Remove vocals from an mp3

[shiznit]

Is this possible?, I am using a Mac as well

Thanks

[snags]

Off the Web:
''There is no way to really remove vocals from a stereo track; the vocal waveforms are all mashed in with the rest of the sound. All you can do is some tricks by way of centre-cancelling (combining the left and right channels together, but out of phase with each other, causing any common elements to cancel out -- on the theory that vocals are usually panned to the centre. Unfortunately, this also loses any other instrument that is panned to the centre.) Or you can equalize out the frequencies that the vocals predominate in (which unfortunately loses any other instruments that share the same frequencies); or you can combine the approaches. Your results will vary with the sophistication of your software or hardware, and with the way the track was mixed in the first place.''

[Answerprancer]

It can be done with varying levels of effectiveness, the less amount of non-vocal, the better.
eg. If it's just voice and guitar, that should be easy, the more instrumentation, the harder it will be to separate unless you can get hold of the original multitrack - which is unlikely. An exception would be a mix where the vocals are hard-panned to one side of the stereo (eg. Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren).

You will need some music editing software that does "noise reduction" though.
I use Cool Edit Pro (now known as Adobe Audition).
If you've made it this far into my response without going "hrrrrrrmmm - soddit" let me know and I'll explain further :-)

[squarebear]

No matter what people say, you cannot remove the vocals from a mixed track with any degree of success. The only way to do this is to have the original source of the song (premixed).

It's like baking a cake then trying to take the flour out.

[ChuckFickens]

I can do you a good deal on second hand flour at the moment SB :)

[TTG]

Try searching on the net. Sometimes bands have unreleased rehersals/alternate versions of tracks without vocals. A lot of rock bands have done this.

[Answerprancer]

Squarebear - I've done it.

[ChuckFickens]

There's a good boy AP... now don't forget to wipe :)

[Answerprancer]

Yes, squarebear - I done poopy plop plops ! (happy now CF?)

In all seriousness, I've done it to two classic TV themes and - though the sound quality is about 85% the job is definitely done (oh there ya go again CF "job"!)

[squarebear]

"the sound quality is about 85%"

nuff said.

[Answerprancer]

..well it was good enough to get 65,000 hits on Youtube within a year ...even nuffer said !

[squarebear]

Do you have the link to it?

[squarebear]

With all due respect, I saw a video of a dancing cartoon cat on youtube with 500,000 hits. It's no guarantee of quality.

[snags]

Badger Badger Badger Badger...

[Answerprancer]

(indeed)

[shiznit]

Sorted, my daughter picked another song to perform to which we had an instrumental version. Thanks for all your answers.........er I think ha ha