This might be a tough one... I have an old track (wave only) where I would like to remove a melody line... I tried a steep notch EQ and it works pretty well on a single note... it would be a lot of work to go through the file and work on every note one by one.

It would be nice if there was an EQ that had a midi input where I could re-play the melody in sync to the track and the EQ frequency would follow the notes I play... does something like this exist?

hmmm maybe something like this would be worth trying?
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/986.html

Some hosts allow you to convert incoming MIDI data into just about anything else. For example, Logic can take a MIDI note message and use it to control any parameter on any VST via the environment's transform functions. It would be easy to set up MIDI notes to control the frequency of a notch filter in this way.

I think Cubase can do this too...

Maybe EXT can as well... I don't know.

Good luck with it.

The hard part is getting the eq/filter to track the keyboard accurately.

A synth filter is designed to do exactly that. You would need a band reject filter - if you could find a synth that can process external audio you might be lucky. A bandpass filter that can go negative, with a fair amount of resonance should do the trick.

i wonder if dfx's rez synth could be used here somehow, even though it's bandPASS, not bandREJECT: http://destroyfx.smartelectronix.com/

hmm...

oh, i got it. i guess this would work theoretically, but i don't know how it would sound....

play the melody on rez synth with the original file playing through. then export just the sound of rez synth. then load both into adobe audition. use audition's noise reduction feature like this: highlight the WHOLE waveform from rezsynth and use it as the noise profile, then switch to the original file and, using the profile from the rez synth file, reduce the "noise."

wouldn't this theoretically work? i guess it would take some messing around with, but maybe. if you don't have audition, i'm sure if you asked nicely, someone could try this technique out for you .

of course, having a bandREJECT version of rezsynth would be much easier...

Thanks for the suggestions!
I will try out some things... rez synth seems definitely to be a good starting point.

would knockout be able to do it?if you have a file with just the synth line then it should cancel it out.
http://www.freewebs.com/st3pan0va/

hmmm.... there's an idea - i'm gonna make one. I'ts similar to a concept i've been working on just to get highly restricted tones in my own stuff. but if it were harder - and brutal - it just might work....

If you use FL Studio than this can be done with a notch eq controlled by the FL keyboard controller. Takes a bit of explanation, but I won't bother with the details if you don't use FL!

Hi all, with some help from Chris (original poster and colleague) I put together the definitive plug for this specific purpose. It works pretty good too.

Grab it here:
http://www.acc.umu.se/~bedev/software/vst/#SNIPER

I should maybe post it on the front page too...

Jonas

i would load it into vertigo and edit it...

jonas:
it would be cool if:
1. you could have a bipolar envelope for this (whether to add or remove the sound?) - would probably be great for removing stuff with long attacks etc...
2. you could choose which output you want (the stuff that's in the notch or the stuff that's not in the notch?), perhaps two level knobs

Might be even better now with EQUO.

Thanks for the feedback! I must dissapoint you though :/

This plug is made only to remove stuff, if you want bandpass filters, try "Smart Electronix DFX Rez Synth" (I haven't tried it but it seems to be doing what you say)
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/659.html

Jonas

Sniper is added to the plugin-database now http://www.kvraudio.com/get/2065.html

Review or rate it :)

I have to say that this actually works pretty well... though the melody in my case is still not be completely removed (because of the way it sounds and the effects that were used when the track was originally recorded), but definitely dampened enough to fix the problem. Thanks to Jonas for his effort and giving me a tool to save the work... I'm still working a bit on the track, but it's close to be finished...