Making play-a-long tracks

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bigbandbone
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Making play-a-long tracks

Post by bigbandbone »

I'm not very tech savvy so I hope this isn't a dumb question!
Is there some kind of app, program, or device that can remove a lead line from a recording and effectively turn it into a play-a-long track?
There are so many recordings I'd love to do this to!
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ArbanRubank
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by ArbanRubank »

To my knowledge, not in the purest sense that I believe you (and I) desire. Some people claim that Melodyne is the answer, but I have yet to see anyone step forward with a demo that is convincing. So let's let that be a challenge on this Forum!

About the best I have ever been able to achieve is to rip a recording down to a wave file and then either mute the non-soloist track or otherwise pan away from it. But there's still too much bleed for my liking.

However, in the meantime, there is Band-in-a-Box. Biab has undergone a tremendous advancement, using what they call RealTracks. What you must do, is supply the chord changes, style, etc to build the EXACT accompaniment you want. To do an EXACT accompaniment track from a given recording might be pretty tough if you are not gifted enough (I'm not) to hear and transcribe the chord changes just right. In any event, it would be a lot of work. I won't debate the benefits, though. That said, it's still an excellent program to do AN accompaniment for your solo transcription, if you can fit that transcription into the standard chord changes you can find out there for a given song. I at least do that much and it's a lot of fun!

Good luck!
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ArbanRubank
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by ArbanRubank »

I mentioned Melodyne (and their like).

Engineers state that they are getting a fairly good handle on software being able to detect pitches and render a midi file. If that is truly so, then I'm wondering if it can be used to create a midi file of a complete song - with soloist(s) and accompaniment. If it can accurately do that, it is a HUGE breakthrough!

I'm thinking that the complete midi file then ought to be able to be opened by a software notation program such as Finality or Sibelius and generate a complete score. One should then be able to delete the staff with the melody line (soloist) and re-create the mid file sans soloist. That midi file should then be able to be converted to a wave file and there you have it!

In truth, I think we are years away from something even close to what I have just speculated...
Pre59
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by Pre59 »

Er.. search Google with this?

"remove vocal software"
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ArbanRubank
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by ArbanRubank »

Pre59 wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:29 pm Er.. search Google with this?

"remove vocal software"
About the same result as panning. There is still what I consider to be a significant amount of bleed. It might suffice for a practice session, but I wouldn't try to put on any kind of a performance using accompaniments I gleaned from one of the methods described unless I knew I could play the exact-same solo note-for-note such that my solo completely covered what is left of the original. Then there is that pesky copyright issue.

I could be wrong. Has anyone been successful using this in an actual performance?

Someday...

The concept of mp3 took a while to develop and it revolutionized the music industry. When software becomes so intelligent that it can selectively remove any single instrument or vocal completely, it will also revolutionize the music industry and there will probably be no shortage of litigation involved.
Pre59
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by Pre59 »

..well try this one.



Only $399?
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ArbanRubank
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by ArbanRubank »

Pre59 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 6:28 am ..well try this one.



Only $399?
Lol! I can't speak for the OP and he isn't guiding this discussion, so maybe he is already satisfied.

It's a great tool for a lot of things, but it still doesn't achieve the standard I have for selective complete REMOVAL. I don't believe any analog system will, even if it's in the disguise of high-tech cutting-edge technology. I believe it is going to take AI to get the job done, but I'm not a software engineer - just a consumer who knows what he wants and what he wants ain't available yet (sigh). :(
Gary
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by Gary »

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ArbanRubank
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by ArbanRubank »

Gary wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 10:31 am https://officialrealbook.com/backing-tracks/
Very cool! It's not what the OP was asking about, but a terrific product! They must be quite new. I was just looking at all the Fake Books a couple weeks ago and didn't see this. Volume 1 is available in Bb right now, so I hope the rest of the volumes will follow.

We are witnessing an explosion of printed material and advancements in music technology that just wasn't available some years ago; certainly not when I was a youth, playing my sackbut.
Gary
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by Gary »

TimBrown wrote: Mon Nov 18, 2019 5:45 am
Gary wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 10:31 am https://officialrealbook.com/backing-tracks/
We are witnessing an explosion of printed material and advancements in music technology that just wasn't available some years ago; certainly not when I was a youth . . .
. . . and putting more live musicians out of work with every passing moment.

:evil:
quiethorn
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Re: Making play-a-long tracks

Post by quiethorn »

TimBrown wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:36 am I mentioned Melodyne (and their like).

Engineers state that they are getting a fairly good handle on software being able to detect pitches and render a midi file. If that is truly so, then I'm wondering if it can be used to create a midi file of a complete song - with soloist(s) and accompaniment. If it can accurately do that, it is a HUGE breakthrough!

I'm thinking that the complete midi file then ought to be able to be opened by a software notation program such as Finality or Sibelius and generate a complete score. One should then be able to delete the staff with the melody line (soloist) and re-create the mid file sans soloist. That midi file should then be able to be converted to a wave file and there you have it!

In truth, I think we are years away from something even close to what I have just speculated...
Melodyne Studio has a free, fully-functional demo. You can give it a shot. When I demoed it, its polyphonic capabilities were pretty amazing. I was able to extract MIDI parts for some Aebersolds, but I never tried on anything with a soloist. My trial expired though, and I decided not to fork over the $$$$ to buy it (it's expensive).

Over the years, I've taught myself how to play electric bass and walk passably at medium-fast tempos, so I've made a few of my own play-a-longs over the years.

That being said, one of the best ways to practice improvising I've found recently is by playing along with lofi music like on this channel:


There's effectively no melody in this kind of music, the tunes are usually medium/slow, have easy chord progressions, and they sample a lot of jazz standards as loops, so sometimes you hear surprising things pop up (someone sampled a Bill Watrous ballad once; my son listens to this stuff and I don't know if he's impressed that I know a lot of the tunes they're sampling or if that makes me lame). There are some Spotify playlists for lofi stuff too.
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