This is a continuation of our rip and remix series that focuses on how to isolate vocals from a backing track that started here in Part 1. This part continues the list of specific tips and techniques for manipulating the wave file and fitting it into your remix started in here in Part 3. This entry has a lot of subjective opinions (even more than the other parts of the series) so keep that in mind. Hopefully you have a sound, or at least an emotion in your head and heart that you are trying to express. You need to fiddle with the knobs until you get that sound and emotion. I’m still fiddling with mine, thank you very much, and I expect you to do the same with yours as opposed to, you know, mine, which I’m already fiddling with.

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This is the third in a series on answering the question of how to isolate vocals from the rest of a track. The series started in Part 1 with some background and plugins, then explained what kind of tracks are more suitable than others in Part 2 and now delves into the specifics on tools and techniques.

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This is the second part in a series on how to extract vocals from a track in order to us it in your remix. The first part covered general background and some plug-ins and methods that don’t really do the job. This entry is about what a Virtual DJ should consider when picking a track she plans to strip down to the vocals.

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“How do you separate the vocals out from the rest of the music?” This question is asked a lot in remixing circles. It is asked a lot because the short answer is so unsatisfactory. The short answer is “you can’t.”

The long answer is longer than Ramadan. This is the first of several entries that will be devoted to answering just that question, hopefully, in a fashion in between. This series will get to the specific tools and techniques used to isolate vocals including ‘before’ and ‘after’ demonstration sound clips. There are, however, important things to get out of the way first: you may want to isolate the vocals from your favorite industrial metal opus but that doesn’t mean the track itself is suitable. This series will spent a fair amount of ink on what kind of source material to look out for, including what to avoid.

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