Hi,

Does anyone know of software (preferably free) that can isolate the vocals and even better yet, the background vocals of a certain track???



Thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve
some tools & info to be found here:
[www.audacityteam.org]

but how about tellin' us what your up to?
hey, it might even be there already!
karaoke has come a long way in the meantime - ha!

Quote
flight505rox
Hi,

Does anyone know of software (preferably free) that can isolate the vocals and even better yet, the background vocals of a certain track???



Thanks,
Steve

No there isn't, to do anything with individual vocals, instruments, etc. you have to have access to the original multi-track recording which usually assigns one item per track, once it's in the mix you can't isolate a specific instrument or vocals. You can use a graphic equaliser to accentuate or decrease certain frequencies to bring up, say, the vocals, but you're also bringing up whatever instruments are in that frequency range too.

Oh c'mon Vox^^
your reply is such a knee-jerk reaction - i've read the same on many forums.
while your statement isn't wrong - a try to get what you need may be worth while.
guess why I asked what he 's up to do?
It has to do with stereo invertion, not graphik equalizers.
it may work with some songs, on others it doesn't - but at least it's worth a try.
have you tried it, Vox?

Now this kid does it on an mp3 file, which I'd never advise.
use wav.files!

I believe you have misread the question open-g.

He's not asking how to remove vocals, he's asking how to isolate vocals.

I'll put this another way. He wants to remove everything except for the vocals so that he has only the vocals left, no guitars, no drums, no keyboards, no bass, only the vocals.

Phase inversion works to remove anything that is common to both channels, usually vocals & bass, in a stereo mix which is not what is required here.

Audacity can do this as well as Sound Forge or Cooleditpro, which is my choice of audio editor. These do a decent enough job but sometimes more precise calibration is required, specifically if the vocals are slightly off-centre in the stereo field. I have built a box (yes, it's black) in which the two channels can be adjusted to find the "null spot" at which there is maximum cancellation.

My original post still stands.

My " knee jerk" reaction is based on over 30 years experience in the audio field.

I built my black box over 25 years ago open-g, so yes, I've tried it.

Quote
vox12string
I believe you have misread the question open-g.

He's not asking how to remove vocals, he's asking how to isolate vocals.
...

Dang! I blush in shame and stand corrected.
Indeed, I absolutely misread the question and therefore wrote crap.
your post is spot on.

please accept my apologies.