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Isolating Tracks
11 May 2013
5.21pm
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Funny Paper
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I know I can do some work and go to sites like Audacity and see if they have beginners explanations, but I just thought some folks here could offer some helpful tips.

My questions are:

1) is it possible to isolate any track from any song that one can find on the Internet?

2) has the process of isolating tracks become easy & computer-friendly for people like me who don’t know sh*t about recording and musicology?  Or do I need to know the complex science of terminology used by geeks in the field?

3) if it’s relatively easy, could someone please point the way?

Thanks.

 

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11 May 2013
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LongHairedLady
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I know there is a more technical way to do it, but I think some people use The Beatles Rock Band to do it.  Practice mode or something..

"Please don't bring your banjo back, I know where it's been..  I wasn't hardly gone a day, when it became the scene..  Banjos!  Banjos!  All the time, I can't forget that tune..  and if I ever see another banjo, I'm going out and buy a big balloon!"

 

11 May 2013
11.20pm
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Funny Paper
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Thanks — would that work for non-Beatles music too?  Any song?

 

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12 May 2013
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Holsety
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You can use certain audio programs to isolate any of their songs; I’ve heard an unofficial instrumental of Everybody’s Got Something to etc, and unofficial rythm guitar isolated from All My Loving . It’s possible, but the best isolations are the official ones from Beatles Rock Band; so all of Rubber Soul , all of Pepper, all of Abbey Road , and a mix of the rest.

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12 May 2013
6.41am
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Gerard
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You can use Audacity, a freeware. There are lots of resources available on video streaming sites about how to use it.

12 May 2013
8.09pm
LongHairedLady
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Funny Paper said
Thanks — would that work for non-Beatles music too?  Any song?

 

You could do it with other bands too, as long as you have regular Rock Band.  There are lots of songs by tons of bands that are available to download.  We have lots of John Lennon , Jimi Hendrix, The Who, etc.  

"Please don't bring your banjo back, I know where it's been..  I wasn't hardly gone a day, when it became the scene..  Banjos!  Banjos!  All the time, I can't forget that tune..  and if I ever see another banjo, I'm going out and buy a big balloon!"

 

7 August 2013
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The ones we hear are from Rock Band. Several years back I saw a program at a trade show that could produce 5.1 mixes from stereo material, the Janice Joplin tune I heard was quite something, with voice in the centre channel, guitar left, piano right, etc. It was a costly process, and they sold the service by the minute of program material, you couldn’t just buy the box to do it yourself.

5 September 2013
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parlance
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I posted this as the Beatles news, but since it’s on topic the LA Times posted an article on isolated Beatles tracks.

parlance

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16 February 2014
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Mr. Kite
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I’ve been trying to figure out how to separate tracks on some Beatles songs for fun/research, and I can’t find much online. Anyone know how to do this?

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16 February 2014
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TheOneBeatle
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It depends of what things of which songs do you want to isolate.

For example, on Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da , by just inverting one channel and mix it with the other, you can get the vocals only, as they are the only things that were mixed left and right, leaving all instruments in the center.

Most Please Please Me & With The Beatles songs have all instruments to the left and vocals to the right with some reverb between the two, but you can still have an instrumental and acapella versions of those songs.

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16 February 2014
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Mr. Kite
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TheOneBeatleManiac said
It depends of what things of which songs do you want to isolate.

For example, on Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da , by just inverting one channel and mix it with the other, you can get the vocals only, as they are the only things that were mixed left and right, leaving all instruments in the center.

Most Please Please Me & With The Beatles songs have all instruments to the left and vocals to the right with some reverb between the two, but you can still have an instrumental and acapella versions of those songs.

I think the song files are already split into left and right channels so those early songs should be easy to separate vocals. Now is there a way to isolate just one instrument? I think with the bass all you have to do is choose a certain frequency because the bass is the only thing that low, but with other instruments?

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16 February 2014
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IveJustSeenAFaceo
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TheOneBeatleManiac said
It depends of what things of which songs do you want to isolate.

For example, on Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da , by just inverting one channel and mix it with the other, you can get the vocals only, as they are the only things that were mixed left and right, leaving all instruments in the center.

Most Please Please Me & With The Beatles songs have all instruments to the left and vocals to the right with some reverb between the two, but you can still have an instrumental and acapella versions of those songs.

This Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da thing interests me. How exactly do you do that? 

Oh, and for me those don’t just have vocals on one side, instruments on the other

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16 February 2014
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Mr. Kite
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IveJustSeenAFaceo said

TheOneBeatleManiac said
It depends of what things of which songs do you want to isolate.

For example, on Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da , by just inverting one channel and mix it with the other, you can get the vocals only, as they are the only things that were mixed left and right, leaving all instruments in the center.

Most Please Please Me & With The Beatles songs have all instruments to the left and vocals to the right with some reverb between the two, but you can still have an instrumental and acapella versions of those songs.

This Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da thing interests me. How exactly do you do that? 

Oh, and for me those don’t just have vocals on one side, instruments on the other

Please explain…

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3 July 2014
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Funny Paper
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This Tube of some girl playing the bass to “Hello, Goodbye ” is quite good — simple, straightforward, clear, with the bass volume given just the right prominence so you can hear what Paul scripted, but also still hear the music.  It plays almost like an isolated track.  Watching this, I have a much better sense of (and appreciation for) what Paul did in the song. 

Interestingly, she apparently used a live version Paul did (who knows what decade…).

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Oudis

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3 September 2014
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Oudis
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I apologize in advance for my ignorance, but could somebody please summarize in a paragraph what Audacity and The Beatles Rock Band or simply Rock Band are? Are they free software or do I have to purchase them? If they are free, where can they be downloaded? Would a Windows XP PC (I’m a caveman, I know) be enough for them? Any information would be useful. Thanks,

Oudis.

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3 September 2014
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@Oudis Audacity is a free audio editor and recorder. XP is fine. As you can tell by the amount of the mentions it gets on here, it is highly recommended.

Rock Band is a game on which you can play certain pretend instruments (drums, guitar, bass) and get scored on your accuracy. Beatles Rock Band is a Beatles specific version released in 2009.

Because of the nature of the game, where if you make a mistake it is reflected in the audio of the game, isolated tracks needed to be created so that could happen. While not The Beatles’ multi-tracks, they are a version of and allow you to listen to and mix individual elements (for instance Ringo’s drums, Paul’s bass, etc.). They can be found here and can be opened using Audacity.

Feel free to PM me should you want any advice on the use of Audacity or the Rock Band files should you decide to get them.

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3 September 2014
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@Ron Nasty:

Thanks for the information Ron, I’ll download Audacity and use it in probably a month or two –I’m currently renovating my house and “fixing many holes”, I have hired painters, etc., and cannot do it now. I will probably contact you in the future. Thanks again,

Oudis.

Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit” (“Perhaps one day it will be a pleasure to look back on even this”; Virgil, The Aeneid, Book 1, line 203, where Aeneas says this to his men after the shipwreck that put them on the shores of Africa)

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