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lifting dialogue

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I wonder if anyone has any techniques for lifting out dialogue from a soundtrack. I realize there are a couple of issues with this, one is that audio is continuous, two, is that there's no known tool that could actually take out the dialogue, and three, you can't perfectly extract dialogue from and other background audio.

That being said, I would think some of you might have some techniques for at least doing a decent job. So I can take dialogue and replace the music. If there's a way to do a decent enough job, say through an equalizer or some enveloping mechanism, i'd greatly appreciate any tips you could give me.

Please do not reply to this and tell me you can't do it. I know you can't actually extract dialogue into a baked audio track, but you can get a close enough approximation of it, that it would not be that noticeable.

Thank you.
Keith Weatherby II
Keith Weatherby II
Uhfgood -AT- verizon -DOT- net
Uhfgood's Blog:
http://uhfgood.artoo.net
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If it's a 5.1 soundtrack, focus on the center channel. As to frequency ranges:

How To Use EQ
If your mixer has bass and treble controls, their frequencies are preset at the factory (usually at 100 Hz and 10 kHz). Set the EQ knob at 0 to have no effect ("flat" setting). Turn it clockwise for a boost; turn it counterclockwise for a cut. If your mixer has sweepable EQ, one knob sets the frequency range while another sets the amount of boost or cut.

As we said, the tone quality of a voice or instrument depends on the relative levels of its fundamentals and harmonics. Listed below are the fundamental and harmonic frequencies for female and male voices:

Female voice fundamentals: 175-1175 Hz
Female voice harmonics: 2-12 kHz
Male voice fundamentals: 87-494 Hz
Male voice harmonics: 1-12 kHz

Link:EQ website

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Thanks alot for the reply and link.

As far as the 5.1 soundtrack goes, when I demux the audio, usually (via dvd decrypter) there's a little message on delay (like so many milliseconds or whatever) -- Wouldn't I have a problem resyncing the audio back up because of this? And could you also provide me a link to a webpage or software that actually splits up ac3 audio to their respective channels as audio files. (I remember there was something about some software that will convert, I have an ac3 filter I just need software to split up the tracks into something usable).

Any other help is appreciated, thanks!

Keith Weatherby II
Keith Weatherby II
Uhfgood -AT- verizon -DOT- net
Uhfgood's Blog:
http://uhfgood.artoo.net
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BeSweet should split up the AC3, and the audio sync problem would depend on what you are using to remux the video and audio. Are you converting the MPEG to AVI? If so, any video editor will help you sync them up. If you are trying to create a new AC3 soundtrack to remux to the original MPEG, then you are braver than I and should seek help from ADM.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I've actually taken the vob files (not demuxed or if I got the term wrong, where the audio and video is in a single file and not seperate streams) and converted them to divx format. It works well in ulead's media studio pro. When I renamed the vob files and loaded them up into MSP, there would be sync issues, and it would be tougher on the program because the files were bigger. I'm just thinking if I re-rip, demux, then split up the channels and then do my business with them, and then have to re-sync them, i'd get some problems.

by the way, is BeSweet free or do I have to pay for it, because I don't have any money right now.

Keith
Keith Weatherby II
Uhfgood -AT- verizon -DOT- net
Uhfgood's Blog:
http://uhfgood.artoo.net
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By the way extracting the individual channels doesn't help me at all, i've found out. All the sound is in the center, and the other channels are used to merely enhance. so I guess i'll have to fool with someother way of getting dialog off.

http://neversaymccloryagain.ohmss-007.com/creative01.html -- is an interesting tutorial. It will work to a point. But i'll deal with the sound later anyhow.

Thanks for the help thus far :-)

Keith
Keith Weatherby II
Uhfgood -AT- verizon -DOT- net
Uhfgood's Blog:
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Which movie are you ripping the soundtrack from?

"I've actually taken the vob files (not demuxed or if I got the term wrong, where the audio and video is in a single file and not seperate streams)"

You got it correct.

"and converted them to divx format. It works well in ulead's media studio pro."

Interesting. Vegas doesn't like DivX files. They'll load, but they're clunky as hell.

"When I renamed the vob files and loaded them up into MSP, there would be sync issues, and it would be tougher on the program because the files were bigger. I'm just thinking if I re-rip, demux, then split up the channels and then do my business with them, and then have to re-sync them, i'd get some problems."

First of all, I hope you are splitting the audio before converting to DivX. Secondly, splitting the audio and keeping them in sync is easy in Vegas. You load each track into its own.....uh, track, and then link the files. Whatever cut you make to one is made to all. I ran the SW THX soundtrack through a program that emulated a Pro-Logic II decoder, and created 5 audio streams. These were fed into Vegas, synced with the video, and then I created an AC3 soundtrack.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Don't have vegas :-)

I have both the vob's and the divx versions. The vob's aren't demuxed. When extracting the audio, I did a test from one of the vob files with besweet. So when I listened to some of the channels, all the sounds are in the center. I'm guessing they did this so you'd get all the sound even if you only had the center speaker to work with, or maybe it's just better for using dolby digital tracks with prologic, or something, I don't know why. I suppose it's possible it's more seperate in the dts version, but as i've heard, it's not that easy to get dts out. Actually DTS sounds better in some cases. (Really it depends on the company who releases the movie and what they're using).

Right now i'm using Fellowship of the Ring (extended), for a little project i'm doing :-)

It's nice they have fellowship the complete recordings out now, i'll be able to use it to redo my soundtrack, and in fact there's a 5.1 mix on one of the discs, which is cool.

In any case thanks thus far!

Keith Weatherby II
Keith Weatherby II
Uhfgood -AT- verizon -DOT- net
Uhfgood's Blog:
http://uhfgood.artoo.net