VOCAL EXTRACTION METHODS

[quote quote="marcicano"]o yea is it true if u play a inverted pan expaned song with like a cd player and record it with a seperate mic, can u get a acapella that way. just bye pulling out the head phone plug a little bit and ajust it right to hear more vocals. am i right. cuz i heard and found this out on my own experince on gybo.[/quote]

This kinda sounds like magic to me. I doubt if you can get a really clean acapella using this method. Pulling the headphone plug a little bit out, might give you the idea of hearing more vocals, while it’s morelikely boosting certain parts of the spectrum…

In my opinion, instrumental knock out method is still the best method, and still then then the vocal has to be layered on top the instrumental (i.e. the synthesizers and all other instruments are not re-recorded/rerendered) and you will still have to deal with the artefacts of compression/ limiting.

Anybody got some suggestions on removing the digital glitch effect (the digital noise/hiss effect) of dithering/limiting?

Tnx men it’s verry usefull…for me

I’ve recently come across the Center Channel Extractor in Adobe Audition. This, like with most methods, is not without its limits and imperfections, though it is fast and very easy to use.

This method leaves you with the center channel (obviously), in which the vocal is usually dominant. You then choose whether it’s a male or female voice you’re wanting to extract and it cuts out the irrelevant frequencies accordingly (you can also adjust other parameters). However, there will be some music left that will hang in the extracted audio, as some instruments are usually centered in a mix along side the vocal (such as a kick drum and snare) and these can share, or overlap, frequency ranges with vocals. Depending on the mix, you can usually get about 80-90% of the way to extracting only the vocal using this method.

I’ve experimented with combining several techniques, each to varying degrees, and have not yet come across a method better than phase cancellation, as I prefer a clean vocal to work with – the cleaner the better. I’ve recently tried several methods, and combinations there of, to extract the vocals from Nightwish’s Amaranth, but have been left with a vocal that’s still a little too unclean for my liking. Using a little EQ to dull some of the kick and snare left behind will only serve to take away energy from the vocal, while still leaving an audible remnant of the instruments.

All in all, if you can acquire a studio clean version of the acapella, do so! If not, then you’ll have to either work around the inevitable imperfections, or trash the whole idea of the remix/cover.

hey guys,
I have a problem with making my own acapellas. I tried the first way in audacity. I inverted the instrumental part, and then I mixed the two songs. They did mix, but the instrumentals are still there and I haven o idea why. Has anybody an idea what the problem could be?

I hope sombody can help me 😉

no, I tried it with different volumes now, doesnt help. And the two tracks are exactly the same and I tried it with 3 different song, but it doesent work. I have no idea why -.-

Very good post ! Thanks for the info !

will try, thanks!

Does anyone know how to do this in ableton 9?

Never knew this was possible.. I am amazed. Defiantly gonna try this some day when i got the time. I keep you informed.

thx tim, for the great post,
i think ill get into trying the first method.
i was wondering if any of you knows where i could find some instrumental track in order to start tryig this method.
thx

for those using ableton something to keep in mind is the utility function.

putting this on a track and changing to settings to either 0 or 200 helps to isolate vocals or instruments in some cases

so could the first method work on virtual DJ? Like i play both of the same song except one is reversed. Would that work? if so then i could record the vocal like that then. Unless u need somthn else.

what?

that’s ridiculously awesome!

Terrific advice in this thread. Thanks for sharing the info!