Best way to get rid of vocals in a song?

[LOLyourFace]

Let's say I have this song I want to use as a background music. But I want to remove the vocal without affecting the rest.

Is this possible with an mp3? I don't know much about Sound Recording Technology but I somehow think it is near impossible, assuming mp3s are like flattened images without layers compared to photoshop...

If possible, what program could perform this professionally and flawlessly?

 

[Dufman]

i would check out cool edit if i was you

 

[deejayshakur]

now known as adobe audition.

 

[misle]

Cool Edit is now Adobe Audition - bought out.
Adobe has a 30-day trial available on their website.

 

[oboeguy]

I'd be amazed if this was really possible on a consistent basis. My solution to the problem? Get the karaoke CD.

 

[anxi80]

i know cool edit has a vocal cut capabilities...but the final product comes out low...when i amplify the sound, the track sounds warbled. i havent done it before (never had the need to), but if anyone has attempted this before, know any good channel settings to set it to so it removed the warped effect on the track?

edit: well, it appears from the thread max posted, it isnt quite as simple. in fact, a poster hit the same road block as me...

Every software that I've attempted this with, distorts the music to the point where it is barely worth listening to.

oh well, would be neat if it was a simple process

 

[MaxDSP]

Asked this question a while ago in the SW forum...heres the thread if you wanna use those suggestions

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=33&threadid=1100835&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=arc

I forgot if any of them worked for the effect I was trying to create but I eventually gave up on it, partly because of my short attention span.

That Adobe Audition does look interesting though...is it sort of like Acid Pro?

 

[rh71]

I asked my brother who's a sound engineer about this once... and he said it's not possible if a regular output file like mp3 is your source. This was about a year ago... if something can actually do it, I'd be really surprised... that'd be a neat trick.

 

[LOLyourFace]

Originally posted by: rh71
I asked my brother who's a sound engineer about this once... and he said it's not possible if a regular output file like mp3 is your source. This was about a year ago... if something can actually do it, I'd be really surprised... that'd be a neat trick.

then what kind of music format is in 'layers' (like photoshop .psd)

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Originally posted by: rh71
I asked my brother who's a sound engineer about this once... and he said it's not possible if a regular output file like mp3 is your source. This was about a year ago... if something can actually do it, I'd be really surprised... that'd be a neat trick.

then what kind of music format is in 'layers' (like photoshop .psd)

the studio masters with different channels, unmixed and unmastered.

good luck with that.

 

[oboeguy]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Originally posted by: rh71
I asked my brother who's a sound engineer about this once... and he said it's not possible if a regular output file like mp3 is your source. This was about a year ago... if something can actually do it, I'd be really surprised... that'd be a neat trick.

then what kind of music format is in 'layers' (like photoshop .psd)

the studio masters with different channels, unmixed and unmastered.

good luck with that.

Hmmm, that karaoke CD option is starting to sound better and better, eh? Seriously, ayou want the impossible it seems... so if you're lucky, your song is on a karaoke CD somewhere, problem solved.

 

[cucumber]

Yeah. It's not possible. (at least not yet...) You could reduce the volume of the voice by EQing the specific frequencies the voice is
using but it would mess up the music. You need seperate audio tracks where one is the voice and can be cut. The Photo Shop
layers comparison was exactly right.

 

[Analog]

I can tell you from an electrical engineer's perspective, it is difficult to do. However, depending on the source material, you can use a 'cancellation' method - if the following criteria are met:

* Source music is in Stereo

* The vocals are about equal on the left and right channel.

There have been a few circuits in the last 20 years (of which I've built a couple), that subtract the left channel from the right channel. The resultant 'sound' is mono, but if the above criteria are met, the vocals can nearly be eliminated. (the instrumentation is usually not equal on both channels i.e. stereo. But the vocal is usually nearly equal, so that you get that center stage effect of the singer).

Of course, the source material is critical. The circuit I used worked well in some, but not all situations. I remember recording some material for a wedding reception, where a singer would use the music, and the vocal was very dim. Its been a long time since I played with my circuit, but I remember that the song 'No Shoe Strings on Louise" by Elton John had its vocals nearly perfectly eliminated by the circuit. The secondary effect that was cool was that the background vocals were not eliminated, helping the cause of a 'karaoke' application.

Anyhow, my $0.02.