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Removing vocals

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:02 pm
by Coni
I purchased Goldwave with the intent to use it to remove vocals (but keep music) from a song that we will be singing for the holidays.

I don't have the slightest idea how to do that with Goldwave. Is it possible? If so, how can I do it? Please be specific because I don't have any experience with using Goldwave. Thanks much for your help.

Coni

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:42 pm
by DougDbug
Effect -> Stereo -> Reduce Vocals.

Note, that this tool is not perfect. It uses an "old trick" of subtracting the left from the right. This eliminates everything in the "center" channel... That is, everything that's identical in both left and right speakers.

Depending on the mix, this effect is going to eliminate some instruments, and any off-center vocals will remain. Sometimes the remaining vocals are OK... It might be reduced background vocals or reverb from the original vocal.

P.S. There is no software that can do a perfect job of removing vocals. You can't un-bake a cake and you can't un-mix a recording. :(

Removing Vocals - New Trick just in time for Halloween!

Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:23 pm
by cdeamaze
If you create new left and right channel signals by using sum+vocal(Left) and difference+vocal(Right) of the original channels, then you can use a new trick "Right - Left" to recover the original left channel signal.

Using old trick, after Effect -> Stereo -> Reduce Vocals, you get a signal which mixes the left channel and right channel.

The new approach gives you a clean left channel signal!

If a second difference (reverse difference+vocal) signal is available (not a very good assumption!), repeat the process , but using "Left-Right" instead, you can also recover a clean right channel signal.

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:58 am
by bboybenny
Can Goldwave trim all BGM and leave vocal? :roll:

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:04 am
by destruk
No, and no. No software based solution has been able to do this reasonably for years, since wav was created. Vocal removal has a few roadblocks in as it is, from the recording industry behemoth to how much work the audio software professionals have invested into existing techniques. The whole 'cancel left and right channels' method is so rudimentary a child could have thought of it. If you have the background music separate and available, guess they call that an apella or something, and the timing is perfect to the copy with vocals, it seems a simple operation to subtract the sample data of the background music which would leave the entire vocal track separate. That too, is quite a basic method to get the job done. But these tracks, while in the recording studio's possession, are not sold or available in most cases, for the home user. 'Fair use' does not include source code, or separated instrument tracks.

I think by now, especially with dual core and 24+ channel sound cards, all this power is readily available to do the job, but nobody seems inclined to actually do the work (myself included). If an existing song can be transposed/recoded to mod format - playing indicidual tracks with sample data and frequency/pitch modulation to match the original song, you would have the music without the vocals. And if it's a perfectly recreated track, you could then use that to subtract from the original to leave the remaining noise. Creating the basic song with that would take 3-4 days (recreating and sequencing the original music) for 4 instruments. Still too much work for the average home end user, and if your source sample isn't perfectly attuned to the recording levels in the studio of the original recording it still isn't going to do it.

If you have the monetary resources and feel you truly need the vocals separated/removed entirely from a song, might want to check these guys out.

http://www.a440music.com/cleantracks/index.html

Or beg the copyright holder for the source tracks, which should be available on an instrument/instrument basis for some outrageous fee. If worst comes to worse, find a few friends who can play instruments, have them play the song as best they can, and then get an impersonator to recreate the audio track. Some big name video game companies have done that many times before to use character actors for dead guys (Al Capone, James Bond, Caesar, etc etc).

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:51 pm
by GoldWave Inc.
Removing the music and keeping the vocals has been discussed many times before: here, here, here, here, and here (just to mention a few).

If you want a song without vocals, look for a Karaoke version.

Chris