Hit’n’Mix

READ MORE: How to make a killer edit

RipX comes in three flavours: DeepPlayer, DeepRemix and DeepAudio, all part of a so-called Future Audio Platform.

DeepRemix gives you a basic set of tools for separating audio files into vocal, instrumental, bass and drum stems. It also lets you add your own samples and apply effects. DeepAudio takes this further by adding a more advanced set of tools for manipulating the imported audio, such as manipulating individual harmonics in a sound, removing noise, cloning timbres or editing pitch-bends.

On opening any compatible audio or MIDI file, you first need to allow the software time to do its analysis. This ‘ripping’ process requires a little initial user input for specifying whether the audio is a single instrument (voice, bass etc.) or full mix. The latter option offers an adjustable analysis speed slider where longer times improve the quality of subsequent separation. On our test system, processing a 6-minute track took 17 minutes at the highest quality, which fell to 4 minutes on the quickest setting. This means that you will need to set aside a hefty chunk of time if you plan on ripping a large collection of audio tracks.

Once processed, the music appears on the central spectrum-based display. The separated elements are assigned to colour-coded layers, each attributed to an instrument/sound category (much like a set of mix stems). If you feel that software’s detection or separation of elements could be improved, you can select areas of the audio spectrum and add or remove them from the current layer. You can also create new user-defined layers for targeting specific processing.

Muting and soloing layers is easy, too, which is potentially quite powerful. For example, to extract a vocal, you can simply select and solo the vocal layer. Conversely, you can create an instrumental by just muting the vocal layer. Similar techniques apply to bass, drums and the other detected layer elements.

As far as deeper processing goes, the possibilities are many and varied. You can use the software for creative manipulation, audio correction, pitch extraction or analysis with equal aplomb. In creative terms, interacting with audio is akin to using a photo editing programme. Copying, pasting and manipulating the audio spectrum can lead to interesting results even if you possess only a limited knowledge of what you are seeing.

Audio correction, such as retuning vocals, is possible, though perhaps only as a last resort (if you don’t happen to have the original separated elements). This caveat also applies to editing harmonics, cloning vibrato or creating chords from monophonic melody lines. It is even possible (in theory) to replace instruments entirely, and should a particular function be missing, you can extend the software further with its built-in scripting tool.

However, when removing and extracting musical parts, the results are never perfect. This may suffice for mash-up or remix purposes, but don’t expect flawlessly clean acapellas or miraculous drum removal. Processing within the software, while keeping the body of a track in place, provides the best results; the limitations of the extraction process soon become apparent when you remove large amounts of audio.