What software or programs remove vocals from a song?

Posted on March 1st, 2010 by admin in vocals | 1 Comment »

For example I found this song played without vocals and it sounds nice. Then it occur to me that I wanna try the same but with different songs. Any suggestion of type of free programs that does this?

Don’t get your hopes up. This doesn’t work for all songs. It depends on how they are mixed in the studio.
Download Audacity:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Lame if needed to encode and save to mp3:
http://lame.sourceforge.net/
Basic tutorial:
http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/audacity-tutorial.html

Method:

This is possible only for certain stereo tracks. When the vocals are exactly the same on both stereo channels, you can remove them by “subtracting” one channel from the other. This works for many studio recordings, where the vocal track is mixed exactly in the center. Be aware that bass and drums are usually panned to the center and can be removed or reduced also. Depending on how the track was mixed the vocal may only be reduced, not fully removed.

To do this in Audacity 1.2:

1. Import your stereo file into Audacity.
2. Open the track menu (click the arrow next to the track title), and choose “Split Stereo Track.”
3. Select the lower track (the right channel) by clicking it in the area around the mute/solo buttons.
4. Choose “Invert” from the Effects menu.
5. Using the track menus, change each track to “Mono.”

Press the Play button to hear the results. If you are lucky, the voice will be gone but most of the other instruments will be unaffected, just like a karaoke track. You can use the Export commands in the File menu to save the results.

Audacity 1.3:
Has a vocal remover built in. Just select the whole track then vocal remover from the effect menu.

One Response

  1. Terry G Says:

    Don’t get your hopes up. This doesn’t work for all songs. It depends on how they are mixed in the studio.
    Download Audacity:
    http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
    Lame if needed to encode and save to mp3:
    http://lame.sourceforge.net/
    Basic tutorial:
    http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/audacity-tutorial.html

    Method:

    This is possible only for certain stereo tracks. When the vocals are exactly the same on both stereo channels, you can remove them by “subtracting” one channel from the other. This works for many studio recordings, where the vocal track is mixed exactly in the center. Be aware that bass and drums are usually panned to the center and can be removed or reduced also. Depending on how the track was mixed the vocal may only be reduced, not fully removed.

    To do this in Audacity 1.2:

    1. Import your stereo file into Audacity.
    2. Open the track menu (click the arrow next to the track title), and choose “Split Stereo Track.”
    3. Select the lower track (the right channel) by clicking it in the area around the mute/solo buttons.
    4. Choose “Invert” from the Effects menu.
    5. Using the track menus, change each track to “Mono.”

    Press the Play button to hear the results. If you are lucky, the voice will be gone but most of the other instruments will be unaffected, just like a karaoke track. You can use the Export commands in the File menu to save the results.

    Audacity 1.3:
    Has a vocal remover built in. Just select the whole track then vocal remover from the effect menu.
    References :

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