Remove vocal from a music video or a song

[coxanhvn]

Hi all, just wonder if you know there is any good tool I could try to do this. I've tried to do this in Adobe Audition, FL Studio, Audacity & Nero WaveEditor so far, but the results were almost the same in which the vocal cannot be removed.

I saw this tutorial from Image-Line but couldn't understand pretty well what it say about how the MP3 file should be in order to remove almost perfectly like the project they did in the video, so any help would be very appreciated.

http://www.image-line.com/documents/news.php?entry_id=1284330422&title=removing-vocals

[guns1inger]

I am not sure if the current beta of Audacity has a built-in vocal removal filter. if you have audition or sound forge then you can try the Analog-X directX vocal removal filter (google for the free download).

Be aware however that there are a number of limitations on these plugins. The basic technique employed by most vocal removal plugins is to invert the phase of one channel, overlay that on the other channel, and anything that is identical in both channels will be cancelled out. Simple in theory. However this means that it will only work if

a) the source is stereo. Not mono, not two channel mono. It must be stereo.
b) the vocals must be recorded straight down the centre so they are the same in both channels. This is usually the case with the lead vocals, but often the backing vocals will have some degree of separation or other effect than can result in traces or an echo being left behind.
c) the source is uncompressed. Compression such as MP3 can affect the stereo field and cause enough damage that the vocals cannot cleanly be removed. Only work with clean, uncompressed source that has never been compressed (i.e. there is no point taking an MP3 track and converting it back to wav for processing. The damage has already been done).
d) the instruments are well separated in the stereo field. I have had success in removing the vocals from some tracks, but still having no usable results because the percussion and half the guitar were also recorded straight down the middle and went with the vocals.

The method used in the video you linked to is basically a long winded and manual way of doing what these plugins do.

[jagabo]

Yes, Audacity has a vocal remover filter that works as described by guns1inger -- by inverting one channel of a stereo track then adding the two together to produce a mono track. It also has band limiting options so you can limit the effect to a certain frequency range. Any sound that was at the center of the mix is eliminated. If your vocals aren't centered they won't be removed. And any other instruments in the center will also be removed.

[AlanHK]

Yes, Audacity has a vocal remover filter that works as described by guns1inger -- by inverting one channel of a stereo track then adding the two together to produce a mono track.

Which is the same method described in the video in the OP's first post.


Also see the "Similar Threads" linked at the bottom of this thread.

[jagabo]

Yes, all vocal removers use basically the same technique. If the vocals are slightly off center you can adjust the levels of the right and left channels to more accurately remove the vocals. Even when vocal removal does work you often end up with residual reverb.

And note that professional karaoke isn't made by removing the vocals from a stereo mix. They start with vocals recorded on a separate track. They simply don't add the vocal track to the final karaoke mix.

[pmf123]

I'm looking to do the opposite... removal music from a video clip? Any suggestions?

[jagabo]

I'm looking to do the opposite... removal music from a video clip? Any suggestions?

It's generally not possible unless you have multitrack audio with music on different tracks from the dialog.

[pmf123]

i found a kind away to do it... not 100% but relies on music being split across stereo channels...

you basically remove all audio thats on both channels (usually the voice), then use that resulting audio to remove from the original track... uses a plug in in audcity to do it (noise reduction i think it was)