How to split Accapella from Intrumental?

[GRAFIK]

there is a way i read in on issue of scratch mag, where you can basically mute most of the acapella out and use the beat, it gave instructions to do it in pro tools, but they didnt mention stripping the beat, i dont think that is possible, unless you seriously damage the quality

 

[Authority]

the beat will stutter and be delayed like crazy....i tryed it before

 

[djswivel]

inverting the instrumental over the regular will work is the beat is lined up perfectly and the instrumental track is identical to the beat on the full song version. THERE IS, one other way, although it doesn't work quite as well, you can do it without the use of the instrumental track

Ok, so you take the track, and throw it in pro tools or another audio editing software, and create 3 tracks (must use wav, mp3's wont work). Copy the song onto all 3 tracks with the exact same start point. Pan 1 left, pan 1 right, and keep one panned center. The track that's panned center, invert it. this should in theory cancel out all the frequencies that are panned dead center, which is usually always lead vocals and drums. this can be great if you dont want the drums from a sample.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not totally sure if it works as expected, I'm just paraphrasing Duro, who I work for. He's got a column in Scratch Magazine called "Ask Duro" and this was one of the questions asked. I think I have it right but I may be a little mistaken....


This question was posed to him in either the Lil Jon, or the Scratch after Lil Jon (Nas/Premo I think?). Definately around 2 or 3 issues ago.

 

[sYgMa]

^^^^gotta try that one... could be interesting if you got a good sample with drums you wanna get rid of...

 

[Formant024]

dudes, its never an accapella, because you cancel out frequency ranges that are also in the vocals, cuz they share the same bandwidth.

 

[sYgMa]

^^^^That's exactly what I was thinking... and that's what I asked the question to begin with... sounds like the final product will sound dull or will be lacking some texture...

I gotta try to see what's up, then I'll comment

 

[djswivel]

well the fact of the matter is, there is no magical box or technique that literally lifts the vocals out of the instrumental. This is sound, something like that is (i dont want to say impossible, but it is for now). There are techniques which can work wonders sometimes, and other times just sound like trash. It all depends on the song, how it was mixed, etc etc.

The original question was "How do you split Accapella from a song ?"

Would you prefer we just answer, "you cant, thread closed"

 

[Formant024]

^^^^ yeah, if i make some odd track with a lot of static and distortion you wont notice a crappy accapella ( well hardly cuz Ill hear it ) but that aint the intention I assume so why bother with it anyway.

 

[misscc803]

Go to page 95 in Scratch Magazine Number 8 Cover 1 of 2( Jermaine Dupri on the front) I forgot to mention that when i first posted.

 

[Formant024]

^^^well what does it say ?

 

[misscc803]

^^^well what does it say ?

Pretty much the same yall was sayin but i love yall so i'll type da whole article.

Stripping Vocals?
I want to sample a track that has vocals, but I only want the music. How can I get rid of the vocals? Is there computer software that can strip vocals well?-Vupatvv

You dont need expensive software, just 10 minutes on any recording program will do. In Pro Tools, import a 2-track song(mp3 files dont work) into a new session and drag the left and right files to their own mono tracks. Next select one track with the grabber tool,(it doesnt matter which one). Go to the Audiosuite menu and select "Invert" from the "Other" menu. In the mix window, pan each of the tracks to the center and set each track to the same level.

Listening now, you can hear that the vocals and other instruments that were panned dead center are much quieter. Add the Digitrack 7-band EQlll plug-in to the inverted track and the use the hi and lo band-pass filters to narrow the focus of the channel that is inverting or incorrectly referred to as "phasing out". Start with the high pass filter, or HPF set to 200hz to exclude all the frequencies below. Try adjusting or shutting off the low and high pass filter till it sounds right, use your ear. That's it. Done. If you have a good stereo-izer plug-in, try it on the master fader. Though this method is far from perfect, it's the best that can be done."

Now dats it!! Yall betta be lucky i love yall so much.

 

[Formant024]

nice one!

 

[misscc803]

Watch some think they gotta get Protools now. LOL

 

[djswivel]

yeah, thats from Duro's calumn...I'm his assistant engineer...I knew I didn't have it totally right in my explanations haha...but yeah, I haven't tried it yet, but supposedly he said it works pretty well (considering what you're trying to accomplish). If any of you guys attempt it, let me know how it turns out. Remebmer, you need to do it with real wav files, not mp3 that are then converted to wav's.

 

[Sanova]

yea i understand why mp3s wont work and the whole rest of the jargon, but what is a "real wav" and how would you obtain one?

 

[Lex]

Straight off a CD. or if you're getting the sounds off vinyl recording them to as wav files - but I guess that wouldn't work because the irregularity of the you get when playing back vinyl would mean that the acapella and the original song would have different crackles and pops all over the place...

 

[djswivel]

Straight off a CD. or if you're getting the sounds off vinyl recording them to as wav files - but I guess that wouldn't work because the irregularity of the you get when playing back vinyl would mean that the acapella and the original song would have different crackles and pops all over the place...

That wouldn't pose a problem. You're using the same file, just splitting it to mono.

 

[Sanova]

^ so thats what you mean by a real wav? recordin it from vinyl, then splittin the channels?

 

[J.Mctaw]

i don't know if this site has been posted before, but here it is.
http://nassau.globat.com/~beatbrokerz.biz/acapella

 

[sYgMa]

I actually tried it... but the final result wasnt that convincing... gotta try again