Gackt Acapellas

[rockman240]

This is really cool. I heard about something called "out of phase stereo" that can allow you to remove vocals from songs and I wondered if you could do the opposite and isolate the vocals. I became obsessed and, well, eventually found a way.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G7V3KKRQ
Here's Metamorphose. It's not perfect; There's some leakage of instruments in some spots mainly because I'm not sure how to get the tracks perfectly in sync (I'm thinking of a way).

This method of vocal isolation requires an instrumental version as well as the vocal version of a song. There are ways to isolate the vocals without an instrumental, but this way is much better.

I am working on Kimi ga Matte iru kara ReMix right now.
Edit: here it is.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U2J4PZDY

 

[Tek+Lok]

Gackapellas

 

[K-kun]

Wow! That's cool!
Could you teach me how to do this, please? I want to hear some Moi Dix Mois acapellas.

 

[boi de memoire]

and I want to watch porn without the music

 

[Amatsu]

and I want to watch porn without the music

I wanna know how to do this too~

 

[Kyuketsuki]

Isn't this the process that makes the music sound like you're listening to it through a tube? XD You can get all the singles and b-sides without vocals anyways - no reason to tamper with the audio. Yay for Japan and their love of Karaoke.

 

[rockman240]

Okay, so you will need Audacity (free audio editing software), and the vocal and instrumental versions of the song. They say you should use lossless WAV files because mp3s have artifacts. I haven't actually tried mp3s myself.

Open the two songs in Audacity. Now you have to get the two songs aligned perfectly. Use the selection tool to grab the instrumental one.

Now select the Time Shift Tool and start moving the instrumental until the two songs look aligned. Remember, you want the two left channels to match, and the two right channels to match. Zoom in a bit on a spot where there is no singing and align some more. Keep doing this until you are zoomed in all the way.

Now, go to the effect menu and click Invert. Play the song. If everything is aligned right, it should isolate the vocals.

I am thinking that this might not work for Malice Mizer singles because, since they are older and probably weren't mixed using computers, they might not match.

I tried using this technique on Gackt's Returner, but I couldn't get it to work. I'm not really sure why. I'll try again later.

 

[Amatsu]

um.... you didn't explain some things

you have to open them seperately, so you just copy one of them and paste it in the other file so they're both there?

usually songs are aligned automatically arent'y they? if the song starts with music and not vocals, since they're the same songs just one doesn't have vocals...

you have to select what you want to invert, or use any effect on, what do you select? both songs? the one with vocals? everything?

 

[Tek+Lok]

I've actually tried this once, you take one of the channels (left or right) and invert it, and it would cancel out the vocals quite a bit. You could still slightly hear them though, but I was using an old song by The Beatles.

I think it depends how the song is structured among the left and right stereo channels. But yeah basically you do a method and cancel out the vocals.

 

[flowersofnight]

I am thinking that this might not work for Malice Mizer singles because, since they are older and probably weren't mixed using computers

Yeah, back in 1997 they were still recording using wax cylinders and abaci and cuneiform XD


If you try this on "Transylvania" you get an odd result where the side vocals are isolated.

 

[Tek+Lok]

This is so cool, this is as close as you get to splicing tracks, although I wish I could get my hands on master tracks for some of my favorite music.

Actually my dad found this site where you buy mp3's, but they are all spliced, like drums vocals etc are all separated.

Anyways, I'm gonna try this on my FLAC copy of malice mizer's merveilles. As some of you may know, flac is the exact perfect data rip of a standard cd album. So I'll be getting the best results, as compared to a compressed Mp3. It might be less static.

 

[Tek+Lok]

I tried taking a regular track, inverting one of the channels, and setting both channels as mono to overlap, and saved it (It doesn't appear to matter which side you choose to invert, the outcome is the same) This reduces the vocals quite a bit.

Then I took the edited track, and placed it next to a copy of the original, theorizing that that would take out everything but the vocals but it doesn't work that way. Probably because you need to perfectly mirrored tracks, for proper canceling to occur.

So canceling out vocals is rather easy but canceling out everything else required you to have an original and an instrumental version of a song.

 

[Kyuketsuki]

I am thinking that this might not work for Malice Mizer singles because, since they are older and probably weren't mixed using computers, they might not match.

How old are you- 5? That's probably the second most absurd thing I've read today... STOP MAKING ME FEEL OLD! That, and read up on your computer history.

 

[boi de memoire]

XD, don't be mad about feeling old


be mad about the nonsense he said xO

 

[Tordek42]

Actually my dad found this site where you buy mp3's, but they are all spliced, like drums vocals etc are all separated.

Ooo do you know the link?

 

[Es-chan]

Aww, you guys are again so nice and sweet to the newcomers, it's so heart warming. I think the newcomers really feel welcome!!

Anyway, I think this is pretty cool.

 

[rockman240]

um.... you didn't explain some things

you have to open them seperately, so you just copy one of them and paste it in the other file so they're both there?

usually songs are aligned automatically arent'y they? if the song starts with music and not vocals, since they're the same songs just one doesn't have vocals...

you have to select what you want to invert, or use any effect on, what do you select? both songs? the one with vocals? everything?

You can just grab them both and drag them onto the Audacity window.

They just aren't aligned. For some reason, the instrumentals are usually shorter.

You only need to invert one of the songs (both channels). It doesn't matter which song (original or karaoke).

@Kyuketsuki: What's the matter? Afraid of the truth?

Nah, but seriously, I never got this technique to work on anything that old. If I sync up the beginning of the song and let it play, it will get way out of sync, so I assumed they mostly used tape for recording back then. Cuz, ya know tapes don't always play at the same speed.

Were computers good enough for professional recording back then? I guess I don't know, but could you lighten up?

 

[Tek+Lok]

Thats a good point. The songs may never be aligned because they are just slightly out of sync by rate when they are recorded. But that seems to be a rare problem.

Mostly the songs differ in length because they cut out the silence at the start and end of a track.

Although it doesn't always work anyways. I've tried it with an mp3, lined up perfectly. I did everything properly. I exported it as every option in audacity, and the results weren't that great.

There was some reduction of sounds, but not as good as you did it. It's pretty important to use a good rip of a song, like FLAC so you dont get artifacts.

And some songs just aren't built and mixed the way you need. I tried a dragonforce song, and did the regular vocals cancel out, and it also canceled out a main guitar solo hahahahaha.

 

[rockman240]

Here's a good tool for OOPSing a song without an instrumental. It requires Winamp.

@Tek+Lok: you can use this tool to isolate the center, which is usually mostly lead vocals and bass. I think that's what you were trying to do.

It also does the same kind of OOPS you were doing, only in stereo, which is really cool.

 

[Tek+Lok]

Sweet thanks alot! Where isthe link? hahaha