I don't suppose that anyone has around a copy of the extracted vocals from the original (SA2) version of Escape from the City, or, failing that, could get me a copy of it somehow? (Album or ADX source doesn't really matter.) Audacity seems to be failing me for this task at the moment. Also, if a little of the track is still audible, that's fine; it'll end up getting covered up by other stuff anyway. And of course the obligatory ass-covering "apology if this is the wrong thread move as necessary" bit goes here.
I tried this months ago myself. It's tedious as hell, isn't it? Got an "oh yeah" or equivalent length out of it last time, but nothing worthwhile. Just now started it again with similar results so far... I can spend some time tomorrow working on it, when I'll have rested. I find this kind of stuff incredibly intriguing, so it's gonna eat at me when I'm not working on it. I asked someone about this once in an email, I'll dig it up tomorrow and see what it says. Edit: Update: I just tried Throw It All Away for the hell of it, and am getting near-ideal results. The music's still there a little bit, but overall the vocals are largely isolated. Not sure what the hell City Escape's problem is. Just need more patience.
The problem with Escape is that the instrumental and the track don't match up at all... that's why you have to use this little plugin called Kn0ck0ut. It works with anything you throw at it even if the instrumental track is a bit off. Hey, with this little tool you can even extract vocals without having the instrumental just loop a part of the track and line it up correctly. Here's the acapella I managed to extract with this plugin, it's not the best as far as quality goes but it's good enough for mixing. http://www.divshare.com/download/16028109-abb And here's the mix I did with it DJYuzoboy had a go at it as well using the same pella
I'm sure its pure coincidence......but it also happens to fit perfectly. The current city escape classic was a nice throwback that went well with a few beats/notes missing out of the melody.
Actually, it really doesn't fit "perfectly" at all. But the songs are similar enough, as seen in Generations, that they can be mashed together with some creativity.
I wish that they had stuck masters in the game and had it actively master the audio as it plays to aid with looping and crap (mostly to my benefit of grabbing the bass track for practicing purposes ) but also to better manipulate the audio. Think NiGHTs into Dreams and it's sound engine for levels.
I love at around 0:56 where he completely forgets the words "I'm lasered too" lolwut? I totally didn't think Ted Poley looked like that, I don't know what I imagined him to look like. I totally wish that you could mute specific tracks such as certain instruments or vocals. It seems either using that youtube video or extracting it with Kn0ck0out seems your best bets.
You can for emulated music formats such as VGM, SPC, NSF, etc. Or, you can find leaked master tracks; or the format Rock Band uses for their songs (.mogg) But other than that, you can only make pseudo instrumentals or vocal rips. : (
You actually mean stems. 'Master' is a word that gets thrown around incorrectly a lot. (I mean, yeah, language is what people make of it and all that, but "master" (and "mastering") mean completely different things as far as the professional industry is concerned) It actually does nothing to help looping the way the game does its soundtrack, but stuff like that defo can be used for a shit ton of interactive music tricks.
Aren't stems just some of the multitracks set aside during mixing/mastering, for the sole purpose of having them available for remixing later down the line?
There's something I've been recently wondering about with the lyrics of Escape from the City. Who exactly IS the "me" (and we) in the main chorus: "Follow me, set me free, trust me and we will escape from the city. I'll make it through, follow me"? Is the lyrics of this song breaking the 4th wall here? ie. Is the "follow me" Sonic (but we're controlling him, so how can it be Sonic we're following if we're directing him where to go?); the "set me free I guess is Sonic. But then trust me could be the player telling Sonic that I, the player/controller, is in Sonic's hand - hence why it says "WE will escape from the city" - together. Am I making any sense here? From the context of the rest of the lyrics it sounds like Sonic is 'singing' here, but there still seems to be a few discrepancies that's puzzling me.
I think the lyrics were suppossed to be vague anyway. You can't really put an exact meaning on "follow my rainbow".