so i dont have to hear britney spears' voice...

[g30ffr3y]

please help...

one song on the new britney spears album [in the zone] "breathe on me" has a somewhat good beat to it... i just h8 britney's voice over the track...

i use protools and reason and cakewalk... <-- just for background

what software could i use to get her horrible meowing off the track/split all the tracks for my own remixing etc...

thanks fellow mac addicts...

 

[crazytom]

I just listened to the demo on iTunes of that song. You'd have a tough time getting her vocals off, even with the best software, here's why:

Any vocal removal software operates on one principal: remove what is in the 'center' of the audio field that falls within the vocal range (anywhere from 500Hz to 4000 Hz). On that particular song, there is a heavy stereo effect right behind her vocals on some parts, even with them removed, you'd hardly notice in those instances. To do a test to see what exactly is in the center of the audio field, do this:

Import the CD track into your favorite audio editing program. Invert the waveform on one of the stereo channels. Make a mono sound file from the stereo, mixing each side in equally. The resulting sound file will be what falls outside the center audio field. More often than not, any stereo reverbs or other stereo effects on vocals really gum up the works.

I'm sure that's not the answer you wanted. Vocal removal has been demanded for quite some time now, and I haven't seen or heard anything that does it well (unless the vocal is dead center, and has no stereo effects on it.) The best you can do is purchase a karaoke tape.

 

[WinterMute]

It can't really be done with any success, the above post is a good explination, and there's no way of splitting the tracks back to componant multi-track either, stereo is two track, Multitrack is a track for each sound, you can't unmix a stereo file.

You could take protools to the track and try to remove a loop of each section then do your own version, but I'd imagine Ms Spear's caterwauling would be over everything.

Sorry.

 

[johnnowak]

It sounds like any Kylie Minogue song. Just listen to her if you like that so much.

 

[g30ffr3y]

well, thanks guys... crazytom you know a lot more about this stuff than i do... is no big deal that i can't really do it, just curious... when people do "home remixes" of tracks how the heck do they do it???

anyway... johnnowak... i like some of kylie minogue's stuff... i listen to a lot of music from these sort of gooey dance tracks to cradle of filth, dimmu borgir, and other black metal/swedish death metal bands to goth/industrial bands to radiohead, coldplay, abandoned pools type of alternative "smart" music... im not embarrassed to listen to one britney spears song amidst the bunch...

 

[kettle]

Software discussion

I'd just like to say I prefer Kylie's software to Britany's.

 

[g30ffr3y]

*I'd just like to say I prefer Kylie's software to Britany's.*

no arguement from me on that one...

 

[crazytom]

Originally posted by g30ffr3y
well, thanks guys... crazytom you know a lot more about this stuff than i do... is no big deal that i can't really do it, just curious... when people do "home remixes" of tracks how the heck do they do it???

I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. There's a number of options people have to 'remix' commercial songs with their own voice on it. Sometimes there's MIDI versions of songs that people can download and sung over, others purchase karaoke tapes to sing over, and some have the vocals removed (as best as possible) and mix their own voice over the top (with heavy effects) that will drown out the original vocal track. I've done successful vocal removals on quite a few country tracks and some songs that were pre-1990's. Even though the removal wasn't perfect, adding the right balance and the right effect will blend things together so they sound half decent.

As for remixing the instrumentation, there's no way to do it unless it's in MIDI or you have the original master tapes. If you have neither, then you'd need to recreate everything on your own....maybe GarageBand will be an easy way to do that!!!

I hope that answered your question.

Addendum:
The best thing I found that did vocal removal was this little kit you had to put together (solder in the resistors, chips, wiring and pots onto a circuit board). The kit was cheap (like $15) and did a decent job. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to relocate where to get one at. It's since been crushed (it was cheap!) and I've had to rely on the technique that I described to get any decent results. I'm sure any software programs out there use the same method (though, the only one's I've seen are for peecee). Then there's the Thompson Vocal Eliminator. But the site doesn't list the price (adage: if you gotta ask, you can't afford it). Despite what the text may want you to believe, they use the center channel removal scheme to rid vocals.

 

[g30ffr3y]

would propellerheads recycle be of any help???

 

[crazytom]

I haven't used Recycle, but the description looks like you'd be able to get close, again, it would depend on the song, as long as you can pull a groove out that doesn't have vocals over it, you'd be able to paste it in and put your own over it....

 

[g30ffr3y]

adding vocals back in isnt a concern, i dont want to cover the song nor do kareoke to it... is just for personal listening... i just wanted to make an extended instrumental mix of it... i was hoping to pull a few of the more interesting sounds out of it and create something more acceptable to my ears...

 

[crazytom]

This is now a bit off the topic, but I found that vocal remover kit: here.

If you're OK at soldering, it's a great deal!