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Thread: Is there a way to take an mp3 song and taake away the drums?

  1. #1

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    Default Is there a way to take an mp3 song and taake away the drums?

    Hi everyone i was wondering if there was a way to take an mp3 that i had and take the drums out of it? So i could play along to it. This may sound stupid but i was just wondering. Thanks in advance.

  2. #2

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    Default Re: Is there a way to take an mp3 song and taake away the drums?

    No.

    Plus, even if you could, you wouldn't want to without at least a click-track to keep you in sync with the rest of the music.

  3. #3

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    Yeah i guess so. Thanks for your help.

  4. #4

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    Default Re: Is there a way to take an mp3 song and taake away the drums?

    OK, so how do those guys that do the drum play along things do them?

    For the techno challenged

  5. #5

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    I'd imagine that they either play over an mp3 with the drums left in, or they sequence something themselves and leave just a click track in.

    There might be places where you can get the tunes with just click track, I'm not sure.

    But the only way to "remove" the drums would be for you to actually have the drum tracks completely isolated, then mix them back in out-of-phase.

    But then, if you had the drum tracks isolated, you'd probably also have the rest of the music isolated too and wouldn't need to do it in the first place.

  6. #6

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    I am SO techno challenged, I did not even get what you just said.

  7. #7

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    OK think of it this way. An MP3 file is like a baked cake. Everything already done. What people want to do is take out, say, the eggs. But of course, once a cake is baked - no can do. Eggs are in there, mixed and cooked. It's too late. Same thing with the drums on an MP3 file. In order to take out the "eggs", you need to do this while everything is still in it's ingredients form, before it's all mixed and cooked.

    Now, what you CAN do is re-mix an mp3, to minimise the drums, but this is difficult without pro software and knowledge, and will impact on the rest of the song aswell, since the different drums and cymbals effect almost the entire Hz range that we hear sound in. What you hear on actual tracks, adverts etc... is often done with a master recording, where everything is still in it's ingredient form, and someone with the right equipment can mix the different ingredients any way they want.

    Other people will actually use midi and things to make the track themselves...of course this won't have the vocal part, but sometimes you can actually get the vocal track off the internet for some songs - it just takes some hunting. That's how DJ's do things like mashup and remixes...

    Does that make sense?

    There is some karaoke software out there though (allegedly) that can mixout vocal parts almost 100% - I haven't seen it myself though. In theory they may be able to engineer the same thing for drums...but again it would be difficult and there probably isn't a big enough need for it (ie, no real profit)
    "What consumes your mind, controls your life" - So, what consumes your mind?

  8. #8

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    As crazymanwithaplunger said before, you can't take out the eggs from a cake. I have downloaded some mp3s before with removed drums but it sounded.... I even try to remove the drums by myself but it sounded... than the tracks i downloaded. So i gave up trying 1 & a half year before. Now i play the songs as they are with the drums, and i think it's better because i really feel the groove of the drummer and i can make my groove feel almost the same, either if is a funk song, latin or progressive rock. I suggest that you play the songs you want with the drum parts. You can improvise and make your own fills if you want and just ignore the drummer.
    Last edited by drummer; 02-25-2010 at 11:53 AM. Reason: LANGUAGE
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  9. #9

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    You can get drumless tracks for free on Roland's web site but they are short genre samples (ex. slow jazz, blues, pop). Not full length and not actual songs but useful for practice.

    I think many people download drumless tracks for rockband and then you can get actual songs, you might have to search around the internet a bit.

    You don't need a click track to play to drumless tracks as long as the tracks were recorded with good time you will have plenty of other cues to stay in time, but you will probably have to come into the intro 'late' as you are blind at the very beginning.

  10. #10

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    there is a method called sample inversion that could be used to do this but u have to get a sample of the drums and do this in order to do it


    <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/onw8y4st4VY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/onw8y4st4VY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

  11. #11

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    there's a way to do it, but you need a computer with audacity, recordings of each instrument seperately, and you need them saved onto your computer. once you have that, you can cut out or add different sections using audacity to load the tracks all together and combine or use only part of them. for the most part removing fractions of a song without affecting it's other parts are impossible, but there might be a way for some genius engineer to pull part of it out. who knows in todays world?

    on a side note, the "drumless" or "guitarless" tracks you hear on games like rockband and guitar hero are almost certainly remastered and multitracked for editing purposes. those aren't the original recordings either, they have talented cover bands come in and do their best to re-record the songs as they play them, make different instrument tracks, and build a game with them pieced together with coding and such. way too complicated for me, but hats off to those guys for sure.

    also, if you can find a copy of the guitar, bass, drum tabs you can use a program such as toontrack ezdrummer or garageband and copy the tab and save it into seperate program files onto your computer, and do a final master on your computer afterwards. getting vocals on there would be a little harder, it's not like you can copy and paste like with instruments.
    Last edited by Russ; 02-27-2010 at 01:09 AM.
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  12. #12

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    Well, that subject has pretty well been covered. I went through the same thought process a while back only to be disappointed with the realization that it wasn't going to happen. Anyway I'm not an extremely technical guy...
    yet, but I'm learning. A lot of the drum play-a-longs have been re-recorded without a drum track or vocal track. They are very close to the original recording but you can tell they're not the original if you listen close.


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  13. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by Russ View Post
    on a side note, the "drumless" or "guitarless" tracks you hear on games like rockband and guitar hero are almost certainly remastered and multitracked for editing purposes. those aren't the original recordings either, they have talented cover bands come in and do their best to re-record the songs as they play them, make different instrument tracks, and build a game with them pieced together with coding and such. way too complicated for me, but hats off to those guys for sure.
    99% of songs in Rock Band and Guitar Hero are the originals, not covers. They license the masters, which have the individual instruments recorded seperately. Only when the original recordings aren't usable do they use covers, and that is the exception not the norm.

    So if you REALLY wanted the drumless "real" songs you could turn on Rock Band, select the drums as your instruments, and just don't play the game. The song will play all the way through without the drum part. Perhaps if you could hook up your TV's sound to the computer (I'm not that tech-savvy) you could even record an MP3 of it without the drums. Or, if you have a nice stereo system hooked up to the TV, just turn it up.

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by DLDante View Post
    99% of songs in Rock Band and Guitar Hero are the originals, not covers. They license the masters, which have the individual instruments recorded seperately. Only when the original recordings aren't usable do they use covers, and that is the exception not the norm.
    i have seen them bringing in players in some of the how it's made videos on there though. it's pretty obvious they are remakes, i've heard songs with extra parts and solos and most of the time it's never the original vocals your hearing. it's close, but not the original.
    ZildjianLeague/LP/Aquarian/Mapex/Pearl
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  15. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Russ View Post
    i have seen them bringing in players in some of the how it's made videos on there though. it's pretty obvious they are remakes, i've heard songs with extra parts and solos and most of the time it's never the original vocals your hearing. it's close, but not the original.
    I'd be curious to know what songs you're talking about because I've purchased many tracks after discovering them in the game and they sound exactly the same (as do the songs I've heard/owned before playing the game). Also, within the game itself they put an asterisk next to cover songs. Yes, there are a few, but most are not. As for solos, I know Rock Band is fond of using live recordings from concerts, and so that's why you'll get extended solos. Then you'll have some tracks that are indeed re-recorded, but it's done by the original artist.

  16. #16

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    There are drum magazines (e.g., Rhythm Magazine, which is published out of the UK) which provide CDs in the magazine with popular songs without drums that they have received rights to publish). These vary by month (e.g., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rush, etc.).
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  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by DLDante View Post
    I'd be curious to know what songs you're talking about because I've purchased many tracks after discovering them in the game and they sound exactly the same (as do the songs I've heard/owned before playing the game). Also, within the game itself they put an asterisk next to cover songs. Yes, there are a few, but most are not. As for solos, I know Rock Band is fond of using live recordings from concerts, and so that's why you'll get extended solos. Then you'll have some tracks that are indeed re-recorded, but it's done by the original artist.
    I've always wondered how they got extended solos that sound exactly like something the original guitarists would have played.

    I'm not going to agree that the tracks sound exactly the same because they most definitely do not. Some sound pretty close but most of them you can easily tell the difference.

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Atomic View Post
    I'm not going to agree that the tracks sound exactly the same because they most definitely do not. Some sound pretty close but most of them you can easily tell the difference.
    I'm not sure about Guitar Hero, because I've only played one of their games for about 30 minutes, but I know that 95% of the songs on Rock Band are indeed original recordings. Whenever they release new songs they give the details and most of the time the line reads "All tracks are original master recordings". I doubt they would have gotten away with making that claim every week for two years without someone calling them out. Also, within the game you'll see original album art and such. I can't imagine that the artists would license the art but not the music.

    Again, there are indeed some covers but they are always plainly marked (for example, there is a Rush cover song and it's catagorized seperately from the Rush originals within the game) and there are some re-records done by the original artists (Jimmy Buffett I know re-recorded his songs for the game). Then there are live versions which are longer versions of the songs with some different parts (ex: Thin Lizzy, AC/DC tracks are concert versions). Some songs, like The Joker by Steve Miller, are a bit longer within the game because the version you're used to fades out. But Rock Band doesn't fade out any of the songs. They play the track as it is in the original recording and so it plays until the musicians stop playing their instruments. So you'll get a different ending on songs that usually fade out on the album/radio versions.

    I can't post any links but if you check out the Rock Band forums and check out the Announcements section you'll find a lot information on the tracks and the partnerships they strike with the bands and recording labels. I'm still curious as to which songs are believed to be fakes because they all seem pretty genuine to my ear, unless they are noted as being covers, live recordings, or re-recordings. I only know of one instance, with a Papa Roach song, where they said it was the original master recording and their was an uproar because the track was slightly different. Turns out that the record company gave them a recording of the song that was made before the version that was eventually released. But that was a boo-boo and it took about 30 seconds for the players to start raising hell about the authenticity. There's just too many people paying attention for them to get away with lying about the tracks.
    Last edited by DLDante; 03-21-2010 at 11:27 AM.

  19. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by crazymanwithaplunger View Post
    OK think of it this way. An MP3 file is like a baked cake. Everything already done. What people want to do is take out, say, the eggs. But of course, once a cake is baked - no can do. Eggs are in there, mixed and cooked. It's too late. Same thing with the drums on an MP3 file. In order to take out the "eggs", you need to do this while everything is still in it's ingredients form, before it's all mixed and cooked.
    I've tried to answer this question before, and this is an incredible way to describe this for people. I'm probably going to use your analogy in the future, if you don't mind.
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  20. #20

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    Its fairly easy to pull the drumless tracks from Guitar Hero: World Tour on PC using a few basic (free) programs.

    1. Fraps (Video/Audio capture in game)
    2. Free Video to MP3 Converter (found on download.com)
    3. Audacity (to clean it up a bit)

    Then you just run through the practice session for drums on each song you want, and record.

  21. #21

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    There's also another way to do it that I used quite frequently until recently.

    Find your TV's headphone jack. Most TV's accept a 1/8" cable there. Get yourself a 1/8" to 1/4", or a 1/8" to RCA sound cable and you can just hook the TV's headphone jack up to a mixer
    You can also try hooking up different adapters and use different cables, but I prefer just getting the right cable instead.
    Also, check out the Behringer U-Control, it lets you plug a mixer into one end and attaches to a computer via USB on the other. Useful for recording on a laptop.

    Edit: You could also use Frets on Fire, it's a rock-band simulation that you can play on your computer. You could do what the above poster said, using Frets on Fire instead of Rockband/GH whatever. I think Frets on Fire is actually pretty easy to get, also there are lots of user-made songs you could download.
    Last edited by aximiliguru; 06-27-2010 at 08:09 PM. Reason: Add notes

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  22. #22

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    phew
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  23. #23

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    You can also buy CD's that have the drums removed. They are designed to play along to. Check any major drum mag for an ad.

  24. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by xsabers View Post
    You can also buy CD's that have the drums removed. They are designed to play along to.
    Here's a whole slew of drumless music on cds and dvds. DrumBum owns this site.

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