We all remember the devices that used to be advertised in
magazines that promised to remove vocals from any recording. These devices
were just about as effective as the ads on the following pages that promised to
keep that bully from kicking sand in your face.
Today's popular vocal removers still offer success
about 25% of the time, make some difference 50% of the time and have
no success 25% of the time. Factors for success really depend on how
the original vocals were mixed into the music, their level and
various other factors. Our DC SIX And DC SEVEN both offer
tools that promise about that same level of success without having
to buy any hardware.
Our software uses our Channel Blender to achieve
the desired results.
The following procedure will very often be
effective in removing a lead vocalist's performance from a
stereophonic recording. This is useful when you desire to
over-dub your own rendition of the performance onto the original
song. If there is a lot of ambient sound (reverberation)
associated with the original artist, it may not be removed along
with the vocal itself. This is seldom a problem, since the
ambient sound is not very distinct, and will not drastically deter
from your own over-dub performance. It is important to note
that this technique will not work with a monophonic source.
It is also important to note that this technique very much relies on
the type of material you are using. It will produce better
results on more acoustic type music and sometimes no success on
music with heavy walls of instruments.
1.
Open your desired stereo file.
2.
Open the Channel Blender feature (Effects Menu).
3.
Set Left and Right to 100% blend
4.
Select Invert Phase on the left channel
5.
Select Blend to Mono and choose “Below”.
6.
Set the Blend to Mono adjustment to 160 Hz.
7.
Click on the Preview button.
8.
You should hear the Source .wav file with an attenuated lead
vocalist, with perhaps a little bit of reverberation (echo) in the
background.
9.
Adjust one of the two-slider controls downwards first.
Observe if the lead vocalist gets louder or softer. If it gets
louder, readjust the control upwards, looking for a point on the
slider control wherein the lead vocal is nulled out (minimized).
10.
Click on "Run Filter."
Note: This technique works
using the same methods as hardware boxes costing many times the
price of this product. However, it has the same limitations as
many of these hardware solutions in that the vocals to be removed
must have been mixed in the exact center of the stereo field by the
recording engineer. Many recordings are made this way, but
some are not.