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adam79 adam79 is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

I've noticed products that remove the vocals from a song, leaving just
the bed. How is this actually done? Is it possible to perform this task,
w/ the same quality results in Pro Tools?

Thanks,
-Adam
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Scott Dorsey Scott Dorsey is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

adam79 wrote:
I've noticed products that remove the vocals from a song, leaving just
the bed. How is this actually done? Is it possible to perform this task,
w/ the same quality results in Pro Tools?


This is discussed in the FAQ.

Basically, they take the difference between the two channels, so everything
common to both channels drops out. However, this includes the bass guitar
and kick drum on typical mixes, so they low-pass one channel so that you
get a sum below around 250 Hz and a difference above it.

It can work very well on a very dry mix that doesn't have any vocal panning
and no lead guitar in the center. On any other mix, it sometimes works and
sometimes not. Sometimes there's a lot of leakage but you can add an extra
guitar track in there and hide it.
--scott
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muzician21 muzician21 is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

On Nov 30, 6:01*pm, adam79 wrote:
I've noticed products that remove the vocals from a song, leaving just
the bed. How is this actually done? Is it possible to perform this task,
w/ the same quality results in Pro Tools?



Keep in mind that it severely alters the character of the track.It
won't sound like "the same recording that (fill in performer) sang to
with me inserted into it instead."

It's kind of a kludgy trick that gives questionable results. You might
be better off to find a karaoke track that's very close to the
original and use that.
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muzician21 muzician21 is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

The "Extraboy" plugin can work okay under certain conditions. The
examples they have on their page are under ideal conditions. Basically
the instruments panned pretty much hard L & R, the vocal pretty dry
and dead center.

Even still, the vocal isn't 100% removed and the instruments are
effected. Comparing the original to the "vocal removed" sample, notice
for example how the piano gets substantially muddied.

It will also do the reverse, isolating the vocal and other
elements....sort of.
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geoff geoff is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

Nil wrote:
On 30 Nov 2011, adam79 wrote in rec.audio.pro:

I've noticed products that remove the vocals from a song, leaving
just the bed. How is this actually done? Is it possible to perform
this task, w/ the same quality results in Pro Tools?


The technique is known as OOPS (Out Of Phase Stereo). See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Of_...reo_%28OOPS%29


.... but the more sophisticated tools do a bit more than than, targeting the
vocal in frequency range and stereo width, and avoiding damaging the rest of
the track as much as possible.

Many available as plugins, VST and DX for sure. Probably a PT (RTAS ?) plug
or two available for same thing. Some free, some cost.

Try here ;-) http://tinyurl.com/84t4mve

geoff




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adam79 adam79 is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

On 11/30/11 11:55 PM, geoff wrote:

Try here ;-) http://tinyurl.com/84t4mve

geoff


There was some nifty **** goin' on in that link.. how'd u get it to do
that search right before my eyes?!!?

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phillipvictorbova phillipvictorbova is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

On Wednesday, 30 November 2011 18:01:02 UTC-5, Adam wrote:
I've noticed products that remove the vocals from a song, leaving just
the bed. How is this actually done? Is it possible to perform this task,
w/ the same quality results in Pro Tools?

Thanks,
-Adam


You might check out http://www.prosoniq.com/ They have an app called sonicWORX Isolate that looks pretty promising. Way back in the 90s Prosoniq sold a pretty cool editor/sound design app which ran on Mac OS9. Had a plugin called Pandora that did vocal suppression quite well.I still use it it from time to time on my legacy rig! After migrating their products to OSX, Prosoniq offered the earlier version for free on their site up til a few years ago. Probably still floating around the web somewhere.

phil
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William Sommerwerck William Sommerwerck is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

There's another way to remove the vocals -- and without losing the stereo --
but I don't know if there's any software package to implement it.

Most two-channel surround decoders have "logic" circuitry that detects the
mono dialog and removes it from the left and right channels. (Of course, it
also removes anything else that's dead-center, or near dead-center.)
If there aren't any instruments "near" the vocalist, this might work well.

Most consumer surround controllers have a Dolby MP mode that can perform
this extraction with digital inputs. If you're willing to work in the analog
domain, a high-quality Dolby MP decoder (such as the Shure) might work.


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geoff geoff is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

adam79 wrote:
On 11/30/11 11:55 PM, geoff wrote:

Try here ;-) http://tinyurl.com/84t4mve

geoff


There was some nifty **** goin' on in that link.. how'd u get it to do
that search right before my eyes?!!?


Try www.lmgtfy.com ;-)


geoff


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Richard Webb[_3_] Richard Webb[_3_] is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

There's only one question i have whenever this topic comes
up in this group.

Well, actually two.

#1: ISn't this usually done for karaoke?

#2: IF the artist and publisher wanted their song done at
karaoke joints wouldn't they provide a vocals free version
for sale?

Richard
.... Karaoke: Orig. Japanese "Tone-deaf drunk with microphone". ___
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geoff geoff is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

Richard Webb wrote:
There's only one question i have whenever this topic comes
up in this group.

Well, actually two.

#1: ISn't this usually done for karaoke?

#2: IF the artist and publisher wanted their song done at
karaoke joints wouldn't they provide a vocals free version
for sale?



Yep, and you have to pay for them, which seems a problem for some people.
Or sometimes specialist companies will have a karaoke version made.

Google "/trackname/ karaoke"

geoff


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Arny Krueger[_4_] Arny Krueger[_4_] is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song


"Richard Webb" wrote in
message ...

There's only one question i have whenever this topic comes
up in this group.


Well, actually two.


#1: ISn't this usually done for karaoke?


IME most karaoke that is done in public venues (e.g., a bar) is based on
specially-made recordings. Basically, the recording is an instrumental-only
cover. With good musicians and good production, a close match to the popular
recording can be obtained, if that is what is desired. Often a close match
is not desired. Many popular songs are too hard for most people to sing
well.

#2: IF the artist and publisher wanted their song done at
karaoke joints wouldn't they provide a vocals free version
for sale?


Exactly.



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Trevor Trevor is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song


"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
IME most karaoke that is done in public venues (e.g., a bar) is based on
specially-made recordings. Basically, the recording is an
instrumental-only cover. With good musicians and good production, a close
match to the popular recording can be obtained, if that is what is
desired. Often a close match is not desired. Many popular songs are too
hard for most people to sing well.

#2: IF the artist and publisher wanted their song done at
karaoke joints wouldn't they provide a vocals free version
for sale?


Exactly.


Some recent singles do provide "Home sing along karaoke" versions, however
most Commercial karaoke tracks are video's with highlight lyrics for the
plebs to follow otherwise they not only don't know the lyrics, but don't
know how to follow the music either.

Trevor.


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Marc Wielage[_2_] Marc Wielage[_2_] is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

On Thu, 1 Dec 2011 11:08:12 -0800, William Sommerwerck wrote
(in article ):

There's another way to remove the vocals -- and without losing
the stereo -- but I don't know if there's any software package
to implement it.
------------------------------snip------------------------------


Yeah, tons of them. One recent one I've played with is Waves Center:

http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=8885

available for RTAS, VST, and TDM.

Center allows you to adjust the level of phantom center vocals, and actually
does a pretty good job. I think it's not really designed for removing vocals
per se, but it will at least cut out the phantom center, which will
*sometimes* remove the lead vocal. But (as has been previously mentioned) it
also snips out any other instruments in the center channel as well, and any
reverb or backup vocals in the hard left and hard right channels will still
be there.

There are also Dolby Pro Logic surround decoders available as software
plug-ins, but they're not cheap.

--MFW



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William Sommerwerck William Sommerwerck is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

"Marc Wielage" wrote in message
.com...
On Thu, 1 Dec 2011 11:08:12 -0800, William Sommerwerck wrote
(in article ):


There's another way to remove the vocals -- and without losing
the stereo -- but I don't know if there's any software package
to implement it.


Yeah, tons of them. One recent one I've played with is Waves Center:
http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=8885 available for RTAS,
VST, and TDM.


Center allows you to adjust the level of phantom center vocals, and

actually
does a pretty good job. I think it's not really designed for removing

vocals
per se, but it will at least cut out the phantom center, which will
*sometimes* remove the lead vocal. But (as has been previously mentioned)
it also snips out any other instruments in the center channel as well, and

any
reverb or backup vocals in the hard left and hard right channels will

still
be there.
There are also Dolby Pro Logic surround decoders available as software
plug-ins, but they're not cheap.


And, as I said in the orginal post, there are analog and digital consumer
Pro Logic decoders. If I had nothing better to do with time, I'd pull out my
Shure HTS 5300 and see how well it removes the center-front component of a
stereo signal.


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Marc Wielage[_2_] Marc Wielage[_2_] is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

On Sun, 4 Dec 2011 02:26:08 -0800, William Sommerwerck wrote
(in article ):

And, as I said in the orginal post, there are analog and digital consumer
Pro Logic decoders. If I had nothing better to do with time, I'd pull out my
Shure HTS 5300 and see how well it removes the center-front component of a
stereo signal.
------------------------------snip------------------------------


That's a very '80s method, Bill. You can do this in about 1/10th the time in
a digital audio workstation. Why take a digital file and go through an
unnecessary D/A - A/D pass if you can do all of it in the digital domain?

I had a Lexicon CP-3 digital Dolby Pro Logic decoder I used for years, and it
actually does have a coax digital S/PDIF input. That would do this entirely
in the digital domain. But trust me, extracting the center-channel vocal
using the method I outlined before, with a plug-in, is infinitely faster and
more effective.

I agree, 15 years ago, this was not the case.

--MFW

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William Sommerwerck William Sommerwerck is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

And, as I said in the orginal post, there are analog and digital consumer
Pro Logic decoders. If I had nothing better to do with time, I'd pull out

my
Shure HTS 5300 and see how well it removes the center-front component of

a
stereo signal.


That's a very '80s method, Bill. You can do this in about 1/10th the time

in
a digital audio workstation. Why take a digital file and go through an
unnecessary D/A - A/D pass if you can do all of it in the digital domain?


I could just as well do it in the digital domain with with my Parasound C2
controller. I was simply pointing out that there's a lot of readily
available legacy equipment to do this.


I had a Lexicon CP-3 digital Dolby Pro Logic decoder I used for years, and

it
actually does have a coax digital S/PDIF input. That would do this

entirely
in the digital domain. But trust me, extracting the center-channel vocal
using the method I outlined before, with a plug-in, is infinitely faster

and
more effective.
I agree, 15 years ago, this was not the case.


If you've got the base software and the plug-in, go for it.


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Marc Wielage[_2_] Marc Wielage[_2_] is offline
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Default Removing Vocals from a Song

On Tue, 6 Dec 2011 07:45:05 -0800, William Sommerwerck wrote
(in article ):

I could just as well do it in the digital domain with with my
Parasound C2 controller.
------------------------------snip------------------------------


But not with the Shure Pro Logic surround decoder, a device that's almost 24
years old.

Have you ever tried using plug-ins with digital audio workstations? It's a
big change from using mixing boards and patch cables, but this method has
huge advantages in terms of speed and flexibility, and I think the sound
quality has improved over time to the point where it makes more sense to go
this way today, especially for the o.p.'s question.

Try it -- you might like it.

--MFW

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