Isolating voices in songs.

[rubysmooch]

Hey, I'm curious as to how or what the process is of removing instruments from a song and just isolating the voice to sample.

Idk, if this is necessary...but I am using a KP3/SP 404sx/and Esx-1/Microkorg and record in garageband.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. This dude is called Bahwee and his s**t is amazing and I highly recommend it but in this song he uses Drake's voice as well as Kanye West's too.

[tallowwaters]

Download the acapella tracks? I imagine that Kanye/Drake/pop s**t is pretty easy to find too.

[Yoozer]

It is. Removing voices is like un-baking a cake. None of the gear you name will do the job, by the way.

Thing is, while humans can hear vocals in the mix and imagine how it sounds without it, computers aren't that terribly good at it (yet). See http://www.sonicworx.com/sonicWORX/About.html and http://soundcloud.com/user7421656 (de-mixing example). You hear that the voice suddenly misses the reverb and some things sound wobbly/glassy; that's because you're hearing a massive additive synthesizer (lots of partials!) where the volume of each harmonic can be controlled en masse. So, that's an option, too. A cheaper option (but a lot more work to isolate the vocals!) is http://photosounder.com/ which works in a similar fashion.

The sites where these acapellas for you can be found aren't exactly legal. So even then - how did they get them there? The acapella was somehow supplied by someone, and this could be done in the following ways:

- it's leaked - someone (a remixer or someone in the studio) "accidentally" puts it on a filesharing network
- it's released as part of a remixing pack (for contests)
- it's officially released (some maxi-singles used to have an acapella version on it)

Lots of the hiphop stuff follows this route.

Another way is by mixing an inverted instrumental version of exactly the same song on top of the regular "vocal" version. That way, you get some artifacts (because compressors act differently, and anything that's not perfectly mirrored will be left) but if you're going to throw it back in a dense mix anyway chances are that you can get away with it. This does not always work, though; you have to line up the waveforms perfectly and it helps a lot if it's a digital recording (so getting rid of the vocal was simply rendering it again minus one track).

[rubysmooch]

Download the acapella tracks? I imagine that Kanye/Drake/pop s**t is pretty easy to find too.

These are just examples I gave so people on the boards could understand what I'm talking about. I'm not saying that I am trying to use these two specifically.

[Stab Frenzy]

It's still a lot easier to find an acapella on line than to pull the vocals out of a song, yoozer is completely right.

[garranimal]

I would try a good, at least 3-band parametric, EQ. I'm not familiar w/ garageband except it's like a cut-down version of pro-tools, it may have an EQ that will suffice or perhaps allow you to download a plug in from KVR that will get the job done. Vocals happen about around 3kHz, the idea is to cut the highs and lows and leaving the frequencies where the vocals take place. It's not perfect, there will always be artifacts from the backing track present - but this is where your own remix drums, synth, etc come into play to mask/drown the artifacts.

[Hugo76]

What about Melodyne DNA? Isn't that supposed to manage such tasks?

[garranimal]

I've heard of Melodyne but never knew what it was capable. Whoa. I'm GASsing bigtime.

[sequentialsoftshock]

I would try a good, at least 3-band parametric, EQ. I'm not familiar w/ garageband except it's like a cut-down version of pro-tools, it may have an EQ that will suffice or perhaps allow you to download a plug in from KVR that will get the job done. Vocals happen about around 3kHz, the idea is to cut the highs and lows and leaving the frequencies where the vocals take place. It's not perfect, there will always be artifacts from the backing track present - but this is where your own remix drums, synth, etc come into play to mask/drown the artifacts.

It's a "lite" version of Logic; use the AU Parametric or 31 Band Equalizer to get maximum control. I have Logic Studio also installed, so these MAY be only on my machine, but I think I recall these AU's being installed prior to loading Logic onto my MacBook Pro..

[garranimal]

Turns out I'm on a macbook and, brainfart, remembered garageband comes on all machines. It's got a 31-band EQ. Alternatively one could use their highpass and lowpass filter in conjunction if that works as well. The AUParametric EQ is odd, only having a single band of boost/cut.

[Hugo76]

I've heard of Melodyne but never knew what it was capable. Whoa. I'm GASsing bigtime.

Damn, I forgot just how insane this technology is! I think I must pick this one up ASAP
Thanks for posting the vid.

[rubysmooch]

Hey, thanks for all the input. I've been searching for acapellas on the net for download and have found some good sources. That eq method I've tried and its very tricky because I tend to get a lot of high end tones and its just not crisp like it should be.