Remove an instrment from an MP3 file

[roadhogg99]

Hello, i have searched around on the net looking for a program that will allow me to remove any instrument from the song... So far I have come up empty. Does any one know of such a program? For example, listen to an MP3 file I wanna remove the drum tracks and only hear vocals, guitar, and bass... I'm sure this can be done? Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks in advance

[surfmonkee]

its virtually impossible to do this with a wav file let alone an mp3 file.

you could try audacity, invert one track (left or right) and mix them both to mono but how ever you do this and with whatever format, there will always be artifacts of the piece you try to remove left behind. The bass will always be affected afterwards too.

I have done this with wav files but it is heavily dependant on the bit you want to remove being panned dead center in the mix in the first place.

if its panned out of center then forget it.

its like trying to take the eggs out of a cake once you have baked it!

The way I have done this is with a mixing desk...

put the left and right channels of the audio on seperate mono mixer channels, invert one side, (reverse the phase)pan them both center at the exact same level and the center mix will virtually disappear, however you will be left with say for example on a vocal remove, you are left with the left and right reverb effects applied to the voice, so there is usually a ghost left behind.

Ive never tried it with software based processing.

if its drums you want to get rid of then i would say your chances are nil, drums would be panned across the mix except for the bass drum

[roadhogg99]

humm, ok, thanks alot for your reply...

and very good analogy about taking the eggs out of a cake... I like it..

[olyteddy]

Because of the way MP3 is encoded odds are pretty slim you'll get any usable result. If you can get a CD copy of the song you'll probably like the result more.

[edDV]

Get the original multitrack recording. If you are recording a band, mic each instrument to a separate track and add one of those plastic acoustic cages for the drummer.

[jessy74joji]

thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Cornucopia]

Just as the only way to take the eggs out of a cake (prior to baking) would be some crazy combination of centrifuge & spectral-analyzed chemical attractor-separator, so too would be the amount of time, money & effort involved in trying to extract such things in mixed audio or video. There are experimental professional tools that can "isolate" an instrument, but they are rediculously expensive and only operable by those who've studied how all this combines, and the result is mediocre at best.

The above alternative suggestions are really all a regular consumer could get away with...

Scott

edit: Oh, I see...we had a spammer.

[olyteddy]

And I doubt it has become any easier today, 5 years after this thread was started.