How to Remove Vocals from Songs Using Audacity

Audacity is really a, well, the price say’s it all. I’m currently using it for mixing audio tracks and voiceovers, but it crashes quite easily. Does anyone know a tip to prevent it from crashing that’s not hardware related?

With that said though, I’m happy you gave us this tip. I personally have been trying to figure out separating different components of an audio track for ages and just haven’t been able to find the right button. I must have been looking for something else.

Great help!

Never ever had Audacity crash at all and I use it an awful lot. Perhaps there’s an unrelated hardware problem. I use it extensively for editing and cleaning up vinyl. The pencil tool is invaluable for manually disposing of clicks and pops (the built-in auto de-clicker can work to a limited extent), although it can get a bit laborious. Just expand the waveform at the location of the click until the individual samples can be seen and then use the cursor to literally re-draw the waveform. Bingo! No click and completely undetectable. If it’s a “scrunch” that defies that treatment, just copy a piece from right next to it of the same length and paste it over the top. Usually works. Don’t forget we are manipulating very, VERY tiny sound bites here and it’s all over in a flash and normally can’t be heard, although I have been known to copy and paste identical entire phrases from elsewhere in the recording for really bad crunchy sequences and, with a little practice, once again, the joins can be completely undetectable.
If you are trying to restore a mono vinyl recording that sounds rough when played on stereo equipment, try splitting the stereo track and down-mixing to mono, if you haven’t got a mono button on the kit that you are playing the vinyl on. This sometimes cancels out some distortion if your grooves aren’t all in pristine condition.
The noise reduction, if used carefully, can even filter out stuff actually recorded at the time, as distinct from hum, tape hiss, etc. Give it a sample to work from but be cautious about how heavy to go. It’s all about the music, so don’t over-process, otherwise the sound goes phasey and other artefacts rear their ugly heads.
If a record fades out and crackles are then apparent as it does so, just use the “fade out” effect and fade it a little early, after all, what’s the loss of a second or two?
I could go on, but suffice to say, experimentation is probably the only way to get to grips with this amazing free program.

I’ve been using Blaze Audio RipEditBurn for awhile for removing vocals. It has the same functionality as Audacity, but with one button. Further you can alter tonality if a simple invert doesn’t work well, some tracks benefit from that additional treatment. The tool also does a very lot more and can help to obscure pops, etc. It’s worth a competitive look.

I was with you up to the Karaoke part. Why would I want to do that?
The last time I sang Karaoke I set off the air raid siren in town..

Blaze is not free. That’s a downer for me. Why pay for a program when you can get Audacity for nothing?

it never works!! Ever!!!!!!!!

Doesn’t work on Emilie Autumn songs at all ;___;

It doesn’t work. I did exactly what you said and it keeps ending up all crackly.