What is the best software going around that will cut vocals out of an audio file like WAV or MP3?

I want to be able to chop some vocals out of a few songs and sample them into my Motif XF or even Sonar on my PC for use over some of my custom sequences.

A lot of the official Yamaha Motif Demos with Bert Smorenberg use samples from Madonna / Michael Jackson etc and they sound perfect. is this something only Yamaha can get their hands on because they are Yamaha or is it something anyone can do in their own home with the right tools?

Thanks

Nick

Yamaha may have enough money to license master tapes.

Goldwave will do a fair job of this, but it takes a fair amount of work to completely eliminate the vocals. You can find it at www.goldwave.com

Gary

Nick, this is such a hit and miss procedure..

You don't want to spend more than $1,000 for software...do you?

The audio files need to be as centered as possible for the vocal track, too far to the right or left will reduce too much content from the file...
Also effects on the vocals are usually stereo and pan wide left to wide right, making it impossible to remove from the audio file..

The higher price software allows you to set the frequencies that need to be reduced, and also the location of the stereo field....but if it falls as I described above...it just doesn't work...Save your money..

sorry if I haven't been clear with my original post on this topic.

I want to cut out the vocals themselves so I can paste them into a brand new sequence... as in - I was to remix the vocals into my own arrangements...

If its too hard to do on commercial software - Are there websites or "shops" where you can purchase these samples in WAV or something?

say for example - a song by Michael Jackson... can I purchase the entire vocal track on its own without any music behind it for my own use?

Nick

No, software won't do this for you. Like Trident said only someone one with enough money to license the master recordings could get the independant tracks in complete isolation.

yeh thats sorta what I was thinking.

I was hoping there are some websites you can purchase vocal tracks of real songs but sung by a 3rd party vocalist...

So a Michael Jackson vocal track for Thriller that is sung by someone else instead of MJ...

My advice is to put an ad out and get some singers and record their performance. Pay them a couple of bucks, and you'll get a perfect vocal sample. Even the 1000$ software that claim to be able to isolate vocals from mixes - don't really cut it. The reason is a mix is a mix, and while a lot of producers put main vocals in the center, you still have some stereo spill, effect spread and other stuff you have to work out. The result is usually full of phase issues and artifacts, because a lot of the sounds in the mix share frequencies. The best processors out there - usually just remove the center of the mix, and / or some high mids. Usually you can still hear backing vocals, vocal effects, cymbals, kick drum and so on. If you want to try and isolate the vocals, get your self a stereo and multiband compressor and try to filter out everything going on on the left and right side of the stereo mix.

DocZ

Nick, it could actually be easier to isolate the vocal track then removing it...Download a trial software that will allow you to use a multi band remover, leaving the center of the stereo field...I bet the success percentage will be higher..then we get trying to remove the vocal and effects..