In fact, they even make a recommendation for an alternative program, which is incidentally the same one I was going to recommend regardless. While it is possible Virtual DJ used some secret or proprietary algorithm to achieve better performance, I find that unlikely, especially given the content of their FAQ on the subject. Even for songs that were recorded with centered vocals and off-center instruments, it normally cannot remove the vocals completely. Moreover, it more or less generates a mono output. This technique obviously does not work on mono files that do not have separate left and right tracks. Since the instruments are louder in one than the other, they are quieter, but still present. Since the vocals are the same in both, they disappear completely. Therefore, you can try to remove the vocals by "subtracting" the two channels. On the other hand, usually instruments are off-center, meaning they are louder in either the left or the right channel. Usually when recording a song, the vocals are centered, meaning they are present at an equal volume in both the left and right channels. The "Remove Vocals" option in most programs uses a clever trick. Note that not all music recordings are suitable for this karaoke plugin, the more central the vocal stay the better. Positive values are possible but they will lead to heavy distortions.Ĭhoose this newly created audio output sink as output in your sound setting before you start playback of your music player. more negative like -60) for even less vocals but also more original music removal. less negative like -10) for more vocals (but better music), lower values (i.e. The control parameter gives a voice removal of -30 dB here, higher values (i.e. All modules are removed and default are reset with pulseaudio -k. Note down the module number given as output from above command in case we want to remove it again ( pactl unload-module ). Replace with the name of your audio device (e.g. We can then apply the karako filter with the following command pactl load-module module-ladspa-sink sink_name=Karaoke master= plugin=karaoke_1409 label=karaoke control=-30 The default sink name is marked with an asterix like in the example below: * index: 1 To apply the effect we need to know the pulseaudio name of our default audio sink with pacmd list-sinks The amount of voice removal and consecutive mono conversion is given as control parameter in dB.
These plugins will be installed with the package swh-plugins. There is a quite good karaoke plugin from the Steve Harris' LADSPA Plugins which will remove central vocals from a stereo recording, and which can also be used with Audacity. To have a live removal of vocals from a stereo recording we can add a LADSPA filter as a sound output to pulseaudio.