Removing Vocals from CDs

Knopfler Fan

New member
I have been using the freeware "Audacity" to edit and add colour to the music that I record with my Fostex MR-8.

"Audacity" has a function whereby it can remove the vocals from commercial CDs. Although it does not work 100% of the time, the last two CDs that I tried to strip the vocals from the music sorta worked. The vocals are not completely gone, but it is definitely much fainter. Unfortunately, some of the other musical instruments also become fainter.

The reason why I wanted to remove the vocals is so that I can use the music and overdub my vocals to the music "karaoke style".

Has anyone been successful in making a good recording this way? Please note that this is for my personal enjoyment only and by no way am I trying to make a profit.

Any help is appreciated.


KF
 
You will not be able to entirely eliminate the vocal track unless you have the original multi-track master.
 
The basic idea assumes that the vocals live in a very narrow range of frequencies, and so if you remove these frequencies only, you get the song sans vocals. But in reality the situation is more complex; the vocals share part of the frequency spectrum with other instruments, along with ambience (reverb, delay, etc.). If you remove the frequencies the vocals primarily occupy, you also remove the parts of the other material that also occupies these frequencies. This causes what remains to sound washed out and thin and rather unnatural.

Once the material has all been mixed together, there's no way to separate the parts from each other, as Sennheiser noted.
 
How to remove vocal from a track

Hello KF

I also use Audacity for my recordings. However I have not come across any feature in audacity which can remove vocals from a track. Can you guide me as to how to use audacity for removing vocals from a track.

Rajesh
 
Yo K & Fan:]

Why not just buy the music background you want to vocalize? I'm sure there are many outlets on the net for CDs with only music in various types. I used to buy cassettes; now most everything is CD and the CD is, of course, much better sounding.

I looked at a couple of units that were touted to remove vocals from CDs but the SMALL PRINT said it may not work at times--probably most of the time.

Green Hornet :D :cool: :D
 
Specifically, vocal removers remove the center from the stereo field, since that is where the vocals usually reside, along with a few other instruments. Obviously this is not a perfect solution, since it's going to downgrade the quality of your mix in general. If you're looking for quality, you'll have to get the specifically mixed versions with no vocals. If it's just for fun you can do it using the vocal removers, but it's not gonna be great quality.
 
Back
Top