Question

I am separating left and right channels of sound files using Matlab. The code compiles but it is not removing the vocals completely from the sound file. Why is that?

Here is the code:

 [y,fs]=wavread('On the floor.wav');

 left=y(:,1);
 right=y(:,2);


 wavplay(left-right,fs);

Answer 1

Vocal suppression is a hard problem that is the subject of a great deal of academic and commercial research. In academia this kind of problem is called source separation and in recent years has been a popular doctoral research subject; a large body of literature consequently exists.

The approach you are appear to be implementing is to subtract programme material in the centre of the stereo image. When implemented (see comment above) correctly, this may well suppress some of the the vocals on some tracks but will also large amounts of other material that is mixed into the centre that you would wish to retain.