Can I isolate different elements of an audio track?

woj101

I am just getting into the hobby of experimenting with digital media, playing about with programs like Movie Maker.

At present I know very little about audio compression techniques but what I was wondering was whether it is possible to separate the spoken words (from a song) and the accompanying music - i.e. can I turn a track into a karaoke version, but also retain the sounds of the words (as a separate file) using some easily available (and usable) software?

I would guess mp3s are too compressed to be able to work with in this way, but what about CDs or other digital formats - or have I got my head in the clouds completely?

Thanks all.

albertross_2

http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/vremover.htm

With some DVD's, you may be able to use the output to the central speaker, to isolate the words.

£$&*"($£&(

While there are various utilities that claim to do this the results aren't great. Because of this the general answer to this is that it's not possible.

Mr_Squiddy

There are things called 'vocal cancellers' or similar which claim to be able to remove the vocals from songs. The fact is that their success is somewhat variable. Actually what they do is invert the phase of one of the stereo channels and then mix that with the other (uninverted) signal. This has the effect of removing any part of the signal which is in the centre of the stereo image, as most vocals are. Unfortunately (a) several other instruments might also be in the centre of the stereo field , e.g. bass, drums and (b) the voice may not be central in the stereo field.

If you want karaoke tracks then there are any number of legal and illegal MIDI and karaoke tracks 'out there' if you want to look for them.

Alan_Thompson

Many programs like soundforge include various plug ins for doing this kind of thing, though the results will always produce a lessening in the overall music quality since you are effectively removing certain frequencies.

a google search for something like "devocalizer" might get you something....