Remove voices from waves?

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
0
This has been asked before. The short answer is: you can't. Not unless, like some kareoke recordings, voice is on one channel and music is on the other.
 

geekender

Platinum Member
Apr 26, 2001
2,414
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Actually, before I asked about MP3's, which are not channelized in the same manner that waves are.
 

geekender

Platinum Member
Apr 26, 2001
2,414
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What's so funny about that? We are gearing up for a play and to rehearse, we wanted to use the music that is on a cd. That is hard to do with actors already singing their parts.
 

BDawg

Lifer
Oct 31, 2000
11,631
2
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Originally posted by: geekender
What's so funny about that? We are gearing up for a play and to rehearse, we wanted to use the music that is on a cd. That is hard to do with actors already singing their parts.

One singular sensation Ev'ry little step she takes
 

HendrixFan

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 2001
4,646
0
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Actually you should be able to as long as the vocals are mixed to the center. You invert the channels and paste them on top of the oppostie channel (R on L, L on R) and that should cancel out any like sounds (anything mixed to the center). The resulting playback would be everything hard R and L, and nothing in the Center.
 

tweakmm

Lifer
May 28, 2001
18,436
4
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Originally posted by: geekender
What's so funny about that? We are gearing up for a play and to rehearse, we wanted to use the music that is on a cd. That is hard to do with actors already singing their parts.
The properties of a waveform that prevent you from removing vocals from MP3s still apply to waves
 

ThePresence

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
27,727
16
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Originally posted by: HendrixFan
Actually you should be able to as long as the vocals are mixed to the center. You invert the channels and paste them on top of the oppostie channel (R on L, L on R) and that should cancel out any like sounds (anything mixed to the center). The resulting playback would be everything hard R and L, and nothing in the Center.

You'd probably lose ALOT of the music too.
 

HendrixFan

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 2001
4,646
0
71
Well, you lose everything mixed to be in the center of the soundstage. When you invert the channel, you flip the soundwave upside down. When you past it on top of the opposite channel, you only cancel out anything that is mixed to the center. There may be things other than vocals mixed to the center, it depends on the engineer and producer of the track. Alot of current music phases audio left and right with different effects, so what sounds to be a virtual mono mix is actually a pretty wild stereo mix. That being said, some of those effects on vocals will still show up after using the process I described.

If you invert a channel and paste it on itself, you would have no audio whatsoever, clean and perfect cancellation.
 

AlienCraft

Lifer
Nov 23, 2002
10,539
0
0
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Originally posted by: HendrixFan
Actually you should be able to as long as the vocals are mixed to the center. You invert the channels and paste them on top of the oppostie channel (R on L, L on R) and that should cancel out any like sounds (anything mixed to the center). The resulting playback would be everything hard R and L, and nothing in the Center.

You'd probably lose ALOT of the music too.
By "invert the channels" you mean reverse the electrical polarity, so that the resulting "negative" waveform cancels out any corresponding "positive waveform. The remaining waveform will have some musical information removed from it, usually Bass Guitar and Kick Drum, since those are most often mixed to center. HOWEVER, some vocal may remain from the effects and reverb that would be mixed off center.
To simply put L onto R and vice versa, would only create a psuedo-monophonic mush without canceling anything.