Extracting voice from a song? - Page 2

Andy Lockwood · #11 (**permalink**) 06-19-2006, 06:53 PM

Luke.... please explain what you mean by that.... how on earth will converting one format to another get rid of vocals when midi files don't have vocals on in the first place?

LukeD · #12 (**permalink**) 06-21-2006, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turn Media

Luke.... please explain what you mean by that.... how on earth will converting one format to another get rid of vocals when midi files don't have vocals on in the first place?

Well. Surley this person wants there just to be a backing track and no singing (Or am I confused?) so a MIDI file would give you just the backing without vocals. Then using a MIDI to WAV converter Like this one

So you find the MIDI/Backing track then convert it into a WAV so you can import it into your video editior as a sound file. Of corse if you only want one voice to be extracted then this prosess would not work.

Andy Lockwood · #13 (**permalink**) 06-23-2006, 11:05 AM

Ah, I kind of get your train of thought. Midi tracks can be notoriously crap though. No substitute for real musicians and instruments. Might take some searching to find anything half decent.

#14 (**permalink**) 07-04-2006, 11:55 PM

In answer to a query on a previous post

"so why does Sonic Foundry call it high-pass rather than low-cut?!"

Filters are designated by the frequency's which they will pass signal unattenuated therefore :-

a high pass filter will remove low end and pass the high end of the spectrum

a low pass filter will remove high end and pass the low end of the spectrum

a band pass will pass only specific frequency's between its cut off points

a notch filter will however pass all frequency's except its own centre frequency

The Q factor determines the width of the notch or band

Trevor Wharton

Mark W · #15 (**permalink**) 09-27-2006, 02:30 PM

Removing vocals, cant be done.

Andy Lockwood · #16 (**permalink**) 09-27-2006, 07:57 PM

Oh Yes it can. With varying degrees of success I grant you, but it can be done. Given longer I could have made the non vocal part better, but what the hey, it's just to prove a point.

Click HERE for a one minute preview of Toto's Africa devocalised simply by altering the phase of each track. By adding some more eq and stuff, I think it could be made to sound fairly reasonable. As i have explained previously, the reverb and effects laid down in the studio when it was recorded does wash into the track as they are not a mono signal. The drums dissipate vastly too because they are mostly mono.

9mb wav file.

EDIT - And HERE is another brief example. Lionel Richie. Now you see him, no you don't (almost) 4mb ish Wav

EDIT TWO - HERE is Robbie Williams - I'm getting really flash now, fading him in and out at will.

Mark W · #17 (**permalink**) 09-27-2006, 08:50 PM

Ha, pedant, clearly sound geniueses can do it, sort of, actually I think your version sounds better....

Andy Lockwood · #18 (**permalink**) 09-27-2006, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark W

..... clearly sound geniueses can do it, sort of....

Ha. The big proviso is this. For it work, the vocal MUST be in mono and most of the instruments in stereo. In actuality, not that many songs are recorded in that way. And reverb or echo plastered all over vocals screws it up too, as you could probably tell.

Anyway big raspberrys to all the heretic non-believers.

Mark W · #19 (**permalink**) 09-28-2006, 09:48 AM

I am burnig myself at the stake as I type.

Chapman Photography · #20 (**permalink**) 09-28-2006, 03:34 PM

If you use Vegas you can try this. Take your audio and duplicate it to a second track. Right click on the first audio segment and select Channels>Left then on the second select Channels>Right. On the Right hand side, you will see a button that looks like this Ø. Click on that and it will invert the chanel that you do it to. What this is doing is subtracting what is common between left and right (the vocals and what ever is panned in the middle). If you loose too much, you can pull the pan on track one and two out until you get the right blend.