.

Start with a stereo recording with L and R channels.
Subtract R from L to remove centre-panned material and you have a new (mono) channel:
S = L - R
Now go back to your original L and R channels and subtract S from each of them.
L' = L - S = L - (L - R) = R
R' = R - S = R - (L - R) = 2R - L

You shuffled the sound around between the two channels but you haven't removed the music.

No matter how you twist and squirm there's no way you can do it. "Unscrambling eggs" indeed!

-- Bill

[migueford]

"Unscrambling eggs" there is no better way to say it.
I thought it was near impossible, just wanted to make sure nobody could help me out with it.
Im working with the free 1.3.beta (unicode) version.

[kozikowski]

Another silly joke is removing chocolate from a muffin.

One of those packages claims to be able to choose the direction of the cancellation. Doesn't have to be in the middle; you could cancel only the singer at half-left. If you can do that kind of wave management, then yes, you could probably isolate the voice or do other tricks.

That program eliminates some of the objections to these packages, but you still can't start with a badly compressed internet download and expect any kind of success.

Koz

[DShinka]

I've had decent success with vocal retaining with VoiceTrap. I believe the non-free version allows you change the balance of the vocals (i.e. half-left) with "Centre Profile," but I'm not sure. The software works much better than L minus R and both vocal remover and isolation retain the stereo nature of the song.

http://www.cloneensemble.com/vt_main.htm

[kozikowski]

Yes. Whole worlds open up when you throw money.

Koz