Hi.
I am totally blind and use a screen reader called: Jaws for Windows to help me use GoldWave. It's very accessible with the program.
I love the fact that it can reduce vocals from stereo files. In my many atempts to isolate vocals, I have had superb results with absolutely no vocals. Other times, the vocals are heard as a faraway echo. And sometimes the vocals are reduced at an angle, meaning you can still hear the vocals a little bit.
I am wondering if there is a way to reduce the vocals even more, once I've reduced them the first time. To help you better assist me, would it work if I sent you an audio sample of what I am talking about?
Please let me know. Thank you very much.
Rob Bendtzen
Reducing vocals even more
Re: Reducing vocals even more
There's probably not much more you can do... "You can't un-bake a cake or un-fry an egg , and you can't un-mix a song..." Well actually, there are a few companies who claim they can do it, so you might try Googling for "Unmix audio".
The vocal removal "trick" works by subtracting left from right, which removes everything that's identical (and in-phase) in both channels. But often, some of the reverb is out-of-phase. That means that you are "subtracting a negative", which is of course the same as addition. You can either remove the in-phase information, or the out-of phase information. If you remove both, you'll have silence!
And of course, sometimes the vocals are on one side or the other, which means you'd have to remove either the left or right channel entirely. Or, they may be somewhat off to one side. In theory, you could adjust the balance to move the desired sound to the exact-center and then remove it. But then, any vocals that were previously centered won't be removed.
Note that the result of vocal removal is a mono file (same information in both channels). So if you run vocal removal a 2nd time, you will get total silence (unless you have left the bass untouched).
OK... There is another slightly-more sophisticated effect in GoldWave you can try...
Effect -> Stereo -> Stereo Center.
It allows you to filter the "center channel" frequencies and it allows you to adjust the center as well as the side-channels.
The vocal removal "trick" works by subtracting left from right, which removes everything that's identical (and in-phase) in both channels. But often, some of the reverb is out-of-phase. That means that you are "subtracting a negative", which is of course the same as addition. You can either remove the in-phase information, or the out-of phase information. If you remove both, you'll have silence!
And of course, sometimes the vocals are on one side or the other, which means you'd have to remove either the left or right channel entirely. Or, they may be somewhat off to one side. In theory, you could adjust the balance to move the desired sound to the exact-center and then remove it. But then, any vocals that were previously centered won't be removed.
Note that the result of vocal removal is a mono file (same information in both channels). So if you run vocal removal a 2nd time, you will get total silence (unless you have left the bass untouched).
OK... There is another slightly-more sophisticated effect in GoldWave you can try...
Effect -> Stereo -> Stereo Center.
It allows you to filter the "center channel" frequencies and it allows you to adjust the center as well as the side-channels.
Re: Reducing vocals even more
Hi, Doug.
Thanks for your response.
I believe I will give that Center Stereo trick a try. I found that I can remove the center channel in the presets section of that effect.
Also, should I reduce the vocals of a stereo file first and then try the Center Stereo effect? Or should I just try the Center Stereo effect first thing?
Please let me know. Thank you very much.
Rob Bendtzen
Thanks for your response.
I believe I will give that Center Stereo trick a try. I found that I can remove the center channel in the presets section of that effect.
Also, should I reduce the vocals of a stereo file first and then try the Center Stereo effect? Or should I just try the Center Stereo effect first thing?
Please let me know. Thank you very much.
Rob Bendtzen