Remove Voices from MP3s / WAV files?

[Superwormy]

Is there anyway to remove the vocals from MP3s / WAV files???

Preferably a FREE way, and if I could get it as a VST plugin that'd be great too...

It doesn't need to be perfect, just reasonable, thanks!

 

[Ryan]

IIRC, most vocals in a song are recorded in the center channel of the music, with the music being in the left and right channels. Some Music editors can remove the center channel, but there's still some loss of some music and some bakcground vocals are still present (since both appear in all channels).....

Or something like that

 

[JetBlack69]

That's like asking to bake a cake and then remove the eggs. Good luck.

 

[Bootprint]

You could give this one Analogx a try.

 

[ndee]

rbloedow: Stereo is only Left and Right with no Center channel, right?

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: ndee
rbloedow: Stereo is only Left and Right with no Center channel, right?

Meh - I don't know. i have used a program before that did it, and that's how I think I remember how they said it worked. That's why I wrote "Or something like that"

 

[ndee]

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: ndee
rbloedow: Stereo is only Left and Right with no Center channel, right?

Meh - I don't know. i have used a program before that did it, and that's how I think I remember how they said it worked. That's why I wrote "Or something like that"

ok, I'm to 99.9999999999999999...% sure that it's like that so... center channel removal will be useless

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: ndee

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: ndee
rbloedow: Stereo is only Left and Right with no Center channel, right?

Meh - I don't know. i have used a program before that did it, and that's how I think I remember how they said it worked. That's why I wrote "Or something like that"

ok, I'm to 99.9999999999999999...% sure that it's like that so... center channel removal will be useless

Ok then, your probably right

 

[IEatChildren]

You can manually try to use an equalizer to find the frequency of the singer's voice and try to kill any sound from that frequency range. But it doesn't work well and it generally doesn't sound too good.
MP3's and WAVs have the sounds all mixed together, so you can't lock out a specific sound.
Recording studios can do it because they have a separate recording for the vocals and for the music, and they multiplex everything together.

 

[Ness]

Originally posted by: ndee
rbloedow: Stereo is only Left and Right with no Center channel, right?

I do believe that your sound card handles this aspect of sound, and that MP3s have 3 total channels.
The vocal channel usually is the center channel, but it is often shared with another instrument. It depends entirely on the song you want the vocals removed from. You may lose an instrument or two if it's a large band, and oftentimes you may only get part of the drums, as sometimes the percussion with louder pitches (snare and cymbols) rae are different channels than the deeper percussion.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I've tried the WinAmp AnalogX one and found it to be quite effective.

You can still hear faint whispers if you crank the volume up though.

 

[Gunbuster]

check for a CD single, they sometimes have the instrumental.

 

[xchangx]

So when mixing vocals, you can double the voice and pan hard left and hard right. This effect creates a lot more presence in a song. or you can pan it down the middle which does half and half in each ear. The was the analog x program works is by putting one side out of phase, cancelling out the center, then mixing it back in with whole song.

Kind of interesting, but I know for a fact that it uses phase cancellation. It doesn't always work, depends on how the song was mixed. And even if it did work, a lot of the ambient sounds (echo's) are in the left and right hard and will stay in the song.