Vocal Remover

Vocal Remover... attempts to remove center-panned audio from a stereo track; vocals are sometimes (but not always) recorded in this way.

Accessed by: Effect > Vocal Remover (for center-panned vocals)...

File:Vocal remover Win-XP.PNG

Vocals (or other audio) can only be removed with this plug-in when panned to center, in other words, identical in both left and right channels. The lead vocal is sometimes recorded this way. When one channel is inverted and then both panned to center, any audio which is identical in both channels is canceled out, so becomes inaudible.

This means that if the audio you don't want to remove also happens to be center-panned, it will be canceled out along with the vocals. Kick drum and bass are examples of audio that is often center-panned and can thus disappear when vocals are removed. However, if the vocals differ in pitch (and thus in frequency) from other center-panned parts, removing only selected frequencies from the audio can solve such problems.

Vocal Remover... requires a stereo track and works best on audio in a lossless format like WAV or AIFF rather than a compressed, lossy format like MP3. If your song is on a CD, use a program like CD-ex to rip it to WAV or AIFF before using Vocal Remover.

Removal methods

Vocal Remover has three choices of removal methods.

Simple

Inverts one channel in its entirety. If all the audio except the vocals is panned hard away from center, this will work the best. If some of the other audio is common to both channels, this choice may remove too much music, in which case one of the other options may work better.

Remove frequency band

Removes frequencies in a band whose upper and lower limit you specify in the 'Frequency band...' box. Try this choice, entering the approximate frequency range of the vocals, if they are apparently at a very different pitch than the other audio (for example, a high female voice).

Retain frequency band

Removes only those frequencies lying outside the limit you specify, retaining the others. This choice can help if there is audio of a particular frequency range (such as low drums or bass) that is lost when using the other methods. Simply enter the approximate frequency range of the audio you wish to retain.