How to Isolate/Remove an instrument from a song

Discussion in 'Mixing and Mastering' started by jenni, Jul 11, 2015.

  1. jenni

    jenni Newbie

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    Hi Guys

    I was looking for a tutorial how to remove i.e sax from a song.
    What do you use to remove it. (plugin, eq, ect ect)

    Thanks
    Jenni
     
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  3. Kookaboo

    Kookaboo Rock Star

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    Hi Jenni,
    as far as I know there's no real good way to completely remove an unwanted instrument on a track.
    If the unwanted sound is SHORT, professionals use iZotope RX.

    iZotope RX @

    https://www.izotope.com/en/products/audio-repair/rx/

    [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uVSkzI5RnA[/media]
     
  4. junh1024

    junh1024 Rock Star

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    You can use EQ. But it'll remove a lot more than the sax, or not much of the sax.

    I assume you want to remove an entire sax line.

    Try freeform FFT imagers like Quikquak Mashtactic.

    Or Izotope RX2+'s Tonal+Noise separator (remove T or N &/+EQ).

    Since sax shares some characteristics with vocals, you could also try Vocal removers with formant tracking and stereo awareness like AV MUSIC MORPHER GOLD.
     
  5. Baxter

    Baxter Audiosexual

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    Try phase cancellation. Might work if it's recorded in mono (one mic) and has zero spatial effects on it.

    When I was a kid I used to wire L- speaker cable and R- speaker cable together, on the back of my home stereo (and my friend's, without their knowledge..and they would just scratch their heads). The L+ and L+ would still be plugged into the amp. The center/mid/center mono would be phase cancelled out. I could then dial in and cancel out individual panned mono sounds with the pan knob.

    If it has stereo reverb/delay/whatever, then that will be left behind and still be heard.
     
  6. ovalf

    ovalf Platinum Record

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    machtactic is the best tool I know, but it really depend how the stereo was made.
    Other good tool is melodyne, with both you could do the job... but its hard to obtain a real clean result :wow:
     
  7. recycle

    recycle Guest

    In the early days, I use to do the "Phase cancellation" trick swapping polarity of turntable cartridge

    [​IMG]

    Sometimes it works, some other don't....
     
  8. dim_triad

    dim_triad Producer

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    these days, I use the volume fader... :bleh:
     
  9. Graf

    Graf Platinum Record

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    if its panned to center, you can use phase cancellation.
    heres a handy tutorial by FL studio guru

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioFGjlQKb1A
     
  10. Pipotron3000

    Pipotron3000 Audiosexual

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    Izotope RX still the best tool to me.
     
  11. Cav Emp

    Cav Emp Audiosexual

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    Handy tip for you Ableton guys. I'm pretty sure in Ableton this is done just by dropping a Utility on the track and turning stereo spread up to 200% (removing the center content, that is. not all the rest of the stuff he did)
     
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