Many of us in good company like to sing and visit all sorts of popular karaoke bars for this. But sometimes you want to perform your favorite song to the soundtrack, in which there is no original vocal, even at home, but the necessary karaoke file is not at hand. What to do? How to make a backing track quickly and efficiently? This is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. However, when performing the steps described below, it should be borne in mind that it is unlikely that it will be possible to make a high-quality professional “minus” at home. Therefore, you will have to be content with the simplest solutions.
How to make a "backing track": the main directions of action
In general, the creation of a "backing track" can be interpreted in the broadest sense, and the actions performed do not refer exclusively to the removal of only the vocal part from the original composition. However, since in most cases, “minus” means cutting out vocals, we will build on this.
So, how to make a backing track? The whole procedure is usuallycutting out a certain range of frequencies, which correspond to the present vocal part. Please note right away that a regular equalizer will not work here, and the removed frequency range will still affect other instruments, except for vocals. The best option, of course, is the independent recording of all parties except the vocal one in the studio or in some kind of sequencer program. But without a musical education and hearing, it will be quite problematic to reproduce the original (maybe only some remote similarity will turn out). Therefore, we will proceed from the fact that the vocals need to be cut from the original track.
How to make a backing track from a song using audio editors
From audio editors, consider Cool Edit Pro and Adobe Audition. The second package is the direct successor of the first one, it is very similar to it, but has a few more features. First of all, let's see how to make backing tracks with Cool Edit Pro. She has the simplest vocal removal tool for this.
You can call it through the Favorites menu, where the Vocal Cut item is selected, after which processing will be performed. When listening to the result, you will notice the presence of vocals in the background, but in order to sing along with the received soundtrack, this does not play a significant role.
Now let's see how to make a backing track in Adobe Audition. In this editor, in the effects, you can select the Stereo Imagery item and go to the Center Channel Extractor tool.
In preset templates, select either Karaoke or Vocal Remove. In principle, both effects give almost the same result, so there is no question of preference in this case.
Creating a "minus" in the AIMP player
It's even easier to remove vocals from a song using the popular AIMP media player, in which you need to go to the effects section and find the voice removal filter in the factory settings.
Processing takes place in real time. But there is one drawback. You can sing to such a phonogram, but you won’t be able to save it in any way.
Using ready-made samples and MIDI scores
In principle, if you do not pursue the speed of creating a phonogram, but give preference to quality, on the Internet for many compositions you can find already played parts of individual instruments. Simply load them into a multitrack editor and mix them yourself.
You can also find MIDI scores, however, when using them, you will have to replace the standard instruments of each channel, for example, from the General MIDI (GM) or Extended General (XG) sets, with more realistic instruments, using at least some modern virtual synthesizers. Such actions are considered the most preferable, since none of the known programs completely removes vocals and, moreover, affects the overall sound of the track, and sometimes not the best.
