Separating Voices from Polyphonic Recordings via Audacity or Izotope RX

Two simple and quick ways to separate voices from polyphonic recordings:

(1) a two-step variant using the free, open-source DAW Audacity: 1. centring audio to bring forward main voice and cut off echo / side voices, 2. strong bass reduction to enable pYin pitch track;

(2) a single-step variant using the feature "Music Rebalance" in Izotope RX 10 Advanced, which allows for isolating voices within audio in pop music settings.

Credits: OneNighters (Erfurt, Germany), "O Tannenbaum" (2017)
http://www.onenighters.de/

00:00 Why to separate / isolate voices
01:04 Facing pitch tracker problem
01:52 Audacity: center isolation & bass cut
03:22 Izotope RX: "Music Rebalance"
05:34 Comparing results
06:21 Reconsidering pitch tracker problem


This video refers to the book Softwaregestützte Interpretationsforschung (Würzburg: Königshausen&Neumann 2023) by making suggestions on how to make pitch track data more easily available (see the chapters of Tilo Hähnel and Frithjof Vollmer).

Pitch track data generated by Matthias Mauch’s "pYin" Vamp plugin consists of a series of fundamental frequencies over time which can be used, e.g., for creating MIDI files, or for running pitch vibrato analyses by use of Tilo Hähnel’s "vibratoanalyse.R" script (see https://www.tilohaehnel.de/analysen_v... ;    • Vibratoanalyse   ). "pYin" is also implemented in the "Expressive Means" Vamp plugin (see https://github.com/cannam/expressive-... ), which performs extensive analyses on articulation, pitch vibrato, and portamento in instrumental and vocal solo performances. To export pitch track data in Sonic Visualiser, click File / Export Annotation layer.

Also see
https://www.audacityteam.org/
https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/rx-10...
https://verlag.koenigshausen-neumann....

Sonic Visualiser – free, open-source sound visualisation: https://www.sonicvisualiser.org/
pYin Smoothed Pitch Track – Vamp Plugin by Matthias Mauch: https://code.soundsoftware.ac.uk/proj...