how do people isolate specific audio tracks from a file without access to the master tapes? Such as when someone makes an isolated vocal or bass track of a song or when someone makes a mashup of instruments from one song with the vocals from another.

Question

Such as when people make “isolated bass/vocal,” tracks of popular songs or make a meme mashup of one song with he vocal line of another over it?

In: Technology

Answer 1

While EQing can help, you’re correct that there is far too much overlap for this method to be really successful on its own unless you’re looking for something that sits in its own range of a song that’s mixed well, like bass. For vocals, the most common practice relies on how most vocal music is mixed; vocals down the center, instruments panned to the sides. By converting a stereo track to left and right mono signals, phase inverting one side, then playing them back together, you’ll cancel out everything down the middle; typically just the lead vocal. By inverting an instrumental track over the original full mix, you can isolate a vocal. There’s many tutorials out there on YouTube, and it’s definitely a fun way to play with audio!