eye na ss) ws. Prey tee age =e} MAI U-HE DIVA — fi Dooo poaramming programming 5 ater Boece oer —~,< — >. . — ~ F =f \ - 3 DD tk 1000 increctble loops anants fromm i PLUS! WEIS fea ems APPLICATIONS, INSTRUMENTS abl rT anti eee ee ae qq PSP BUSSPRESSOR THE LATEST iOS APPS AND SAMPLE PACKSLearn how to isolate and extract individual parts from full mixes with ems definitive guide to audio deconstruction and unmixing! Pe ey siving you advice ontaking the individual ‘elements of your mixes and'gluing' them ee eee reat Porter mn ee errr etd pe eee Individual elements. Yup, we're talking pe ere en) EL eer Doormat ea ents pete cee ee ed TouseaeBbking analogy producing apiece ‘of music istikgaking acake: once the ingredients aremixed. i's very dificult to separate them Thisis where more eccentric Pees Tete ts ee ea L ee ee eee er en ee eae ere Pee eer Porene ene aera preety eee tetera errs eee) MN ete) Caer Seen aren ted DT ee en teats Po et eto surgicalisolation that can only be carried out Pee eee cas cece et ee een) Er ery rer ie ce TS ‘also made sure that thece'sa demo version Oneal Son ren aT tue Ta oni Pere a cea rs cog ora amc etme See ta ey ete rei teleee nes Seer corn) Peace eee eT Cae retried Peeires a ce ron meer eer Cae>make music now Unmixing basics Ityourea child ofthe 90s, you may remember ‘the karaoke button on some systems, which, when pressed, attempted toremove the Vocals from tapes and CDs. Iwasa hitand-miss affair, but with modern audio processing techniques. we have far more effective options at our disposal for extracting or removing inividual elements within 2 mix ‘The success of any unmixing effort depends onthree csciplines:Kentilying the characteristics ofthe element that you want to extract finding the right tools to extractit,and Using those tools etlectvely. Let's look at each partinturn First. the source audio needs tobe ‘considered Listen to how te instrumentation Sits inthe mix and consider its panning, frequency ange and harmonies. A spectral analyser or other metering plugin will help you Visualise what you're hearing Parts witha distinct stereo placement or thei own defined frequency range comparison to other Instruments are far easier to extract than those that biendin with other elements ‘Once you've identiied the dstinctive characteristics of that part you can begin to think about the best tos to extract. Inthis feature, wellbe taking each technique and testing itout on our example tracks. Most ofthe time, wellbe showing how one technique in Isolation affects the audio. However, Ina ea: world scenario you will probably have touse ‘more than one tool to achieve the result youre afer For example you might apply mono Summing to isolate some centre panned vocals, thena high-cutfiter to kllany residual bass and ick drum. Also, bear in mind that wile you will often get aucibieartefacts asa result of tunmixing, when you actually use the sound in a track these artefacts wil probably be much ess ofan issue than they seem in isolation. Lastly youll need practise inthe tools ana skis were going to look at. The simplest tasks ke mono summing or mdiside isolation can be Commercial break-ups No doubt you're going to want to flex your unmixing muscles on some commercially released tracks Legalities aside there's rothing more un than making Your owa remixes and mash-ups fromsnippets of samples ‘extracteafrom famous -or even rot so-famous- tunes Aside trom fur example tracks inthe Tutorial Files folder, we thought be fun togive you suggestions fr afew commercially released tracks that ‘ean be unmixed suecesstlly using Certain techniques, Once you've ‘absorbed the rest ofthe feature, come back here andtry out your ‘new sl on these tracks, We Fecommena buying a high-quality version preferably WAV, fr best results. nmixing MP3s.can be ess effective. and may also expose Lnpleasant compression artefacts 32 / COMPUTER MUSIC Using spectro auc sotware such os Potosounder may resultin watery FF artfcts especial withheary ‘procesing.Thiscnbehardtosvekandlasomething you may haveto lento lve withincertanscenarios ‘carried out with usta few mouse clicks. but EQ notch fitering and spectral editing require a more delicate touch, especially if you want to keep the upper harmonics ofa pat intact, Great expectations [Although the eam atem are well versed in unmixing techniques, even we canbe surprised by the results we get rom certain methods - some good, some..not so much. Because tunmixing can bea tricky business and some methods of extraction can lead to unpredictable results. its wise to manage your expectations for success, Thee’ stil magic software that Canpertectly unmixa trackat the click of a button, so you wihaveto learn how to know when the audio you'veextracteds 00d ‘enough to work with even its not perfect. Unfortunately. inthe majority of situation, ‘Mono suMMING DUSTY SPRINGFIELD, HE LOOK OFLOVE: Tristrack eatures conte panned vocals, ‘eno summing on he PHASE INVERSION LIVINJOY, OREAMER ‘Thebouney sy te pays Sootowardsthe beginning ‘ofthe song. Dupleate and Usepnase cancelation to Femovertirom the rest ot thesona SURGICALEQFILTERING [MADEON, FINALE CChopoutthe repeating sy that aunts the tack wth afew smarty: Placed notchiters onthe fundamental frequency and Its impossiblefor any combination of tools to ‘extract an exact copy ofan element you desire Itstkely therellbesome residue rom the other parts, and maybe audible atifacts-for instance, Its normal for watery, warbly nolses to crop up ‘th more intense spectral processing Now isa goodtime to point out that many developers who produce software for audio ‘separation and unmixing have audio/video demos that aren't alvays representative of the software's performance in typiealrealworld situations. Because they want to show their software off in the best light - understandable, ‘of course they willoften demonstrate t using specially constructed racks that are easier to Lnmix. Tis can give a skewed impression ofthe potency of the product Hapa, though, most have free downloadable demos, so you can try them out on tracks of your own choosing, NOISE REMOVAL LyBuKEM, WATERCOLOURS: Getabeattre section of ful from te end ofthe frock, hen use that note Protatoremova te pads From therestofthesong SPECTRAL EDITING GOTYE,SOMEBODY THAT! USED ToKNOW ‘This sparsely aerangeatune {seasy tpulapart with Spectra eating Remember tousearmonctoolsto Fone in on netment= SPECTRAL EDITING GARY JULES, MAD WORLD "~ Another trackthatsripe forthospectral treatment xlef Try suppressing te vocals Lo produce om instrumental vetsion that usesthe acoustic instruments ony.BREAK TRACKS APART Mono summing Normaly.you'dgo outer your way toavoidout: sarttinaditerent pace. halvaythrouohits mde mone, One ofthese waveorms hast Gronosewavetorme,WewontgetCooscente. waveeyce.whichiskrownasal80™ pase,” phase inverted. then te twoaresunmed hee butthis ocurs when two ormore Shit imagines morecomples asymmetrical together agsin.canceling ot ony shared aucho Mtavelorms withsinarharmonitrequenceswavelormand youcanhopeulyaporeciste, information The eectveness of tistctnige Sreunaigned witnone another andor oneot_ how thetwomethods we kst scribed would wlldependentrelyon the arrangement andthe them s"upside down’ echnical polarty __ghederent rests tttectsused onthe track inmost songs drums, inversion) resutinginstangethingshappering " Inpractial terms one ofthe mostcommon bass and vocals would be panned central. ut tothesoun Some tesuencesmay cancel" prelerswincarcstonarseswen using they may uesteren flocs or beter vith themselves cutor become afc boosted, muiplemiestorecorliveinstaments When reverb and delays that spiral fina te et and fesultrginunprediableoudo anomalies. esereplaced ataierentdstancestrom a.” rghtevannets Pace caesttion we remove The easiest wayto demonstrate tis Source, he recorded nuda willbe ouroFsync. those signals ata though you could perhaps phenomenon stotake tw fdentcal sine waves. Andifyouricakickumtomte ontand sea deverDing plugin wich wel booing Satine them up sothat where one spaying backthe pase willbe inverted, astheairwaves _intoinmore dept at. Tackatthelopotispeaktneotherisatthe arerecrcedmavinnoppeste rections. Were sing he ree Auacty(dowoadable boitometistough sumthese waves "Athough undesfebleinalverecordng for PC andMacat audactysoundorge ne or togeterinamiverandtheylconceieachother context fllwavefrmcncelltionisimauable these wakkthvoughs but ay DAW or alo butresutingInafatineandthus sence. whenunming tracks asaquickand easy way. eitor shouldbe able to hand ts simple interestingly tnerearetwowas tat te second toremeveshredtetandrightinfrmation processing Jit make ure that whatever YOU sinewavecanbeputoutorprasetkelnis You fomactereotatk Testcowaveformisspitselsabletosptasteresignaland inert Couldsimpyinvert the wavtorn.oryou ould infotslettandrightcomponents wnicnare phase otonect te resuting mono channels > Tiss teaienasbean es Tistrackhas a teinstroments > Miceseswoinsnta anos 1 {eryarsto ote asote versione 2 ponedute wae soesthe treo thee andra cnet wen we irmsteetracstremovespurstthe fe anatie vcalesnost Geog cante Tov sactaronoininecaecoe Stralthet ave thare ean Mesptne cite and ht mano own When theese payed ieenre panne vrlnane rms Signs ssocting Spitstereo Trace Sane the soni onerarven (tog tere seesaw oes frame top don properties et Seen tte momen weesrmng sues revrh nn beeroved aad ‘owen! somees ether sovsng Hoaseav rom Example recs Tevoumelo! ‘Audacity (onthe DvD version the Tutorial Flas arein tne Unmindng ice) Hl l m See er eI ag mor cemnaesagy WO (ccc a rrerersertrtra ae Qo sivrmemmieciay, TS > cermin conten meats) meretimnegunnannges |<) fun ieee mera eeeecenaee ce teeecaerecteneer mearmtemreeaty — Hinweramnon rom a, a | Remeron, a Somoenae noe Se, \urrp 2022 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 33>make music now Selective phase inversion The results ofthe mono summing techniques on the previous page can be impressive. depending ‘onthe source material and the panning of the instrumentation, However, a usable end product really depends on having a widely panned ‘stereo track and youl only ever end up witha mono ile, of course. But there alot more to phase cancellation than that If youhave both the vocal and instrumental versions o song, youcan invert ‘one and sum them, leaving behind the only ditfering element the vocals, That's the theory, ‘anyway -in practice, you may end up with some instrumental esidue due tothe instruments (or their effects being rendered diferent: you mayhave to compensate or wow and utter on ‘ld recordings: and any mastering compression may have responded diferent tothe two ‘racks, thus revealing the instruments slghtty ‘when the vocal sounds. Sometimes t works magic: sometimesit doesn. ‘There was time in the 90s that every CO single seemed to nave an instrumental version ‘These days, youl be lucky tind an identical instrumental version of any track However epic ‘extended mixes and dub mixes often have extra sections ofthe song comprising combinations of instruments and vocals, which makes them ideal candidates for phase inversion. ‘These techniques work best with tempo- locked tracks, where the parts youtetrying to ‘cancel have minimal variation from section to Section For example f your song starts off wth fourbarsof nothing but kick drum, youcan, In ‘theory. nver this and useit to cancel out the kick drum inthe rest of thetrack. In reality, tne results will depend on how similar the kick ‘remains throughout the song. With a modern dance track that uses the same sampled kick all the way through, you could achieve superb cancelation, whereas with ive kick drum, t ‘may not work wel tal also feasibieto phasecancel parts ofa track in even smaller sections using perhaps justa ingle element ke a kick drumor simple bassline. over and over again to cancel part of the main track The possiblities are endless but ‘the legwork involved in tweaking the timing of ‘every sample may not be worth te effort. You ‘eed to get everything sample accurate for best results. Infact, insome situations, you may ‘occasionally needto use asub-sample delay (Guch as Aiewindows! free SampleDelay) where a sound als between the samples, >> Hencregangtouse hase ‘ancalatontoleoat the vocal track Housewav agains perfect fr this, eithas eohkbars of instrumental belore ‘Sght bars of siarsouncing ack witha ‘ocaincaded, We import the rack nto tur DAW anatchop thse two sections out, ‘signing tem totwo afferent tacks. tt usta fourtothe lor tckcrum. Whichwecanusetocancel out the kckin therestofth track ls basally the same trek (and trac as in the previous utr, butinistime well get our DAW tonetpus ventures Weatgn te st downbeat \wtnbar tard use Logics Detet Tempe function to approximate thetempa. 34 / COMPUTER MUSIC > Wezoomintopinpan the eet leeationo tre cownbeats ana {fansentsso that we ean ine them up ‘Thistsquite dlifeutasthe racks reso busy The closer we getto alignment. the ‘more’phasey they sound you Near {he pitn ofthis prasing rise and ise unt ‘eventualyyournd a paint hat achieves ‘maximum cancellation Wesettne projecttothe detected > tempo ot12.0798pm and copy! paste thetwosbarkick pattern to every Second bar on anew track Wethen invert the phase using Logics Sere plug-in and take stn. Te cancelation works well Todeginwithbutitsoon aM out of tne, ‘ogling heeft. as you can erin bai ips inthe Tutoral Files fide. 2 We iver the phase of one rack and > plsceLoois Stereo pluginon the Second wack checking the Left and Right Phaselnvert boxes Thissounds pretty ‘00d You can further up the traks at thispolntits stil not quit right Theres an xrise couding te iow end, so we Insertalow-eut seta 30H on the master busto help csguseit Checkout the Tutorial Fle to hear how sounds SOOT RTE YT Ye > Westptomeveryendot nesampie ‘ontrck an zoom non the nace rum transient Then we adust the tempo Insmallincrements ntl we can see the aveformstineuatthis postion. We so ‘manual nudgesome kickarum resions Into syne. whic sounds much better The oseryougette agent. ne beter 3Mid/side processing You may have heard of mia/side OMS) processing Inrelaton to recording acoustic instruments. oF even asa mastering effect for adjusting the spread ofa stereo signal However, these techniques can also be used to unix certain types of aud, Any stereo signal can be converted tots midlside components and back again, known as MS encodingldecoding. Infact, thisencodingldecoding is exactly the same thing as the mono summing and stereo phase Inversion techniques we've already looked at, so tally nothing more esoteric than that. The ool thing is that there are plenty of plug-ins out there tha offer builtin MS encoding/decading which you can use to make thissort of processing even easier to achieve. MS processing works by separating a stereo signalinto two components. The mid’ or mono signal comprises the audio information that's present in both the et and right channels. Created by simply adding the let and right ‘signals together. The'sie’ or stere'signal contains the information tat differs between the two channels, created by subtracting one signal trom the other. nce stereo signal nas Deen decoded in this way. the two resulting signals can be manipulated before being ‘decoded back toa standard stereo signal Anterestinly, the equations for decoding are thesamesimple additions and subtractions used for encoding, just with a compensation for the ncreaseinlevel) ‘Ahandy production trickisto use midiside EQ to suppressor isolate instruments that appear more strongly in the mid or side signals. Its usually best to usea linear phase EQ when processing MS or even normal LR stereo) signals otherwise you can get some odd ‘Phasing interactions between channels. Mid side processing can also be used to tamea wide stereo reverb ona centre;panned instrument. Reduce the gainon the side signal to temperit as yousee it BREAK TRACKS APART Dont worry if you cart get your head around allthese ideas enough to understand exactiy how MS processing works. Just try running a few of your own tracks through aMS plug-inand playing withthe options. Brainworx bx sola and Voxengo MSED are both free-to-download mid/ side processing plugins, both of which workin a similar way You may even already havea previously unloved midiside processor among Your DAW's bundled plugins. Ableton lve's EQ Eiht, for example,has an MS made tucked away nthe Mode menu, otope Ozone Shas powerful midiside processing availabe for almost ll ofits many ‘modules and functions. Click the Stereo button Inany module to access headvanced MS capabilities, enabling independent control over pretty much any aspect ofthe processing ‘Alternatively, browse to the MS templates inthe Utity presets menu for one-click access to most MS functions, While were on the subject of (zone. the preset Karaokeize' canbe particularly useful for suppressing vocals. t takes massive frequency scoop out ofthe mid channel, eliminating all but the ver highest and lowest frequencies from shared left/right channel information. The Stereo Imaging ‘module aso features buttons for pase Inversion, swapping LIR channels and switching tomono,alloperationalon a multiband basis (Ozone a you may have surmised, isa very useful plugin for this sort of thing > Matec processing makestokeng ‘th the ove anastereoaspectsof 3 Fecoraing easy Load the example Wack Ethnic wa in you OA sna Brainwore bx 200 ebro ‘muse. Clicking Solo tes he inde revert tightening tetaop ths 6 Justhesame as manually mono Summing, but more convenient >> Lettey Ns ocng onaaterent type ofsound Jarzwavhas2lan panne tothe eft which we can use MS processing and EGto slate Using bs, Solo again tistie we ithe S506 button to mute te mi iniormation, Turning the Stereo Wiat ll Up ‘300% Increasesthe level > Weeantaineresatng auctocut thebass and hgh percussion, which ‘wecan st hear Were sing DOME LPIO ‘rom theemstucio,asithasa linear phase EQopton important ifwewere to fecombine ater with the orginal mis ‘Sgnat We eect FexBP andusethe etinge shown toca the highs and lows, leaving mostly just the lana. 3 COMPUTER MUSIC / 35>make music now / brea} Surgical EQ filtering Youre probably familiar with the concept of using EQ fitering to shape the character of a sound. For our next unmixing technique, were going to use some extreme EQ fering tricks to ‘rack down andisolate specific sounds within ‘mix. Extremely narrow band-pass fiters can be used to fiter out all frequencies except fora tiny band of the ones that make up the sound you're ooking toisolate. (inthe same way. a narrow notch ter can be employedto cutthe frequencies) This will result inan isolated invidual note, ut i'l sound rather Rat and less, because its missing the upper harmonies Youdneed to use further EQ fitering tolsolate those harmonics too, then, Play any basic waveform square, sine, te) Into frequency analyser (ike the ree Voxengo ‘SPAN)and you'l see the lowest frequency spike ‘ofthe note. This is known asthe fundamental {requency. Above ths you also see ther spikes at various frequencies related to the ‘tundamental Depending onthe harmonic Content ofthe wavetorm, these spikes may be at ciffering amplitudes, but for basc periodic ‘waveforms, they will aWvays be spaced along the {frequency spectrum in multiples ofthe ‘undamental frequency. For example, the note being analysed nthe screenshot to therightis ‘at 40He and has its next harmonic at 20H2 three times the fundamental frequency. ’Armed with ths mathematical knowledge, we can use extreme EQ filtering to isolate or remove specfcrequencies and harmonics {roma waveform, This technique works best = Spot harmonics equencis with aspetraloralyser | ! ! ! ! 4 With musica sounds that dott tend to change frequency very much, Held notes ike high strings or drone baslines canbe ieolated very effectively. However, sounds with wide harmonie content, Ike drums or synth pads, have complex frequency modulations. making it would be sificult to use thismethod with any degree of success. > Were going to ele etigh sath pulse onthe gram track Ragga. wav using bane pass. We ead nto tur DAW sin the Tutorial Fes and Insert Voxengo SPAN to get visual reterence asto the requencies we needto Iola with the EO Playing te samole ttvough SPAN, looks tough the funeamenta frequency of tesynth is round 400H2 >> Nese place and passiteron tne track weteusing DOM HEQP°o, whichstree wih avery issuectemand boasts extremely steep ters To ben ‘th we sett the Butter LP shape and ‘Ord:10. for asuper step ow pas iter ‘Weuse 400H2 a8 starting pont then ‘sweep around hat area urine sys Sts loucest-38@Hzhis the mare 2 >> Weleepinetequenc at 380 and changethe ter shape tthe Butter P.We merease the Qvalueto 5.000, ‘ive avery steep band-pass. This enables Ustohear hse fundamental renuency ofthe synth cuting everything ese out {Checkout our audio examples inthe sounding sofart 3 > Nest we cpt the trackanahunt toting the next requency Using the SPAN ipl as gue, wecan soe hat the nex harmonic shes around BOO ‘Asharmonies are muitiples ofthe funcamenta requency.tssafe to assume that we should set our band paste to 2.88 whichis 76H, We dal in 775K, \whichisascoseas we cn get using tis price EQ plugin 4 36 / COMPUTER MUSIC >> Wekeepcupicating racks and Setting EO ters at mutiples of 388, ‘alsin e388 (1), 775(20. 163, (Gx. 15514) 3103 0 ona.6207006.To fRarmontes, uti you hve the time you could keep mutipving frequencies Up and up What we've gtTere sounds good, but we can do more 5 >> Mihough we've done some work to retain the upper harmonics, the ‘late sy ack he te of he orignal par Wlecan emedy this by adaing in Some aril upper harmonics Fist we Usean Overrve plugin, wth the Drveat {db nd Tone t6200H, which ieclose tour highestRarmonie frequency. Finaly a itcrusher seta 88 Drie and ‘4xDownsampinggves crunchy eae. 6>make music now / bre: Noise reduction ‘Some sounds are more challenging to isolate or remove tian others, ana sweeping pads and strings are amongst the most dif of al “These kinds of sounds often cover ahuge frequency spectrum, have lots of strong harmonies and weave themselves into other sounds, Pads ae also often very wide filing the stereo spectrum with audi information, thus ‘making them impossible to remove with mid ide or centre channel isolation. The transients {arealso slow ruling out another route we could have taken to identify and remove them, ‘Sometimes you can use spectral editing to knock out the sustained frequencies making up the pads but this can also impact on other sounds in the mix. > AisocysNe Removaltoais otmaly used reduce background noleinaudlorecorlngsbut weve going touseltt learn thesound of an slat ad then remove trem witina broader Fix Load the hillway example track fromthe Tutorial Fes nto Aud. tracks apart One tool that can work wel to remove pads ‘and drones is a noise reduction plug-in or ‘process with a ear’ option. This identifies the {requency tingerprnt ofa small section of the ‘audio and uses that as template to recognise ‘and remove the sare frequencies from the rest fit, where they might be mixed with the ‘frequencies of other instruments. The method ‘of usage normally oes something tke this firstly ou selecta part of the waveform thats Just‘noiseand tellthe tol to learnt. Then you ‘can make adjustments to how heavily that noise Isremoved from the rest of the sample. Of ‘course, noise reduction processors are really ‘designed forthe removal of hiss and crackle, but allwe'redoing here is simply feeding itthe > Wevanttosoltetheauitarport but Is coveredinabackaround wash of pads arones and FX. withloads of ever. ‘selects section ofthe nakeround pa sound, ustbeore the guts start We then heod to Audect’s Effect menu and choot Noise Removal 2 sustained pad sound instead of some noise the fend esult should theoretically be the same. ‘Someadvanced editors even have the ‘capability to use adaptive noise reduction algorithms to change the noise profile throughout the duration ofthe waveform. This canbe especially useful for removing evolving ‘pads and washes. The free Audacity sample editor hasa surprisingly effective noise reduction tool that's aso very easy to use. More ‘advanced options can be found within pro. Packages like Adobe Aucition andiZotope RX2. ‘These have more comprehensive, powerful functions including quick presets and options for adjusting the EQ and harmonic processing of the applied effect. Weneedtotet the software whatto {set recognise the nose.sowe it the Get Noise Profile button wien prompts Aucocty tearm te frequency properties ote smal selection ot Selected aula ncluding the pads. > Nowwaslect tne whole sample, ‘open the Noise Profle ent asin Sod movethe Nols Reduction ser to itsmaximum valve of 48dB. As we oat want the ranslents around the guitar Datstobe processed too arshiy we et 500H2 Frequency smoothing ans 050 sec atack/decay time. 38 / COMPUTER MUSIC igen 5 Ree, femme eens feomeee ens paseo, fesmad anges femme a We et the Reduction sero 2608 and process again. The guitars are Sounding mu ceane: now we were ‘sing this guitar in avack, we'd probably Useanosegateplugintoremove mare ofthe residual background pad. Further texperimentation and use of higher end Software can give even batter resus, ‘special when combined with te ther techniques covered inthiseatureSpectral editing [As wementioned.at the beginning ofthe feature, separating the constituent parts ofa ‘mined track s much ike trying to unbake acake ‘The frequencies and harmonies blend into one another and become dificult to distinguish and seconstruct. Weve already demonstrated that sharp band-pass EQ can perform a decent job it the frequencies don't change, but this method is Lunworkabe'f the melody moves around in terms of frequency range. What we needisa ‘way t'see'the frequency information inthe \waveformand manually edit That's where spectral editing comes in ‘Although spectral ecting techniques and software ae relatively new -and have certainly become far more usablein the past fw years, with computers at last able to deal with ther hefty CPU demands they've become an Invaluable part ofthe sound design anc post. production audio toolbox Spectral editors can Performa great many functions, from the \wholesale reduction of background noise and hum, to cutting out tiny clicks trom wavetorms. When itcomestounmixing, the visual representation ofthe waveform and the tools for cutting speci frequencies and their harmonies are invaluable. The basic concepts, ‘almost always tne same, no matter which software you use. A graphical representation ot theaudiois displayed, with time along the X axis (eft to right and frequency in Hz along the ¥ axis bottom to top. The intensity of colour represents the amplitude of the frequency at leach point, so loud frequencies willbe brighter than quiet ones. The concept can behhardto get your head around until you usea spectral editor the best way to learnsjust to dive in and tryit Free spectral editing softwares extremely thinon the ground, and we don't know of any that’s upto the task of unmixing, but there are plenty of commercial options out therewith oc a > Weveloaded up oto 2. ragged nour Discoway exarole lrackfor processing and selected the ole waveform, ist we'ley to extract [sttnetonal parts ore wack Htthe De-construct lect the Extract Tonal Components preset anc click Process. Trisessertaly mutes the percussion and retainsthe other instruments ] BREAK TRACKS APART ‘Sony's SpectraLayers Prois designed very much with unmixinginmind read our review on p90 demo versions avaliable to ty. \Zotope RX2 (ewwzotope.com) is one ofthe best featuring simple interface and smart editing tools. The software also has a particular feature thats, 8 faraswe know, unique, enabling deconstruction of any audio material into i's tonal and atonal constituent, This just the thing for removing percussion from tracks, or extracting consonants (eg,'s'and'p' sounds) from vocals that can be missed by manual harmonic spectral editing, We gaveit 10/10 in our review last year, though at €245 forthe standard edtion ana £799 fr the alksinging.aldancing Advanced version yout expect it tobe pretty darn good. New onthe scene is Sony Creative Software’ SpectraLayers Pro, We wort detalit too much here as its reviewedin this very issue, on p90. ‘Amost wallet friendly option isthe £36 Photosounder (wwuphotosounder.com, We've covered Photosounder inemon several > Letsteytneoprote Starting with the original iseowav loop slect the Extract Nosy Components preset. This leaves us ath just the percussion But {ke steno our audo te inthe “Tutor Files olde and youl hear thatit hasa distinctly wesksoundinglowend. 35. the ick drum has been removed, Let's do something about that. ‘occasions before, andits most famous for being able toturn images into sound and vice-versa, However Photosounder is also avery fine spectral editor, with plenty of clever tots at its dlsposal. In fact, because Photosounder can ‘output bmp fe, there’s nothing stopping you ‘exporting an imageto PhotoShop or tree ‘oraphics utility ike pixtecom) and using precision graphics tools to clean up the picture. Infact, spectral editors featur similar tools tothose youlfind in graphics elting software packages. rush, erase and asso functions all, hhave thet place when dealing with spectral editing of audio, but theres one too thats particular to spectral editors, and that'sthe ‘harmonies toal for automatically targeting the harmonies of the fundamental frequency. Tis is brillant for working with any kindof musical sounds, and it makes it easy to isolate multiple harmonies simultaneousy > sn stating withthe Diaconay Toop. choos the Frequency Selection {ool rom the rush totbir and select ‘everyting above 2002 which excludes ‘me verylowestend ofthe teauency ‘age where the hick drum ss Now nen we deconstruct nd Extract Nolsy ‘Components 2can.thelow ends ‘retained which sounds much beter, COMPUTER MUSIC / 39>make music now fur Jazze exorle rack sing Photosounder Loac the sample its, Inte Tutorial Files ose ito one tha ar a problem or olton work, Sots perfect forthissortof ting {ensuring thatthe audi remains igh Sse > tnedarkspraytoolto clean up the aud, removing harmonics that arent arto the vocal This rechand painting tit the Heemonics Modi on woul ‘Sto pant ut the malery othe uppee harmonies. so we sth his of Lowering the Pinel sprawl allows more precise eating” good for the Nay obs, Inetuaing removing some ofthe plana Spectral substitutes \We've used Photosounder and RX2 for our wakkthroughshere, but there area few other software utilities out there that are tooled up tohelp with unmixing duties, SonieWORX Isolates designed primarily for vocal extraction butalso works welltosolate lorsuppress other harmonic content. Itboasts spectral editor view with te abilty to Audition frequenciesin realtimeas you drawa selection with the tools. It also hasa transient detection function that makes suppression of ‘droning audo and held notes straightforward, Thenewiy released Sony Spectral ayers Pro Isreviewed on p50 of this issue, so we wont {go into in detail ere apart from mentioning it'Snovel3D graphical display and mutt layered editing approach ‘Adobe Audition C56 sa fully-featured suite 40 / COMPUTER MUSIC. 8. Using Photosounder to isolate a vocal Pa Pps RN Dore > from ine men bare sla mart Erate Harmonics Modifier srt ‘Magnet Modifier These combines wi ‘snap tothe brightest JoudesD frequency Lunde te mouse pte. and iso paint, frequency. What were going toco's ‘erase'the veal, then invert the restis ‘get back juste vocal on sown, rissng some ofthe consonant Sounds-for example. the slants of this and'ves’ We aul tr te pant them backin.oreutandpastethem from the ‘orginal audi. but were goingto cheat inslend We oad the orginal zzway Components preset Nosy ‘of audio tools and includes spectra editing as partof the package. Although i'snot specifically ‘geared towards isolation, itdoes have the usual frequency selection tools. including lasso. also has a powerful centre channel extraction {unetion for separating centre-panned audio ~ ie. the phantom centre Note that this quite diferent to simply soloing the midimono channel using a midside plugin Lastiy.a mention for Schwa Spectro, which is .2£30 spectral editor that, interestingly. runs asa plugin within any Mac or PC DAW. lace itona) {rackand during the frst play-through, the software wil analyse the audio, presenting you with a spectral display. You can then draw boxes {tomute, solo or adjust the gain for any area of time and frequency Although Spectro doesnt have any harmonic editing controls, t does offer >> Neste ade ie Spray with alto 25and workour way trough the auto, easing the ora ine as best Ione tricky sectons We can check how were cong with heINV button as Wego, whichinvertsthemask and sles fur werk -our ams to ge the vocal Toudand clear withouttoo much ol the 3 > protesssomsony eves Consonants athe eile ericson Wenow ness to combine tre {rosarpes he tonal content manually tact fom Photsounder an the Poses trom We dths by simpy feadingbat sample ito Ande and Checaing Wackenixand Render, Take {stenintne Tito Fes oie! ‘quick and easy way to vsualy isolate ‘requencies without the hassle of exnorting/ Importing audio roma standalone editor.Deverbing Although t'snot an unmixing tool initsel, the relatively new concept of'deverbing' audios ‘exciting for those who work with extraction and Isolation. although the maths behind the software teriyingly complex, the concept is simple feed reverberant audio nto the plugin ‘anditwillreduce the level ofthe reverb, How ‘welthis works in practice depends on a certain amount of user input Youll need te help your {verb plugin tind the appropriate transients by setting the threshold level Adjusting the EQ ofthe input signal also helps with transient detection i you're trying to treat specific frequencies When itcomes tounmixing the ‘most useful thing about the deverbing process Isthatitdeadens the reverb, making iar easier topickout the endings ofnotes when you're Performing further processing, Backin July we gave Zynaptiq Unvella 10, >> Wevegata cena rhea ‘lassical sample loaded ito Potosounder We want to highlight an Isoatetne vocal using the spectra eating techniques covered nthelast tutorial but les drenched in reverb Thismakes picking ‘atthe harmonies and vanstents die asthey re esentialy smeared intime So before we do any spectral work onthe auc, weve golngtoreauce thereverd witha vero plugin ] Dutton we can ear Unvel lng ts thing The vast majoty of reverb Is Femovedane the nol trek no sounds more focused th es mic. 4 review and presentedit with our Innovation and Performance awards, Although its undoubtedly atthe pricer end ofthe plug-in market £250), It'san amazing piece of software ‘Alternatively, SPL Deverb is a more walle friendly option at £38, which does. farjob of cleaning up unwanted reverb tall I's most ‘Useful on inaviduatinstruments as when used ‘on fullmixes the output ack the finesse of Unveis often transparent processing. ‘You can use the transienttriggered shaping/ Q-based principles employed by most deverb plug:ns to Take'the same process Ifyou have nelement of track occupying a spectic frequency range that you want to deverb and Uunmix,insert a frequency-conscious gate set to allow just thatrange through fora quick and dirty way to rd the sound of unwanted reverb andlor nose 9. Using Zynaptig Unveil to tame a long reverb > Sut serering weapon choice > 2ynaptqumel Tohep Unvel Identity the wansients of te vocals. we ‘ancut out the unwanted frequencies of ome other instrumentation ret. The ‘wavelorm in Photosounder shows the Funcamenta requoney of Ue vocal at ‘around 300250 when weload the ‘cuIEQ er sotto 270 > 5 > Meimportns nn samp bck Isolation technique rom the previous age, vertingthemeskto\soatethe ‘Yoeal The vocals now deverbac ang Iola, enabling uso apply any effects thatwe ke tor BREAK TRACKS APART \Wantto knock he reverboutottrackstomake {hem easertounml? Unvals got your back We insert Unvel after the EQ plugin {op for maximum reverb rection We fhenhitthe Translent ThreshSoloDtton tedleary hear whien transients Unvali ‘denttyingTheaimistolustitthe star ‘teach new nate inthe voeal pases, nd setting of 8.08 seems todothe ck, 3 >Analysing ambience As well umixngbakedin reverb, ‘everbing pg ns an azo be Ut forreveating what kind ot reverb wos wed inan eign, Fecording It your pluginnastne ‘bly to solathe reverb tal ike Unvet's/0 bit auton then use it ‘onasparsly orchestrated section ‘fa sample ores tthe reverd Partly wel forts. as the ast {als Deverbtipaa. COMPUTER MUSIC / 41>make music now Unmixing oddities We've covered.a huge range of techniques and software for unmixing, but there are some other plug-ins and packages that are worthy of mention as we wrap this guide up. These Include, in our opinion, a couple of essentials for any unmixing enthusiast ‘QuikQuak MashTactic san interesting plug In,designed to bea quick and e35y tool for "unmixing. Atonly £50, ts aso prety cheap for the funetionalty it provides. In simple terms, ts an EQwith multiple bands that not only works, with frequency ranges but aso enables ‘manipulation ofthe stereo fel fr isolation, suppression or panning changes. One ofits sreatest strengths ists simple XIV display with ‘requency and stereo spread on each axis You use the mouse to draw boxes or elipses), then adjust the parameter ofall audio information either within or outside your section. i's particularly useful for unmixing wavelorms that Contain elther widely spread audio or centre panned content over specific frequency ranges, Get the demo at www.qulkquak com and follow our step-bystep guide below to experience tin action, ‘Much ke MashTactc, the recenty released Roland R Mix isolates parts of audio with specific requency or panning characteristics = the interface and tools on offer are very simi. Its avallablefor Mac and PCfor £129 but wll be {thrown in as feature of Cakewalks upcoming Sonar X2 Producer DAW. By the time You ead this, there should also be a downloadable trial version available (with no exporting and other limitations). The current version fs somewhat limite Itmust be sald and we'd certainly be Interested to see some expanded functionality Ina future update. There's aso an Pad version called Mix Tab (67 in the AppStore). whichis, the only 10S unmixing app were aware of Its prety basic of course, witha rather crude touch screen interface, and we don think't works aswell as MashTactic, but lan Interesting appallthe same. lace of TV background must vith ‘aiogue Thesampe leaded nto our DaWand MashTactcis added a: an effec. Let trytoiolte thet, whens panned quite hardiett We shouldbe able Touse Mastfactcs combined and pan Isolation to catchit wn exchding the restot the sound 12 ire Veena. chien 42 / COMPUTER MUSIC Use the lobal mute and individual note mutes oisalate specific pitches inZynapticPtehmap ynapticPtchmap isa plugin tha analyses and retunes polyphonic audio in realtime. However, itean also be used to unmix auao or isolating ‘removing specific pitches. For aroughand ready effect, you cancuta user-defined range of Upper and lower notes using the global mute function. For more surgical euts the individual notes can be mutedin custom’ mode, The plug in works best with sparse instrumentation, but a tinker withthe Threshold dials ana Algorithm selling can produce some fantastic results. At £280, i's not cheap, butf you need a Melodyne tke pitehmapping plug-in and arewiling to take the time to learn the contol, Its secondary function as an unmixing ool could be useful 110. Using QuikQuak MashTactic Canturnthe Frame averaging il up femasimum whichslows down the splay. making easier for usto see ‘vats going on We deactivate EMpe® 2 Sand draw box aroune thelmage, which isbrgitest wnere the he lays Setting ‘the Exctuston gainknod toi tes everything outside the box Finally, were looking forward to checking ‘out the second iteration of Neuratron’s Hit application, which s due for release later this ‘year. The ist version initially had us excited with ts impressive YouTube demo, butit soon became apparent that the software was more of ‘novelty then a genuinely useful unmixing too. ‘The’automatic unmixing algorithms produce aul full of gaps and artefacts, but were wiling togive Nearatron a second chance -hopetullya ‘mote protessional sequel can build onthe promise of heist instalment For alistento the Software n action, dawnload the demo at www, htnmix.com or check out the audio examples at bitty/MIBIeB on our sister site, MusicRadar. > tstrynesometickto ema tne alogue Wecanseefromte brightly Coloured dots that the voices panned ist dead entre wita narrow spread Wociek Epes ana draw two shapes to enclose the bright ts then ten the ‘Onset gain knot -nt fr both shapes. resulting an almost totaly muted vor (Check the rests nthe Tutorial les! 3URN IT UP you're using phase cancellation with two ‘samples taken from different sources, remember that any difference in amplitude will thwart your efforts to sumand cancel the {wo tracks, 38 one waveform will nt havea high enough amplitude to fully cancel the ‘other. Therefore, you'lhave to fiddle withthe ‘Volume/gain as wells the timing to achieve ‘maximum cancellation. HOW LOW CAN YOU ‘Aslow frequency sounds have much longer wavelengths than high frequency ones, ‘they're easierto pick outina waveform display. Because the waveforms appear longer, there will probably also be more ‘wiggle room’ when trying to line them up witha second sample for phase cancelation. High-frequency instruments likebi-hatsand ‘snares have short sharp waveforms and are ‘much more dificult to processusing this ‘method. A stralght high-cut EQ is much less ‘time consuming and can be|ustas effective. UPPERS AND DOWNERS Neglect the very low and high end {frequencies a your peril, as plenty of the ‘weight and sparkle of a sound or mix comes ‘fromthese extreme frequency ranges. By ‘means eliminate mud from the low end and unwanted hissfrom the higher frequencies, but ensure that ou do itsubtly and carefully. LOOK AFTER THE PENNIES, Don't worry if ou can't splash the cash on the latest and greatest spectralisolation software. In this article, we've carried out ‘over half of our unmixing escapades with ‘either downloadable freebies, native DAW plug-ins or software from theem Studio! BEING NEGATIVE your spectral editing software only has ‘either suppression or isolation capabilites It ‘shouldn't hinder your unmixing endeavours. ‘Youcan export your audio and combine t witha phase-inverted version ofthe original tomakethe negative’ copy of the sample. =—> BREAK TRACKS APART — Wen al your unmixng torts come to nought you canalways ty using Melodynoto fewtractthe teh information| rom esompea bl noe data on replace tesound CONSONA\ Itcan be very difficult tosolate the non- harmonic elements of a sung vocal. The's" and't sounds can easily intermingle with hivhats and other percussion. it's impossible toremove them effectively replace them with some short samples froma vocal library Acapella. Just make ure these short “il samples have the same panning and overall Volume as the restof the vocal. You'd be surprised how much the ear forgives when the new patched-together vocal is mixed nto atrackwithsomeetfectsand reverb, UNPLUG YOURSELF you can finda live or acoustic performance ofatrack, youmay beable to extractits parts ‘with more success than astudio-mixed version as there willikely be fewer instruments and effects in the mix. For example try vocal isolation techniqueson any song from Alanis Morissette's Instrument-heavy Jagged Little Pil in comparison toher Unplugged CD. You'l find the acousti versions far easier to pull apart. phase cancating high frequency instruments nt ‘geting you anywhere ryapian ld ght titer CANT MAKE IT? FAKE I Some of the hardest sounds to unmix with spectral editing techniques are instruments with complicated harmonies. Guitar and piano are particularly tricky. fall else falls and you can'tgeta decent result with any of the other techniques we've mentioned elther, tmay be worth replaying the audio with a ssound-a-ike instrument. Melodyne DNA can takea polyphonic audio signal and extract [MIDI data. From this you can use. similar sounding VSTi to playback the section you need, using effects to approximate the sound fof the original sample. emt8r's Instant Replay articlehas much moreon the darkart of recreating specific bits of musictouse as samples (known as'replaying?. THE TRICKS TO UNMIX. Evenif younever makea remix or mast-upin ‘yur life learning how tounmix effectively will help you gain skills that carry through to ‘your mixing and mastering work. From mid/ side processing to spectral analysis and phase correction itsall useful stuf, And the ‘more you analyse pro mixes, the more you'll learn about how tonail your own. NOW LISTEN EAR, Don'tbe disheartened f your unmixing skis take a while to develop fully takes ‘good ear tohear what'shappenting ina mix and plenty of practice to choose the ight toolsfor the ob, Andias wesald right at the start of this feature, some tracks unmixbetter than others, soif you'rereally not getting anywhere, itmightjust be that your source ‘material doesnt lendself to the process.em COMPUTER MUSIC / 43