Become a Site Supporter and Never see Ads again!

Author Topic: vocal isolation  (Read 2987 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline nulldogmas

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1626
    • How I Escaped My Uncertain Fate
vocal isolation
« on: October 25, 2021, 12:17:46 AM »
Has anyone here experimented with filters to isolate and remix vocal levels? I just played around with a couple of online karaoke-izer type things, and they're just close enough to being usable to make me wonder if there's a more professional option that might do a better job.

Offline rocksuitcase

  • Trade Count: (4)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 8283
  • Gender: Male
    • RockSuitcase: stage photography
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2021, 10:47:49 AM »
Supposedly Izotope RX8 or 9 has a module which does this. It is not one of the cheaper modules though. I do not own, but a friend of mine has done some vocal isolation by taking vocals from a soundboard and dropping them onto an AUD trying to repair songs.

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx.html

Quote
Let your dialogue shine

Using new iZotope machine learning in Dialogue Isolate, extract clean dialogue from non-stationary background noise such as crowds, traffic, footsteps, weather, or other noise with highly variable characteristics.
music IS love

When you get confused, listen to the music play!

Mics:         AKG460|CK61|CK1|CK3|CK8|Beyer M 201E|DPA 4060 SK
Recorders:Marantz PMD661 OADE Concert mod; Tascam DR680 MKI x2; Sony PCM-M10

Offline nulldogmas

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1626
    • How I Escaped My Uncertain Fate
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2021, 12:01:14 PM »
Supposedly Izotope RX8 or 9 has a module which does this. It is not one of the cheaper modules though.


Yeah, I was afraid that was going to be the answer. I guess I'll grab a demo version of RX and see if it works for this one recording, and if it does, start begging registered RX owners for help.

Offline DavidPuddy

  • Trade Count: (18)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1799
  • If it's too loud, turn it down.
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2021, 12:46:58 PM »
If you upload a file I will see what I can do with it. I'm using rx8.

Also, if you buy the rx elements (I think it's $29 now) they have regular upgrade specials for the full program. I think I paid $99 for the upgrade 1 or 2 years ago
Mics: mk4v/mk41v/mk22 > CMC1L/Nbobs, 4061, MKE2
Preamps: Mixpre-D, Nbox Platinum ABS
Recorders: Mixpre-6 ii, PCM-A10

Offline nulldogmas

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1626
    • How I Escaped My Uncertain Fate
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2021, 01:19:31 PM »
If you upload a file I will see what I can do with it. I'm using rx8.

Also, if you buy the rx elements (I think it's $29 now) they have regular upgrade specials for the full program. I think I paid $99 for the upgrade 1 or 2 years ago

Good to know, thanks! And PMing you...

Offline Gutbucket

  • record > listen > revise technique
  • Trade Count: (16)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 15700
  • Gender: Male
  • "Better to love music than respect it" ~Stravinsky
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2021, 05:19:49 PM »
Not exactly what you are asking for but you can always try a touch of EQ emphasis around ~3kHz, center of the vocal consonant region critical to speech intelligibility.  That's also the "presence" region where some emphasis can decrease the apparent distance to the source, making a recording sound a bit clearer and closer than it originally was.  Tread lightly there though, too much will quickly become grating and fatiguing.  Some mics seem cleaner in that region than others making the recording capable of accepting more emphasis before things get harsh, and it really depends on what else is happening in that frequency range in addition to the vocals. A dynamic EQ, or band-limited compression set carefully can help in pushing a bit more emphasis into that region without getting it sounding overly bright and harshly penetrating. 

Yeah, application of EQ is invitation to the dark side (even if emphasizing the brighter side of things) and something of a pandora's box, but if open to going there, a little attention to this region can help significantly.  Its not capable of re-balancing things in a dramatic way, but can sometimes make the difference between acceptable and not.
musical volition > vibrations > voltages > numeric values > voltages > vibrations> virtual teleportation time-machine experience
Better recording made easy - >>Improved PAS table<< | Made excellent- >>click here to download the Oddball Microphone Technique illustrated PDF booklet<< (note: This is a 1st draft, now several years old and in need of revision!  Stay tuned)

Offline nulldogmas

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1626
    • How I Escaped My Uncertain Fate
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2021, 11:48:45 PM »
Not exactly what you are asking for but you can always try a touch of EQ emphasis around ~3kHz, center of the vocal consonant region critical to speech intelligibility. 

Oh, I tried, believe you me. Unfortunately the instruments are so clear that it ended up feeling like you were sitting inside a snare drum.

DavidPuddy just kindly ran a couple of tests of Izotope, and a 10 dB vocal boost turns out to be not too bad — it definitely raises the vocals significantly, without being artifacty, though it seems to lose some high- and low-end definition for some reason. I'm going to experiment some with mixing back in some of the original source, or even just the high and low end from the original source, to see what that does; once I've returned from that rabbit hole I'll post some samples.

Offline nulldogmas

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1626
    • How I Escaped My Uncertain Fate
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2021, 08:47:25 AM »
Okay, here's what I've come up with:

Original recording (raw):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k3mve0wd6vc9jvg/over-the-cliff-raw.flac?dl=0

Original recording (EQ applied):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dqq7am6aktx5iw0/over-the-cliff-EQd.flac?dl=0

Izotope filter applied by David (10 dB vocal boost, plus some light EQ afterwards):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkhl0t49a23ym0q/over-the-cliff-10dB-boost.flac?dl=0

Mix of Izotope version with EQd original source (version 1):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/he5zkfegnpe0suo/over-the-cliff-2source-mix-alt1.flac?dl=0

Mix of Izotope version with EQd original source (version 2):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vobqhrbn1lhx33/over-the-cliff-2source-mix-alt2.flac?dl=0

The differences are subtle, certainly, but I definitely feel like the trip through Izotope has taken it from "annoyingly low vocals" to "low vocals, but not egregiously so." What do all y'all think?

Offline DavidPuddy

  • Trade Count: (18)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1799
  • If it's too loud, turn it down.
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2021, 09:35:48 AM »
Okay, here's what I've come up with:

Original recording (raw):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k3mve0wd6vc9jvg/over-the-cliff-raw.flac?dl=0

Original recording (EQ applied):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dqq7am6aktx5iw0/over-the-cliff-EQd.flac?dl=0

Izotope filter applied by David (10 dB vocal boost, plus some light EQ afterwards):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkhl0t49a23ym0q/over-the-cliff-10dB-boost.flac?dl=0

Mix of Izotope version with EQd original source (version 1):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/he5zkfegnpe0suo/over-the-cliff-2source-mix-alt1.flac?dl=0

Mix of Izotope version with EQd original source (version 2):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vobqhrbn1lhx33/over-the-cliff-2source-mix-alt2.flac?dl=0

The differences are subtle, certainly, but I definitely feel like the trip through Izotope has taken it from "annoyingly low vocals" to "low vocals, but not egregiously so." What do all y'all think?

I agree with your last point. Version 2 sounds good to me.
Mics: mk4v/mk41v/mk22 > CMC1L/Nbobs, 4061, MKE2
Preamps: Mixpre-D, Nbox Platinum ABS
Recorders: Mixpre-6 ii, PCM-A10

Offline Gutbucket

  • record > listen > revise technique
  • Trade Count: (16)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 15700
  • Gender: Male
  • "Better to love music than respect it" ~Stravinsky
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2021, 10:26:39 AM »
I'll try an give a listen tonight when I get home.
musical volition > vibrations > voltages > numeric values > voltages > vibrations> virtual teleportation time-machine experience
Better recording made easy - >>Improved PAS table<< | Made excellent- >>click here to download the Oddball Microphone Technique illustrated PDF booklet<< (note: This is a 1st draft, now several years old and in need of revision!  Stay tuned)

Offline randy3732

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Re: vocal isolation
« Reply #10 on: June 06, 2022, 10:45:16 PM »
Some bright developers have improved Spleeter to the point where there are no artificial sounds produced. The program is called DeepRemix and is standalone and VST (I think). I'm currently testing the standalone.

Free trial and well worth the price IMO:
https://hitnmix.com/download_deepremix/

Use it to create a wav file containing just the vocals. After processing, use a limiter or volume maximizer to bring any too quiet vocals up if needed. Then mix that back in with the original recording. The result is vastly improved clarity to the vocals. You have to be careful to not over do it- mix in enough of the processed vocal track so that it sounds closer to a SBD but is natural sounding. I've found mixing the vocals to mono sometimes sounds better. I have like thousands of recordings I can now improve. Most of my own recordings are poor because I didn't know to be in front of a PA stack, and thus they sound "distant". Most should be fixable.

There's also Zynaptiq Unveil to remove excess reverb and Zynaptiq Unfilter that may be useful.


 

RSS | Mobile
Page created in 0.109 seconds with 39 queries.
© 2002-2024 Taperssection.com
Powered by SMF