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Thread: Audacity - Removing Vocals from MP3s

  1. #1
    Senior Member MrIllusion's Avatar
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    Default Audacity - Removing Vocals from MP3s

    For those who are trying to find bgm files for recording their own voices, Audacity actually allows removing of vocals from songs in mp3 format.

    1) Open the mp3 in Audacity
    2) Look for the black arrow to the left of the blue color 'soundwave' (above where it says 44100 Hz)
    3) Select 'Split Stereo Track'. You'll see that the blue soundwave sortof 'splits' into two.
    4) At the bottom soundwave, click on 'Solo'. The top soundwave should be faded out.
    5) Highlight the entire length of the bottom soundwave (the unfaded one)
    6) Go to the menu at the top, and select 'Effect' -> 'Invert'
    7) Click on the black arrow for the bottom soundwave again and select 'Mono'
    8) Click the 'Solo' button for the bottom soundwave, the top soundwave is now unfaded.
    9) Highlight the entire length of the top, and click the black arrow. Select 'Mono'.
    10) Save file.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member GuGu's Avatar
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    Thank you!!!! This will help me out a whole lot!!!

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    Senior Member Ian Liew's Avatar
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    Is there a reason my song sounds a bit ... bubbly, like it's sung underwater with a bit of a tinny (slight teensy weensy chipmunk) effect? Does the song have to be mono to start with - when I open the file I normally already have two blue soundwaves - splitting the stereo track just basically splits the leftside menu so that each soundwave has its own menu.
    Last edited by Ian Liew; 07-20-07 at 05:01 PM.

  4. #4
    Senior Member MrIllusion's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Liew View Post
    Is there a reason my song sounds a bit ... bubbly, like it's sung underwater with a bit of a tinny (slight teensy weensy chipmunk) effect? Does the song have to be mono to start with - when I open the file I normally already have two blue soundwaves - splitting the stereo track just basically splits the leftside menu so that each soundwave has its own menu.
    I think I know what you mean. The end result makes the file sound like theres a lot of echo. It doesn't totally remove the vocals, just makes it inaudible enough to be used as BGM.

    The splitting of the two soundwaves is needed. I don't know why though. I think it's so that you can select one of the tracks and invert it (otherwise you'd invert both when you highlight the whole soundwave).


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    all the inversion is basically removing the midrange frequency (depends on how the software work), the midrange is somewhere between 70hz - 10khz.

    so any instrument in the range also get remove, the reason you hear the tiny voice in the back is because it didn't remove all of the range or the singer voice was out of the range by a bit, i don't suggest doing this because the quality at the end is not up to par and it's hard to sing because it seems like the music note is not clearly define.

    I would suggest getting some sort of instrumental tracks, some people built these, some took them from the artist and sell them as karaoke, and they works much better.

    Certain software like garage band (MAC) will let you key in each instrument and potentially recreate the song, but it takes a long time and you'll need a keen ear for that. plus i don't use MAC, i think sony acid has loops like that too but i've never tried it. good luck.

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    I think it's better to just leave the original voice in, than to cut out the vocals and take out some instruments too. Just set the background music volume lower.
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  7. #7
    Senior Member MrIllusion's Avatar
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    Obviously, there are much better alternatives.

    Removing the vocals out is the most convenient method for people who don't know where to look on the internet, either because they are not strong in that language or they simply cannot speak that language but just want to sing those songs.

    Many songs also don't have KTV versions readily available, either because they are outdated or weren't very popular to begin with.
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrIllusion View Post
    For those who are trying to find bgm files for recording their own voices, Audacity actually allows removing of vocals from songs in mp3 format.

    1) Open the mp3 in Audacity
    2) Look for the black arrow to the left of the blue color 'soundwave' (above where it says 44100 Hz)
    3) Select 'Split Stereo Track'. You'll see that the blue soundwave sortof 'splits' into two.
    4) At the bottom soundwave, click on 'Solo'. The top soundwave should be faded out.
    5) Highlight the entire length of the bottom soundwave (the unfaded one)
    6) Go to the menu at the top, and select 'Effect' -> 'Invert'
    7) Click on the black arrow for the bottom soundwave again and select 'Mono'
    8) Click the 'Solo' button for the bottom soundwave, the top soundwave is now unfaded.
    9) Highlight the entire length of the top, and click the black arrow. Select 'Mono'.
    10) Save file.

    This is great, but what if I want to do the opposite? I want to extract the vocals from a track and get rid of the music, is there a rough way to do this?

    Thanks.

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