Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: kasperl on July 08, 2004, 10:24:01 am

Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: kasperl on July 08, 2004, 10:24:01 am: I have found a very ncie lyrics system for winamp, called winlyrics. (//www.winlyrics.com, payware, 60 day free trial, then 12 dollars.) Now, What I would like to do is remove the vocals from a song, together with the (timed) lyrics from this system,creating a kareoke thingy. I know it's cheesy and old, but it might be something fun for when you have nothing else to do. I've tried a basic winamp vocal removal plugin, but that thing just elimenated anything it found double in a stereo song, which isn't good on your average web quality MP3, with barely a difference between left-right anyway.

Any idea's? I would prefer something real time, but file editing is cool too, it'd just take another 10 gigs for my entire collection.
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: mrduckman on July 08, 2004, 03:20:51 pm: Hmm. Soundforge could do the trick, I think.
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: WMCoolmon on July 08, 2004, 04:20:40 pm: From what I've read, there is no good way, especially with MP3s. The problem is that when a song is recorded, the vocal is usually mixed in with other mics and so the sound gets jumbled up. Echoes also mess things up.

I don't think there's a program that will take the lyrics from the song as text and remove them from the music file, that seems slightly beyond today's technology.

I'm guessing this isn't as popular because the pros would just call up their good buddy Bob and get the mix without voice, or shell out the $ for a band to play the song without the vocals.
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: mrduckman on July 08, 2004, 04:23:29 pm: Mostly, yes. There is some odd filter that would remove those vocals.
But, I agree, in MP3 will be difficult, if not impossible, to remove it.
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: Knight Templar on July 08, 2004, 09:02:40 pm: I tried looking for this sort of thing a while ago, with no luck. I really don't think you can take vocals out of songs, specially' in MP3s as said.
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: Nuke on July 08, 2004, 09:32:19 pm: what you do is open the file in a good sound editor, invert the waveform on one of the channel and then merge to mono. vocals are usually recorded to the center chanel only (that is are at equal levels on both left and right chanels), so by inverting the wave form on one side and converting to mono the vocal parts of the two signals cancel eachother out and become silent, leaving only the music.
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: kasperl on July 09, 2004, 04:54:11 am: Nuke: That is exactly what the plugin I tried does, but it won't work on most songs, and is bad for the music too.
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: Nuke on July 10, 2004, 09:48:17 pm: sometimes it works some times it dont.
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: Flipside on July 10, 2004, 10:09:38 pm: Because vocals operate in the same frequency range as some instruments, particuarly stringed ones. you cannot 'slice' the vocal out from all the other sounds without losing a lot of midrange or bass quality :(
Title: Removing the vocals from an MP3.
Post by: Nuke on July 11, 2004, 01:55:48 am: if i want to do kareokae i usually go to a bar and get really drunk. thin i can sing anything but it will sound like death metal.