Instrumental tracks

goodgodholmes

Hi guys, I'm singing a rare song in the next fortnight, but because it's not well known there is no sheet music available online, nor is there a karaoke/instrumental track available.

I was wondering, is it possible to edit the original track, with the vocal, and strip the vocal out of it to leave only the instrumental part?

I have a MacBook with Garageband.

artvandulet

The chances of it sounding good arent too high but there are some programs you could pay for to try and do it. Otherwise you could pay someone to make a backing track.

Anyway, I'll give you a free method you could try...

- Download Audacity - theres a Mac version on the site
(doesnt have to be audacity but just handy cause its free)

- Import the track

- Go to the option to Split stereo track, this is over on the left in the track info box - this will give you two mono tracks, one for left and one for right

- Now select all the audio in the right channel and go to effects - invert

- Now have each track panned centre and select mono tracks.

See does that work.

This assumes a couple of things - That the vocal in the stereo track is panned centre and that all the other instruments are slightly panned one way or the other. The method above knocks the vocal track out of phase with itself and becomes inaudible. But so does anything else centre panned.

Worth a go anyway as the software is free. There may be a plug in to do something similar. Good luck.

goodgodholmes

Thanks a mil! I'm having a problem, I clicked split stereo track and nothing happened

artvandulet

When you split stereo track nothing actually happens, it just allows you then to highlight the left and right channels seperetly. If you dont do this, they are linked when you try to highlight a section
When you imported the audio, you should see 2 channels, one for left and one for right, if you dont, then the track is a mono track which means you won't be able to do anything with it. Get a proper stereo version of it.

goodgodholmes

Ok I've split the track, and there seems to be two channels.

I'm not sure how to select the right channel. I thought I had it selected but when I clicked into the Effect menu, you couldn't click any of the options (they were all grey).

Sorry for hassling, in case you can't tell I'm a total novice!

I've attached a screen shot.

artvandulet

The waveform (all the blue area) of the right channel needs to be highlighted.
Go to the end of the track, click onto the end of the waveform, and click and drag over the entire length of the song to highlight. You maky actually just be able to go to 'edit - select all' in the menu. Anyway, once all the track is selected, then the effect menu wont be greyed out.

goodgodholmes

i selected and its still greyed out

artvandulet

Not sure why that is. Works for me. But Im on PC. Mac version may be slightly different. The results may not be that good anyway so this may all be in vain:D

artvandulet

did you try Edit - select all?

goodgodholmes

For some reason right after I screenshot it worked, typical :P

I have inverted. How do I centre pan (again, sorry for the layman's terms!)?

artvandulet

To the left of the blue waveform you'll see the name of the track and a little arrow down. If you click on this you'll see a menu. Select make mono track.
That should be it. Just play it back.
Any instruments that are panned centre will become out of phase and so barely audible. Other instruments will remain as they were.
Depending on what way the track was arranged, this could work for you, or it could remove too much other instruments to make the song recognisable.

goodgodholmes

just did all that, sounds exactly the same as if I'd never done anything

tried inverting the left channel as well, no difference

any other suggestions? thanks a mil for everything!

artvandulet

You defo dont want to invert both, they'll just be back in phase. I've just tried myself and it works.

Are you making each channel mono after you invert? See attached image. Click and select mono for each channel.

If it still doesnt work email me the song and I'll see...
cmail@eircom.net

goodgodholmes

artvandulet wrote: »

You defo dont want to invert both, they'll just be back in phase. I've just tried myself and it works.

Are you making each channel mono after you invert? See attached image. Click and select mono for each channel.

If it still doesnt work email me the song and I'll see...
cmail@eircom.net

I've a feeling the Mac version may be a little different. Just redid the whole process and it didn't work again, converted to Mono as well. Sounds the same, and I only did the one inversion.

I'll have one last go, inverting only the left channel just to see, if that doesn't work I'll email you. Thanks a million for all your help, you've been great!

studiorat

Even if you do flip the phase of one track and center the tracks it probably won't work very well. Probably be still able to hear the reverb etc. It will also cancel alot of the other centred information in the original mix.

What is the song?

goodgodholmes

studiorat wrote: »

Even if you do flip the phase of one track and center the tracks it probably won't work very well. Probably be still able to hear the reverb etc. It will also cancel alot of the other centred information in the original mix.

What is the song?

Laura Marling - My Manic and I

artvandulet

Hi, I got that email and did the process on it, but unfortunetly, the results are quite poor.

You're bang on studiorat. Unfortunetly, the way this song is mixed, this 'trick' isnt really going to help.
The vocals have quite a bit of reverb and aren't mono in the mix to allow it to be removed or reduced without too severe deterioration of the other instruments. The result is removing too much other instrumention in this instance.

There are other tricks and filters that can be applied, but you'll never really be able to get rid of the entire vocal without some reduction in quality. Its harder to do with MP3's too because the similarities with left and right channels aren't identical like they would be with a wav file.

Anyway, I suggest you put a link to this thread in the Music Production section of the Music board, as there's a few guys there who may be willing to have a go at doing something.

Short of that, you're other alternative is to pay someone to do a backing track. Its not the most complicated song in the world.

Good luck.

goodgodholmes

artvandulet wrote: »

Hi, I got that email and did the process on it, but unfortunetly, the results are quite poor.

You're bang on studiorat. Unfortunetly, the way this song is mixed, this 'trick' isnt really going to help.
The vocals have quite a bit of reverb and aren't mono in the mix to allow it to be removed or reduced without too severe deterioration of the other instruments. The result is removing too much other instrumention in this instance.

There are other tricks and filters that can be applied, but you'll never really be able to get rid of the entire vocal without some reduction in quality. Its harder to do with MP3's too because the similarities with left and right channels aren't identical like they would be with a wav file.

Anyway, I suggest you put a link to this thread in the Music Production section of the Music board, as there's a few guys there who may be willing to have a go at doing something.

Short of that, you're other alternative is to pay someone to do a backing track. Its not the most complicated song in the world.

Good luck.

Just linked it. Thanks a mil!