Removing vocals with EQ?

D

d123s404

New Member
Removing vocals without removing the music?

Hello,

I've been trying different vocal removers lately, and the song I want to use apparently has its music in the central channels as well as having the vocals there, because the vocal remover kills both the vocals and the music. Is there a way to move the music out of the central channels without affecting the music itself? I've heard of the Equalization tool, but I'm not sure if it's the right tool.

thanks in advance!
 
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Is it in mono? If so, nothing will do it. Vocal removers work by taking material in the vocal frequency range that appears equally in both channels (lead vocals are generally centered in modern mixes) and removing that info. They don't magically know which sounds are lead vocals.
 
Vocal removers work by reversing the phase of one channel so that anything of equal value is eliminated. If the vocals aren't perfectly centered, they won't disappear. You usually will also lose some of the instruments as well. Some songs work, some don't.
 
Thank you for the replies. I apologise for not making my question clear. Everything is in the center, so the vocal remover removes everything. Is there a way to move all the music away from the central channel so that the vocal remover won't remove them?

Thanks again!
 
Terminology

d123s404 said:
Everything is in the center, so the vocal remover removes everything. Is there a way to move all the music away from the central channel so that the vocal remover won't remove them?
Click to expand...

In a word, no. See above. Please explain "everything is in the center". Do you mean it's a mono recording? "Vocal extractor" may be a misleading marketing term. It is more accurately a "wave canceller using phase inversion". When you think of it that way, as mentioned, any signal, vocals or instruments or even railroad locomotives of equal strength in both channels will be cancelled.
 
Have you checked to see if that song you are trying to remove the vocals is available in a Kareoke disc.
 
@DougMac- Yes it is a mono track, but what I did is I created a stereo track and pasted the song there. Does that work?

@JHSRT- No. Unfortunately it's not, nor is the studio file available.

Thank you for your replies.
 
As others have said, the short answer is no. And, I've honestly had poor-to-fair results in using many vocal-removers anyway. Due to the nature of the process, you'll be destroying some of the audio.


Whats your intended use? Perhaps we here can think of an alternate solution?
 
I intend to do some karaoke, but there are no karaoke versions available. Can I do the removal manually? Would that make it more effective?
 
d123s404 said:
@DougMac- Yes it is a mono track, but what I did is I created a stereo track and pasted the song there. Does that work?
Click to expand...
No, the L&R signals are the same. There is no "manual" method of extraction. I don't know quite where to begin. Music is a highly complex waveform and the individual elements don't "stand out" in a way they can be recognized and removed.

Out of curiosity, what is the song you are working with?
 
Some music software programs allow the user to capture a sample of the specific content that needs to be removed, and then just delete that content. I've used Samplitude Professional to do this. But while this can work better than a vocal remover, that reverses the phase of the left/right content and cancels out the vocals, it's still not perfect. Any 'like' frequency will also be affected. So, sadly, once a final mix is produced, of a song, it's impossible to then 'unmix' the song; which is what would be needed to cleanly remove just the vocal track.
 
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I see. Thanks StmpyWan. I will look into that. Meanwhile, anyone who has any other suggestions, I would appreciate you positing.

Thanks again!
 
Related to but, off the specific subject.

This is a horror story about missing vocals.

A friend of mine passed away. I bought the entire lot of electronics from the estate (amps, guitars, speakers, upright bass, cd's.... almost $10K worth on my part)

As it happened, I found a buyer almost right away for the Khorns that were part of this package. The buyer was from North Carolina, about 4/5 hours away. He called while I was at this location preparing things. I had been setting up a CD player, amp & "his" Khorns so that when he came to get them they could be auditioned and verified to be working.

I was just getting the finishing touches on wires... what to listen to?

I had handy, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass so I grabbed it. I always enjoyed "What is Life" so I went for that song.

While the buyer was on the phone, I hit play and the beginning guitar solo began and I prepared to jam out a bit while the buyer was on the other end of the phone copping a listening session with me from a distance.

The song began and unknown to me, this CD has an instrumental ONLY version of this song BUT BUT BUT, if you listen, the vocals are still there in the dark background. Sort of like tape bleedthrough.

The vocals were NOT intended to be on this recording, but at times, you can sense them.

Well... my mouth hit the floor... here are these speakers, jamming to this great song in full output... but no vocals?

I was very perplexed. If there were no vocals, there should be a LOT of midrange missing as well, yet it was there.

Long story short, I really freaked out and was extra concerned because the buyer on the phone heard my concerns (I didn't hide what was happening, I was disclosing everything so there'd be no surprises for him)

Egg on my face for unwittingly choosing a song that had the vocals stripped out!!

Was a weird experience
 
I know of no practical way to solve this problem, but if I was working in a research lab, I might consider training a neural network to ride the controls on a system of DSP notch filters. Pure speculation, of course...
 
Hey there, if you would like a great sounding authentic instrumental track produced of the song you are talking about, let me know. I am a full time music producer/engineer and musician. I private messaged you with my website and rates.
 
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