Splitting vocals from background music?

TheKid_1

Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Posts
401
Reaction score
0
Does anyone know how to split the vocals from the background music using a mac? I know that there is software that allows you to essentially delete the vocals and you are then left with karaoke like songs. However, I would like to preserve the actually vocals too. Any help would be awesome!
 

Gaddabout

Plucky Comic Relief
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2004
Posts
16,043
Reaction score
11
Location
Gilbert
Ummmm. Well, if you had the original track and track software, you could just turn off the vocals. If there's a way to eliminate the vocals from a stereo track without removing significant portions of the instrumentation, that would have to be considered magic. I would be very impressed.
 

puckhead

Massive Member
Moderator
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Posts
16,669
Reaction score
15,586
Location
Moment, AZ
Well, there is something, not very elegant, that may work. I did it once in a digital audio workstation class with decent results. Basically it works with your average pop songs without a bunch of reverb or backup vocals. Because most pop songs pan vocals to the center of a stereo mix, you can use a technique called "vocal removal". Most audio editing programs have the ability to do this, but don't expect high quality results. Basically you would be removing what is common to both tracks (i.e. the vocals), leaving behind what is different (i.e. the instrumentals).

Basically you split the stereo track into its left and right channels, make both mono, invert all (or a selected part) of one of them, and play back the result. Sometimes it works well, most of the time it doesn't because lots of other things could be panned to the center, and they will go bye-bye as well.

I found this plug-in that might work with some Mac programs.
 

puckhead

Massive Member
Moderator
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Posts
16,669
Reaction score
15,586
Location
Moment, AZ
I apologize for poor reading comprehension, read post waaaaay too quickly. (but spent plenty of time on reply) :doofus:
 

BigRedRage

Reckless
Supporting Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2005
Posts
48,274
Reaction score
12,526
Location
SE valley
Does anyone know how to split the vocals from the background music using a mac? I know that there is software that allows you to essentially delete the vocals and you are then left with karaoke like songs. However, I would like to preserve the actually vocals too. Any help would be awesome!


I could pretend to provide4 accurate information for the phone numbers of the gals in your signature :wink:
 

Gaddabout

Plucky Comic Relief
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2004
Posts
16,043
Reaction score
11
Location
Gilbert
Well, there is something, not very elegant, that may work. I did it once in a digital audio workstation class with decent results. Basically it works with your average pop songs without a bunch of reverb or backup vocals. Because most pop songs pan vocals to the center of a stereo mix, you can use a technique called "vocal removal". Most audio editing programs have the ability to do this, but don't expect high quality results. Basically you would be removing what is common to both tracks (i.e. the vocals), leaving behind what is different (i.e. the instrumentals).

Basically you split the stereo track into its left and right channels, make both mono, invert all (or a selected part) of one of them, and play back the result. Sometimes it works well, most of the time it doesn't because lots of other things could be panned to the center, and they will go bye-bye as well.

I found this plug-in that might work with some Mac programs.

Now that I think about it, this could really work well for audio optimized for 5.1. Vocals usually in mono, center.
 

Assface

Like a boss
Supporting Member
Joined
May 6, 2003
Posts
15,106
Reaction score
21
Location
Tempe
I don't know about splitting vocals but I'd like to do some splitting with your sig.
 

schutd

ASFN Addict
Joined
Oct 15, 2002
Posts
6,258
Reaction score
2,218
Location
Charleston, SC
Either assface is a *****, or that question about which poster is not a girl back in the trivia thread is now a dead giveaway!
 

vince56

ASFN Addict
Joined
Sep 15, 2002
Posts
9,129
Reaction score
2,457
Location
Arizona
Well, there is something, not very elegant, that may work. I did it once in a digital audio workstation class with decent results. Basically it works with your average pop songs without a bunch of reverb or backup vocals. Because most pop songs pan vocals to the center of a stereo mix, you can use a technique called "vocal removal". Most audio editing programs have the ability to do this, but don't expect high quality results. Basically you would be removing what is common to both tracks (i.e. the vocals), leaving behind what is different (i.e. the instrumentals).

Basically you split the stereo track into its left and right channels, make both mono, invert all (or a selected part) of one of them, and play back the result. Sometimes it works well, most of the time it doesn't because lots of other things could be panned to the center, and they will go bye-bye as well.

I found this plug-in that might work with some Mac programs.

I concur 100% with this. Adobe Audition has a great Channel Mixer plugin that allows you to do exactly that above. I'm not sure of any cheaper programs that do that though.

Oh, and I totally agree with Assface. Those chicks are smoking hot.
 
Top